Henry Clinton (16 April 1730 – 23 December 1795) was Commander-in-Chief, North America for Great Britain from 1778 to 1782, succeeding William Howe and preceding Guy Carleton. His cousin Henry Pelham-Clinton helped him in rising to political and military power in Britain, and he commanded British troops in the American Revolutionary War from the Battle of Monmouth until after the defeat at the Siege of Yorktown.
Biography[]
Early career[]
Clinton in Philadelphia in October 1777
Henry Clinton was born on 16 April 1730, the son of Admiral of the Fleet George Clinton and Anne Carle, and he came from the distinguished Clinton family. His cousin Henry Pelham-Clinton assisted him in rising in the ranks, using his connections in the government, and by 1758 he had risen to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and fought in the Seven Years' War. In 1772, he was promoted to Major-General and obtained a seat in Parliament, and he was sent to North America with William Howe and John Burgoyne in 1775 to assist Thomas Gage in Boston during the American Revolutionary War. Clinton fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill, and in 1776 he led an army in the South during the attempt to seize Charleston, which culminated in the defeat at the Battle of Sullivan's Island. However, in August 1776 he took part in the capture of New York City and later took Newport in Rhode Island with little opposition. For the first half of 1777, he was on leave back home in England, but in July 1777 he was sent to New York and took command of the 7,000-strong British garrison there.
Commander-in-chief[]
In 1778, Howe resigned as commander-in-chief following the defeat at the Battle of Saratoga, and Clinton was appointed to succeed him. In the Battle of Monmouth, Clinton's army fought against George Washington's Continental Army to a standstill, and in 1779 he organized raids on Connecticut and the Chesapeake Bay. That year, he successfully defended Savannah from a French and American siege, and in 1780 he captured Charleston, a huge setback for the Americans in the Southern Theater. Clinton would return to New York after Charles Cornwallis arrived to take command of the British forces in the south, and he communicated through correspondence as Cornwallis managed the British tactics there; Clinton had to face Washington's besiging army in New York. In 1782, following the Siege of Yorktown, King George III of Britain replaced Clinton as commander-in-chief with Guy Carleton, and Clinton died in 1795 before he could become Governor of Gibraltar.