CORNWALLIS CHARLES CORNWALLIS 1ST MARQUIS Autograph Letter S

Sale 2276 - Lot 10

Price Realized: $ 840

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750

CORNWALLIS, CHARLES CORNWALLIS, 1ST MARQUIS. Autograph Letter Signed, "Cornwallis," as Commander of the Eastern District, to [Lieutenant General George?] Harris, describing his modest militia. 1 page, 4to, with integral blank; short marginal tear. Colchester [England], 11 August 1801

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Cornwallis had been the British commander who surrendered at Yorktown. In 1801, he was serving as commander of a small force on England's eastern coast, a line of defense against a Napoleonic invasion. In this letter, he suggests to a friend that his force is not large enough to provide much of a deterrent, and that the country's safety rests in the hands of the navy: "Balfour and myself are now here with eight weak regiments of militia, and a small portion of the 49th, the remainder of which corps it is said are to join us, when they are landed from the men of war. From this account, you will naturally conclude that our principal dependance is on the Wooden Walls of Old England."