Front Description
Major General Charles Cornwallis established a brigade headquarters not far from this site on or around June 19, 1776. His brigade was part of a British army under the command of Sir Henry Clinton, which had occupied this island as a staging point for attacking the palmetto log fort on Sullivan’s Island. This was Cornwallis’s first major command in America.
Back Description
Cornwallis’s troops were prevented from crossing Breach Inlet on June 28, 1776, by the fire of S. C. Rangers on the opposite shore. The British were defeated and sailed for New York. Cornwallis returned in 1780 as second in command of the army that captured Charles Town. Left in command of the South, he finally surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781.
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