- Henry Clinton (1730–1795)
Infobox Military Person
name=Sir Henry Clinton
lived=April 16 1730 –December 23 1795
placeofbirth=Newfoundland
placeofdeath=London
caption=
nickname=
allegiance=Great Britain
branch=British Army
serviceyears=1751-1793
rank=General
commands=Commander-in-Chief, North America
battles=Seven Years' War American Revolutionary War
awards=Knight of the Bath
laterwork=Member of Parliament General Sir Henry Clinton KB (April 16 1730 –December 23 1795 ) was a British army officer and politician who is best known for his service as a general during theAmerican Revolutionary War , during most of which he was the British Commander-in-Chief in North America. In addition to his military service, due to the influence of the 2nd Duke of Newcastle, he was a Member of Parliament and the Governor of Gibraltar.He came from a noble family that could trace its lineage to 1066 and had a long history of service to the Crown. The son of an
admiral of the fleet , Sir Henry Clinton had two sons who continued the family tradition of high command: General SirWilliam Henry Clinton (1769–1846), and Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Clinton (1771–1829).Early life
Clinton was born in Newfoundland, where his father, George Clinton, was serving as commodore-governor. [Newcomb] The younger Clinton grew up mostly in
New York , where his father was Royal Governor from 1741 [Despite being appointed in 1741, he did not take up his post until 1743] until 1753. [LondonGazette|issue=9274|startpage=1|date=5 June 1753 |accessdate=2008-06-24] Both George and Henry benefited from thepatronage of theDukes of Newcastle , George's promotion toflag rank , and his appointment as Governor of New York were arranged byThomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (he was George's brother'sbrother-in-law ), and Henry's career would be furthered by the first Duke's successors. [Gruber]When he was around 18, Henry Clinton served in the New York militia. In 1751, Henry went to England and began his career in the
British Army , rising in rank with commissions purchased by his family. He was commissioned as a captain in theColdstream Guards , and by 1758 had risen to be a lieutenant colonel in the1st Foot Guards , which was later renamed the Grenadier Guards. Between 1760 and 1762, late in theSeven Years' War , Clinton distinguished himself as anaide-de-camp to Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, and he was promoted to full colonel in 1762. After the peace, he received the command of a regiment of foot. Clinton was promoted to major general in 1772, [LondonGazette|issue=11251|startpage=2|date=23 May 1772 |accessdate=2008-06-24] and in the same year he obtained a seat in Parliament through the influence of his cousin Henry Pelham-Clinton, the Duke of Newcastle. He remained aMember of Parliament until 1784, first for Boroughbridge and subsequently for Newark-on-Trent.Willcox]American Revolutionary War
In March 1775, in response to the American Revolutionary War,
King George III dispatched reinforcements to the colonies under Clinton and fellow Major-Generals William Howe andJohn Burgoyne , to strengthen the British position in Boston. On17 June , with the British Army having been besieged in Boston since April, Clinton was one of the British field commanders in theBattle of Bunker Hill . This assault to drive the rebels from the heights north of Boston harbor was successful, but only at the heavy cost of over 1,000 British casualties. [Bicheno] Fearing that a similar situation would arise to the south of the harbour, uponDorchester Heights , Clinton strongly advocated that British forces secure them against rebel occupation, but his warnings went unheeded by Howe. In January 1776, Clinton was sent south with a small fleet and 1,500 men to assess military opportunities in the Carolinas. During his absence, in March, his fears were realized when the Dorchester Heights were occupied and fortified by the rebels, causing the British to retreat to Halifax,Nova Scotia .In June, an attack under Clinton's command was made on Fort Sullivan at
Charleston, South Carolina . It was a humiliating failure, and his campaign in the Carolinas was called off. The attack, made with the co-operation of theRoyal Navy , failed because Clinton badly under-estimated the strength of the American forces in Charleston. The naval commander, Sir Peter Parker, engaged in an abortive attack onFort Moultrie onSullivan's Island , which, being far more heavily fortified than anticipated, badly damaged the Britishsquadron . Also present at the battle were Charles Cornwallis and Horatio Nelson.Hibbert]Clinton and his twenty-five ships rejoined the main fleet to participate in General Howe's August 1776 assault on
New York City . Clinton presented arguments for launching the attack up theHudson River , but these were dismissed by General Howe. After the British had established themselves at Gravesend onLong Island , Clinton's new plan of campaign was followed and proved a great tactical success in theBattle of Long Island , for which he was made alieutenant general and created aKnight of the Order of the Bath .In December, Howe sent Clinton, in command of 6,000 men, to occupy
Newport, Rhode Island , which he soon accomplished.Commander in Chief
In May of 1778, after the British failure of the
Saratoga Campaign , Clinton replaced Howe as Commander-in-Chief for North America. He assumed command inPhiladelphia . France had by this time overtly entered the war on the American side, and because of this Clinton was ordered by his government to send 5,000 of his troops to the Caribbean, which forced him to withdraw from Philadelphia. He conducted a skillful retreat from there to New York, fighting a rearguard action against Washington's army at Monmouth onJune 28 . Having thus concentrated his forces, for a time he pursued a policy of making forays from there. Before the year's end, though, he regained the initiative for the British by sending an expedition south, to strike at Georgia. This force took Savannah in December, and by early 1779 it had gained control of thehinterland .This campaign in Georgia presumed strong silent Loyalist support that would appear as soon as the British were present in strength. The notion that the South was more likely to be friendly to British forces had been entertained by the American Secretary,
George Germain for much of the war to date, a notion fed by Loyalist exiles in London. [McEvedy] While the South on the whole was less receptive to the concept of independence from Britain, who provided the market for most of their plantation goods, the expected wave of public support for the arrival of the British troops never materialised, leaving Clinton and his subordinates isolated. For much of the rest of the war in the South, British commanders attempted to mobilise Loyalist support, but the results were never as helpful as they had hoped.By late in 1779, having called in troops from Newport, Clinton had assembled a strong force for the next step in this strategy, an invasion of
South Carolina . Clinton took personal command of this campaign, and the task force with 14,000 men sailed south from New York at the end of the year. By early 1780, Clinton had brought Charleston under siege. In May, working together with AdmiralMariot Arbuthnot , he forced the surrender of the city, with its garrison of 5,000, in a stunning and serious defeat for the rebel cause. It was during the siege and capture of Charleston that Clinton's inability to co-operate with equal ranking officers started to become more evident. Arbuthnot and Clinton did not work together well, and this feud was to last until the end of the war with disastrous results for the unity of the British high command. [Harvey] [Wyatt, pp. 3-26. Wyatt argues that Clinton had mild neurosis and was unable to work with those whom he considered equal.]Clinton then returned to New York, leaving 8,000 British troops in the southern theatre under the command of General Cornwallis, his second-in-command. [Borick] From New York, he oversaw the campaign in the South, and his correspondence to Cornwallis through the War showed an active interest in the affairs of his southern army. [ [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATLN=3&CATID=10743 Cornwallis Papers] ,
The National Archives . Accessed 30 September 2008.] However, as the campaign progressed, he grew further and further away from his subordinate. As the campaign drew to a close, the correspondence became more and more acrimonious. Part of this may be due to George Germain, whose correspondence with Cornwallis may have convinced the junior officer to start disregarding the orders of his superior and consider himself to be an independent command. [Germain Papers, Clements Library, An Arbor. [http://www.clements.umich.edu/Webguides/Arlenes/G/Germain.html Germain Papers] Accessed 30 September 2008.]In 1782, Clinton was replaced as Commander-in-Chief by Sir Guy Carleton, and he returned to England. His replacement is linked to the fate of the southern army, which was surrounded and forced to surrender by
George Washington and theComte de Rochambeau , who commanded a combined French-American Army after theSiege of Yorktown .Letters from General Sir Henry Clinton during the American War of Independence can be found in the political papers of his cousin, Henry Pelham-Clinton, in the Newcastle (Clumber) Collection held at
Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham .Later career
In 1783, he attempted to clear his name by publishing a "Narrative of the Campaign of 1781 in North America" which was met with outrage by
Lord Cornwallis . In addition to writing his narrative, he resumed his seat in Parliament until 1784. [http://www.nndb.com/people/061/000049911/ Sir Henry Clinton] .Notable Names Database Accessed 23 September 2008.]Not much is known about what Sir Clinton did from 1784 until he was re-elected to Parliament in 1790 for Launceston, a
pocket borough controlled by his cousin Newcastle. Three years later, in October 1793, Clinton was promoted to full general. The following July he was appointedGovernor of Gibraltar , but he died atPortland Place before he was able to assume that post.Ira D. Gruber, ‘Clinton, Sir Henry (1730–1795)’,Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ,Oxford University Press , Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5681 accessed 16 Sept 2008] ]Legacy
Sir Henry Clinton held the command in America for four years, ending in disaster and defeat; his name was forever to be linked with the downfall of British control of the colonies. Historians have since shifted more blame onto Cornwallis. Clinton published a "Narrative" of the war, in an attempt to clear his reputation. He was, wrote Major Wemyss who served under him, "an honourable and respectable officer of the German school; having served under Prince Ferdinand of Prussia and the Duke of Brunswick. Vain, open to flattery; and from a great aversion to all business not military, too often misled by aides de camp and favourites." Colonel Sir Charles Stuart vitriolically called him "fool enough to command an army when he is incapable of commanding a troop of horse." Mackesy argues that he was "a very capable general in the field." [Mackesy p. 213.] Wemyss pointed out Clinton's real weaknesses: his interests were narrow, and he was crippled by self-distrust. In a station where political and administrative questions crowded in on the commander, he was ignorant of the realities of American opinion and exaggerated the value of loyalists. He was a difficult colleague, for he was jealous, hot tempered, and quick to take dislikes and to notice slights. At the beginning of 1778 he had been bespattering Howe with abuse; and his command was marked by endless quarrels with the admirals on the station. [Mackesy p. 213.]
See also
*
List of Governors General of Canada
*Commander-in-Chief, North America "
*Philipsburg Proclamation Notes
References
*cite book |last= Bicheno |first= Hugh |title= Rebels and Redcoats: The American Revolutionary War |publisher=
Harper Collins |year= 2003 |month= April |isbn= 0007156251
*cite book |last= Borick |first= Carl P. |title= A Gallant Defense: The Siege of Charleston, 1780 |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |year= 2003 |month= February |isbn= 1570034877
* Gruber, Ira D. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5681 ‘Clinton, Sir Henry (1730–1795)’] , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edition, January 2008, doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/5681. Retrieved24 June 2008
*cite book |last= Harvey |first= Robert |title= A Few Bloody Noses: The Realities and Mythologies of the American War of Independence|publisher= Overlook Hardcover |year= 2002 |month= May |isbn=1-58-567273-4
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* [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=55002744 online edition]
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*Further reading
*cite book |last= Buchanan |first= John |title= The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution and the Carolinas|publisher=
John Wiley and Sons |year= 1997 |month= February |isbn= 047116402X
*cite journal|last = Clement|first = R.| title = The World Turned Upside down At the Surrender of Yorktown| journal = Journal of American Folklore| volume = 92| issue = 363| pages = 66-67| date = Jan.-Mar., 1979
*citebook |last= Ferling | first=John| title= The World Turned Upside Down: The American Victory in the War of Independence|publisher=Greenwood Press|year= 1988 |month=October|isbn= 031325527X
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* Newcomb, Benjamin H., [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/68518 ‘Clinton, George (1686–1761)’] , "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ",Oxford University Press , 2004, doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/68518. Retrieved24 June 2008
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*External links
* [http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/mss/collections/family-estate/collections/newcastle/general_clinton.phtml Biography of Henry Clinton, with links to online catalogues, from Manuscripts and Special Collections at The University of Nottingham]
* [http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/mss/learning/conflict/index.phtml 'Conflict': e-learning resource from Manuscripts and Special Collections at The University of Nottingham, including digitised images of some of Henry Clinton's letters]
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