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During his service in the Revolutionary War, the Honourable George Augustus Francis
Rawdon was known by the courtesy title of "Lord Rawdon." His name and titles would
change several times over the course of his life, but for simplicity, I'll refer
to him that way throughout the course of this article. On the topic of his name,
please note that Rawdon was not "Lord Francis Rawdon" even though many modern writers
refer to him that way. He was "Francis, Lord Rawdon." The two forms do not mean
the same thing, and cannot be interchanged.
Rawdon was born on Dec. 9, 1754, and he came into the world with the proverbial
silver spoon in his mouth. His father was the first Earl of Moira (Irish Peerage),
and his mother, Lady Elizabeth Hastings, was the daughter of the Earl of Huntington.
Rawdon was educated at Harrow, and became an ensign in the 15th Foot on Aug. 7,
1771. He enrolled in University College, Oxford, but like his classmate Banastre
Tarleton, he failed to finish his degree. Instead, he purchased a lieutenancy in
the 5th Foot (Oct. 20, 1773), sailed for America in May, 1774, and arrived in Boston
two months later.
At the battle of Bunker/Breed's Hill (June 17, 1775), he achieved his first taste
of military glory, taking command of his company after his captain was hit, and
leading it with conspicuous courage through the rest of the action. In a letter
to England, John Burgoyne commented that "Lord Rawdon has this day stamped his fame
for life." In consequence, he was promoted Captain (July 12, 1775) and given a company
in the 63d Regiment of Foot.
The winter garrison at Boston (1775-76) saw the first season of "Howe's Strolling
Players," an amateur theatrical group composed primarily of British army and navy
officers. Rawdon made his stage debut with them, delivering a prologue for Aaron
Hill's tragedy, Zara, which had been written by John Burgoyne. He had joined the
group in an effort to improve his public speaking. "I am conscious of my timidity
on that point," he wrote to his uncle, "and feel that nothing but habit will conquer
it." (It was a sound decision, given that he had years of politics and statecraft
waiting for him when he returned to England after the way, though one that seems
to have met with indifferent success. Years later, The Times would damn-with-faint-praise
one of his Parliamentary speeches with the comments, "although not blessed with
very uncommon powers of oratory, and possessing a voice but indifferently calculated
to make any great impression on his hearers, he went through this...talk, with a
regularity that proved he understood his subject[.]")
On Jan 15, 1776, Captain Lord Rawdon of the 63d Regiment was appointed supernumerary
aide-de-camp to General Henry Clinton. Later in the year, he accompanied Clinton
in that capacity on the first expedition against Charleston.
Clinton had a natural inclination to mentor young officers, and Rawdon was one of
his most talented pupils. In a letter to his uncle, he reported, "[Clinton] gives
me lessons on the art of war, and I am truly happy at receiving instructions from
one whom I regard as a thorough master of his profession." Whether the credit goes
to Sir Henry's teaching or his own innate abilities, the young lord was destined
to rise to the rank of colonel before the close of the war. He found his military
training ground in the battles around New York, seeing action at Brooklyn, White
Plains, and Fort Washington.
In early 1777, he accompanied Clinton home to England in his capacity as aide-de-camp.
(Apparently he made the acquaintance of the Marquis de Lafayette while they were
in London.) They returned in time for a late-summer campaign which opened up the
Hudson River. After the capture of Forts Clinton and Montgomery, Clinton dispatched
Rawdon to Philadelphia to carry the news to General Howe. He reached that city on
Oct. 18, 1777, and stayed for the winter.
When Sir Henry assumed the position of Commander-in-Chief following Howe's resignation,
he was quick to put his aide and pupil to work. In his diary entry for May 1-2,
1778, Stephen Kemble noted that Rawdon would be receiving an appointment to raise
an Irish Provincial Battalion. Kemble, who wanted the position for himself, also
noted miserably that "in case his [i.e. Rawdon's] Company in the Guards does not
succeed, the temporary Rank of Colonel may give him a plea to be appointed Adjutant
General if Colonel Paterson should decline, which I think will be the case."
Kemble's pessimism over his own situation was justified. On May 25, 1780 Gen. Clinton
appointed Lord Rawdon to command the Volunteers of Ireland with the provincial rank
of colonel. Captain Welbore Ellis Doyle of the 55th Regiment was named his lieutenant-colonel.
There's an amusing side note to the appointment of Captain -- now Lieutenant-Colonel
-- Doyle. Rawdon and Doyle were friends, but there's a possibility he was even closer
to Doyle's wife, Frances. Contemporary gossip whispered that she was Rawdon's mistress
and accompanied him (and her husband) throughout the campaigning in the south. Her
first child, born in 1783, was named Frances Hastings Doyle, but if his parentage
was at all in question, the fact does not seem to have troubled the "easy going"
lieutenant-colonel.
On May 30, Clinton's orders reaffirmed Rawdon's appointment as one of his aides-de-camp,
and on June 19, he was "appointed Adjutant-General, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel,
in the Army, in the room of Col. Patterson, who has obtained leave to return to
Europe upon his private affairs."
In command of his newly formed regiment, Rawdon served during the retreat from Philadelphia
to New York and saw action at the battle of Monmouth Court House (Jun. 20, 1778).
For the next year, he continued to serve as adjutant general, and to enjoy the quiet
life in New York while the war essentially went on hiatus. The love for lavish hospitality
which would in later life cause him dire financial distress was well developed during
this period -- Commodore Hotham mentions that Rawdon employed an Italian chef to
serve his mess table.
Like many officers before and after him, Lord Rawdon eventually fell out with his
prickly Commander-in-Chief. A little more than a year after he had accepted the
post of adjutant general, he resigned it again in anger, informing Clinton he had
"no longer the honour of being upon those terms of mutual confidence in a station
whose duties are most irksome to me." The roots of their argument were trivial.
Rawdon was overly proud of his Volunteers of Ireland, and took it personally whenever
Clinton criticized them. Clinton, in turn, was offended when Rawdon defended another
officer to whom he had taken a dislike. Rawdon also supported a protest raised by
the regular army field officers against how seniority ranking was being handled
between establishment and provincial officers which "exasperated the General and
widened the breach." According to Charles Stuart, who was friends with both men,
the rift might have been mended had not Rawdon written a letter to the Secretary
of War in which he "mentioned his having resigned his office on account of bad health,
begged to keep his Rank, and, unluckily at the bottom, made use of an expression
wherein he insinuated that no fault of his had occasioned his resignation." This,
for Sir Henry Clinton, meant that all hopes of a reconciliation were at an end.
(After the war, when Rawdon was more mature and Clinton under less stress, they
worked through the rift and became friends again. They remained close until Clinton's
death.)
Lord Rawdon's resignation caused concern in the army. In a letter to his father,
the Earl of Bute, Charles Stuart commented that, "I was well acquainted with Lord
Rawdon's talents; I loved him as a friend, and knew that he was the only man of
integrity in the General's [Clinton's] family; besides, in the propriety of his
conduct in that Office, he had so effectually established himself in the esteem
of the Army that the few who retained a respect for the General were owing to his
means."
Still at outs with Sir Henry Clinton, Lord Rawdon was not part of the expedition
that sailed south to Charleston, but he joined the army during the latter part of
the siege, bringing with him a reinforcement of some 2500 troops, including the
Volunteers of Ireland. On April 24, he led the expedition which captured the works
on Haddrell's Point.
The rebels have, by the vigour of their administration,
reaped too many advantages over our forbearance
to wish that we should affect more energy.
-Lord Rawdon
He remained in the south with Lord Cornwallis -- perhaps, as Boatner suggests, because
Sir Henry wanted to be rid of him. Cornwallis assigned him to command the advanced
post at Camden. A few weeks later, Rawdon commanded Cornwallis's left wing at the
battle of Camden. His calm under fire was cited as being instrumental in the victory.
He took an active part in the campaign through the remainder of 1780, and assumed
command as Cornwallis's deputy when the Earl was ill. When Cornwallis advanced north
after Cowpens, Rawdon was left behind to defend S.C. and Georgia with a small independent
force.
In April, 1781, he attacked and defeated a superior rebel force under Greene at
the battle of Hobkirk's Hill. Cornwallis described his victory as "by far the most
splendid of this war" and said that "His lordship's great abilities, courage, and
firmness of mind, cannot be sufficiently admired and applauded." Boatner also gives
the action a glowing assessment:
"As Gen. Greene marched against him at Camden the 26-year-old British commander
showed outstanding generalship...Instead of remaining on the defensive, Rawdon scraped
together every able-bodied man and attacked Greene’s camp at Hobkirk's Hill on 25
April 1781, where his audacity and skill, and the good performance of his own Volunteers
of Ireland, were rewarded with victory. Furthermore he had the good strategic sense
and the moral courage to order the evacuation of the most exposed posts."
Unfortunately, the victory produced no lasting effect, and Lord Rawdon was forced
to begin a gradual retreat to Charleston. By 24 May 1781 he had withdrawn from Camden
to Monck's Corner, where he joined a relief column and marched to the rescue of
Ninety-Six, which was under siege by Gen. Greene's army. He arrived barely in time
to save the harassed garrison, and after evacuating Ninety-Six, he withdrew to the
area between the Santee and Edisto rivers.
Marg Baskin
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