Everything about William Phillips General totally explained
William Phillips (
1731 -
1781) was a renowned artilleryman and general officer in the
British Army who served as a major-general in the
American Revolutionary War.
Early career
Phillips entered the academy at
Woolwich and eventually joined the Royal Artillery. His service at the
Battle of Minden led to a reputation as an excellent officer. By the time of the
American Revolution, he'd risen to the rank of colonel in the British Army. He served as the Commander of Artillery at Woolwich and Lieutenant Governor of
Windsor Castle, and was eventually elected as MP for Borough-Bridge.
American Revolutionary War years
Phillips was promoted to the rank of Major-General and sent to
Quebec in 1776, along with his friend General
Henry Clinton and General
John Burgoyne, to be the commander of all artillery in
Canada. Governor Sir
Guy Carleton put him in charge of the shipyard at St. John's where, along with Captain
Sir Charles Douglas, he supervised the building of the small fleet of ships that fought the Americans under
Benedict Arnold at the
Battle of Valcour Island. He later took part in the recapture of
Fort Ticonderoga, where he stated, "Where a goat can go, a man can go. And where a man can go, he can drag a gun."
As part of Burgoyne's army, he was captured at
Saratoga in
1777. He is depicted in the painting of the
Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga by
John Trumbull.
He was then a part of the
Convention Army until he was exchanged for American General
Benjamin Lincoln in
1780. While a prisoner in Virginia, he was one of the British officers who was entertained at the home of
Thomas Jefferson. After the exchange he was able to fight once again, and was sent by Clinton from
New York to meet up with Brigadier General
Benedict Arnold (who was now on the British side) in
Virginia.
While on his way to link up with General Cornwallis, he contracted either
typhus or
malaria, and became so ill that Arnold had to lead his men. He died on
May 13, 1781 at
Petersburg, Virginia, just a week before
Yorktown, and was buried there near Blanford Church.
Further Information
Get more info on 'William Phillips General'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://william_phillips__british_army_officer.totallyexplained.com">William Phillips (British Army officer) Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
