EZEKIEL CORNELL (1732-1800) was a Revolutionary War
General who represented Rhode Island in the Continental Congress from 1780 to
1782. Nicknamed “Old Snarl,” Cornell served
in Hitchcock’s regiment, fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill and was present at
the Siege of Boston. Following the
British evacuation of Boston in 1776, the army was redeployed to Long Island in
September 1776. On Long Island, Cornell
occupied the former British controlled St. George’s Episcopal Church
(Hempstead, NY), which had been founded by Cornell’s relatives and was a hotbed
of Tory sentiment. Cornell sought to root out British loyalists and converted
the church to a store house, forbade the parson from praying for the King or
any of the Royal Family and used the previous communion table for his soldiers
to eat on. Cornell was part of the Continental Army contingent, dispatched by
General Nathaniel Greene, that arrested Loyalist New York Mayor David Mathews
on June 22, 1776 on suspicion that Mathews had participated in a plot by Thomas
Hickey to assassinate General George Washington. Although Cornell resigned from the Continental
Army in December 1776, he was appointed deputy adjutant general on October 1,
1776, and played an active role in the Battle of Rhode Island in 1778. Cornell served as a member of the Continental
Congress from 1780 and 1782 and retired to his Scituate, Rhode Island
farm. He died in Milford, Massachusetts
on April 25, 1800.
Offering a 2 ¼ x 4 ½ WAR-DATE “April 13, 1778, appeared Benj Reynolds and made oath to the truth of this abstract. Ezek Cornell B [rigadier] Genl.” A short but significant item signed by this important Revolutionary War hero.
Expected toning.
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