Ezekiel Cornell (1732/33 – April 25, 1800) was a Revolutionary War general who represented

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

in the U.S. Continental Congress from 1780 to 1782.

Early life

Ezekiel Cornell was born in on March 27, 1732/33 in either

Dartmouth, Massachusetts Dartmouth ( Massachusett: ) is a coastal town in Bristol County, Massachusetts. Old Dartmouth was the first area of Southeastern Massachusetts to be settled by Europeans, primarily English. Dartmouth is part of New England's farm coast, which c ...

Scituate, Rhode Island Scituate () is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 10,384 at the 2020 census. History Scituate was first settled in 1710 by emigrants from Scituate, Massachusetts. The original spelling of the town's na ...

to Richard Cornell and Content Brownell. He was a descendant of Thomas Cornell. Ezekiel Cornell married Rachel Wood of Little Compton on March 25, 1760 and they had two surviving children, Ezra and Rhoda. Cornell attended the public schools and was employed as a mechanic. Cornell served as Scituate's town meeting moderator in 1768, 1781 and 1785 and as a Deputy (Representative) from Scituate to the General Assembly in 1772, 1774 and 1775. In August 1774 he was commissioned as the colonel of the 3rd Providence County Regiment of the Rhode Island Militia.

Revolutionary War service

During the American Revolution Cornell, nicknamed "Old Snarl," was appointed lieutenant colonel in Hitchcock’s Regiment in April 1775 and was present at the Siege of Boston. The unit and fought at Bunker Hill in June 1775 and was taken into the Continental Army when General

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

arrived in July to take command. Following the British evacuation of Boston in March 1776, the army was redeployed to Long Island in September 1776. On Long Island he occupied the former British controlled St. George's Episcopal Church (Hempstead, New York), which had been founded by relatives of Cornell including his cousin William Cornell, and was a hotbed of Tory sentiment, and Cornell sought to root out Loyalists. Cornell "converted the Episcopal Church into a store house, forbid the parson to pray for the King or any of the Royal Family and made use of the communion table as a convenience for his Yankees to eat upon." Cornell was part of the Continental Army contingent, dispatched by General Nathaniel Greene that arrested Loyalist Mayor of New York

David Mathews David Mathews ( – July 28, 1800) was an American lawyer and politician from New York City. He was a Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War and was the 43rd and last Colonial Mayor of New York City from 1776 until 1783. As New York Cit ...

on June 22, 1776 on suspicion of Mathews' participation in the plot by Thomas Hickey to kill General

. Cornell left Hempstead sometime before August 1776. On October 1, 1776, Cornell was appointed Deputy

Adjutant General An adjutant general is a military chief administrative officer. France In Revolutionary France, the was a senior staff officer, effectively an assistant to a general officer. It was a special position for lieutenant-colonels and colonels in staf ...

of the Continental Army. Cornell resigned from the Continental Army in December 1776 and returned to Rhode Island. Cornell was appointed brigadier general of Rhode Island state troops on December 1, 1777 and served until March 16, 1780. He commanded a brigade of state troops consisting of two infantry regiments of eight companies each and an artillery regiment of four batteries. Cornell played an active role at the Battle of Rhode Island in 1778.

Continental Congress service

Cornell served as a member of the Continental Congress from 1780 until 1782 and chaired the military committee. After his service in Congress, he retired to his farm at

. Ezekiel Cornell died in Milford, Massachusetts on April 25, 1800. His site of burial is unknown.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cornell, Ezekiel Continental Congressmen from Rhode Island 18th-century American politicians Cornell family Continental Army officers from Rhode Island Militia generals in the American Revolution Rhode Island militiamen in the American Revolution 1732 births 1800 deaths People from Scituate, Rhode Island People from Dartmouth, Massachusetts