Background
Ezekiel Cornell, the son of Richard Cornell and Content Brownell, was born on March 27, 1733, in Scituate, Rhode Island, United States.
Ezekiel Cornell, the son of Richard Cornell and Content Brownell, was born on March 27, 1733, in Scituate, Rhode Island, United States.
Ezekiel was a mechanic before he entered the army, and largely self-educated.
Cornell took a lively interest in the affairs of Scituate, representing it in the Assembly in 1772, 1774, and 1775, serving on its Revolutionary Committee of Correspondence; helping to draft for it a remarkable paper respecting colonial independence; and serving as moderator of its town meeting. He was the first to promote the establishment of a public library and the cause of education in his native town. When the Rhode Island Assembly, on receipt of the news of the battles of Lexington and Concord, voted to raise an “army of observation, ’’ Cornell was appointed on May 3, 1775 lieutenant-colonel of Hitchcock’s regiment. He participated in the siege of Boston, and after the British evacuation accompanied his regiment (known as the 11th Continental Infantry) to New York, where he took part in the battle of Long Island and presumably in the operations following it.
From October 1 to December 31, 1776 he served as deputy adjutant-general. In December 1776 the Rhode Island Assembly voted to enlist a brigade of three regiments of infantry and one of artillery to serve principally in defense of the colony. Thus originated the Rhode Island State Brigade of which Cornell, after acting in a subordinate position, was appointed commander, December 19, 1777 with the rank of brigadier-general. He took part in the battle of Rhode Island, August 29, 1778, which was fought near the Cornell homestead. General Sullivan in his dispatch to Congress lauded Cornell’s “good conduct’’ and “indefatigable industry” in preparing for the retirement of the colonial forces to Tiverton on the day following the battle. During this period, Cornell was chosen by the Assembly to act on various committees of a military character, and was for a time a member of the Council of War which supervised arrangements for the defense ot Rhode Island.
On May 1, 1780 he resigned his commission, and having received the thanks of the Assembly for his military services, was shortly after elected by that body delegate to Congress. Twice reelected (May 1781 and May 1782), he proved a useful member, acting on various committees and serving on the Board of War from December 1780 until its abolition in October 1781. He favored the establishment of a stronger national government and in opposition to the general sentiment of his state was willing to confer upon Congress authority to tax imports. After serving as inspector of the main army under Washington from September 19, 1782 until the formal conclusion of the war, he retired to his farm at Scituate.
Cornell was a strict disciplinarian, was cool in battle, and brought to the management of both military and civil affairs an unusual fund of common sense.
In 1760 Cornell married Rachel Wood of Little Compton.