Germain, George Sackville, 1st Viscount Sackville definition of Germain, George Sackville, 1st Viscount Sackville in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Germain, George Sackville, 1st Viscount Sackville (jûr`mən, –mān), 1716–85, British soldier and statesman. He was known as Lord George Sackville until 1770, when under the terms of a will he took the name Germain. His early military career, in the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War, ended in court-martial and dismissal (1760) for insubordination at the battle of Minden (1759). A member of Parliament intermittently from 1741, he attached himself to Lord North North, Frederick North, 8th Baron, 1732–92, British statesman, best known as Lord North. He entered Parliament in 1754 and became a junior lord of the treasury (1759), privy councilor (1766), and
..... Click the link for more information. and was his secretary for the colonies (1775–82). With the 4th earl of Sandwich Sandwich, John Montagu, 4th earl of, 1718–92, British politician. He served variously as secretary of state (1763–65, 1770–71) and first lord of the admiralty (1748–51, 1763,
..... Click the link for more information. , Germain has received much of the blame for the British reverses in the American Revolution. He and John Burgoyne Sir John Fox Burgoyne, 1782–1871, served with distinction in the Peninsular War. In the Crimean War his advice was followed in attacking Sevastopol from the south—an action that led to a long and hard siege. He was created field marshal in 1868.
..... Click the link for more information. were the chief authors of a plan (see Saratoga campaign Saratoga campaign, June–Oct., 1777, of the American Revolution. Lord George Germain and John Burgoyne were the chief authors of a plan to end the American Revolution by splitting the colonies along the Hudson River.
..... Click the link for more information. ) to end the Revolution by splitting New England from the rest of the colonies. However, his vague orders to Sir William Howe to join Burgoyne may have cost Burgoyne the campaign of 1777, while the confusion in the plans of Lord Cornwallis and Sir Henry Clinton, arising partly from Germain's ignorance of American geography, contributed to the disaster of the Yorktown campaign Yorktown campaign, 1781, the closing military operations of the American Revolution. After his unsuccessful Carolina campaign General Cornwallis moved into Virginia to join British forces there.
..... Click the link for more information. . He was created viscount in 1782.

Bibliography

See biography by L. Marlow (1974).