PC: Cornwallis with the Revolutionaries?

hey, all. i learned about this relatively recently and wanted to do a fact check. the gist of what i heard was that Cornwallis (in contrast to his portrayal in The Patriot, which is what i learned about this in relation to) was sympathetic to the Colonials and prior to the Revolution had voted on their behalf several times as an MP. so what are the chances that Cornwallis ends up siding with the Revolutionaries rather than fighting for the Crown? what would his role be if it's at all plausible, and who would take his place as a British commander?
 
Cornwallis may have been sympathetic, but siding with the rebels? I find it unplausible.

He had a wife and children in Suffolk, England where he lived. He was a nobleman, Earl of Cornwallis and from an old and distinguished noble family.

He also had a notable military career.

He would risk his estates and other assets in England, contact with his wife and children in his home in Suffolk, his military career and would be a disgrace to his long and distinguished line of nobility and would perhaps also risk his peerage and being able to pass that on to his children.

I could see hom requesting to not serve against the revolters, and to be sent to India instead (where he continued a distinguished military career after the revolution OTL). He had no property in America, as far as I know - all of it was in England.
 
At the very most a British officer who was sympathetic to the colonists would just sit out the war, as for example Admiral Keppel did until a Whig administration was voted in in 1780 and stopped offensive operations in North America. Pitt the Elder also pulled strings to get his minor officer son recalled from North America when the war started.

I know there was general Charles Lee, but he had moved to the colonies in 1773 and his loyalty to the American side was highly questionable at any point in the war.
 
While there were certainly British officers who served in the American army, they were generally ones who had moved to the US before the war and "gone native." Another good example of this would be Richard Montgomery, who was killed leading the invasion of Canada.

Cornwallis was far too senior and prominent for this to happen.
 
and this is why i asked ;) Cornwallis to India early it is, then. any ideas who would replace him in his role in the ARW, and if it would affect the course of the war?
 
Why would Cornwallis ever consider betraying Britain ? He can't think of anything else than Britain/England as his country.

Even the noble Penn family of Pennsylvania sided with Britain when there was a choice to make.
 
Top