Craig, James Henry

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Craig, James Henry

CRAIG, JAMES HENRY. (1748–1812). British officer and colonial governor. James Craig was born in Gibraltar in 1748, the son of Hew Craig, a Scots judge in the fortress. Gazetted ensign in the Thirtieth Foot in 1763 when he was fifteen, he was allowed to attend military schools in Europe before joining his regiment. Promoted lieutenant in the Forty-seventh Foot in 1769, Craig returned to Gibraltar where in 1770 he became aide de camp to the governor, Colonel Robert Boyd. He was promoted captain on 14 March 1771. In 1774 he accompanied his regiment to America, where in 1775 he became involved in the War of American Independence.

Seriously wounded at the taking of Bunker Hill in June 1775, he was moved to Canada. Here he took a significant part in turning back the last American attempt to sustain a foothold on the St. Lawrence at Trois Rivières on 8 June 1776. Afterward he participated in Guy Carleton's advance to Ticonderoga. In 1777 he was with Burgoyne when he took Ticonderoga and was wounded during the discomfiture of the American rearguard at Hubbardton on 7 July. At Freeman's Farm (the first battle of Saratoga), he so distinguished himself that he was sent home with General John Burgoyne's dispatches and in December 1777 was rewarded with a majority in the new Eight-second Foot under Colonel Francis MacLean. He returned with his new regiment to America, where he served at first in Nova Scotia. In June and July 1779 he took part in MacLean's Penobscot expedition to Maine and in the defeat of the American force sent to dislodge him. In 1780 he commanded four companies of the Eight-second sent from New York on 16 October with Alexander Leslie's diversionary expedition to the Chesapeake. The force reached Charleston, South Carolina, in December.

As General Cornwallis prepared to strike deep into North Carolina, Craig was sent to seize Wilmington, which offered a convenient supply port closer to his line of operations than was Charleston. With about 450 regulars Craig took the place, almost without resistance, on 1 February 1781 and held it for two weeks. During this time he generated so much Loyalist support that the rebels afterward found it impossible to raise troops or supplies in the area. After the battle at Guilford Courthouse, Cornwallis retired on Wilmington and marched thence to Virginia, leaving Craig to hold the town and conduct raids against American targets. In July he commissioned the formidable partisan David Fanning to raise and lead local Loyalist forces, while Craig conducted a number of skillful hit-and-run operations of his own, including that on New Bern in early August. He evacuated the town on 18 November to avoid being cut off by the American regulars Arthur St. Clair was taking south to reinforce Nathanael Greene. Reaching Charleston, he was posted on Johns Island, which he held until the end of hostilities. He was promoted lieutenant colonel in the Sixteenth Regiment before he left America.

After the war he was sent with the Sixteenth to Ireland, where in 1790 he was promoted colonel. He traveled in Europe to study Prussian military methods and became the first regimental commander to adopt David Dundas's new drill method. In 1794 he served with the duke of York in the Netherlands, first as adjutant general and from 3 October as a major general. In 1795 he commanded the first landing against the Dutch at the Cape of Good Hope and held out until the main army arrived. After the Dutch surrender on 14 September he was appointed military governor and remained at the Cape until 1797. In that year he was recalled and knighted prior to taking up a divisional command in Bengal, where he prevented a mutiny. He was promoted lieutenant general on 1 January 1801, and returned to England in 1802 to command in the eastern district. In March 1805, though ailing, he was promoted a local full general and sent with seven thousand troops to cooperate with Russian and local forces in the Kingdom of Naples. After Austerlitz he sensibly retired to Sicily, where in March 1806 bad health obliged him to hand over to general John Stuart. On 29 August 1807 he became captain general and governor in chief of British North America, an office beset by factional rivalry within the Canadas and by a growing American threat without. He improved the defenses of Upper and Lower Canada and, while his political activities met with mixed success, he laid the foundations for the French Canadian loyalty that helped to defeat the American invasion of 1812. Compelled to resign by his deteriorating health, he left North America in June 1811. Promoted full general on New Year's Day, he died in London on 12 January 1812.