Thomas Conway, born in Ireland on the 27th of February, 1733, was
taken by his parents to France when he was but six years of age.
Educated in that country, he entered her army, and in 1777 had
attained the rank of colonel and the decoration of the Order of St.
Louis. Seeing in the American Revolution a chance of rapid promotion,
he sought an interview with Silas Deane, and came to this country
with his promise that he should be appointed to a high rank in the
Continental army. Congress redeemed this promise on the 13th of May,
1777, by giving him the commission of a brigadier-general and assigning
to him a command in Lord Stirling’s division. After taking part in
the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, he urged his friends in
Congress to obtain promotion for him. Washington, divining his true
character, and believing that his real motive in coming to America
was self-aggrandizement rather than a devotion to the sacred cause of
liberty, opposed his advancement as an injustice to more deserving
officers.
Selfish, unscrupulous, and delighting in mischief, Conway was busily
plotting against Washington; and being upheld by Gates, Mifflin,
Dr. Rush, and others, he sought to displace him and elevate Gates
to the position of commander-in-chief. This intrigue, known as the
“Conway cabal,”[3] coming to the knowledge of Washington, he informed
Conway of the discovery of the plot, whereupon the latter tendered
his resignation. Congress, however, though fully cognizant of the
charges against him, did not accept it, but on the contrary gave him
his coveted promotion, advancing him to the rank of major-general on
the 13th of December, 1777. Restless and ever dissatisfied, on the
28th of April, 1778, he wrote to Congress complaining of the post
assigned him, and conditionally tendering his resignation; but the
tide of favor had already turned, and Congress at once accepted his
resignation unconditionally, thus forcing him to quit the army. During
the following summer his caustic speech made him many enemies, and in a
duel with General Cadwalader, growing out of some disparaging remarks
of Conway concerning Washington, Conway was shot through the mouth, the
bullet coming out of the back of his neck. He fell upon his face, but
raising himself, said, “General, you fire with much deliberation and
certainly with a great deal of effect.” Believing the wound mortal,
a few days afterward Conway wrote an humble apology to Washington,
retracting all he had ever said against the commander-in-chief.
Contrary to his own and his surgeon’s supposition, however, he
recovered; but meeting with a cold reception from his former friends,
he soon after returned to France, re-entered the military service, and
was appointed Governor of Pondicherry and the French settlements in
Hindostan. His quarrelsome disposition involved him in a dispute with
Tippoo Sahib which is said to have ruined French prospects in India.
In 1792, he was sent to take command of the Royalist army in the south
of France, but during the revolution which followed he was obliged to
flee the country, and died about the year 1800.
[3] Conway cabal,--“A conspiracy to deprive Washington of the
command of the army.”