Question: Who was the British General in the revolutionary war that had his position before 9-12-1786?
Answer(s):
answer: Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis

SPARQL query:
PREFIX ns: <http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/>
SELECT DISTINCT ?x
WHERE {
FILTER (?x != ns:m.0jnh)
FILTER (!isLiteral(?x) OR lang(?x) = '' OR langMatches(lang(?x), 'en'))
ns:m.0jnh ns:military.military_conflict.commanders ?y .
?y ns:military.military_command.military_commander ?x .
?x ns:people.person.nationality ns:m.014tss .
?x ns:government.politician.government_positions_held ?c .
?c ns:government.government_position_held.from ?num .
FILTER (?num < "1786-09-12"^^xsd:dateTime) . 
}