Celebrate America250: Thank you, Admiral De Grasse

The most significant naval engagement of the Revolutionary War was the Battle of the Chesapeake on September 5, 1781. The USA owes an eternal debt to French Admiral de Grasse, who undertook enormous risks to enable the decisive victory at Yorktown.

The British had overall naval superiority on both sides of the Atlantic. De Grasse had to worry about the defense of French holdings in the West Indies and the possible sudden appearance of Admiral Rodney’s sizeable force. But after a request from Rochambeau and Washington to come to support their campaign in Virginia, he rolled the dice and brought his entire fleet north and changed history.

Uncharacteristic fumbling by the Royal Navy also made the victory at Yorktown possible. Seventy-three-year-old Admiral Rodney (ill at the time and dead the following year), who had been criticized before for short-term thinking (seizing prizes instead of larger strategic action), took part of his fleet back to Britain. Admiral Hood, with 14 ships of the line, could have waited and intercepted the French at the mouth of the Chesapeake but instead continued to New York. Admiral Graves was already in New York, having failed to intercept a convoy from France with supplies and weapons for the colonial forces.

Admiral Graves took command of the British forces in New York (now 19 ships of the line), a number of which were poorly maintained, slow, and thus held back the formation as they headed south.

The French force under Admiral Barras, off Rhode Island after having successfully evaded the British, was notified of De Grasse mobilizing the entire French force and joined him while the British were slow to move. (The British had wrongly assumed some significant part of the French force was on their way back to France as escort.) The French would now have a numeric advantage in the coming engagement.

When the British arrived at the Chesapeake, the French were spread out, most at anchor near the mouth of the James River. The British arrived in a line and had the wind. Somehow the Brits squandered that advantage; the French rallied, managed a line, then matched and marginally outgunned the British. Seeing the French numerical advantage and assessing damage to his own ships (five in bad shape, one scuttled), Graves decided to retreat to New York the following day, abandoning Cornwallis and ultimately dooming the British war effort against the colonists.

Cornwallis was now cut off from resupply, reinforcements or any hope of relief, and faced a reinforced, resupplied, superior French and American force. Once the outer defenses fell, there was no longer any justification to continue. The surrender took place on October 19.

Rochambeau, commander of the French regulars who were consistently the real muscle in Washington’s army, is rightfully honored with a statue in Lafayette Park in front of the White House and the official name of the 14^th Street Bridge over the Potomac. But there is no monument to De Grasse anywhere in DC, which is a stunning oversight given his contribution to our beginning as a nation.