Count de Grasse

Count de Grasse (1722-1788), victor of the Chesapeake and architect of Yorktown

François Joseph Paul, Count de Grasse, Marquis of Grasse-Tilly, officer of the French Royal Navy, won the decisive Battle of the Chesapeake in 1781 which led to the British surrender at Yorktown and secured American independence.

  • Born: 13 September 1722, Le Bar-sur-Loup (Provence)
  • Died: 11 January 1788, Tilly (Île-de-France)
  • Rank: Lieutenant-General of the Naval Forces

Born in 1722, Count de Grasse Tilly was a ship captain when the war broke out. After three years of training as a page to the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, he had served for forty years in the Royal Navy.

In 1778, he participated in the first naval battle of the American War, at Ushant. The following year, he was at the capture of Saint-Vincent, then Grenada.

It was to him that the King would entrust a decisive role in the outcome of the war. Elevating him to the rank of Lieutenant-General of the Naval Forces, the King entrusted him in February 1781 with a fleet of 28 ships of the line and 5 frigates anchored at Brest, the bulk of which would escort 92 merchant vessels bound for the Caribbean, bringing notably 5,000 reinforcements to Martinique and as many to Saint-Domingue.

Suffren and his squadron, bound for India, would detach at the Azores, as would Count de Barras who sailed for Newport to bring Rochambeau a resupply of equipment and 660 new recruits. After successfully slipping his merchant convoy into port, de Grasse relieved Fort Royal in Martinique from Admiral Hood’s English blockade on April 30, 1781, and resupplied the troops of the Marquis de Bouillé. Bouillé and de Grasse then mounted a landing on the island of Tobago, which was taken on June 1.

Arriving at Saint-Domingue with 24 ships on July 16, in preparation for the Franco-Spanish operation against Jamaica decided at Versailles, de Grasse found Rochambeau’s messages there. He then decided to gather all available resources and concentrate them to urgently reinforce the Expeditionary Corps. The need for speed, and what Rochambeau hinted at regarding his strategic preferences, led him to opt for a convergence on the Chesapeake Bay rather than before New York.

He attempted to borrow against his own assets to cover the pay of Washington’s and Rochambeau’s men (but had to resort to the merchants of Havana for this purpose), placed the merchant vessels under Spanish protection at Saint-Domingue, embarked 3,300 men under the command of the Marquis de Saint-Simon, and raced toward his objective, evading Hood’s squadron. His intervention in the Chesapeake Bay in September 1781 would prove decisive for the victory at Yorktown (see Campaigns and Battles for the detailed account of the campaign).

Back in the Caribbean, where Bouillé had retaken Saint Eustatius. Together the two generals captured Saint Kitts, then de Grasse seized Montserrat.

The planned operation against Jamaica was mounted in the spring, but Admiral Rodney, who had joined Hood in the area, held a certain superiority (more numerous ships, but above all faster ones with superior close-range artillery). After an indecisive first engagement on April 9 and several French tactical errors, the Battle of the Saintes saw the loss of five ships, including that of the commander-in-chief, who fell into the hands of a Rodney who had conducted his attack remarkably well. A court-martial convened at the admiral’s request in 1784 would rule on the responsibilities of the various unit commanders.

An undeniable defeat for the French (see the casualty table), this battle would prove a Pyrrhic victory for their adversaries:

  • de Grasse had saved his precious convoy,
  • the English fleet had been battered enough to no longer appear in the Caribbean, from where French convoys easily returned to France with their valuable goods,
  • Vaudreuil had regrouped a still-impressive naval force, and
  • by the end of 1782, French shipyards had launched as many new ships as had been lost.

A prisoner in London, de Grasse played a useful role in the peace negotiations. Made a founding member of the Society of the Cincinnati in September 1783, he died in Paris in 1788. His heart rests in the church of Tilly (Yvelines).

His memory is honored each year, on the anniversary of the victory at Yorktown, with an official ceremony organized by the Cincinnati of France before the monument dedicated to him in the Trocadéro gardens in Paris.

Another ceremony is held in his honor in September at Grasse and Le Bar-sur-Loup, where he was born.

Comte Thierry de Seguins-Cohorn, Historian of the Society in France of the SAR

References