Naval officer; born in Valette,
France, in 1723; entered the navy when eleven years old; was conspicuous in the American Revolutionary War; and died in
Paris, Jan. 11, 1788.
On Aug. 3, 1781, the French fleet, under his command, appeared on the
American coast.
He had sailed from
France, towards the end of March, with twenty-six
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Map: Virginia 1788, position of the English and French fleets previous to the action. |
ships-of-the-line, followed by an immense convoy of about 250 merchantmen.
That convoy he put safely into the harbor of
Port Royal, having carefully avoided a close engagement with a part of
Rodney's fleet, under
Admiral Hood.
He engaged with British vessels at long range (April 29), and so injured them that they were obliged to go to
Antigua for repairs, and, meanwhile, he accomplished the conquest of
Tobago in June.
He then proceeded with the fleet of merchantmen to
Santo Domingo, and soon afterwards sailed with an immense return convoy, bound for
France.
After seeing it well on its way, he steered for
Chesapeake, and, despite the activity of British fleets watching for him, he was safe within the capes of
Virginia, and at anchor, with twenty-four ships-of-the-line, at the beginning of September.
He found an officer of
Lafayette's staff at
Cape Henry, sent to request him to blockade the
York and
James rivers, so as to cut off Cornwallis's retreat.
This was done by four ships-of-the-line and several frigates; and 3,000 French troops were sent to join
Lafayette.
Admiral Rodney supposed part of the French fleet had left the
West Indies for
America, but did not suppose the whole fleet would take that direction.
He thought it only necessary to reinforce
[
143]
Admiral Graves, so he sent
Admiral Hood with fourteen ships-of-the-line for the purpose.
He reached the
Chesapeake (Aug. 25, 1781) before the
French.
Not finding
Graves there, he proceeded to New York, where news had just arrived that the French squadron at
Newport had gone to sea, plainly with intent to join the new French fleet.
In the hope of cutting off one or the other of the
French fleets before the junction could be effected,
Graves sailed with the united British fleets, nineteen ships-of-the-line, and was astonished, when he arrived at the capes of
Virginia, to find the
French anchored within.
De Grasse, also surprised at this sudden appearance of a heavy British fleet, ordered his ships to slip their cables and put to sea. For five days the contending vessels manoelig;uvred in sight of each other.
De Grasse avoided a close contact, his object being to cover the arrival of the squadron from
Newport.
So a distant cannonade was kept up.
De Barras entered the
Chesapeake.
Graves finding his vessels badly shattered, returned to New York to refit, leaving the
French in undisturbed possession of the bay, and the French transports were then sent to
Annapolis to convey to the
James River the allied armies.
On April 12, 1782, a fierce naval engagement occurred in the
West Indies between
Count de Grasse and
Admiral Sir George Rodney.
The count's flag-ship was the
Ville de Paris, the same as when he assisted in the capture of Cornwallis at
Yorktown.
She was a magnificent vessel, which the city of
Paris had presented to the
King (Louis XV.). The count fought his antagonist with such desperation that when he was compelled to strike his colors only two men besides himself were left standing on the upper deck.
By this defeat and capture there fell into the hands of the
English thirty-six chests of money and the whole train of artillery intended
for an attack on
Jamaica.
The
French lost in the engagement, in killed and wounded, about 3,000 men; the
British lost 1,100.
For more than a century the
French had not, in any naval engagement, been so completely beaten.
The family of
De Grasse were ruined by the fury of the
French Revolution, and four of his daughters (
Amelia,
Adelaide, Melanie, and
Silvia) came to the
United States in extreme poverty.
Congress, in February, 1795, gave them each $1,000, in consideration “of the extraordinary services rendered the
United States in the year 1781 by the late
Count de Grasse, at the urgent request of the
commander-in-chief of the
American forces, beyond the term limited for his co-operation with the troops of the
United States.”
