Background
François-Joseph de Grasse was born on September 13, 1723 at Bar-sur-Loup in south-eastern France.
(Excerpt from Mémoire du Comte de Grasse sur le Combat Nav...)
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François-Joseph de Grasse was born on September 13, 1723 at Bar-sur-Loup in south-eastern France.
At the age of eleven he was educated at the Order of Saint John. And then he received his military training at the Gardes Maritimes school.
After service with the Knights of Malta, he entered the French navy in 1749, ultimately reaching the rank of rear admiral.
During the American Revolution, De Grasse served in the West Indies against the British; in 1781 his fleet of 20 ships of the line escorted about 200 merchant ships to Cap François, Francois, Haiti. There he received a request from George Washington to cooperate in the Yorktown campaign.
On August 30, 1781, he arrived inside the Chesapeake capes with 28 ships and 3, 300 troops. Meanwhile Admiral Thomas Graves with 19 ships had sailed from New York to rescue General Charles Cornwallis' army, which had retreated to Yorktown from North Carolina.
On September 5 De Grasse engaged Graves for two hours off the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, inflicting such heavy damages and casualties that the British were forced to return to New York.
On September 14 Washington began the siege that forced Cornwallis to surrender about 8, 000 men on October 19, a decisive victory made possible by De Grasse's aid. De Grasse returned to the West Indies. While his fleet of 35 ships was escorting 150 merchantmen, the convoy was attacked in Saints' Passage on Apr. 12, 1782, by Admiral George B. Rodney's fleet of 36 ships. A sudden change of wind caused confusion in the French column, permitting Rodney's fleet to break through and win a decisive victory. De Grasse and his flagship Ville de Paris were captured. De Grasse was treated with honor in London, but on his return to Paris he found public opinion and the court so critical that he retired to the ChâteauChateau de Tilly, near Mantes. He wrote a defense of his command, Memoire justificantif (1782).
In 1783 he was awarded a gold medal by the Society of the Cincinnati.
(Excerpt from Mémoire du Comte de Grasse sur le Combat Nav...)
