Which 1781 naval battle gave France control of the Chesapeake Bay during the Yorktown campaign?

The Battle of the Chesapeake gave France control of the Chesapeake Bay during the Yorktown campaign.

The battle took place off the Virginia Capes on September 5, 1781. A French fleet commanded by François Joseph Paul, comte de Grasse, fought a British fleet led by Rear Admiral Thomas Graves. Although neither side lost a ship during the main engagement, the British fleet withdrew, leaving the French in control of the important sea route.

That naval result prevented the Royal Navy from reinforcing or evacuating Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis’s army at Yorktown. French naval control also enabled French troops and siege supplies to reach the allied American and French army. The siege ended with Cornwallis’s surrender on October 19, 1781.

The battle is also called the Battle of the Virginia Capes or the Battle of the Capes. It was not the final military action of the Revolutionary War, but its strategic effect made it one of the conflict’s most important engagements and helped make the Yorktown victory possible.