The Comte de Grasse commanded the French fleet that blocked British relief at the Battle of the Chesapeake in 1781.
The naval battle took place on September 5, 1781, near the entrance to Chesapeake Bay. De Grasse’s fleet fought the British fleet commanded by Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Graves. Although the battle was tactically inconclusive, the French maintained control of the bay’s approaches.
That control was strategically decisive. British ships could not safely relieve Charles Cornwallis’s army at Yorktown, Virginia, where George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau were conducting a siege. Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781.
De Grasse’s role is sometimes confused with Rochambeau’s. Rochambeau commanded French land forces in the Yorktown campaign, while de Grasse commanded the naval force that prevented British evacuation or reinforcement. The victory demonstrated how French military and naval support enabled the American success at Yorktown.