The Comte de Grasse commanded the French fleet that blocked British relief during the Siege of Yorktown.
François Joseph Paul de Grasse brought a French fleet from the West Indies to Chesapeake Bay in late August 1781. His arrival enabled the Franco-American forces to isolate Charles Cornwallis’s British army at Yorktown.
De Grasse defeated a British fleet commanded by Thomas Graves at the Battle of the Chesapeake on September 5, 1781. That naval outcome prevented the British from controlling the bay and made it difficult to reinforce or evacuate Cornwallis. French ships also helped transport troops and supplies needed for the siege.
The Comte de Rochambeau was a French army commander, not the fleet commander. The Marquis de Lafayette served as an American major general. Distinguishing these allied leaders is important because Yorktown’s success depended on coordinated American and French land and naval operations.