Although there were few sea battles that involved entire fleets during the Revolutionary War (1775-83), the Battle of Chesapeake Capes, off the coast of Virginia between a French squadron under Admiral comte de Grasse and a British squadron under Admiral Thomas Graves, determined the outcome at Yorktown and helped guarantee the independence of the United States. The fighting itself was a draw, but Graves's decision to return to New York to refit doomed Lord Cornwallis to surrender his army at Yorktown on October 19, 1781.

The stage was set for the battle when Grasse agreed on July 28, 1781, to sail from the Caribbean to North American waters. Word of this decision reached Generals comte de Rochambeau and George Washington in New York State on August 14. After some hesitation, Washington agreed to abandon his planned attack on New York City and shift the French and Continental armies to the Chesapeake to rendevous with Grasse. In the meantime, Admiral comte de Barras was ordered to bring supplies and French troops from Newport, Rhode Island, to the Chesapeake. Anticipating Grasse's move, Admiral Samuel Hood sailed for the Chesapeake from his station in the West Indies, arriving on August 25, before the French fleet. Finding no French ships in the Chesapeake, Hood continued on to New York to join forces with Graves. Grasse made it to the Chesapeake on August 30, and on the same day, with Hood sailing outside New York harbor ready for action, the British received news that Barras had sailed from Newport on August 25. The British realized that if the two French squadrons were to unite, the French would have overwhelming numbers. On August 31 Graves left New York to join Hood, hoping to either intercept Barras on his way south or engage Grasse before Barras got to the Chesapeake.

With Graves in command as the senior officer, the British arrived off the Virginia Capes on September 5. Grasse immediately ordered his ships to sea to meet the British threat. Graves had 18 ships of the line (with 64 or more guns), Grasse had 24, but Graves had the advantage of the wind with his ships already at sea. Had he attacked the French immediately as they left the Chesapeake, and before they could organize a line, he might have fared better. Graves, however, intended on following the conventional battle plan of engaging the enemy ship against ship, rather than concentrating his forces and disabling one part of the French fleet before attacking the rest. The result was that although the French got underway shortly after noon, the two fleets spent until five o'clock maneuvering for position before commencing the actual fighting. The battle was intense for a little over an hour and a half when the growing darkness compelled both sides to disengage.

During the following days, the two fleets stayed within sight of each other as they drifted south off the coast of North Carolina in something of a stalemate. The British had been so badly mauled--eventually they had to sink one ship because it had been severely damaged--that even though they maintained an advantage with the wind, they had to delay another attack until repairs could be completed on several ships. The French hoped for a change in the wind so that they could attack the British. On the evening of September 8, Grasse decided that he had gone too far south and that if the British headed for the Chesapeake and got there before him, Yorktown could be relieved and cooperation with the land forces would be rendered impossible. On September 9 the British lost contact with the enemy, although they knew the French had headed north. Belatedly, Graves ordered his fleet back to the Chesapeake, but by the time they returned on September 12, the French were already there and had been joined by Barras. With the odds greatly against him, Graves decided to head for New York, hoping for reinforcements and looking to refit his fleet. With that decision, and without fully pressing the action, he sealed the fate of Cornwallis and his army at Yorktown.

Bibliography:

Jonathan R. Dull, The French Navy and American Independence: A Study of Arms and Diplomacy (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1975)

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