François-Joseph Paul, marquis de Grasse Tilly, comte de Grasse (13 September 1722 – 11 January 1788) was a French admiral. He is best known for his command of the French fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake, which led directly to the British surrender at Yorktown. De Grasse was decisively defeated the following year by Admiral Rodney at the Battle of the Saintes, where he was captured. He was widely criticised for this, and on his return to France he demanded a court martial which aquited him of fault.
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François-Joseph De Grasse was born and raised at Bar-sur-Loup in southeastern France, the last child of a noble who earned his title and supported his Provençal family. At the age of eleven, he entered the Order of Malta as a page of the Grand Master. In 1734, de Grasse became an ensign on the galleys of the Knights Hospitaller and, in 1741, he entered the French Navy.
Following Britain's victory over the French in the Seven Years War De Grasse helped rebuild the French navy in the years after the Treaty of Paris.
In 1776, the American War of Independence against Great Britain began and the French Navy was assigned to assist the American cause. As a commander of a division, de Grasse served under Louis Guillouet, comte d'Orvilliers at the First Battle of Ushant from July 23 to 27, 1778. In 1779, he joined the fleet of Count d'Estaing in the Caribbean and distinguished himself in the battles of Dominica and Saint Lucia during 1780 and of Tobago during 1781. He contributed to the capture of Grenada and took part in the three actions fought by Guichen against Admiral Rodney in the Battle of Martinique.
He came to the aid of Washington and Rochambeau, setting sail with 3,000 men from Saint-Domingue. De Grasse landed the 3,000 French reinforcements in Virginia, and immediately afterwards decisively defeated the British fleet in the Battle of the Chesapeake in September 1781. He drew away the British forces and blockaded the coast until Lord Cornwallis surrendered, ensuring the independence of the United States of America.
He was less fortunate at the Battle of St. Kitts, where he was defeated by Admiral Hood. Shortly afterwards, in April 1782, he was defeated and taken prisoner by Admiral Rodney at the Battle of the Saintes. Some months later, he returned to France, published a Mémoire justificatif and, in 1784, was acquitted by a court-martial. He died at Tilly (Yvelines) in 1788.
His son Alexandre de Grasse published a Notice biographique sur l'amiral comte de Grasse d'après les documents inédits in 1840.
There is a monument commemorating Admiral de Grasse and the sailors who helped the United States achieve its independence from Great Britain at the Cape Henry Memorial, Fort Story, Virginia Beach, Virginia. It is maintained by the Colonial National Historical Park of the National Park Service.
American A. Kingsley Macomber, a resident of France since the end of World War I, commissioned the 1931 monument of Admiral de Grasse at the Trocadero Palace in Paris. [1]
The Grasse River, which flows through St. Lawrence County, New York, is also named for him.
The French Navy has had two vessels named in his honour:
The United States Navy has had three vessels named in his honor:
There was also a mid-size French commercial ocean liner named De Grasse in the 1920s.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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