In the American War of Independence, when Washington formulated a plan in 1781 to concentrate his forces and annihilate the British forces in Virginia, Lafayette, Washington and the Count of Rochambeau, and the French admiral De Grass led the French, American, and land-army forces to Virginia in three ways. However, the deputy commander of the British army, Cornwaley, because of his dissatisfaction with the remote control command of Commander-in-Chief Clinton, ignored Clinton's order to hold on to the old comfort corner at the top of the Virginia Peninsula to wait for help, and did not adopt the suggestion of the Continental Army general Arnold to defend in a convenient place, but instead took it upon himself to garrison Yorktown in north-central Virginia, thus trapping himself in a dead place with no way out. (For details of Cornwaly's garrison in Yorktown, please read "The War of Independence: The Angry Arnold Collects Troops back to New York, and Marshal Doesn't Retreat to Yorktown with Cornwaley")
Of course, Cornwaley was not entirely absent from the disadvantages of Yorktown, and he also thought that if the Continental Army occupied the Glautherste Headland on the other side of the York River, it might block the mouth of the York River and cause him trouble. So he sent Tarlton's cavalry unit to occupy the headland in advance, and the two forces supported each other across the York River, and could flee by boat to the other side when it was unfavorable, so that In Cornwaley's view, there was no worries.
Geographical map of Yorktown
Washington, on the other hand, stopped for a few days to rest as he led his army to Mount Vernon (near the coast of Pisacec Bay in eastern Virginia, the only way from Maryland to Yorktown), and arranged some household chores. He had rarely returned since the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, and only his wife, Martha, was running the housework, so Washington stopped, on the one hand, to let the long-distance soldiers rest to recover their strength, and on the other hand, to comfort his wife and family.
But when Washington left Mount Vernon, he received news that General Degras had left Cape DeLaware with the French fleet, and he ordered him to stand by and wait for the French Navy's transport ships.
With the help of the French fleet's transport ships, Washington soon arrived at the Virginia Peninsula with his main force, the fleet returned to the Delaware Peninsula at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, and the Count of Rochambeau led the rest of the American and French forces to follow.
Washington's Mount Vernon location
As Washington hurried to Williamsburg, he received a new message: the French naval fleet led by count DeGrass had returned to the Delaware Peninsula in a great battle with the British naval fleet led by Admiral Graves of the British Empire, and had now taken full control of the Chesapeake Bay.
In fact, in early September, General Clinton finally learned that Cornwaley had not been stationed at Old Comfort Point as he wished, but had camped in Yorktown, and he had received information that the French Marquis de Grass had led the West Indies Fleet to block the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Feeling that the situation was not good, Clinton immediately ordered Admiral Graves to lead 19 battleships with the FLAGSHIP LONDON to the Chesapeake Bay to deliver supplies to Converly while ensuring the smooth passage of the sea route.
By the morning of 5 September, the British fleet had reached the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, and the Earl of DeGrass had just returned from Washington. So Admiral Graves spotted 24 French battleships at the mouth of the sea, apparently outnumbering his fleet.
French Admiral Count de Grasse
Faced with the French fleet, Admiral Graves was jealous. Instead of ordering the fleet to attack, he retreated to the open sea in a column to demonstrate, as if he had come here to show his attitude and not to fight.
To be honest, Grafs's behavior is really incomprehensible, maybe he is afraid of the French Navy with more warships than his own, but you are here to fight for sea supremacy, can a demonstration scare the French Navy away?
In fact, what Graves did not know was that the French fleet did not have many sailors on board because it had just transported personnel and materials for the American army, and its combat effectiveness was not much stronger than that of the British fleet; more importantly, the French fleet at this time did not know the arrival of the British fleet, so it was impossible to form combat effectiveness in shallow waters. If Graves had attacked with a single blow after discovering the French ship, victory would have been almost a foregone conclusion, but it was his dogmatism that had deprived the fleet of the best chance of victory.
French naval fleet led by Count de Grasse
However, Graves's excessive caution and retreat gave the French fleet a chance, and count de Grasse was surprised to find the British fleet, but he then escaped from the shallow waters and rushed to the open sea while the British fleet was retreating.
The battle line was the classic way of lining up the sail battleships at that time, that is, the fleet was lined up in a column, facing the opposing fleet with the sides, so as to facilitate the power of its own artillery. Because the high-power naval guns at that time were placed on the side of the warship, only some small-caliber guns were placed in the bow and stern of the ship or no artillery was placed at all, so the line of battle lines could cause the greatest damage to the enemy.
Therefore, the French fleet also formed a battle line after rushing out of the sea, circumventing The South Henley Point and sailing eastward, while the British fleet lined up in columns to engage from the north. After several hours of maneuvering, the two sides began to engage in artillery battle, which was mainly to align the side of their fleet at the enemy ships while avoiding the side of the enemy ships against their own fleets, which required the sailors to have superb sailing and steering skills, otherwise once the enemy ships occupied a favorable position, they could only be passively beaten.
Map of the naval battle situation in the Gulf of Chasapik
The two sides were inextricably divided after the start of the artillery battle, but due to the sudden weakening of the wind, the British fleet was approaching the French fleet obliquely, so the central and rearguard squadrons could not keep up with the speed of the entire column and began to fall behind and were out of range, and the avant-garde squadron was placed under the fire of the French fleet alone and was besieged.
After a fierce battle, the British ship "Terror" was severely damaged and forced to abandon, Admiral Graves saw that the situation was not favorable to his side, and immediately ordered the avant-garde squadron to stop advancing and wait for the rear ships to withdraw from the battle together, and then retreated.
The Count of DeGrass also had no intention of fighting at this time, which had occurred suddenly without preparation, and after the British ships retreated, he also retreated to Henry's Point to block the mouth of pisacec. The two sides then began to confront each other, but no fighting took place, and Admiral Graves was too weak to rush to attack; the Count of DeGrass, although he had the upper hand, did not dare to attack in order to defend the sea, and he was worried about the British fleet's strategy of moving the tiger away from the mountain.
Anglo-French naval fleets duel at sea
The two sides faced each other for four days, and by the morning of September 10, eight battleships of the French Navy's Barras Squadron had sailed into Cape Delaware. Originally, Barras had been patrolling around Newfoundland to monitor the connection between the British Empire itself and Canada, but after learning that Graves had led LinkedIn fleet to reinforce Cornwaly, the French naval commander-in-chief, Count Buster, ordered Barras to lead the fleet to Pisacec Bay for reinforcements.
The arrival of Barras was the last straw that crushed Graves, who had lost confidence in the victory over the French fleet after the last battle, but insisted on not leaving out of duty and honor. Now that the French fleet has come to reinforcements, and he is a casualty, continuing to fight will not only fail to rescue Cornwalli, but will fold himself here.
Rear Admiral Grafs of the British Navy
But Graves persisted until the 13th before returning to New York, by which time the French Navy had full control of the sea. Cornwallis was trapped in Yorktown and became a caged bird, never to be escaped again.
Barras also brought from Rhodes artillery and various other munitions, and although he had a higher rank than count de grass, he still placed himself under the command of the count in order to unite to avoid division of the fleet.
(This article is a serial article of the American Revolutionary War, wondering if Cornwaley can escape Washington?) Stay tuned for this account, and we'll continue to tell the story of the American Revolutionary War in the next post. ）
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