| François Joseph Paul de Grasse | |
|---|---|
| Nickname | Comte de Grasse |
| Born | 13 September 1722 Le Bar-sur-Loup, France |
| Died | 11 January 1788 (aged 65) Tilly, Yvelines, Île-de-France, France |
| Buried at | Église Saint-Roch |
| Allegiance | Ordre de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem Royaume de France |
| Years of service | 1734-1784 |
| Rank | Lieutenant Général des Armées Navales |
| Battles/wars |
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Lieutenant Général des Armées Navales 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 acquitted 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 1775, the American War of Independence broke out when some of Britain's American colonists rebelled. France supplied the rebels with covert aid, but remained officially neutral until 1778 when the Treaty of Alliance established the Franco-American Alliance and France entered the war.
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. The battle, fought off Britanny was indescisive. 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's Expédition Particulière, setting sail with 3,000 men from Saint-Domingue. De Grasse landed the 3,000 French reinforcements in Virginia, and immediately afterward 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. He was taken to London, and while there briefly took part in the negotiations that laid the foundations for the Peace of Paris which brought the war to an end. 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 tomb is within Church of Saint-Roch in Paris.[1]
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. A statue of Admiral de Grasse is in the Place de la Tour of Le Bar-sur-Loup, the village where he was born and grew up.
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 honour:
A mid-sized French commercial ocean liner named SS De Grasse also operated during the 1920s. Ayn Rand claimed to have emigrated to America on this vessel.[2]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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