Francois de grasse biography
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François Joseph Paul de Grasse
French Navy officer and nobleman (1722–1788)
François namn Paul, Comte de Grasse, Marquis of Grasse-Tilly, KM (13 September 1722 – 11 January 1788) was a French Navy officer. He is best known for his crucial victory over the Royal Navy at the Battle of the Chesapeake in 1781 during the American Revolutionary War. The battle directly led to the Franco-American victory at the siege of Yorktown and helped secure the independence of the United States.
After the battle, de Grasse returned with his fleet to the Caribbean. In 1782, a British fleet beneath Admiral George Rodney defeated and captured de Grasse at the Battle of the Saintes. dem Grasse was widely criticised for his defeat in the battle. On his return to France in 1784, he blamed his captains for the defeat. A court-martial exonerated all of his captains, effectively ending his naval career.
Early life
[edit]François-Joseph de Grasse was born and raised at Bar-sur-Loup in south-easte
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Biography of Admirial Francois Jospeh Paul de Grasse
François-Joseph-Paul, count de Grasse, (born September 13, 1722, Le Bar, France—died January 11, 1788, Paris), French naval commander who engaged British forces during the American Revolution (1775–83).
According to Encyclopaedia Britannica (2015), "De Grasse took service in 1734 on the galleys of the Knights of Malta, and in 1740 he entered the French service. Shortly after France and America joined forces in the Revolutionary War, he was assigned to America as commander of a squadron. In 1779–80 he fought the English off the West Indies. In 1781 he was promoted to the rank of admiral and was successful in defeating Admiral Samuel Hood and in taking Tobago. When American commander George Washington and the French general the Comte de Rochambeau determined to march to Virginia to join forces with the marquis de Lafayette’s army against the British commander Lord Cornwallis, Washington requested the cooperation of de Grasse
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Comte de Grasse
The most important strategic decision that set Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army on the path to victory in the Revolutionary War was not made by Washington, but by French Admiral François Joseph Paul dem Grasse.
When de Grasse was ordered to sail with his French fleet from the West Indies to America in 1781 to assist Washington and French General Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau in the War for American Independence, the French navy commander was given a choice of specific destination.
Washington was eager to attack the British stronghold in New York City. Rochambeau, who had arrived with a small army in 1780 to help the Americans, favored confronting Gen. Charles Cornwallis and his British army at Yorktown, Va. For either target, strong naval support from de Grasse’s fleet was essential.
De Grasse sided with Rochambeau and chose Virginia. It was closer to his fleet’s base, and the öppning of the Chesapeake Bay was more navigable than New