Francois-Joseph-Paul de Grasse-Rouville, Comte de Grasse, was the French Admiral who won the Battle of the Capes, stopped the British navy from reinforcing Yorktown, and ensured Cornwallis’ surrender and the end of the American War for Independence. His defeat at the Battle of the Saintes in 1782, however, allowed the British to hold onto the West Indies.
Born on September 13, 1722, to an aristocratic family near Grasse, France, he entered the French navy in 1733 at the age of 11. By 1743, Grasse had been promoted to Ensign and served in a number of major naval conflicts against British fleets during the War of Austrian Succession. He was seriously wounded and then captured in battle off Finisterre, remaining in England for three months before his exchange. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1754 and received his own ship, the Zephyr, in 1757. Promoted to Captain in 1762, his commands took him to India, the West Indies, and the Mediterranean. When the alliance between France and the United States was signed in 1778, he commanded a squadron in the indecisive Battle of Ushant off the Breton coast in late July (which generated a major British political controversy between two naval officers, Admiral Augustus Keppel and Sir Hugh Palliser). Grasse then served in the West Indies, where he performed with particular distinction in engagements against Admiral George Rodney.
During the French Revolution, Grasse’s four daughters escaped to America and settled with their brother in Charleston, South Carolina. After an initial grant of $1,000 to each of them, in 1798 Congress awarded them a pension of $400 per year for five years. Two daughters died of yellow fever in 1799, but the other two survived and remained in the United States.
Thanks for the full report. I visited Grasse the first year I was in France. There is a museum de Grasse at Antibes and his portrait (small) hangs in the Military Museum at les Invalides.