In 1781, General Rochambeau and the soldiers of his French Army fought for American independence. Seven of those soldiers died while marching through Coventry and were buried near the Great Pond at the foot of Springdale Avenue. The decisive intervention of the French Navy under Admiral De Grasse drove the British Navy from Chesapeake Bay and trapped the British forces at Yorktown, Virginia. Their surrender to General George Washington and General Rochambeau on October 19, 1781, ended the American Revolutionary War.