In Memory of the Men of the French Fleet

Men of the French fleet died in the naval phase of the Yorktown Campaign during the battle off the Virginia capes on September 5, 1781. Admiral Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse brought his entire West Indies fleet to aid the Americans, transported more than 3000 French troops under the marquis de Saint-Simon to reinforce the land forces, and commanded the French fleet in the battle off the Virginia capes, defeating a squadron of the British Royal Navy under Admiral Thomas Graves. General George Washington called French naval superiority "the pivot upon which everything turned" because the French victory prevented General Earl Cornwallis from receiving aid or escaping by sea and allowed a smaller French fleet from Newport under Commodore de Barras to enter the Chesapeake Bay with siege guns essential to the land battle that followed. This most important naval battle fought in American waters assured the victory at Yorktown and American independence.

Virginia · United States