FRENCH NAVAL OPERATIONS – American War of Independence IV
Posted by Mitch Williamson in Naval on Tuesday, December 6, 2011
BATTLES OF 1780–1783
In February 1780 Admiral Guichen sailed for the West Indies;
in April and May, his twenty-two ships fought inconclusive engagements with
Admiral Rodney’s twenty-one ships. On 12 July, Admiral de Ternay with seven
ships arrived at Newport and landed General Rochambeau with a French army of
five thousand men to assist the Americans. The French squadron stayed on the
New England coast to counter British naval movements. In Europe, de Cordoba and
d’Orvilliers captured a British convoy of some sixty supply ships intended for
America on 9 August. In October the portfolio of minister of the navy passed
from de Sartines to the marquis de Castries. He also proved to be a most able
administrator.
In March 1781 a small squadron of five ships under Admiral
Suffren sailed for the Indian Ocean. On 16 April he attacked and damaged a
Royal Navy squadron of six ships moored at La Praya in the Cape Verde Island,
thus preventing an attack on the Dutch Cape Colony. (The Netherlands had
declared war on Britain the previous year.) There were great plans for joint
operations with the Spanish in the Mediterranean for 1781. Minorca and
Gibraltar, the latter under siege since 1779, were still British. De Guichen’s
twenty-four ships joined de Cordoba’s twenty-two ships and landed Spanish and
French troops on Minorca in August. The island finally capitulated in early
February 1782, eliminating the British presence in the western Mediterranean.
Only Gibraltar would remain British as the Spanish repeatedly failed to thwart
the Royal Navy’s supply convoys. America was not neglected, and the comte de
Grasse now assumed command of the West Indies fleet. On 2 June he landed troops
that captured Tobago. In July he sailed from Martinique and, after a stop in
Haiti to embark three thousand troops, arrived in Chesapeake Bay in late
August. There, the French squadron that had sailed down from New England
reinforced his fleet. On 5 September, Admiral Graves arrived in the area with
nineteen ships and was quite surprised to find a large French squadron of
twenty-four ships there. In the ensuing Battle of the Virginia Capes, de Grasse
drove Graves off, and the fate of the British army in Yorktown, besieged by
Washington and Rochambeau’s troops, was sealed. The place surrendered on 19
October.
The year 1782 started with a French assault on St. Kitts,
which capitulated on 13 February, leading to the surrender of Nevis and
Montserrat. In Versailles and Madrid, a joint attack on Jamaica was planned.
The Spanish fleet at Havana would join de Grasse’s squadron at Haiti and there
embark some seven thousand French and Spanish troops to invade the British
island. The British naval forces simply had to prevent the junction and, on 12
April, Admiral Rodney’s ships intercepted de Grasse’s fleet off the Saints
archipelago in the Windward Islands. In the ensuing battle, four French ships
and Admiral de Grasse were captured and the expedition to Jamaica cancelled as
a result. Rodney’s victory, hailed as a triumph by countless British
historians, was not a major setback to the French. Since de Grasse was not a
popular commander, some did not regret his loss, and most of his fleet actually
made its junction with Admiral Salcedo’s fifteen Spanish ships-of-the-line. By
the end of the year, more French ships had arrived in the West Indies to
replace the losses.
During the last year of the war, the most notable actions
occurred in the Indian Ocean. There, Suffren fought a series of engagements
that revealed his great innovative talent in naval tactics. Had his battle
orders been fully obeyed by his conservative captains, it is likely that the
British would have been beaten. By June 1783, he nevertheless had pushed back
Admiral Hughes’s squadron and landed a French army in southern India to assist
Indian princes against the British. The arrival of a frigate from Europe
bearing news of the peace treaty stopped the hostilities and probably saved the
British from defeat.
As it was, Suffren came back to France in triumph, rightly
acknowledged as the country’s best admiral. The war had been won, American
independence had been secured, and France’s navy had regained the nation’s
place as a redoubtable world power.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Carr, J. A. ‘‘Virginia Capes: The Unknown
Battle.’’ National Defense, April 1983, 32–35. Dull, Jonathan. The French Navy
and American Independence. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1975.
Gue´rin, Le´on. Les marins illustres de la France. Paris: Belin-Leprieur, 1846.
Jouan, Rene´. Histoire de la Marine franc¸aise. Paris: Payot, 1950.
Lacour-Gayet, G. La marine militaire de la France sous le re`gne de Louis XVI.
Paris: Honore´ Champion, 1905. Taillemite, E ´ tienne, ‘‘La marine et ses chefs
durant la guerre de l’Inde´pendance ame´ricaine.’’ In Revue historique des
arme´es no. 4, 1983. Varende, Jean de la. Suffren et ses ennemis. Paris:
Flammarion, 1948.
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