re: #102 wlewisiii

The real winner of the American Revolution?

Franois Joseph Paul de Grasse. Admiral of the French fleet at Yorktown.

But he is not celebrated, even in France. Mostly because his defeat of the indecisive Rear Admiral Thomas Graves also served to have the British send the ferocious Admiral Rodney to sea to deal with him. Less than a year after de Grasse’s victory at the Battle of the Chesapeake Capes, his fleet fought the Royal Navy under Rodney at the Battle of the Saintes in the Caribbean. Rodney, unlike Graves, formed no line of battle and sent his ships charging in before the French fleet could fully alight itself. Rodney’s doing what Graves refused to do won the UK a smashing victory. As the peace treaty ending the Revolutionary War had not been signed, this allowed the UK to say it had won the last major battle of the war.