Chesapeake, Battle of

During the American Revolution, French naval victory over the British off Chesapeake Bay on 5 September 1781. The defeat isolated the British land force under Lord Cornwallis and he was forced to surrender on 19 October.

The British army under Lord Cornwallis was at Yorktown, with the American general George Washington marching an army of 12,000 toward him, while the French fleet had delivered reinforcements to the Marquis de Lafayette's army, putting 8,000 troops between Cornwallis and the sea. A British fleet of 19 ships under Admiral Sir Charles Graves arrived off the Bay and the French sailed out to give battle. Graves' signals were confusing and he was unable to lay his ships in parallel line with the French, so that his leading ships were badly damaged while his rearward ships were unable to engage in the fight. Graves withdrew, and the French manoeuvred to keep him at sea without renewing the battle, allowing more reinforcements to arrive in the Bay.