In the summer of 1780, Comte de Rochambeau sent 5,500 French troops in addition the supplies the French had been funneling to the Americans. Additionally, King Louis XVI also sent troops to the United States, as well as naval assistance, to fight their common enemy – England. When Rochambeau’s forces arrived, the British were fighting on two fronts. General Clinton, commander of British forces in North America, was fighting in New York City, while Cornwallis stomped on the grounds of the southern United States.
In the spring of 1781, Washington met with Comte de Rochambeau and devised an attack on Clinton and his troops. A French naval fleet was expected in New York, and Washington wanted to lead an attack when the ships sailed in. They were fooled! Instead of arriving in New York City as Washington and Rochambeau had planned, both leaders learned the Clinton had outsmarted them and was sailing into the Chesapeake Bay. Washington changed his strategy to …show more content…
General Clinton had ordered Cornwallis and his army to protect the Chesapeake Bay. was in Yorktown because he had been ordered by Clinton during the summer to provide a protected harbor for the British fleet in the lower Chesapeake Bay. Rather than going deep into the Chesapeake Bay. The French fleet, as part of the overall plan, assaulted the coast of Yorktown with 3,000 French troops laying in wait for Washington and Rochambeau in Williamsburg. On September 5, The Battle of the Capes took place near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay where the British suffered major losses in their supplies and their ships. At the same time, the French established a blockade to entrap the British, led by Cornwallis. François Joseph Paul de Grasse, a lieutenant in the French Navy fought a parallel foe to the Americans – the English – off the West Indies. At the same time the Siege of Yorktown was taking place, he was promoted to admiral and took the small Island of