François-Joseph-Paul, count de Grasse  François-Joseph-Paul,
count de Grasse,  (born September 13, 1722, Le Bar, France—died
January 11, 1788Paris), French naval commander who engaged
British forces during the American Revolution (1775–83).  De
Grasse took service in 1734 on the galleys of the Knights of
Malta, and in 1740 he entered the French service. Shortly after
France and America joined forces in the Revolutionary War, he
was dispatched to America as commander of a squadron. In 1779–80
he fought the English off the West Indies. In 1781 he was
promoted to the rank of admiral and was successful in defeating
Admiral Samuel Hood and in taking Tobago. When American
commander George Washington and the French general the comte de
Rochambeau determined to march to Virginia to join forces with
the marquis de Lafayette’s army against the British commander
Lord Cornwallis, Washington requested the cooperation of de
Grasse’s fleet. De Grasse therefore sailed from the West Indies
to the Chesapeake River, where he wa