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7 The Chesapeake The Forces Gather While the British fleet refitted at Barbados, de Grasse and the French fleet arrived at Fort Royal on 18 June and began to prepare their ships for sea again. The time was coming when the trade convoys of both sides would have to be escorted to Europe. De Grasse ordered all the trade ships to collect at Fort Royal and took the convoy as far as Cap François (present-day Cap Haitien), where he arrived on 16 July to find the frigate Concorde from Boston with dispatches for him.1 The letters were from the comte de Rochambeau,2 commander of the French forces in North America. De Grasse had written to tell Rochambeau that after the end of the campaigning season (about the end of June) he would be at Saint-Domingue (Santo Domingo, or Hispaniola) preparatory to bringing his fleet north, and he asked Rochambeau to send pilots for the North American coastline. Now Rochambeau had sent the Concorde bearing a reply and twenty-five pilots. The British soon knew of their arrival and numbers and, it is often observed, should have inferred the intention of de Grasse to take his whole force north. In fact, this action by de Grasse would be contrary to his instructions, which asked that he use some of his force, twelve or fourteen of the line, to cooperate with the Spaniards. This was still his intention until he heard from Rochambeau. The letters informed him of the military situation in North America, including the invasion of Virginia by Lord Cornwallis3 and the plans of Washington and the Franco-American army to attack New York, with an alternative plan to take the offensive against Cornwallis in Virginia. Washington had recognized that superiority at sea was a prerequisite to the success of either plan. Rochambeau urgently pressed de Grasse to bring his fleet north, either to the Chesapeake or to New York, leaving the choice to him. In either event the admiral was to bring with him as many troops as could be spared. Rochambeau also wanted de Grasse to bring 1.2 million livres The Chesapeake: The Forces Gather 97 to pay the troops in North America, where he was experiencing great difficulty in getting enough specie. Rochambeau stressed the desperate straits to which the American and French commanders were reduced: I must not conceal from you, Monsieur, that the Americans are at the end of their resources, that Washington will not have half of the troops he is reckoned to have, and that I believe, though he is silent on that, that at present he does not have six thousand men; that M. de Lafayette4 does not have a thousand regulars with militia to defend Virginia, and nearly as many on the march to join him; that General Greene5 has pushed a small force far in advance of Camden, where he was repulsed, and that I do not know how and when he will rejoin M. de Lafayette; that it is therefore of the greatest consequence that you will take on board as many troops as possible; that four or five thousand men will not be too many, whether you aid us to destroy the works at Portsmouth, Virginia, near Hampton Roads, where up to now they have always kept fifteen hundred men while the others operate in the country, and all their flotillas with which they have tormented the poor Marquis de Lafayette on the rivers in a very evil manner.6 When he read of the situation in Virginia and the critical position of the Americans, de Grasse decided that the proposed joint operations with the Spanish could wait until the following year. In reply to Rochambeau he said that he had consulted with the governor of Saint-Domingue and that 3,000 infantry and a small force of artillery and cavalry could be got together. More important, he could bring along with the artillery several siege pieces. He would hope to embark this force and be ready to proceed by 3 August. The money requested by the French and American commanders was more difficult, and de Grasse found it could not be supplied from French resources. The French plantation owners, the most likely source of funding, were not willing to advance such a sum without some form of security. De Grasse offered his estate in France, as did another French commander, but he was not able to complete the deal. He would...

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