Later in 1780, approximately around 5,500 French soldiers had just arrived in Rhode Island with the intentions of assisting their fellow American comrades in the operations meant to fight against a British-controlled New York CIty. Following the recent arrival of the French allies included the possibility of gaining support from the French West Indies fleet of the Comte de Grasse, invoking Washington and Rochambeau to bring up the possibility of asking for assistance with besieging New York, or to commit military operations against the British forces residing in Virginia. De Grasse along with the advice given by Rochambeau had informed of his intentions to sail towards the Chesapeake Bay, to where Cornwallis had previously taken command of his army. Cornwallis was indeed very much confused when the orders given to him by his superior officer, Henry Clinton, was to eventually construct a defensible deep-water port, to which had begun to build in Yorktown, …show more content…
Outnumbering the British admiral, Thomas Graves had adhered rigidly to the conservative instructions given to them beforehand, to which prescribed a strict line of battle formation aimed at limiting losses. Shortly afterward De Grasse had been successful in defeating several British ships in a matter of two-and-a-half hours as Graves had abandoned Cornwallis and returned to New York after two whole days of pointless maneuvers made for advancements on the British. Meanwhile, a much smaller French squadron under the command of Admiral Barras had managed to pass by going unnoticed into Chesapeake as they were carrying the French army’s siege artillery. Because of how the Brtish had rushed their defense redoubts, they had soon found themselves very much trapped within their own barricade with only sparce amounts of cannons left over, they simply could not put up much of a fight back to protect Cornwallis’s army from dwindling over a period of many days and nights of constant