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Charles-Marie De La Grandière
Charles-Marie de La Grandière (Brest, 17 February 1729 — Rennes, 22 March 1812) was a French Navy officer. He served in the War of American Independence. Biography La Grandière was born to the family of a Navy Lieutenant. He joined the Navy as a volunteer on ''Saint-Michel'' in 1741, and became a Garde-Marine in 1745. He was promoted to Ensign in 1751. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1757. He was promoted to Captain in 1772. He took part in the Battle of Ushant on 27 July 1778, where he commanded the 64-gun ''Indien''. He captained the 74-gun ''Conquérant'' as part of the Expédition Particulière. He took part in the Battle of Cape Henry on 16 March 1781, where ''Conquérant'' was especially exposed and sustained severe damage to her masts. He also took part in the Battle of the Saintes on 12 April 1782. La Grandière was admitted in the Society of the Cincinnati for his participation in the War of American Independence. He was promoted to Brigadier in 1782, an ...
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Brest, France
Brest (; ) is a port city in the Finistère department, Brittany. Located in a sheltered bay not far from the western tip of the peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon. The city is located on the western edge of continental France. With 142,722 inhabitants in a 2007 census, Brest forms Western Brittany's largest metropolitan area (with a population of 300,300 in total), ranking third behind only Nantes and Rennes in the whole of historic Brittany, and the 19th most populous city in France; moreover, Brest provides services to the one million inhabitants of Western Brittany. Although Brest is by far the largest city in Finistère, the ''préfecture'' (regional capital) of the department is the much smaller Quimper. During the Middle Ages, the history of Brest was the history of its castle. Then Richelieu made it a military harbour in 1631. Brest grew around its arsenal u ...
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War Of American Independence
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of the United States, fighting began on April 19, 1775, followed by the Lee Resolution on July 2, 1776, and the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The American Patriots were supported by the Kingdom of France and, to a lesser extent, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Empire, in a conflict taking place in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. Established by royal charter in the 17th and 18th centuries, the American colonies were largely autonomous in domestic affairs and commercially prosperous, trading with Britain and its Caribbean colonies, as well as other European powers via their Caribbean entrepôts. After British victory over the French in the Seven Years' War in 1763, tensions between the motherland and h ...
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French Ship Saint Michel (1741)
''Saint Michel'' was a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. Career Built for the Crown, ''Saint Michel'' was originally manned by officers of the French East India Company. During the War of the Austrian Succession, ''Saint Michel'' was part of a squadron under Admiral de Rochambeau; on 17 August 1744, she captured the 20-gun near Gibraltar. In 1747, her command was transferred to Navy officers. In 1761, she was recommissioned in Rochefort under Captain de Lizardais to serve in the Seven Years' War, to serve in the Caribbean theatre, but she never actually departed. She was then refitted as a 60 gun ship in 1762. During the American Revolutionary War, ''Saint Michel'' took part in the Battle of Ushant on 27 July 1778, under Mithon de Genouilly. She and later took part in the capture of HMS ''Ardent'' off Plymouth on 17 August 1779. She took part in the Battle of Martinique in the Caribbean on 17 April 1780, under Chevalier d'Aymar. On 1 ...
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Garde-Marine
In France, under the Ancien Régime, the Gardes de la Marine (Guards of the Navy), or Gardes-Marine were young gentlemen undergoing training to be naval officers. The training program was established by Cardinal Richelieu in 1670 and lasted until Admiral de Castries abolished it in 1786. The Gardes-Marine received a brevet commission from the King and were organized into companies, established at the harbors of Brest, Toulon, and Rochefort. All naval officers were drawn from these companies, which were the equivalent of the current naval school. The king paid schoolmasters to instruct the Gardes-Marine in everything they needed to know to be good officers - there were masters in mathematics, drawing, writing, fortification, naval architecture and construction, dance, hydrography, fencing, etc. The Gardes-Marine sailed on the king's ships, on which they served as soldiers, and trained in all roles on board. At sea they honed the skills they had learned ashore. Their training, in c ...
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Battle Of Ushant (1778)
The Battle of Ushant (also called the First Battle of Ushant) took place on 27 July 1778, and was fought during the American Revolutionary War between French and British fleets west of Ushant, an island at the mouth of the English Channel off the north-westernmost point of France. "Ushant" is the Anglicised pronunciation of "Ouessant". The French commander was under orders to avoid battle if possible, in order to maintain a fleet in being. The commanders of the two squadrons of the British fleet were already personally and politically at odds with each other, and failed to make a concerted attack on the French. The battle, which was the first major naval engagement in the Anglo-French War of 1778, ended indecisively with no ships lost on either side and led to recriminations and political conflicts in both countries. Background The British had a fleet of thirty ships-of-the-line, four frigates, and two fire-ships commanded by Admiral Augustus Keppel, in , which sailed from ...
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French Ship Indien (1770)
''Indien'' was a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. Originally built for the French East India Company, she was purchased by the Navy and saw service during the War of American Independence Career ''Indien'' was built for the French East India Company at Lorient, and entered service for her first commercial journey in January 1769. After the collapse of the Company, the French Navy purchased in April 1770, and recommissioned her as a 68-gun ship of the line. ''Indien'' took part in the Battle of Ushant on 27 July 1778, under La Grandière, as the lead ship in the 3rd Division of the White-and-Blue squadron of the French fleet. In 1780, under Captain Balleroy Balleroy () is a former commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region of north-western France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Balleroy-sur-Drôme. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Biardais'' or ..., she was part of Guichen's squ ...
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74-gun
The "seventy-four" was a type of two- decked sailing ship of the line, which nominally carried 74 guns. It was developed by the French navy in the 1740s, replacing earlier classes of 60- and 62-gun ships, as a larger complement to the recently-developed 64-gun ships. Impressed with the performance of several captured French seventy-fours, the British Royal Navy quickly adopted similar designs, classing them as third rates. The type then spread to the Spanish, Dutch, Danish and Russian navies. The design was considered a good balance between firepower and sailing qualities. Hundreds of seventy-fours were constructed, becoming the dominant form of ship-of-the-line. They remained the mainstay of most major fleets into the early 19th century. From the 1820s, they began to be replaced by larger two-decked ships mounting more guns. However some seventy-fours remained in service until the late 19th century, when they were finally supplanted by ironclads. Standardising on a common shi ...
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French Ship Conquérant (1746)
The ''Conquérant'' was originally launched in 1746 on a design by François Coulomb the Younger. She was taken out of service in March 1764 and rebuilt at Brest as a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. Career In 1778, ''Conquérant'' was under Monteil, part of the Third division in the Blue squadron of the fleet under Orvilliers. She took part in the Battle of Ushant on 27 July 1778, where Monteil was wounded. On 2 May 1780, she departed Brest with the 7-ship and 3-frigate Expédition Particulière under Admiral Ternay, escorting 36 transports carrying troops to support the Continental Army in the War of American Independence. The squadron comprised the 80-gun ''Duc de Bourgogne'', under Ternay d'Arsac (admiral) and Médine (flag captain); the 74-gun ''Neptune'', under Sochet Des Touches, and ''Conquérant'', under La Grandière; and the 64-gun ''Provence'' under Lombard, ''Ardent'' under Bernard de Marigny, ''Jason'' under La Clocheterie and ''Év ...
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Expédition Particulière
''Expédition Particulière'' (English: Special Expedition) was the codename given by the Kingdom of France for the plan to sail French land forces to North America to support the colonists against Britain in the American Revolutionary War. Numbering 5,500 troops, the Expedition arrived in America on 11 July 1780, led by the Comte de Rochambeau. Another 2,500 men were intended to join the war effort, but could not escape the British blockade of Brest. After remaining inactive for almost a year, Rochambeau marched his troops south to rendezvous with George Washington's Continental Army for a planned attack on New York City. At Rochambeau's urging, Washington abandoned the planned attack and instead they moved into Virginia to join with the French fleet of Admiral François de Grasse to trap Lord Cornwallis's British army at Yorktown; the subsequent Franco-American siege ended in British surrender in October 1781, which hastened negotiations towards a peace treaty ending the war. ...
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Battle Of Cape Henry
The Battle of Cape Henry was a naval battle in the American War of Independence which took place near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay on 16 March 1781 between a British squadron led by Vice Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot and a French fleet under Admiral Charles René Dominique Sochet, Chevalier Destouches. Destouches, based in Newport, Rhode Island, had sailed for the Chesapeake as part of a joint operation with the Continental Army to oppose the British army of Brigadier General Benedict Arnold that was active in Virginia. Destouches was asked by General George Washington to take his fleet to the Chesapeake to support military operations against Arnold by the Marquis de Lafayette. Sailing on 8 March, he was followed two days later by Admiral Arbuthnot, who sailed from eastern Long Island. Arbuthnot's fleet outsailed that of Destouches, reaching the Virginia Capes just ahead of Destouches on 16 March. After manoeuvring for several hours, the battle was joined, and both fleets su ...
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Battle Of The Saintes
The Battle of the Saintes (known to the French as the Bataille de la Dominique), also known as the Battle of Dominica, was an important naval battle in the Caribbean between the British and the French that took place 9–12 April 1782. The British victory was considered their greatest over the French during the American Revolutionary War. The British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeated a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse, forcing the French and Spanish to abandon a planned invasion of Jamaica. The battle is named after the Îles des Saintes, a group of small islands between Guadeloupe and Dominica in the West Indies. The French had blockaded the British Army at Chesapeake Bay the year before, during the Siege of Yorktown, and supported the eventual American victory in their revolution. This battle, however, halted their momentum and had a significant effect on peace negotiations to end the war. The French suffered heavy casualties at the Saintes and many were ...
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Society Of The Cincinnati
The Society of the Cincinnati is a fraternal, hereditary society founded in 1783 to commemorate the American Revolutionary War that saw the creation of the United States. Membership is largely restricted to descendants of military officers who served in the Continental Army. The Society has thirteen constituent societies in the United States and one in France. It was founded to perpetuate "the remembrance of this vast event" (the achievement of American Independence), "to preserve inviolate those exalted rights and liberties of human nature," and "to render permanent the cordial affection subsisting among the officers" of the Continental Army who served in the Revolutionary War. Now in its third century, the Society promotes public interest in the Revolution through its library and museum collections, publications, and other activities. It is the oldest patriotic, hereditary society in America. History The Society is named after Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, who left h ...
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