The Capture of Montserrat was accomplished by a
French naval expedition that seized the island of
Montserrat from the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
on 22 February 1782 during the
American Revolutionary War
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 t ...
.
Background
Following the Franco-American success in the October 1781
Siege of Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender at Yorktown, or the German battle (from the presence of Germans in all three armies), beginning on September 28, 1781, and ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virgi ...
, French Admiral
François Joseph Paul de Grasse
François Joseph Paul, Comte de Grasse, Marquis of Grasse-Tilly SMOM (13 September 1722 – 11 January 1788) was a career French officer who achieved the rank of admiral. He is best known for his command of the French fleet at the Battle of th ...
returned to the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
to continue campaigning against British-held islands there. In concert with the French governor of the West Indies, the
Marquis de Bouillé, he sought to capture
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...
, a key British possession. However, two separate attempts failed to reach the island, which is to the windward of most of the Caribbean islands and can require a lengthy journey against the prevailing easterly trade winds to reach. The leaders then turned to other targets, beginning with
St. Kitts, which was
besieged
Besieged may refer to:
* the state of being under siege
* ''Besieged'' (film), a 1998 film by Bernardo Bertolucci
{{disambiguation ...
on 11 January 1782. St. Kitts fell on 13 February, at which time de Grasse detached a squadron to take Montserrat.
Capture
The
Comte de Barras, commander of the squadron, dispatched the Count of Flechin, along with 500 men from the
Régiment Auxerrois, to capture the island from the British. At the time of its surrender, British artillery on Montserrat consisted of 62 pieces of cannon of different bores and six howitzers.
Montserrat was occupied by the French until it was returned pursuant to the terms of the 1783
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
.
[Black p.59]
Notes
References
*Chartrand, René. ''The French Army in the American War of Independence''. Osprey Publishing (1992)
*Black, Jeremy. ''A Military History of Britain: From 1775 to the Present''. Praeger Publishers (2006).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Montserrat, Capture of
Naval battles of the Anglo-French War (1778–1783)
Naval battles involving France
Naval battles involving Great Britain
Capture of
1782 in France