Sir Samuel Hood and the Battle of the Chesapeake

Sir Samuel Hood and the Battle of the Chesapeake * Colin Pengelly * Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2009 xiv, 254 pp. * $69.95

Three weeks before the siege of Yorktown began, a British fleet commanded by Admiral Thomas Graves fought French Admiral Comte de Grasse in what became known as the battle of the Capes, or the battle of the Chesapeake. De Grasse was the strategic victor by securing a position for his ships that controlled the Chesapeake Bay and blocked British naval access to the York River and Lord Cornwallis's army at Yorktown. The allied armies of General George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau subsequently arrived to besiege Cornwallis, whose army then was isolated by land and by sea.

Graves made only tacit official criticism of Admiral Samuel Hood, who showed uncharacteristic timidity at the Capes, entered the battle late, and made virtually no contribution. In contrast, Hood lambasted his superior's handling of the fleet...