Logistics before DLA: How agency missions explain America’s Revolutionary War success
It was rare in the late 18th century for Britain to lose control of the seas even temporarily but that’s what happened after a French fleet under François Joseph Paul, the Comte de Grasse, defeated a British fleet under Thomas Graves at the Battle of the Capes on Sept. 5, 1781. With his sea line communication cut and land routes blocked by American and French armies, British Lt. Gen. Charles Cornwallis had no choice but to surrender. In this 1962 painting by Vladimir Zveg, the French battle line uses the weather gage to concentrate fire on the British. Navy History and Heritage Command photo