In this letter, George Washington notifies the Count de Grasse, admiral of the French naval fleet, of the British surrender at Yorktown and congratulates him on his role in the victory. De Grasses’s naval blockade of the Chesapeake Bay prevented General Cornwallis and his troops from escaping from the Yorktown peninsula by sea, paving the way for the British defeat.
Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown 
