The American revolution and the French navy

I was listening to a podcast about Philbrook's new book In the Hurricane's eye, about the seige of Yorktown and the importance of the French navy.

usually generals see water as an obstacle, but great generals (e.g. Mac Arthur, and here, George Washington) sees the ocean and rivers as a roadway.

UKGuardian review:

The race, then, was to get to the mouth of the Chesapeake sufficient troops to contain Gen Cornwallis on a small peninsula. The French arrived first and on 5 September 1781 “a naval battle fought between the French and British was largely responsible for the independence of the United States”. The Battle of the Chesapeake counted as enough of a French victory that the British fleet returned to New York and Cornwallis was left on his own. With 36 French ships present, the siege of Yorktown could begin.

I can't find the pocast lecture that I was listening to last night 
 update: the podcast is HERE, at the FLoP website.


(I download and then listen to podcasts/lectures as a background radio when I am doing other things) but here is a short discussion of the book.

link

link2

(I had the videos embedded but something went wrong, so only links supplied).


ironically, it is by reading the last books of the Outlander series that gave me an interest in Revolutionary war (this is the part that the tv show hasn't gotten to yet).

But like most stories, that is about the ground war: This book is about the naval part including the French fleet that was an important part behind winning the revoution.