Barras de Saint-Laurent, Jacques-Melchior, Comte de

BARRAS DE SAINT-LAURENT, JACQUES-MELCHIOR, COMTE DE. (1719–1792?). French naval officer. Entering the Coast Guard in 1734, he later served in the Mediterranean and the Antilles. Barras was promoted to ensign (1742), ship's lieutenant (1754), and ship's captain (1762). Commander of the Zélé in Estaing's squadron in Rhode Island (1778) and Savannah (1779), he escorted the convoys between Saint Domingue and France. He returned to America in May 1781 to command the French squadron at Newport. Rochambeau and Barras were to meet Washington at Wethersfield, Connecticut, to discuss what might be done before François Grasse's arrival, but Arbuthnot took up a station off Rhode Island, and Barras was unable to leave. He eventually cooperated with the allied armies, however, and safely entered the harbor of Yorktown on 10 September 1781, after the battle off the Chesapeake Capes on 5 September 1781, carrying the siege artillery of the French army. After Yorktown, Barras's squadron followed Grasse to the West Indies, ending the possibility that they might be used in a southern campaign. In 1782 he was promoted to lieutenant general and distinguished himself by capturing Montserrat. He returned to France ill in April 1782 and was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint-Louis in 1784. He was promoted to vice admiral in January 1792 but resigned shortly thereafter.

SEE ALSO Chesapeake Capes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Contenson, Ludovic de. La Société des Cincinnati de France et la Guerre d'indépendence 1778–1783. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1934.

Rice, Howard C., Jr., and Anne S. K. Brown, eds. The American Campaigns of Rochambeau's Army: 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783. 2 vols. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1972.

Taillemite, Etienne. Dictionnaire des marins français. [Paris?]: Editions Maritimes and d'Outre-mer, 1982.

                          revised by Robert Rhodes Crout