This 80-gun French sailing vessel was home to more than 710 officers and men. Le Saint Esprit was part of the Fleet of de Grasse. de Grasse led most of his naval forces to the Virginia coast, where Le Saint Esprit made a decisive contribution to the Yorktown victory by driving off the British fleet. Cornwallis was then besieged by a Franco-American force of 16,000 troops. Cornwallis was outnumbered, outgunned and was running out of food. He surrendered his army of 7,157 on October 19, 1781. The surrender of Yorktown ended the fighting in the War for American Independence.