Invasion of Tobago The Invasion of Tobago was a French expedition in May 1781 against the British - held island of Tobago during the American War of Independence . The fleet of the Comte de Grasse on 24 May landed troops under the command of the Marquis de Bouillé , which successfully gained control of the island on 2 June 1781 . Background . In March 1781 , France sent a large fleet consisting of 20 ships of the line and a convoy with 6 , 000 troops to the West Indies under the command of the Comte de Grasse . They arrived off Martinique on 28 April , and de Grasse chased away the smaller British fleet of Sir Samuel Hood that had been blockading Fort Royal . Hood and the British station commander , Admiral George Brydges Rodney joined forces on 11 May between St . Kitts and Antigua to discuss the French threat . De Grasse met with Martinique ' s governor , the Marquis de Bouillé , and developed a plan for capturing the British - controlled island of Tobago . The French forces were to be divided , with one convoy accompanied by a small number of battle ships to head for Tobago , while the other forces would make a landing on St . Lucia that was little more than a demonstration . These forces would then be withdrawn and also sent to Tobago , where they would assist the first force . The force for St . Lucia , led by de Bouillé and accompanied by de Grasse , left Martinique on 8 and 9 May , with the force for Tobago , led by Blanchelande and accompanied by two ships of the line and a number of frigates under de Rions , also departing on the 9th . Attack on St . Lucia . Bouillé ' s force , numbering between 1 , 200 and 1 , 500 , landed at Gros Islet , a village at the northern tip of St . Lucia , early on 10 May . They surprised the small British garrison there , taking about 100 prisoners and seizing military supplies . This prompted General Arthur St . Leger , the island ' s lieutenant governor , to organise the defence of Castries and fortify the slopes of Morne Fortune above that port . Two nights later , the French troops reembarked on the transports , and the fleet sailed off to the windward for several days before returning to Martinique on 15 May . Troops numbering 3 , 000 were then embarked , and the fleet sailed for Tobago on 25 May . Rodney was alerted to the landing , but rather than sailing his whole fleet to St . Lucia , he sailed for Barbados , detaching only a few smaller ships to the island ' s aid . He was not informed of the French withdrawal from St . Lucia until he was en route to Barbados , which he reached on 23 May . On 24 May , the detachment of General Blanchelande arrived at Tobago . Under cover of fire from the " Pluto " and the " Experiment " , his troops were landed near the port of Scarborough . They quickly overran the town ' s forts , and Governor George Ferguson led his remaining forces into the hills . These forces , three to four hundred regulars and four to five hundred militia , established a strong position fortified by cannons on the interior ridge . Blanchelande followed , but decided to wait for reinforcements rather than attack the position . Admiral Rodney learned of the attack on Tobago on 27 May , while at Barbados . He detached Francis Samuel Drake and six ships of the line and some troops on 29 May to provide relief to Ferguson , only to learn on 2 June that de Grasse ' s fleet ( 20 ships of the line ) had arrived and chased Drake away . De Grasse had arrived at Tobago on 30 May ; Drake , greatly outnumbered , retreated , losing only one small ship . De Grasse then landed troops on both sides of the island the next day , and Bouillé made a junction with Blanchelande outside the British line of defence . They decided to attack the next day . With the arrival of French reinforcements , Ferguson decided to abandon his position , and began a retreat that night . The French gave chase the following morning when they saw the British lines had been abandoned . It was a sweltering , hot day , and both columns had men drop out due to the conditions ; a number of the retreating British were captured . By the end of the day , Ferguson realised the situation was hopeless , and opened negotiations for terms of surrender . Under the agreed terms , Ferguson ' s forces surrendered on 2 June . Aftermath . Rodney learned of Ferguson ' s surrender on 4 June , and immediately sailed out from Barbados . When he finally spotted de Grasse ' s fleet , the latter was sailing for Grenada with 24 ships of the line to Rodney ' s 20 ; Rodney decided to avoid action , claiming later that he was concerned that chasing de Grasse would have left him to leeward , with de Grasse then free to attack Barbados . When Ferguson reached London , he and Rodney engaged in a highly public war of words over Rodney ' s failure to relieve the island in a timely manner . De Grasse , after Rodney called off his chase , returned to Tobago , embarked some of the troops , and returned to Martinique . He then sailed in July for Cap - Français , where he was met by a dispatch from the North American fleet , whose news prompted him to sail north to support operations on Chesapeake Bay that culminated in the pivotal Battle of the Chesapeake and Siege of Yorktown . The island of Tobago remained in French hands under the terms of the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the war ; it was again fought over during the Napoleonic Wars , and fell definitively under British control with the 1814 Treaty of Paris .