American Revolution to the present thumb|right|alt=|Oyster boats at war off the Maryland shore (1886 wood engraving). Regulation of the oyster beds in Virginia and Maryland has existed since the 19th century. The Chesapeake Bay was the site of the Battle of the Chesapeake (also known as the "Battle of the Capes", Cape Charles and Cape Henry) in 1781, during which the French fleet defeated the Royal Navy in the decisive naval battle of the American Revolutionary War. The French victory enabled General George Washington and his French allies under the Comte de Rochambeau to march down from New York and bottle up a British army under Lord Cornwallis from the North and South Carolinas at the siege of Battle of Yorktown in Yorktown, Virginia. Their marching route from Newport, Rhode Island through Connecticut, New York State, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware to the "Head of Elk" by the Susquehanna River along the shores and also partially sailing down the bay to Virginia. It is also the subject of a designated National Historic Trail as the Washington–Rochambeau Revolutionary Route.
American Revolution to the present thumb|right|alt=|Oyster boats at war off the Maryland shore (1886 wood engraving). Regulation of the oyster beds in Virginia and Maryland has existed since the 19th century. The Chesapeake Bay was the site of the Battle of the Chesapeake (also known as the "Battle of the Capes" Cape Charles and Cape Henry) in 1781, during which the French fleet defeated the Royal Navy in the decisive naval battle of the American Revolutionary War. The French victory enabled General George Washington and his French allies under the Comte de Rochambeau to march down from New York and bottle up a British army under Lord Cornwallis from the North and South Carolinas at the siege of Battle of Yorktown in Yorktown, Virginia. Their marching route from Newport, Rhode Island through Connecticut, New York State, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware to the "Head of Elk" by the Susquehanna River along t,he shores and also partially sailing down the bay to Virginia. It is also the subject of a designated National Historic Trail as the Washington–Rochambeau Revolutionary Route.