THE

Washington-Rochambeau RevolutionaryRoute
S TAT E M E N T O F N AT I O N A L S I G N I F I C A N C E REVISED DRAFT REPORT JANUARY 30, 2003

T H E N AT I O N A L P A R K S E R V I C E N O R T H E A S T A N D C A P I TA L R E G I O N S

G O O D Y, C L A N C Y & A S S O C I AT E S , P L A N N I N G A N D A R C H I T E C T U R E ROBERT A. SELIG, PHD, PROJECT HISTORIAN

Contents
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Introduction and Findings Study Legislation, Purpose and Tasks Historical Narrative Signicance Themes Historic Use of the Route Resources Bibliographic Essay Study Team and Illustration Sources

CONTENTS

1 Introduction and Findings

his report evaluates the national significance of the trail known as the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route, which leads from Newport, Rhode Island, to the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, and back to Boston, Massachusetts. It is a network of land and water routes traversing nine states and the District of Columbia over which traveled the American and French armies and navies, either individually or combined, at different times between June 1781 and December 1782.
(1) It must be a trail or route established by historic use and be historically significant as a result of that use. The route need not currently exist as a discernible trail to qualify, but its location must be sufficiently known to permit evaluation of its public-recreation and historical-interest potential. A designated trail should generally accurately follow the historic route, but may deviate somewhat on occasion of necessity to avoid difficult routing through subsequent development, or to provide some route variations offering a more pleasurable recreational experience. Such deviations shall be so noted on site. Trail segments no longer passable due to subsequent development as motorized transportation routes may be designated and marked on site as segments that link to the historic trail. (2) It must be of national signicance with respect to any of several broad facets of American history, such as trade and commerce, exploration, migration and settlement, or military campaigns. To qualify as nationally signicant, historic use of the trail must have had a far-reaching effect on broad patterns of American culture. Trails significant in the history of native Americans may be included.

(3) It must have signicant potential for public recreational use or historical interest based on historic interpretation and appreciation. The potential for such use is generally greater along roadless segments developed as historic trails and at historic sites associated with the trail. The presence of recreation potential not related to historic appreciation is not sufficient justification for designation under this category. This report focuses on Criterion 2, national significance. Future documentation will be prepared to evaluate the Washington-Rochambeau Route against the other criteria, pending review of this draft Statement of Significance. Later phases of the study include developing management alternatives and preparing an Environmental Impact Statement as part of the final report to be submitted to Congress. The ultimate objective of the study is to determine how best to promote the preservation of, public access to, travel within, and enjoyment and appreciation of the outdoor areas and historic resources associated with the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

The study team, comprising professional staff from the NPS Northeast and National Capital Regions, with assistance from respected scholars and consultants, makes the following findings regarding national significance: (1) The Washington-Rochambeau Route is of national signicance as a domestic crosscultural experience. The Route is significant as: a) an indispensable component of the campaign of 1781: it is the route that took the combined Franco-American armies to victory; b) a watershed in the development of an American identity: in 178182, the thirteen colonies took a gigantic step toward becoming a nation; c) a prime illustration of the American Revolutionary War as a truly diverse effort; and d) a visible expression of the hope for independence and the gratitude that greeted the returning French army on its march north in the summer of 1782.
AND FINDINGS

Congress authorized the National Park Service to identify the range of resources and themes associated with the route; identify alternatives for NPS involvement with the routes preservation and interpretation; and provide cost estimates for any acquisition, development, interpretation, operation, and maintenance associated with the alternatives presented in the study (PL 106-473). Although the study authorization was not structured as a proposed National Historic Trail (NHT) under the National Trails System Act (16 USC 1241 et seq.), the study will apply the criteria of the Act to determine the feasibility and desirability of designation as one alternative for NPS involvement. To qualify for designation as an NHT the route must meet three criteria:

INTRODUCTION

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(2) The Washington-Rochambeau Route is of national signicance as a manifestation of the international war effort. The Route is significant as: a) a symbol of the global character of the American War for Independence; b) the culmination of the crucial contributions of France to the achievement of American Independence; c) an example of joint FrancoAmerican cooperation under Washingtons overall leadership; and d) the first true acknowledgement of America as a sovereign nation. Subsequent chapters present the studys legislative background, a brief historical narrative of the route, a description of the signicance themes in greater detail, a discussion of the historic use and development of the route, and a summary of the types of resources associated with the route. The report concludes with a bibliographic essay on historical sources.

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INTRODUCTION

AND

FINDINGS

2 StudyLegislation, Purpose, and Tasks

LEGISLATION

The Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Heritage Act of 2000 directed the Secretary of the Interiorin consultation with preservation groups and agencies at the state and local levelsto submit to Congress a study of the 600-mile route followed in 1781 by American and French armies under the command of General George Washington and General Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau. The allied forces marched through Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland en route to Yorktown, Virginia, where they engaged and defeated British troops under General Charles

Cornwallis in one of the most decisive victories of the American Revolutionary War. Following winter encampments, the French army returned to Boston, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1782, along the path it had taken the previous year. Forty-two members of Congress, including seven from outside the project area, joined the bills original sponsors, Representative John Larson (CT) and Senator Joseph Lieberman, (CT) in introducing the legislation.

route taken by General Washington and the General comte de Rochambeau to assess whether the National Park Service should be directly involved in the preservation and interpretation of its resources. Should the NPS determine that the route is nationally significant and has the potential for public recreation, Congress could designate it a National Historic Trail. Designation could enable the NPS to assist a variety of groups, projects and activities associated with the trails preservation and interpretation. The study will also identify nonfederal alternatives for preserving and interpreting this important part of Americas historical heritage.

Scholars symposium Draft determination-ofsignificance report Management alternatives, with and without NPS involvement, for preserving and interpreting the route Cost estimates

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

A scholars symposium on the Washington-Rochambeau route was held at West Point in June 2002.

Under the act (now Public Law 106-473) Congress authorized the National Park Service to study the

TASKS

Route reconnaissance Historical research > Historical narrative > Bibliography > Resource inventory Public meetings and outreach Newsletters

Final report and EIS Recognition in place for the 225th Anniversary of the Washington-Rochambeau March in 2006

The study team briefed the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers on the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route study in Washington, March 2002. At the podium is John Shannahan, State Historic Preservation Officer of Connecticut.

LEGISLATION,

PURPOSE

&

TASKS

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SIGNIFCANCE

THEMES

3 Historical Narrative
he arrival of 55-year-old General Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, with an army of 450 officers and 5,300 men in Narragansett Bay off Newport, Rhode Island, on 10 July 1780, marked the beginning of a most successful military cooperation that culminated 15 months later in the victory at Yorktown.

France had supported the colonies since the summer of 1775, well before their final break with Great Britain on 4 July 1776, and had formalized the relationship in two treaties of February 1778. The decision to send ground forces across the Atlantic for stationing on the American mainland, however, had only been made in January 1780, following three unsuccessful French attempts to defeat Britain: a failed amphibious assault on the British stronghold at Newport in 1778; another assault at Savannah, Georgia, in 1779; and an equally disastrous attempt at an invasion of England in the summer of the same year. Though Louis XVI and his foreign minister, Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, had placed no high hopes in the invasion scheme, the seeming inability of France to lighten the pressure on the Continental Army was straining the alliance with the United States.

The American troops, for their partshort of men, weapons, food, clothing, training, and money were not strong enough to attack the British forces and win a decisive battle. They adopted instead a defensive strategy of containment. The shift in favor of sending French troops to America came in late January 1780, and on 2 February the king approved the plan, code-named expdition particulire. Come May, a fleet of 32 transports, seven ships of the line, two frigates, and two smaller warships, commanded by Charles Henry Louis dArsac, chevalier de Ternay, a 57-year-old chef descadre with 40 years experience, set sail from Brest for the New World. Besides their regular crews, de
Rochambeau, Washington, and Lafayette at the siege of Yorktown, October 1781

Ternays ships carried Rochambeaus troops of the expdition particulire: four regiments of

infantry, one battalion of artillery, about 600 hussars and light infantry in Lauzuns Legion, plus support staffin all, nearly 6,000 officers and men. But the troops arrived too late in the campaign season and with too many sick to embark on any military action. Late in September 1780, Rochambeau met with General George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. Washington favored attacking New York, occupied by General Sir Henry

Clinton, but concurred that the fighting forces were not yet adequate. The French army wintered in Newport, while the cavalry wintered in Lebanon, Connecticut. Late in May of 1781, Washington and Rochambeau met again at Wethersfield, Connecticut, and decided to join their forces outside New York for a possible attack on the center of British power in America. While keeping an eye on General Charles Cornwallis, in Virginia, the French

HISTORICAL

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and American armies would meet on the Hudson River for an attack on New York as the only practicable object under present circumstances, as Washington wrote to Rochambeau on 13 June 1781. A march southward had been ruled out, since the summer heat would decimate the troops. From his headquarters in Newburgh, Washington implored the various states to fill their quotas and to gather supplies for man and beast for the coming campaign. The Continental Armys chief engineer Louis le Begue de Presle du Portail thought the main army alone would need, among other supplies, an initial allotment of 3,106 horses and 2,132 draft oxen during the summer campaign. In Newport, French quartermaster general Pierre Franois de Bvilles assistants started drawing maps and picking campsites. The French armys American purchasing agent,
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HISTORICAL NARRATIVE

Jeremiah Wadsworth, began collecting the vast amounts of provisions needed to feed the men, their 2,000 or so horsesjust for the wagon train he drafted 855 horses, the artillery added another 500and more than 600 oxen. On 11 June, a French convoy carrying 592 infantry and 68 artillery replacements arrived in Boston, but only about 400 were healthy
French troops board ships in the harbor at Brest in preparation for the voyage to Newport in May 1780.

enough for duty. Since Rochambeau had to leave 400 men behind as garrisons in Newport and Providence and detach 700 men to the navy, he had around 425 officers and 3,200 enlisted men plus at least 500 servants, 239 wagon conductors, and 15 cooks in his columns. After Rochambeaus army sailed from Newport to Providence, the First Division of the French forces marched out of Providence on Monday, 18 June 1781, for Watermans Tavern. Three days later the volontaires trangers de Lauzun, about 600 cavalry and light infantry men, left their winter quarters in Lebanon, Connecticut. They followed a route some 10-15 miles to the south of the infantry, protecting its flank. Rochambeau, who rode in the First Division, had established the following order for the march:

Rochambeaus copy of General Map of the Camps and Marches of the French Army commanded by General Rochambeau, 9 June 1781 to 1 December 1782, is in the collection of the Library of Congress and attributed to Louis Alexandre de Berthier. The yellow line indicates the land and water routes of the march to and from Williamsburg, with deviating green and red branches indicating, variously: separate sections of the return route; flanking travel by Lauzuns Legion through Connecticut and New York (en route) and through New Jersey (returning); and the route of the wagon train from Scotts House in Maryland to Williamsburg.

the regiment Bourbonnais under the comte de Rochambeau, to leave on 18 June; the regiment Royal Deux-Ponts under the baron de Viomnil, to leave on 19 June; the regiment Soissonnais under the comte de Viomnil, to leave on 20 June; and the regiment Saintonge under the comte de Custine, to leave on 21 June. Each division was led by an assistant quartermaster general and preceded by workmen who filled potholes and removed obstacles. Dressed in gaiters, wigs, and tight-fitting woolen underwear, each man carried, in addition

to his musket, equipment weighing almost 60 pounds. Next came the horse-drawn carriages of the field artillery and the staff baggage train, followed by the ten regimental wagons, one per company. They carried the tents of the soldiers and the luggage of the officers: 300 pounds for a captain, 150 pounds for a lieutenant. Next came a wagon for stragglers, the hospital wagons, wagons for butchers, others loaded with supplies, and wheelwrights and farriers bringing up the rear. To avoid having to march in the heat of the day, the regiments got up early: reveille was around 2:00 am and by 4:00 am the regiments

were on their way. Captain Samuel Richards of the Connecticut Line, on leave at home in Farmington, in June, recorded that They marched on the road in open order, until the music struck up, they then closed into close order. On the march, a quartermaster preceded and at the forking of the road would be stuck a pole with a bunch of straw at top to shew the road they were to take. The next campsite, 12 to 15 miles away, was reached between 8:00 am and noon, and the soldiers set up tents according to their eightman chambres. Here they received meat, bread, and other supplies for

dinner. Captain Richards was among the many spectators who viewed their manner of encamping over night, the perfect mechanical manner of performing all they had to do: such as diging a circular hole & making nitches in which to set their camp kettles for cooking their food. While general officers lodged in nearby taverns, company-grade officers slept two to a tent near their men. This order, with variations, was maintained for the entire march. The early arrival provided an opportunity to meet the locals, who came from afar to see the French, and for dancing with

Several former taverns in which French officers lodged while on the route still stand in Connecticut.

New York line to Philipsburg in Westchester County. There the French met up with George Washingtons 4,000-man Continental Army on 6 July 1781. The Continental Army had spent a tense and difficult winter around Morristown and in the Hudson Highlands. As winter turned into spring, the army barely maintained its strength while Cornwallis was marching almost at will across the southern colonies. Despairingly, Washington wrote on 9 April: We are at the end of our tether, andnow or never our deliverance must come. The campaign of 1781 had to produce results. Upon learning that the French forces had left Newport, Washington on 18 June ordered his troops quartered around West Point, New York, to leave their winter camp beginning on 21 June and to join up with Rochambeaus forces approaching from Connecticut. The Continental

Oliver White Tavern (ca. 1750) across the road from the campsite in Bolton, Connecticut. An upstairs bedroom displays holes in the ceiling and in the walls that are reputed to have been made by French bayonets or sabers.

Army marched to the FrancoAmerican camp at Philipsburg. On 8 July, Washington reviewed Rochambeaus troops, which, according to the comte de Lauberdire, appeared in the grandest parade uniform. M. de Rochambeau took his place in

front of the white flag of his oldest regiment and saluted General Washington. Our general received the greatest compliments for the beauty of his troops. It is true that without doubt those that we have with us were superb at our departure from France.

Now protected by local ordinance, the site of the French encampment at Bolton, Connecticut, has never been developed.

the beautiful maidens of America, music courtesy of the regimental bands. On 2 July, the duc de Lauzun and his legion joined Rochambeaus infantry on its march across the

The encampment of the French troops outside of Trenton, New Jersey, 1 September 1781.

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Roadside markers commemorate the Washington-Rochambeau Route in many states. This Connecticut series was erected by the state with the assistance of local groups, including chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Knights of Columbus.

The following day, Rochambeau returned the compliment, but he and his officers, such as Baron von Closen, were in for a surprise. I had a chance to see the American army, man for man. It was really painful to see these brave men, almost naked with only some trousers and little linen jackets, most of them without stockings, but, would you believe it? Very cheerful and healthy in appearance. A quarter of them were negroes, merry, confident, and sturdy. Three quarters of the Rhode Island regiment consists of negroes, and that regiment is the most neatly dressed, the best under arms, and the most precise in its maneuvres (sic). Naked and hungry, yet confident and cheerful such were the allies with whom Rochambeau had joined his forces for an attempt on New York. But the attack on Sir Henry Clinton never materialized. While
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SIGNIFCANCE THEMES

New York may have been their primary objective, the two generals always tried to keep their options open. In the same letter of 13 June in which Washington had reminded Rochambeau that New York was looked upon by us as the only practicable object, he had also suggested that should we be able to secure a naval superiority, we may perhaps find others more practicable and equally advisable. Following the death of Admiral de Ternay, the comte de Barras had arrived in May to take command of the French fleet in Newport. Sufficient to provide transport and artillery for the French army, this fleet was not strong enough, nor intended to, attack the British navy. The only person who could provide that naval superiority was Admiral de Grasse in the Caribbean, but the decision of where he would sail was his alone. On 28 May, Rochambeau, who never liked the idea of attacking New York, wrote to de Grasse that

There are two points at which an offensive can be made against the enemy: Chesapeak and New York. The southwesterly winds and the state of defense in Virginia will probably make you prefer the Chesapeak Bay, and it will be there where we think you may be able to render the greatest service. In any case it is essential that you send, well in advance, a frigate to inform de Barras where you are to come and also General Washington. As he was weighing the odds of a successful siege of New York, particularly after the Grand Reconnaissance of 2123 July, Washingtons thinking too turned to Cornwallis: on 1 August he wrote in his diary that he could scarce see a ground upon wch. to continue my preparations against New York, and therefore I turned

my views more seriously (than I had before done) to an operation to the southward. For the time being, all the two generals could do was wait for news from de Grasse, who would determine the point of attack. When they learned from the fast frigate Concorde on 14 August that de Grasse was headed for the Chesapeake with all the ships and troops he had been able to gather, they quickly shifted gears. Fortunately the tactical situation in the south had changed as well: Cornwallis had done exactly what Some road segments along the WashingtonWashington and RochamRochambeau route remain intact and, except for beau would have wanted tree growth obscuring what was open farmland, him to do. In late June, retain the topography and alignment that allied Cornwallis had already armies experienced in 1781-82. briefly occupied Williamsburg, but on 19 Matters having now come to a July, he began his march to crisis and a decisive plan to be Yorktown and Gloucester, determined on, I was obliged...to where he started digging in on give up all idea of attacking New 2 August 1781. This was York; and instead thereof to known in Philipsburg on 14 remove the French Troops and a August when the decision was detachment from the American made to march south. Army to the Head of Elk to be Everything was falling into transported to Virginia for the place, but there was no time to purpose of co-operating with the lose. De Grasse would only force from the West Indies against stay until 15 October, and as theTroops in that State. Washington wrote in his diary, From among the troops assembled at Philipsburg, Washington chose Andrew Corsa (1762-1852) the Rhode Island Regiment, the Guide to Washington and Rochambeau during the First New York Regiment, the Light
Grand Reconnaissance, 21-23 July 1781.

the right column (i.e., the infantry) departed on the 19th. The Continental Army followed no formal marching order. Marching along the Hudson, the two armies met only at river crossings, such as from Stony Point to Kings Ferry on the 24th, or on the Delaware at Trenton on 2 September. Deception and secrecy had been vital for the success of the plan, and in both armies as few officers as possible were informed of the decision to march to Virginia. Boats were built ostensibly for the purpose of crossing over to Staten Island from the Jersey shore, ovens were built in Chatham, contracts for foodstuffs to be delivered in

Freemans Journal reported on 5 September that the appearance of these troops far exceeds any thing of the kind seen on this continent, and presages the happiest success to the cause of America. That same day, 5 September, Washington and Rochambeau learned of the arrival of de Grasse in the Chesapeake. But Williamsburg and Yorktown still lay more than 200 miles south, and three more weeks passed before the siege of Yorktown began on 28 September. Washington rode on to Wilmington while Rochambeau spent the night of 5/6 September in Chester. The next day, Rochambeau encamped with his First Division in Wilmington, while

Cannonier, Auxonne Artillery

Grenadier, Soissonnais regiment

Infantry Regiment, the Second Continental Artillery, the Artificer Regiment and the Corps of Sappers and Miners, which, together with his Guard, amounted to about 1,500 officers and men. To these troops were added the New Jersey Line and Hazens Canadian Regiment, about 600 officers and men, who were ferried from New Jersey across the Hudson to join Washington. The Second New York Regiment caught up with the Continental Army at Trenton. On 18 August, the two armies 4,200 French and 2,000 Americans plus support personnelheaded south. The left column of the French army, artillery and military chest, left Philipsburg on the 18th,

New Jersey were issued, letters were written and sent via the most dangerous routes with the express intent that they be captured, and different rumors as to the purpose of the troop movement were spread. Even though some were indeed laughable enow, as Washingtons private secretary Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., wrote, they achieved their purpose of keeping Clinton in New York and Cornwallis in Yorktown guessing long enough for the allied armies to disengage. Once Trenton was reached, there could no longer be any doubt that Cornwallis was the target of the campaign, and as the French marched through Philadelphia, the

Grenadier, Royal Deux-Ponts regiment

Washington and his entourage hurriedly crossed into Delaware to Head of Elk, where most of the Continental Army was already encamped. At Christiana they encountered the Second New York Regiment of some 420 officers and men under Colonel Philip Van Cortlandt, which had just arrived from Stony Point, New York, with thirty flatboats so large that it took a wagon and eight horses to draw them. The Second New York Regiment and Moses Hazens Regiment which had floated down the Dela-

Grenadier, Bourbonnais regiment

Fusilier, Saintonge regiment

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ware from Philadelphia then up the Christiana River with Colonel Lambs Second Continental Artilleryspent the next two days, 7 and 8 September, Constantly imployed in Loading and transporting ammunition together with other stores to the Head of Elk. Washington had hoped to find enough vessels at Head of Elk to transport both armies to Yorktown, but only twelve sloops, eighteen schooners and a few dozen smaller vessels were waiting there. They were barely enough for most of the Continental Army, Rochambeaus grenadiers and chasseurs, and for the infantry of Lauzuns Legion, about 3,000 men in all. Anxious to reach Mount Vernon after a six-

year absence, Washington and a small group of aides rode ahead and reached his estate on 9 September; Rochambeau and his staff arrived the following day. On 12 September, the two commanders continued their journey, which ended with a visit to Admiral de Grasse on his flagship, the Ville de Paris, on 18 September. The commanders were ready for the siege to begin, but their troops were still far behind. On 11 September, Dr. James Thacher of Scammels Light Infantry set sail from Head of Elk for the Chesapeake on the Glasgow, with four other officers and sixty men. The remainder of the troops, between 3,800 and 4,000 men, marched through Baltimore and

reached Annapolis on the 18th. Embarking on 15 vessels sent by de Grasse, they set sail for the James River, arriving near Jamestown on the 24th and reaching Williamsburg on 25 September. Three days later, on 28 September, the two armies set out for and reached Yorktown. Concurrently the duc de Lauzuns cavalry, which had separated from the wagon train, took up siege positions at Gloucester Point across the river from Yorktown. Pressed for time, knowing that de Grasse would only stay through 15 October, Washington had decided to open the siege without the supplies carried on the French armys wagon train, which had set out from Annapolis on 21 September. Traveling via Bladensburg, the train crossed the Potomac into Virginia at Georgetowna process that required two days. Passing through Colchester, Dumfries, Fredericksburghere they crossed the Rappahannock Bowling Green, and Hartfield, the wagons reached Williamsburg on 6 October. The First Parallel was dug on 6 October, and on the 9th French and American siege guns opened fire on the British defenders. The completion of the Second Parallel was blocked by a portion of the British outer workstwo detached earthen forts called Redoubts 9 and

Strength of Rochambeaus forces after the Siege of Yorktown

REGIMENT COMMANDING OFFICERS & MEN

Bourbonnais

marquis de Montmorency-Laval ca. 70 officers and 1,025 men, incl. 221 detached and 105 sick

Soissonnais

comte de Saint Maisme

ca. 70 officers and 1,044 men, incl. 28 detached and 68 sick

Saintonge

comte de Custine

ca. 70 officers and 1,030 men, incl. 47 detached and 69 sick

Royal Deux-Ponts

Christian comte de Deux-Ponts ca. 70 officers and 1,029 men, incl. 218 detached and 129 sick

Auxonne Artillery, Miners and Workers Lauzuns Legion

de la Tour, de Chazelle, de la Chaisse duc de Lauzun

ca. 52 officers and 545 men, incl. 227 detached and 48 sick ca. 45 officers and 550 men incl. 8 sick
total: ca. 377 officers and 5,223 men, incl. 741 detached and 427 sick

Source: Inspection reports for 9-12 November 1781, Fonds Viomnil. Acadmie Franois Bourdon, Le Creusot, France. The strength for Lauzuns Legion, stationed in Gloucester, is taken from a review of 1 October 1781 in Colonies D2c32, Archives Nationales, Paris, France.

Strength of the Continental Army on the Washington-Rochambeau Route

REGIMENT COMMANDING OFFICER OFFICERS & MEN

Commander-in-Chiefs Guard Rhode Island Regiment First New York Regiment Second New York Regiment Combined New Jersey Regiment Canadian Regiment (Congresss Own) Light Infantry Regiment Second Continental Artillery Corps of Sappers & Miners Artificer Regiment

Captain Caleb Gibbs Lt.-Col. Jeremiah Olney Col. Goose Van Schaick Col. Philip Van Cortlandt Col. Mathias Ogden Brevet Brigadier Moses Hazen Lt.-Col. Alexander Scammel Col. John Lamb Captain James Gilliland Lt.-Col. Ebenezer Stevens

70 360 390 420 330 270 380 200 50 unknown

total: approximately 2,500

Source: Charles H. Lesser, The Sinews of Independence. Monthly Strength Reports of the Continental Army (Chicago, 1975), p. 208. Unit strength figuresrounded to the nearest 10 are for 26 September 1781; no strength reports for August have survived. The figures for the closest surviving report are given for the Artillery and Sappers & Miners (July 1781) and for the Commander-in-Chiefs Guard (June 1781).

10, located 400 yards in advance of the British inner defense line on the extreme right of the siege line. On 14 October, Allied artillery bombarded Redoubts 9 and 10 most of the day, preparing them for American and French assaults. That evening, Colonel Alexander Hamilton took Redoubt No. 10 while the French carried No. 9. The capture of these redoubts enabled the besiegers to finish the Second Parallel and to construct the Grand American Battery which, combined with the French batteries, formed a continuous line within point-blank range of the British inner defense line. On 18 October, two British officers, an American officer and a French

officer met at the home of Augustine Moore to negotiate surrender terms. Around 2:00 pm on 19 October 1781, the British troops with their American Loyalists and German auxiliaries marched out of Yorktown to lay down their arms. On 27 October, the troops of the marquis de Saint-Simon, who had sailed from the Caribbean with the fleet of Admiral de Grasse, began to re-embark. On 4 November de Grasses fleet sailed out of Lynnhaven Bay for Fort Royal in Martinique, where it arrived on 26 November. The Continental Army, too, left for New York almost immediately after the siege was

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HISTORICAL

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over. By 20 November, Head of Elk was reached; they crossed the Hudson at Kings Ferry on 7 December and moved into winter quarters. The French spent the winter of 1781-82 at sites in and around Williamsburg. Hampton provided lodging for Lauzuns Legion until February 1782, when, at the request of General Nathanael Greene, it relocated to Charlotte Court House on the North Carolina border.

trenches of the enemy, and with equal intrepidity and vigour of attack, stormed some of their redoubts.

History did not bestow the epithet the Great on Louis XVI, but the year 1782 saw a series of festivities in which a grateful America celebrated the birth in October 1781 of Louis-Joseph-Xavier-Franois, the long-awaited dauphin and heir to the throne of France. Two winter quarters in New England and in Yorktown proved Virginia, 1,300 once and for all to miles of marches Americans that the through nine of the French could fight thirteen colonies, a as well as anyone. month of fighting, Out of the victory and thousands of arose the new personal Frenchman whose encounters along virtues were the way had extolled by Israel brought the French Evans, a military Marker along the Washingtonand American chaplain, who Rochambeau Route in peoples closer while still on the Connecticut. together than they battlefield of had ever been before. Yorktown spoke of that harmony, that emulation, and that equal love Rochambeaus march north from of danger which subsisted among July 1782 provided Americans an the allied troops, as if the same opportunity to give thanks to their generous fire of true glory glowed countrys ally, for when the French in their bosoms, or one patriot soul infantry sailed out of Boston animated them to the cheerful perHarbor on Christmas Day 1782, formance of every military duty, King George III and Parliament and to encounter every danger. had acknowledged the United Witness the emulation of those States to be free Sovereign and French and American troops, who independent States. at the same time entered the

The Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route.

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The Two Generals

Born in 1725 into a wealthy family that could trace its ancestry in the Vendme to the year 1378, Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, was George Washingtons senior by seven years. Destined for the priesthood, he left ecclesiastical orders after the death of his older brother and embarked on the military career appropriate for a member of the high aristocracy. Auvergne in 1759, and distinguished himself the next year in the Battle of Klostercamp during the Seven Years War, where his regiment lost 58 of 80 officers and more than 800 men as it turned defeat into victory. Promoted to marchal de camp (major general) in recognition of his bravery in February 1761, he became inspector general of the French infantry in March. succeed. An opportunity arose when his older half brother Lawrence, Virginias adjutant general and owner of Mount Vernon, introduced him to some of the colonys most influential families, such as the Belvoirs and Fairfaxes, who arranged for him to become surveyor of Culpeper County in 1749. Washingtons military career began in 1754 when he became Colonel of the Virginia Regiment sent into the Ohio Valley to oppose French incursions. The following year he participated in General Edward Braddocks disastrous campaign. Although not implicated in the defeat, he resigned his commission in 1758 to marry Martha Dandridge, one of Virginias wealthiest widows, the following year. Ten years earlier, Rochambeau had married Thrse Tells da Costa in 1749. The outbreak of the American Revolution found Washington on the side of the rebels: I think the Parliament of Great Britain hath no more right to put their hands into my pocket, without my consent, than I have to put my hands in yours for money, he wrote to Bryan Fairfax on 20 July 1774. His fellow delegates in the Second Continental Congress unanimously elected the Virginian to command the Continental Army on 15 June 1775; he was 43 years old. New York by the time French troops were sent to America. Washingtons reputation had grown as an effective leader of great strength, integrity, and perseverance. His skills in military strategy had been most apparent at the battles of Princeton (1776) and Trenton (1777).

Barring another A cornet in war, Rochambeau the cavalry had reached the Regiment of zenith of his career Saint-Simon just as Washington in 1742, he was settling down became to the life of a colonel of his squire. Following own infantry the death of his regiment in father when he was 1747, soon eleven, Washington after he had grew up on the reached the periphery of minimum Virginias landed age of 21. aristocracy, with Severely limited financial wounded in resources and few the battle of Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau prospects. WashingLawfeld in ton learned early that he had to July of the same year, rely on himself if he wanted to he took over the Regiment

In 1778 France joined the war on the side of the For the next Americans and seven years the following year of the war, Commander-in-chief General George embarked on an Washington Washington ambitious plan to led the Coninvade Great Britain. Rochambeau, tinental Army in a series of bat54 years old and father of two tles and skirmishes with the children, was appointed to commuch more formidable British mand the first wave of assault. army and navy. After the siege of Boston, he commanded his troops After cancellation of the plan, King Louis XVI appointed him to through the New York, New command ground forces being Jersey, and Philadelphia camsent across the Atlantic to assist paigns, before wintering and the Continental Army in its training at Valley Forge (1777-78) struggle with Great Britain. and returning north, outside of

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The king could not have made a more fortunate choice. When the two generals met for the first time at Hartford in September 1780, they took an immediate liking to each other. The quiet, patient, matter-of-fact Rochambeau approached his task in America in the calm and methodical way of a professional soldier, never challenging the overall leadership of Washington and always keeping an eye on the reason for his presence in America: the defeat of Great Britain. The equally reserved Washington, often judged as cold by outsiders, in turn deferred when necessary to the military expertise of his French ally while reserving the final decision to himself. At Yorktown they reaped the rewards of their collaboration. Rochambeau returned to France in the spring of 1783. Elected to the Assembly of Notables in 1789 as a liberal, he voted to support the demands of the Third Estate. Commanding officer of the Army of the North in September 1790, he was appointed the last Marshal of France under

the ancien rgime in December 1791. Opposed to an offensive war against the anti-French coalition, he resigned his commission in May 1792. In 1794, during the Terror period of the French Revolution, Rochambeau was arrested and imprisoned for six months in the notorious Conciergerie, known as the vestibule of the guillotine. The duc de Lauzun had already been executed, as had other former officers of the kings armies. Rochambeau escaped the same fate only because the execution of Robespierre that year ended the Terror. A few years later, First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte introduced his generals to Rochambeau as his, the comtes, pupils. Among the officers was now LouisAlexandre de Berthier, the cartographer of the WashingtonRochambeau route, and other veterans of the American war. Rochambeau replied to Napoleon: The pupils have far surpassed their master. Rochambeau died in May 1807.

The victory at Yorktown had not ended the war and it was another two years before the last British forces left the territory of the United States. In his Farewell Address in Annapolis, Washington expressed his happiness in the confirmation of our Independence and Sovereignty and his pleasure for the opportunity afforded the United States of becoming a respectable Nation. ... Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of Action. Washington returned to Mount Vernon on Christmas Eve 1783, after an absence of more than eight years, to enjoy the life of a country gentleman. But it was not long before he was called back to that great theatre of Action he thought he had left for good. In 1789, the American people elected Washington the first president of the United States. As he had shaped the Continental Army and led it to victory, he now helped shape the young nation and lead it through its first difficult years, serving two terms. He died at Mt. Vernon in December 1799.

A statue of Rochambeau marks the site where the French troops landed in Newport, Rhode Island, in July 1780.

A 1933 first-day cover issued for the Connecticut Tercentenary, commemorates the Washington-Rochambeau meeting that launched the campaign to Yorktown.

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Timeline
origins 1763
February 10 First Treaty of Paris ends the French and Indian War. France cedes Canada and territories east of the Mississippi to Great Britain. Indian trails and mountain passes. Boston Post Road in Massachusetts and Connecticut; Albany Post Road in New York; Assunpink Trail in New Jersey; Kings Highway in Delaware.

1775
February 9 April 19 May 10 June 14 British Parliament declares Massachusetts to be in rebellion. Battles of Lexington and Concord, the shot heard round the world. First session of the Second Continental Congress begins. Congress establishes the Continental Army and appoints George Washington its commander-in-chief the following day.

1764
April 5 British Parliament passes the Sugar Act.

1776
May 2 July 4 British Parliament passes the Stamp Act. British Parliament passes the Quartering Act. First shipment of arms and ammunition in support of the American rebels leaves France for the New World. Congress ratifies the Declaration of Independence.

1765
March 22 March 24

1777
July 31 Congress appoints the marquis de Lafayette a major-general in the Continental Army. Dozens more French volunteers will join the Continental Army over the next few years. British forces under General John Burgoyne are surrounded at Saratoga. They surrender within a week. October 12

1767
June 29 British Parliament passes the Townshend Act imposing duties on tea, paper, and other items imported into the colonies.

1770
March 5 April 12 British troops in Boston fire on rioters. The event becomes known as the Boston Massacre. Repeal of most of the Townshend Act duties.

1778
February 6 May 4 June 28 July 11 July 29 American representatives in Paris sign a Treaty of Amity and Friendship and a secret Treaty of Alliance with France. Congress ratifies Treaty of Alliance with France. Following the Battle of Monmouth, Lafayette returns to France and requests more assistance from the king. First official use of the term United States of America. French Admiral dEstaing arrives with a fleet outside Newport, RI, to support the American attack on the city. The attack fails.

1773
December 16 Boston Tea Party.

1774
March 31 May 20 September 5
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British Parliament shuts down Boston Harbor under what the British call the Coercive Acts and colonists call the Intolerable Acts. British Parliament passes the Quebec Act, sharpening the divide between Canada and the lower 13 colonies. First session of the First Continental Congress. It adjourns in October.
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1779
April 5 June 23 October 9 May 12 A French Acte Royal sets 17 June 1778 as the date when hostilities with Great Britain began. Spain declares war on Great Britain. Franco-American forces are defeated at Savannah, GA. Charleston, SC, falls to the British.

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1780
winter July 10 Lafayette returns from France to Morristown, NJ, with the promise of more support from the king. Commanded by Admiral de Ternay, a fleet carrying some 450 officers and 5,300 men under the comte de Rochambeau sails into Narragansett Bay in Newport. Generals Washington and Rochambeau meet at the Hartford Conference. Benedict Arnolds attempt to hand West Point over to the British fails.

1782
July 1 November 30 December 25 Rochambeaus infantry begins its march north to Boston. Preliminaries of Peace between the United States and Great Britain are signed in Paris. Rochambeaus infantry sails out of Boston Harbor for the Caribbean. Lauzuns Legion winters in Wilmington, DE.

September 21 September 25

1783
January 20 Preliminaries of Peace between France, Spain, the United Netherlands and Great Britain are signed in Paris. Hostilities end in the territory of the United States. Second Treaty of Paris ends the American Revolutionary War. Great Britain acknowledges the independence of the United States of America. A final transport of 85 French soldiers sails from Baltimore for Brest, where it arrives on 10 November 1783. Congress disbands the Continental Army. April 3 September 3

1781
May 22 June 10 June 19 Washington and Rochambeau meet at Wethersfield, CT, to discuss their strategy for the upcoming campaign. The French infantry leaves its winter quarters in Newport. The Regiment Bourbonnais is the first French unit to cross into Connecticut from winter quarters in Rhode Island on its way to Philipsburg, NY. Lauzuns Legion leaves Lebanon, CT, for Philipsburg, NY, on a route that covers the left flank of Rochambeaus infantry. French forces join the Continental Army near Philipsburg, NY. The Franco-American armies depart Philipsburg for Virginia. In the Battle of the Capes, Admiral de Grasse prevents a British fleet from entering Chesapeake Bay. The siege of Yorktown begins. Cornwallis surrenders. The Continental Army marches north to its winter quarters in early November. French forces will spend the winter of 1781-82 in and around Williamsburg. Admiral de Grasse sails from Yorktown for Martinique. Lafayette sails back to France.

October 5 November 2

June 21 July 6 August 18 September 5 September 28 October 19

1784
January 14 Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris.

1787
December 7 Delaware is the first state to ratify the Constitution.

1789
February 4 April 30 George Washington is elected first president of the United States. George Washington is sworn in as first president of the United States.

November 4 December

1791
December Rochambeau is named Marshal of France, the last marshal under the ancien rgime.

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Detail from a map drawn by Simeon DeWitt in 1781, depicting the route of the Continental Army through Wilmington, Delaware, on 4 September 1781.

Tent patterns and models used by Rochambeaus forces as regulated in a 1753 ordonnance.

American brush huts, September 1777. Detail from The Battle of Paoli (Xavier della Gatta, 1782). Detail from a map drawn by Simeon DeWitt in 1781, depicting the embarkation point of most of the Continental Army and Rochambeaus chasseurs and grenadiers at Head of Elk in September 1781. About 200 Continental Army troops embarked a few days later on French transports in Annapolis. On the return march in November and December 1781, the Continental Army sailed back to Head of Elk; no Continental Army troops marched the routes to or from Williamsburg even though DeWitt had mapped them.

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The dates of the encampments are those of the first regiment of the four-regiment French army. Regiments usually camped at the same site one day apart from each other. When marching together, American troops preceded French troops. Therefore many of the encampment dates represent the mid-point of a train of marching troops and succession of encampments.

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4 Signicance Themes
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T H E R OU T E AS D O M E S T I C C RO S S -C U LT U R A L E X P E R I E N C E

The Washington-Rochambeau route is signicant as an indispensable component of the campaign of 1781: It is the route that took the combined FrancoAmerican armies to victory.

By early 1781, the war in America had reached an impasse and the colonies were, in the words of George Washington, at the end of our tether. But the very presence of French forces and the knowledge of their cooperation in the coming campaign lifted many spirits. On 17 May 1781, Washingtons aide Tench Tilghman French Army bill of exchange signed by Chief Treasurer Csar Louis de Baulny and redeemable in Paris wrote to Robert Morris that he would set out tomorrow with His Excellency for Weathersfield where he is to have an interview with wrote from Alexandria on 21 Sepounces of corn, and 1 1/2 pounds of the Count de Rochambeau. The expectations of the people are Wadsworths order books reflect the tember 1781, that as long as French fresh beef: Henry Champion of scale of the operation. On 25 agents paid with specie, the Colchester, Connecticut, alone high and perhaps they may expect a change more suddenly than it January 1781, he received an order American Army will be starved. delivered 927 oxen and 356 sheep is possible to affect one. A month later, on 18 June 1781, Thomas for 3,000 barrels of flour, 300 barrels from 5 July to 11 August. Rodney, Delawares representative to Congress, reported from of salt pork, 15,000 gallons of cider, Once the siege had begun, supply 1,000 cwts (cwt=hundredweight, needs pushed the logistics system The French had hard currency to Philadelphia, of this unlimited confidence we have placed in the approximately 112 pounds) of peas, to its limits. Deputy quartermaster pay with, but Washingtons purchasCourt of France and indeed when there (sic) own interests is not Ephraim Blaine wrote to Delawares ing agents did not. Given the oppormaterially in view perhaps she may do better for us than we could Supplying Marching Armies chief executive Cesear Rodney on tunity, American farmers preferred for our selves. If a victorious peace could be achieved, Rodney 4 October 1781, that the siege army to sell for specie to the French than 3,600 gallons of vinegar and 300 consumed Sixty thousand Rations for Continental dollars or on credit was convinced that if they give us our rank among the nations cheeses, to be delivered by 15 per day, and pleaded Men who to their fellow countrymen. On the our Own natural advantages will soon lift us above them all. That March. Once the campaign had are day & night upon fatigue and same day that he received the peace arrived in the wake of the decisive victory at Yorktown in started, Wadsworth and his agents exposed to the greatest Danger French order, Wadsworth lamented set up supply depots at the campought to be regularly Supplied with the American Army is literally October of that year, a victory the Washington-Rochambeau route sites. While the French army was Provisions and every refreshment starving. That plight continued for made possible.
encamped at Philipsburg, daily rations were 1 pound of bread, 8 the rest of the war. On the march to Virginia, Colonel James Hendricks

eeping the armies supplied was an enormous and expensive task. Rochambeau, who could not impress needed services and had to pay for everything he needed, required a minimum of 375,000 livres per month to keep his army supplied. On 15 July 1780, his American agent, Jeremiah Wadsworth, estimated that the French in Newport would need two hundred cattle that will average 400 lbsand two hundred Sheep per week, with an additional 200 head in reserve. To meet the needs of his clients, Wadsworths agents spread out across New England and as far south as Pennsylvania to purchase animals.

they are entitled tofor God sake give me every Assistance and let no
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French Navy bill of exchange signed by Guillaume-Jacques-Constant comte de Liberge de Granchain, chief administrative officer of the French fleet in Newport, redeemable in Paris.

the large quantity of solid coin which they brought into the United States, is to be considered as of infinite importance at the present period of our affairs." But the French needed other foodstuffs as well, primarily flour, 2.5 tons daily, for bread, which played a much larger role in their diet than in that of the Americans. Americans baked their own bread. "They trouble themselves little with provisions: actually they are given just a bit of corn meal of which each soldier makes his own bread," observed the comte de Lauberdire. For the French, however, this would not do. For the officers, wheat flour for white bread was imported from France and the Caribbean. Among the rank and file, complaints about the poor quality of bread were persistent.

The route is an essential component of the brilliant strategy that resulted in the defeat of Lord Cornwallis. The complex design employed great secrecy and diplomacy in coordinating the rapid movement of large land and water forces over long distances. It involved extensive intelligence and logistics, provisioning, lodging, mapping, and diversions, culminating in the successful siege. The loss of Britains last operational field army convinced London that the war in America could not be won by military means and that serious peace negotiations could no longer be avoided. Fifteen months later, Parliament accepted Americas independence. The Yorktown Campaign ranks among the most important military campaigns fought on American soil, including the Saratoga Campaign of 1777, the Gettysburg Campaign of 1863, and Shermans march to the sea in 1864. Ultimately no road is more important in American history than the Washington-Rochambeau route, which, in its political consequence, brought about the creation of the United States as an independent nation. The victory won in Virginia stood at the end of a journey that went almost the entire length of the east coast of the colonies, passing through dozens of villages and touching the lives of a majority of the American people along the way. Through personal contact; by providing shelter, transportation, or pasture; or as suppliers of the vast amounts of foodstuffs needed to feed the armies along the way, thousands of Americans could say that they, too, contributed to victory. National and international in scope, yet local in focus, the route provides a unifying theme for the war effort on many levels, as it enables a large number of communities to participatein a way that no single site canin commemorating the people and events of the war through their local history, traditions and circumstances.

excuse prevent the Commissioners from doing their duty. Vast amounts of foodstuffs made their way south: on 15 November 1781, Samuel Canby of Brandywine Village, Delaware, and Zebulon Hollingsworth of Maryland, sent 3,569 bushels of wheat to Virginia; another 9,333 bushels followed on 21 January 1782. But they were for the French; the Continental Army had long since been in winter quarters on the Hudson. Artillery lieutenant comte de Clermont-Crvecur was one of many who recorded in his diary how the French troops supplemented their diet with local produce. "We lived very well during our passage

through [Connecticut]. The poultry here is excellent and quite cheap. The Americans crowded round, not only to hear the bands, but also loaded with every sort of produce, so that the camp was a continual market, offering the most delicious wares." The money they spent gave a boost to local economies, as even Americans such as Dr. Thacher admitted. "They punctually paid their expenses in hard money, which made them acceptable guests wherever they passed; and, in fact,

Continental Loan Office bill of exchange, redeemable in Paris.

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T H E R OU T E AS D O M E S T I C C RO S S -C U LT U R A L E X P E R I E N C E The Washington-Rochambeau route is signicant as a watershed in the development of an American identity: In 1781/82, the thirteen colonies took a gigantic step toward becoming a nation.

The campaign of 1781 ranks with the Battle of Bunker Hill and the winter at Valley Forge as one of the most important symbols for the American states coming together as a unified nation. The Franco-American Encounters Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges once wrote that, History is mere history. Myths are what matter: they determine the type of British propaganda had portrayed history a country is bound to create and repeat. America Frenchmen as effeminate dandies continues to define itself along the lines of events and myths while contrasting French absolutist created in and by the War for Independence. One of the most despotism with the liberties enjoyed by the colonists as British subjects. persistent but necessary fictions of the conflict is the assumption that America won her independence by herself, with the concomRochambeaus officers experienced itant propensity to discount the vital contributions of France after this hostility at the beginning of the march. Artillery lieutenant comte de 1775. It is one of the goals of the Washington-Rochambeau route to Clermont-Crvecur believed that amend that perception. Though the presence of thousands of French is but little known today, its long-range effects were immense. In a continuous and large-scale educational process, Franco-American encounters along the 600-mile-long route challenged centuries-old prejudices harbored by anti-Catholic, anti-French colonists. The WashingtonRochambeau march allowed Americans to see the French for the first time as allies rather than as enemies and showed them that the French were not the effeminate dandies of British propaganda

n 1775, most Americans, especially in New England, viewed the French as an old enemy rather than a new friend. Twelve years of peace since the end of the French and Indian War in 1763 had done little to eradicate prejudices rooted in a long tradition of Puritan anti-French and anti-Catholic sentiment and experience, continuously reinforced on the battlefields of Canada. For decades,

might make; but in America the and citizen-soldiers who had risen people say they are free and, if a against the British empire in a proprietor who doesnt like the look universal spirit of patriotism and sacrifice. But instead of sacrifice many saw only greed. Axel von Fersen wrote to his father in Sweden in January 1781, that the spirit of patriotism only exists in the chief and principal men in the country, Wartime British propaganda made the French troops out who are making to be ineffectual, more concerned with their appearance very great sacrifices; the rest than with matters military. who make up the great mass think only of their personal interests. Money is the controlling idea in all their actions. They overcharge us mercilessly. Even more difficult to comprehend were the societal norms of America. New England society in particular was composed largely of equals who saw no reason to defer to someone simply because he had a title of nobility and wore epaulettes. Property rights were sacred, which meant that the rules of warfare were different in America. The chevalier de Coriolis told his father: Here it is not like it is in Europe, where when the troops are on the march you can take horses, you can take wagons, you can issue billets for lodging, and with the aid of a gendarme overcome the difficulties the inhabitant of your face tells you he doesnt want to lodge you, you must go seek a lodging elsewhere. Thus the words: I dont want to end the business, and there is no means of appeal. Such language was anathema to a nobility unfamiliar with American norms. Just as far removed from European experience and norms, Americans did not find it inappropriate that their militia was officered by shoemakers who are colonels. Being an officer was not a trade, and Americans were sincere when they asked their French counterparts what their trade is in France. Much to his amusement, the duc de Lauzun rose considerably in the esteem of his hosts when he replied to the question about his trade that he himself did not have one, but that he had
SIGNIFCANCE THEMES

the local people, little disposed in our favor, would have preferred, at that moment, I think, to see their enemies arrive rather than their allies. He thought the British were to blame; they had made the French seem odious to the Americans... saying that we were dwarfs, pale, ugly, specimens who lived exclusively on frogs and snails. This reception hurt all the more because the French were equally bound by their preconceived notions of what they would encounter. Theirs was an idealized image of an America peopled by noble savages

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The allied armies marched along this stretch of the Old Post Road at the Maryland/Delaware border.

French troops rest during the march toward Yorktown in one of the few contemporary depictions of the march that have survived.

nor were they surrounded by Jesuit priests carrying pails of holy water. In towns and along rural roads and campsites, crowds came out to meet the troops. The American view of the French underwent a thorough revision, and in the process Americans found themselves. If the shared experience of the war bound the French and the Americans together, the encounter with foreign forces provided tens of thousands of Americans in hundreds of communities the opportunity to set the frameworks of their own American identity. Crossing nine states and the District of Columbia, the Washington-Rochambeau route touches on or runs close to every major battlefield and site of American revolutionary triumph and disaster in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, with the notable exception of the Saratoga campaign. By the time Williamsburg, the staging area for the siege, was reached, Washingtons army contained troops from ten states as well as French-Canadians of Moses Hazens Regiment, making the Washington-Rochambeau route an outward symbol of the shared sacrifices and struggles and the ultimately successful cooperation of all rebellious colonies for independence.

uncle who was a mareschal de France. To the people of Lebanon, Connecticut, this meant that his uncle was a farrier (maker of horseshoes), a very necessary and thoroughly honorable occupation. But as time wore on, ancient prejudices faded through personal encounters. Americans realized that Frenchmen were human just like they were. During the summer of 1780, William Channing wrote to Ezra Stiles, president of Yale University, that Neither Officers nor men are the effeminate Beings we were heretofore taught to believe them. They are as large & as likely men as can be produced by any nation. Attitudes changed wherever French troops marched along the coast. From Newport, Rhode Island, General William Heath informed George Washington on 16 July 1780 that The Legion under the com-

mand of the Duke de Lauzun is as fine a Corps as ever I saw. Virginia Militia Colonel Fontaine echoed these words when he wrote on 26 October 1781, that the French are very different from the ideas formerly inculcated in us of a people living on frogs and coarse vegetables. Finer troops I never saw. By the time French forces left in 1782, ClermontCrvecur could write, Foreigners are cordially welcomed by these good people. You find a whole family bustling about to make you happy. Baron von Closen could sum up his

experiences in these words: We have, on the whole, been treated wonderfully well wherever the army has marched.

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T H E R OU T E AS D O M E S T I C C RO S S -C U LT U R A L E X P E R I E N C E

The Washington-Rochambeau route is significant as a prime illustration of the American Revolutionary War as a truly diverse effort.

The colonies of the eighteenth century were, like the United States of today, a nation of immigrants, defined by their multiracial, Ethnic Groups in the multi-ethnic, and multicultural composition. The Continental Continental Army Army of 1781 reflected this reality with a degree of racial integration that would not be achieved again until the twentieth Gold...a Light Gun strung over his century during the Korean War. Close to 25% of the troops shouldera Turkish Sabreby his SideHolster and Pistols upon his encamped at Philipsburg, New York, were African-Americans, HorseIn short the most warlike serving mostly in integrated units. The First Rhode Island, and formidable Figure, I ever saw. organized in Providence in 1778 with African-American enlistment, received a large core of black soldiers. There were also John Adamss letter of 6 July 1775 to James Warren provides a vivid German-speaking regiments in the Continental Army, and as late illustration of the diversity of the as 1781, the Canadian Regiment (Congresss Own), which by now people willing and anxious to fight had become a regiment for any recruit not from one of the lower for American independence. In 1775, the population of Britains lower thirteen colonies, still had two companies recruited among the thirteen colonies stood at about French-speaking inhabitants of Canada. This multi-ethnic and 2.5 million, of which some 500,000 multiracial picture was rounded out by a liberal sprinkling of were African slaves and their Native Americans. descendants. Though Englishmen But the French troops fighting in America as part of the expdition particulire were multi-ethnic as well. The officer corps of the army of the ancien rgime recruited itself from among the European, not just the French, nobility, and the army itself was divided into
still formed the majority national group in the rebellious colonies as a whole, they were no longer the majority in the colonies south of New York: in South Carolina only about one-third of all whites were of English origin. Next came the

few Minutes past, a curious Phenomenon appeared at the Door of our Congress. A German Hussar in his Uniform, and on Horse back, a forlorn Cap upon his Head, with a Streamer waiving from it half down his Waistband, with a Deaths Head painted in Front a beautiful Hussar Cloak ornamented with Lace and Fringe and Cord of

Scotch-Irish with about 25% to 30%, followed by about 275,000 Germanspeaking settlers. The remainder of the Europeans came from a scattering of French Huguenot, Swiss, Dutch, Swedish, and Scottish immigrants. The ethnic composition of the Continental Army reflected this society at large, with the important exception that most of the officers came from English stock, the earlier and by now better-off group of immigrants, while the rank and file was recruited from among the more recent and poorer immigrants. Foremost among them were the Scotch-Irish. The Presbyterians among them, about 33,000 between 1771 and 1775, had come for economic reasons; the Catholics, more than 10,000 between 1770 and 1775 alone, had been deported as convicts. What bound them together was their animosity toward the English, leading the bishop of Derry to warn Lord Dartmouth in 1775 of the near thirty three thousand fanatical and hungry republicans that had recently emigrated to America. Both anecdotal evidence and statistical data suggest that the Scotch-

Irish were indeed in the forefront of the rebellion. If Hessian Jager Capt. Johann Heinrichs would not call the war an American Rebellion, it is nothing more than an Irish-Scotch Presbyterian Rebellion, historian Charles P. Neimeyer uses 1777 as his benchmark to argue that roughly one out of four Continental soldiers was of Irish descent. With the exception of pacifist groups such as Dunkers, Mennonites, or Moravians among them, Germans as a rule supported the Revolutionary War as well. As early as 31 October 1774, Joseph Hewes, North Carolinas delegate to Congress, could write that the Germans who compose a large part of the inhabitants of this province are all on our side; the sweets of liberty little known in their own country are here enjoyed by them in its utmost latitude. Using 1778 as his benchmark, historian Charles P. Neimeyer estimates 12% of the Continental Army to have been German or of German heritage.

The Freemans Journal, Philadelphia, No. XXVII, 24 October 1781

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French and foreign regiments as well. Rochambeau brought three French infantry regiments and the Royal Deux-Ponts of the infanterie allemande, recruited in the Duchy of Zweibrcken, in the Holy Roman Empire, and in the German-speaking parts of Alsace and Lorraine ruled by the French A recruiting poster for the Royal Deuxcrown. He also brought the Ponts regiment. Both Deux Ponts and Zweybrcken mean two bridges. volontaires trangers de Lauzun, a 600-man light infantry and cavalry unit under the duc de Lauzun. Women and children have always formed an integral part of the worlds armies, and it was no different in the American Revolutionary War. Even though their numbers were always strictly limited, at least in theory, and attempts were made to keep women of questionable conduct out of the camp and to keep those within closely supervised, Washington found it impossible to do without them. The vast majority of them were either the wives of soldiers or women looking for employment who were primarily used as washerwomen to keep the Soldiers clean or assigned for the use of the Hospital. The earliest available general return for the Continental Army of December 1777 gives the number of women drawing rations (equal to that of an enlisted man) at about one

n May 1775, the Second Continental Congress established the Continental Army, Americas first army, composed mostly of New England militia units and Minute Men besieging Boston. Since the establishing law did not specify race in regard to the right, or duty, of a man to serve, these troops included many a black veteran of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill. Arriving at his headquarters in Cambridge in July 1775, newly appointed commander-in-chief

African American Soldiers

George Washington convened a Council of War to discuss, among other topics, the role that blacks, free and slave, were to play in the military. The council decided that henceforth no deserter from the Ministerial army, nor any stroller, negro, or vagabond would be recruited. The Continental Army was to be a white army. When the colonies declared their independence in July 1776, few blacks remained in the ranks of the Continental Army. When soon after the British had captured New York City and were threatening Philadelphia, a frightened Congress ordered the states to raise 88 infantry battalions to serve for three years or the duration of the war; in December, Washington was authorized to raise another 16 battalions. When enlistment did not meet manpower needs, Congress asked the states in January 1777 to fill their units by drafts, from their militia, or in any other way.

Louis Armand de Gontaut-Biron, duc de Lauzun.

Washington opened the door to black Americans in instructions to recruiting officers of 12 January 1777 to enlist none but Freemen, the implication being that the recruits could be black as long as they were free. Black Americans became an integral component of the Continental Army when New England states began to accept slaves as recruits. New Jersey, May 1777: permits masters to enlist slaves as substitutes. New Hampshire, early fall 1777: opens the door to slaves to fill the states quota. Connecticut, October 1777: allows slaves to enlist. Connecticut, June 1780: raises an all-black unit. The 2nd Company, 4th Connecticut Regiment 48 black privates and noncommissioned officersserved until November 1782. Valley Forge encampment, January 1778: Washington legalizes the New England arrangements and approves Rhode Islands plan to raise a black regiment. Rhode Island, March 1778: raises the First Rhode Island Regiment. Some 250 former slaves and freedmen served in the First Rhode Island, including at the siege of Yorktown, where the regiment was led by Lt.-Col. Jeremiah Olney. The First Rhode Island stayed on active duty for five years, through the end of the war in November 1783. Massachusetts, spring of 1778: raises an all-black unit, the Bucks of America, under

Samuel Middleton, the only known black commissioned officer in the Continental Army. New York, after March 1781: actively recruits slaves to enlist in the army. Maryland, October 1780: accepts any able-bodied slave between 16 and 40 years of age, who voluntarily enters into service...with the consent and agreement of his master as a soldier. Maryland, after May 1781: all free blacks are subject to the draft. When Lord Cornwallis seems to threaten their state, desperate regimental commanders raid jails and gallows for likely recruits. On 17 April 1781, Colonel Zacharia Forrest asks Governor Thomas Sims Lee to send some orders respecting the Negro man under sentence of Death, he is so young and healthy and would make a fine soldier if acquitted. Virginia, May 1777: the draft law greatly increases the number of blacks in the Virginia line. Virginia, winter of 1777-78: free blacks are the first to be called up as the draft is more strictly enforced. It was thought that they could best be spared, Governor Thomas Nelson informed George Washington on 21 November 1777.

When faced with a draft notice, Virginia masters often presented a slave to the recruiting officer as a free man and therefore able to be a substitute. Many a runaway also told the nearest recruiter that he was free and anxious to wear the uniform of a

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Continental soldier. To put an end to such behavior on the part of some masters and to the selfemancipation of slaves, the Virginia legislature amended the Militia Law in June 1777. It forbade any recruiting officers within this Commonwealth to enlist any negro or mulatto into the service of this, or either of the United States, until such Negro shall produce a certificate...that he is a freeman. Once the war was over, many Virginians tried to deny slaves their freedom, even when it was a welldeserved reward. But even a legislature such as Virginias, dominated by slave-owners, felt obliged to speak out against this obvious injustice. In the fall of 1783, it passed a bill condemning owners who contrary to principles of justice and to their own solemn promise kept their substitutes as slaves. They were freed by law with instructions to the attorney general of Virginia to act on behalf of former slaves held in servitude despite their enlistment. At the same time, however, Virginia continued a practice begun in October 1780 of offering each recruit willing to serve for the duration of the war a bonus of 300 acres of land and the choice of a healthy black male slave between the ages of 10 and 30 years or 60 in specie. The slave bonus was financed by a special tax on whites owning more than 20 slaves. On 24 August 1778, an army report listed 755 African-American soldiers

who had fled behind British lines as serving in the Continental Army. died or were recaptured by their When the French and American armies joined forces at White Plains American masters, thousands more for the march to Virginia in June 1781, ended up as property of British officers or as slaves in the Caribbean their numbers had almost doubled: possessions of the crown. Between French officers estimated the 1775 and 1785, more American army to than 65,000 slaves be about onewere brought into the fourth black. port of Kingston in Among them was Jamaica alone, though the First Rhode the main slave traders Island Regiment, on the island recorded which Closen but few ships arriving considered the from Africa. Even when best American the British wanted to unit: the most keep their promises, neatly dressed, the result was often the best under disappointing. Accordarms, and the ing to American histomost precise in rian Sylvia R. Frey, its maneuvres. all of 1,336 men, Throughout the war, American Soldiers of the First Rhode Island 914 women, and 740 Regiment and of the Canadian children were manupolicy toward Regiment (Congresss Own) mitted as a reward for black soldiers from the Journal of Jeantheir wartime services wavered between Baptiste-Antoine de Verger, and transported to exclusion and a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Nova Scotia, where grudging admit- Deux-Ponts Regiment. they were given the tance in times of poorest land. A few hundred ended need. Some 5,000 blacks, 1% of the up in England. Neither welcome nor 500,000 African-Americans living in accustomed to life in the Canadian the American colonies, are thought to have fought on the American side. Maritimes, about 1,200 of the survivors left for Sierra Leone in Many more, 80,000 to 100,000 February 1792. African-Americans, are said to have fled behind British lines, where an unknown number served in the Royal African Americans who enlisted in the Continental Army usually served Army. It is not that they were in integrated units, on equal footing necessarily pro-British, but that first and pay with their white comrades. and foremost they were pro-black, Most became professional soldiers, prepared to support the side that serving for at least three years, if not held out the greatest promise of for the duration of the war. It was freedom and a better life. That side their professionalism that officers was the British, though their promlike Closen admired. ises rarely came true. Thousands

woman for every 44 NCOs and men, or 2.5%. At the beginning of the 1781 campaign in June, a return for the brigades encamped at New Windsor (except the Connecticut Line) shows 137 women, one for every 32 men. Male-female ratios varied from a high of 1 woman for every 11 men in the artillery (429 men) and 1 for every 14 men in the Commander-in-Chiefs Guard (69 men) to a low of 1 to 87 in the New Hampshire Brigade. About 40 to 45 women, one-third of the 137 women listed in the return, can be reasonably expected to have accompanied the troops on the march to Yorktown. Only a tiny fractionfewer than a dozen altogetherof women, such as Deborah Sampson, are known to have enlisted under the pretense of being male and to have served until they were discovered and dismissed. One of them, Anna Maria Lane, enlisted in September 1777 (maybe earlier) with her husband, and followed him and his regiment after her gender was discovered until the end of the war. Another woman, Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley, followed her husband into battle at Monmouth in June 1778 and became famous as Molly Pitcher.

Insignia of the Fifth Regiment of Hussars (Lauzun Hussars) until its dissolution as an active regiment in the French military on 1 January 1976. Its traditions were preserved in reserve units until 31 December 1992.

Hussar, volontaires trangers de Lauzun

SIGNIFCANCE THEMES

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ne of the women accompanying the armies to Yorktown was Sarah Mary Matthews, born in 1756 in Blooming Grove, Orange County, New York. After her first husband had been killed in an early battle of the Revolutionary War, she married

One Womans Story

Aaron Osborn in January 1780. Osborn was a commissary sergeant in Captain James Greggs company of Colonel Goose Van Schaicks First New York Regiment.

In the summer of 1781, she and the other women in her regimentin her old age she remembered the wives of Lieut. Forman and Sgt. Lamberson as well as a black woman named Lettatraveled with the regiment across New Jersey, working alternately as a seamstress, washerwoman, and baker for the soldiers. In Baltimore she boarded a ship and sailed down Chesapeake Bay to Williamsburg. At the siege of Yorktown she cooked for four soldiers besides her husband, carrying water and taking care of wounded soldiers. At some point she encountered Washington who asked: Young woman, are you not afraid of the bullets? No, she replied, the bullets would not cheat the gallows.

The end of the war found Matthews at Continental Village in New York, and when Osborn left her for another woman in 1784, she married a third time in 1787. Forty years later, in 1837, she applied for a pension and submitted her autobiography and Revolutionary War experiences as part of the application. Her application was successful and she lived to enjoy her pension for another 20 years. Sarah Matthews died on 26 April 1858, at about 102 years old.

Sarah Matthews (1756-1858)

omen were not considered necessary to the administration of the French army and therefore did not officially exist. The army rarely approved marriages, but when it did, the women, though not allowed to live in the barracks, at least received a daily bread ration.

day and a bread ration. Officially, Rochambeau could have brought but 30 women and their children from the Royal Deux-Ponts. The number of camp followers in 1781 approached this total, but only one-quarter were from the Royal Deux-Ponts. The most reliable numbers are in the embarkation lists of 1782. When Rochambeaus infantry left Boston on Christmas Day 1782, it embarked 25 women and 4 children: Bourbonnais: 5 women or children Soissonnais: 6 women and 1 child Saintonge: 5 women or children Royal Deux-Ponts: 6 women and 3 children (at least two were girls, one but 4 years old) Artillery: 3 women

The siege artillery as well as Lauzuns Legion wintered on the American mainland and left in May 1783. An embarkation list dated Philadelphia, 4 May 1783, gives 5 women as passengers la ration (i.e., soldiers wives). That brings to 34 the total of women and children in Rochambeaus infantry and cavalry. One of the families traveling with Rochambeaus forces emerged from anonymity. While the Royal DeuxPonts was encamped on the property of the Rev. George Colton in Bolton, Connecticut, on 22 June 1781, this Presbyterian ministera large, fleshy man, very prosperous, married, but childless, suggested to the wife of the grenadier, Adam Gabel, of the Royal Deux-Ponts, that she leave him

Women in Rochambeaus Army

Both Rochambeaus French and Foreign regiments brought women with them from Europe. In French regiments, women were but tolerated, but Foreign regiments such as the Royal Deux-Ponts were allowed 30 women each. On the march, they received pay of 1 sol per

one of her daughters. He would adopt the four-year-old as his own child, in return for some 30 louis to ease the campaign for her. Baron Closen recorded, however, that The grenadier and his wife, who were very much attached to this child of four, steadily refused M. Colebans (sic) offer, and thus proved their fine character and disinterest. Cromot du Bourg, Closens fellow aide-decamp, remembered the incident as well: The host of M. de Rochambeau was a minister at least six feet three inches in height. This man, whose name was Cotton (sic), offered the wife of a grenadier to adopt her child, to secure his fortune and to give her for herself thirty Louis in money. She repeatedly refused. The family walked on to Yorktown, spent the

winter and spring of 1781-82 in Williamsburg, and walked back to Boston in the summer and fall of 1782, from where they returned to Europe. In June 1781, Rochambeau hired wagoners and cooks in Connecticut for the march south; 7 of the 15 cooks were female. If they are added to the known American and French women and children, the combined total reaches 8085. This number is virtually equal to that of the women accompanying the troops of Cornwallis surrendering at Yorktown.

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nder 1781 garrison conditions, the number of female camp followers in the Continental Army stood at around 3% of the rank and file, somewhat higher for Washingtons Life Guard and technical troops such

of rank and file strength, again with the above exceptions. By the time the Continental Army had disengaged from the British at New York in August 1781 and was making its way across New Jersey, it numbered about 2,650 rank and file. Though the table below is based primarily on estimates and patterns established before 1781, it provides a reasonable estimate of the number of women that accompanied the army to Virginia.

Women in the Continental Army in 1781

as the artillery, somewhat lower for light troops. Under campaign conditions, numbers of female followers likely dropped to around 1.5 % or less

Combined New Jersey Regiment 6 women (1.0% of strength) First New York 5 women (1.5%) Second New York 5 women (1.5%) First Rhode Island 7 women (1.5%) Moses Hazens Regiment 4 women (2.0%) Second Continental Artillery 9 women (4.0%) Scammells Light Battalion 4 women (1.5%) Washingtons Life Guard 3 women (based on June 1781 return) Corps of Sappers and Miners 1 woman (based on June 1781 return) Corps of Artificers 2 women (estimate) Total: 46 women and an unknown number of children

Source: John U. Rees, The Miltitude of Women: An Examination of the Numbers of female Camp Followers with the Continental Army. The Brigade Dispatch Vol. 23 No. 4, (Autumn 1992), pp. 5-17 ; Vol 24 No. 1, (Winter 1993), pp.6-16; and No. 2 (Spring 1993), pp. 2-6; The Number of Followers with Continental Regiments. The Brigade Dispatch, Vol. 28 No. 1, (Spring 1998), pp. 2-8 and No. 2, (Summer 1998), pp. 2-12, 13, and The Proportion of Women which ought to be allowed: Female Camp Followers with the Continental Army. The Continental Soldier. Journal of the Continental Line Vol. 3, (Spring 1995), pp. 51-58

hen artillery lieutenant Clermont-Crvecur first encountered the Continental Army at Philipsburg in July 1781, he was struck by the number of children who could not have been over fourteen enlisted in its ranks. One of them could well have been John Hudson of the First New York regiment, which was encamped at Philipsburg. Born on 12 June 1768, Hudson was still two months shy of his Children as Soldiers 13th

birthday when he enlisted in a militia levy raised in April 1781 near Canaan, New York. Next his unit marched to Saratoga, where Hudson became a soldier in the Continental Army. The levies mounted guard with the regular troops, and one morning just after being relieved at the usual hour,

I had gone into our quarters and was sitting on the ground with my gun between my knees when it went off accidentally the guard immediately came in with a file of men and took me to the guard house. Here a conversation took place between the sergeant major and quartermaster sergeant, and one of them remarked with an oath, that it was a shame to give a boy like this an hundred lashes for what was notoriously an accident. This was said, purposely loud enough for me to hear. Then turning to me he addedCome my lad, the best way for you to get out of this, will be to enlistcome along with us. Hudson enlisted for the duration of the war in the First Company, Captain Aaron Aurson, First New York Regiment. Three months later, he, and the dozens of teen-age boys in his regiment, were on their way to Virginia. Historian Charles P.

Neimeyer estimates that about 20% of the soldiers in the New York regiments were teen-aged boys. In neighboring Pennsylvania, 122 (11%) of 1,068 soldiers who gave their age upon enlistment were seventeen or younger. After the war, Hudson moved westward, eventually settling in southern Ohio. In 1846, the 78-yearold Hudson told his story to Charles Cist, publisher of Cists Advertiser in Cincinnati, who published Hudsons reminiscences in his weekly paper. French enlistment records contain the names of child-soldiers as well. Numbering about half a dozen per regiment, boys aged 15 and younger were enfants de troupe. The sons of soldiers who could enter the rolls at half-pay at the age of six, they began their careers as musicians until they were sixteen, when they could enlist

as regular soldiers. Inspection reports of Rochambeaus units (except Lauzuns Legion) on 10 and 11 November 1781 (i.e., right after Yorktown) list five enfants de troupe in the Saintonge and one in the Royal DeuxPonts.

British troops stack weapons following the surrender at Yorktown in this 1784 sketch.

SIGNIFCANCE

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T H E R OU T E AS D O M E S T I C C RO S S -C U LT U R A L E X P E R I E N C E The Washington-Rochambeau route is signicant as a visible expression of the hope for independence and the gratitude that greeted the returning French army on its march north in the summer of 1782.

Description of celebrations for the birth of the dauphin in Dover, Delaware, 4 July 1782, from the Pennsylvania Packet.

After a string of defeats and setbacks during the previous years the failed siege of Savannah in 1779, the treasonous desertion of Benedict Arnold in September 1780, and the mutiny at Morristown in the winter of 1780-81the victory at Yorktown in the fall of 1781 gave Americans hope that independence might finally be he duc de Lauzun carried the news of the within reach. When news of Yorktown reached Wilmington, Yorktown victory back Quaker and mill owner Samuel Canby recorded in his diary that to Versailles, but his people seem more disposed to expect an Independance might announcement was overshadowed take place. Others were even more optimistic. On 22 October by the birth of the dauphin.... The 1781, Robert R. Livingston of New York informed Francis Dana of 1782: Celebrating Francothe victory and expressed his hope that you will not fail to make American Friendship the most of this intelligence which must fix our independence not birth was first announced in the only beyond all doubt but even beyond all controversy.

comment in the United States. But as the victory at Yorktown strengthened the resolve of the United States and France to seek a punitive peace treaty with Great Britain, based on their combined success, it seemed a propitious occasion to reaffirm American loyalty to the alliance. The origins of the celebrations for the dauphins birth were totally political, which is not surprising. Anne Csar, chevalier de la Luzerne, the French minister to the United States, carefully studied the needs of the alliance and attempted to arrange events

accordingly. Symbolically, the celebrations of the birth offered Americans a chance to bid farewell to the French and to recognize the value of their aid and alliance. This remained implicit in the celebrations, at least thirty to forty of which were held throughout the summer of 1782. In newspaper coverage at least eighty, and probably closer to one hundred, articles appeared in American papers describing the celebrations. No other event during the Revolution, with the possible exception of the Silas Deane affair, received so much concentrated attention in the American press.

This hope and gratitude toward the French allies expressed itself in the celebrations that greeted them on their return march of 1782, and in the many celebrations for the birth of the dauphin in June and July of 1782. Concurrently Congress passed a resolution on 29 October 1781, which called for the construction of a monument at Yorktown to commemorate the victory. In view of the state of American finances, Livingston wondered in a letter of 16 December 1781 to Benjamin Franklin whether the monument ought not be postponed until a better time. It took a full century before the Yorktown Victory Monument was unveiled at the centennial of 1881.

United States at Williamsburg, where much of the French army was stationed for the winter. Three months later the Providence newspaper announced the birth, and it seemed at first that the event would pass without extensive

From: William C. Stinchcome, Americans Celebrate the Birth of the Dauphin in Diplomacy and Revolution. The FrancoAmerican Alliance of 1778 Ronald Hoffman and Peter J. Albert, eds. (Charlottesville, 1981), pp. 3972, pp. 5657.

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The memory of the successful Franco-American cooperation along the Washington-Rochambeau route has survived in many manifestations, such as the houses and homes where French and American officers stayed and in the campsites for the enlisted men. It continues to survive in dozens of monuments, historical markers, gravestones, and in the various Rochambeau High Schools along the route. It is kept alive in commemorative events such as the annual Rochambeau Day in September in Hartford, which commemorates the Hartford Conference of 1780, and the victory celebrations in October in Yorktown. It can be found in local names such as French Hill and Hussars Place, and in the names of towns along the route such as Crompond, New York, re-named Yorktown Heights in 1787. In 1778, George Rogers Clarke founded a The name Rochambeau has been city in what would become the state of adopted for a variety of sites and land uses. Kentucky and named it Louisville after the King of France. Ten years later, citizens of Vermont, a state that had not even existed during the Revolutionary War, founded Vergennes, named after the French foreign minister.

Rochambeau Middle School, Southbury, Connecticut.

Plaque in Pompton Plains, New Jersey, marks the passage of the allied forces along what is now the states Route 8.

(above) Marker in Lebanon, Connecticut, where Lauzuns Legion wintered for eight months, 1780-81. (right) Old St. Peters Church in Van Cortlandtville, New York, served as a military hospital in 1781-82. Eight French soldiers who died while being treated there are buried in the church cemetery. Statue of Admiral de Grasse at Cape Henry, Virginia. Rochambeau Bridge over the Housatonic River, Newtown, Connecticut. Plaque at the Odell House in Greenburgh, New York, Rochambeaus headquarters during the Philipsburg encampment of 1781. This monument honoring the contribution of the French Army to the American Revolution was dedicated in Lebanon, Connecticut on October 19, 2002.

Stone tablet honoring French soldiers at West Hartford, Connecticut.

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T H E R OU T E AS M A N I F E S TAT I O N O F T H E I N T E R NAT I O NA L WA R E F F O RT The Washington-Rochambeau route is signicant as a symbol of the global character of the American War for Independence.

The American War for Independence was a worldwide conflict that the fledgling United States was able to survive only with the support of the French and, to a lesser extent, the Spanish and the Dutch governments. Commemorating the WashingtonRochambeau route introduces Americans to the little-known fact that Americas independence was won with the help of powerful friends, that it was won as much in the East and West Indies, in Africa, and in Minorca as it was on the American continent. This international alliance kept Britain from concentrating her forces in the colonies, which gave Washington, Rochambeau, and de Grasse the breathing room they needed to execute the campaign.

By 1782, only Barbados, Antigua, St. Lucia and Jamaica remained in British hands, and on the mainland they had lost control of Dutch Guyana as well. When Admiral Sir George Rodney captured the tiny Dutch island of St. Eustatius in February 1781a vital entrept and transfer point in the Caribbean booty estimated to be worth more than 3,000,000 (more than 70 million livres) fell into his hands, enough to cover the expenditures of Rochambeaus army six times! St. Eustatius was retaken by Bouill on 26 November 1781 but never recovered from the devastation it suffered under British occupation. Warfare in the unhealthy climate of the Caribbean extracted an enormous price in human lives. At Yorktown, Rochambeau suffered not even 200 casualties in dead and wounded: between March and December 1781, the French navy operating in the Caribbean suffered more than 5,000 casualties, mostly to disease. In his defeat in the Battle of the Saints in April 1782, de Grasse suffered more than 3,000 casualties. In the fall of 1778, the duc de Lauzun sailed to Africa with a military force of about 400 men and took Senegal in January 1779. The Dutch entry into the war in December 1780, meant that the French fleet could now use Dutch bases on the Cape of Good Hope and in Ceylon and that the global war would return to the African continent. In July 1781, the Pondichery regiment and the

Canonniers-bombardiers de lInde arrived at Capetown to reinforce the Dutch garrison. In May 1782, the Volontaires du Luxembourg, a French colonial corps transferred to Dutch service in April, joined them. With bases along the long sea route to India, France could hope to regain some of the influence and territory she had lost there in 1763 and during the first years of the current war against Britain. All French posts in India had fallen between August and October 1778. From this nadir, France began a steady build-up of forces. In the summer of 1780 the four battalions of colonial troops on the le-de-France (Mauritius), some 1,500 men, were joined by the Second Battalion of the Austrasie regiment. In late March 1781, Admiral de Suffren sailed from Brest in the Caribbean-bound convoy of de Grasse but broke with his convoy for the Cape in April. Once the First Battalion of the Austrasie and the 3rd Legion of the Volontaires trangers de la Marine had also arrived in India in October 1781, these forces under the marquis de Bussya veteran of the Seven Years War in India with thorough knowledge of the country and its peoplejoined with the native forces of Indian ally Hyder-Ali at Porto Novo on 25 February 1782. On 19 March 1783, four more infantry battalions and an artillery brigade, some 2,300 men, arrived from France; British forces15,000 men, including 3,500 European troopswere losing control of the military situation both on land and on sea, where Admiral

de Suffren beat British Admiral Hughes off Cuddelore. British power in India was preserved by the arrival on 29 June 1783 of a frigate bearing news that Preliminaries of Peace between France and Great Britain had been signed on 20 January 1783. In Europe, French and Spanish forces captured the British stronghold of Fort St. Philip at Port Mahon (Minorca) on 5 February 1782. They went on to reinforce a combined Franco-Spanish force of some 28,000 men laying siege to Gibraltar, defended by General Elliot with 7,000 British troops. A general attack on 13 September 1782 failed. The expansion of the conflict meant that by the summer of 1781, even before the victory at Yorktown, French priorities and war aims were shifting. Rochambeau was to get 830 replacements in 1781; 600 French troops were to go to India, and 4,000 to the Caribbean, where France now had to protect Dutch and Spanish possessions as well. But as the strategic and political situation developed, the ministry in Paris decided to limit the replacements to Rochambeau to two dozen cannoniers of the First Battalion of the Auxonne Artillery and a few wellplaced officers who arrived on the frigates lAigle and la Gloire only in mid-September 1782. Meanwhile, the contingent to India was increased by 3,900 men to 4,500: by the end of the war France had more troops in India than in America.

T
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he 1778 Treaty of Alliance between France and the United States and the entry of Spain and the Netherlands into the conflict in 1780, turned the American rebellion into a global contest. By 1781, the war

The War for Independence as a Global War

in America was but one, and by far not the largest, theater of war.

In the West Indies, the marquis de Bouill, governor-general of Martinique, had captured British Dominica as early as 7 September 1778. During the course of the war, 27 French metropolitan infantry battalions, smaller detachments and two artillery battalions joined the colonial infantry, artillery, and volunteer battalions in the West Indies, bringing the total to more or less 48 battalions. By comparison, Rochambeau brought to America in 1780 all of 8 infantry battalions, one battalion of artillery, and 600 light troops.

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T H E R OU T E AS M A N I F E S TAT I O N O F T H E I N T E R NAT I O NA L WA R E F F O RT

The Washington-Rochambeau route is signicant as the culmination of the crucial contributions of France to the achievement of American independence.

Population as a Resource
13 Colonies 1700 1750 1775 1789 0.2 million 1.0 million 2.5 million 4.0 million Great Britain 56 million 6.5 million 8.0 million 9.0 million France 20 million 23 million 25 million 26 million

The success of the Yorktown Campaign and the winning of Americas independence were made possible by monarchist Frances political, diplomatic, financial, and military assistance to the American colonies. Through her generous aid starting in 1775, France first figuratively, and then, beginning in Newport in June 1781, literally, walked side by side with the American rebels toward independence. Without Frances aid, the United States could not have prevailed against the Royal Navy, the British army, or the resources of the motherland. The Continental Army used French arms and ammunition, cannon and powder, uniforms and saddles, none of which could have reached Americas shores without a powerful French fleet to protect the merchant ships. French naval forces managed to keep the British at bay, which meant that troops could be transported from France, from the West Indies, and along the US coast with relative safety. The loss of Britains absolute mastery of the sea was a decisive factor in Americas victory. Without this loss, French weapons, Rochambeaus troops, and French gold would never have reached America. French actions should not be taken for granted. Rochambeau could have acted much less tactfully in his relations with Washington. Admiral de Grasse could have concentrated on capturing lucrative British islands in the West Indies. Louis XVI and Vergennes could have ruined the whole strategy by establishing as a priority a military effort to regain French Canada, as was advocated by some

In 1775, London had more than 700,000 inhabitants, Paris some 500,000. There were at least 20 cities in twelve European countries that had more than 100,000 inhabitants. American cities were considerably smaller: Philadelphia New York City Boston Charleston 28,000 23,000 16,000 12,000 Newport Baltimore Providence Wilmington 11,000 10,000 4,500 1,200

Soon after the alliance between France and the United States was signed, copies of the treaty text appeared in both countries.

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politicians in Versailles as well as by some members of the military. Colonel Desandrouns, Rochambeaus chief engineer in America, submitted such a plan to the war minister, prince de Montbarrey, and the naval minister, comte de Sartine in August 1778. Under the honor code of the eighteenth century, Admiral de Barras, who had assumed command of the fleet in Newport following the death of Admiral de Ternay, could have refused to serve under de Grasse, who had once been his junior in rank. Instead, everything was done to subordinate French interests to Americas needs, to assist an American victory, and to bring about the complete independence of the United States.

owhere does the crucial importance of the French participation in the war become more obvious, and the dependence of the colonies on French assistance more apparent, than in the naval components of the war, since the colonies had no capital ships of their own. At the outbreak of the rebellion in 1775, Great Britain enjoyed absolute mastery of the seas vis--vis the American rebels. The entry of France into the war in 1778, and later of

1778

1779

1780

1781

1782

Britain >70* 37 <70* 29 66 France >70 28 <70 24 52

50 40 90 38 25 63

59 42 94 44 25 69

57 37 94 44 26 70

55 39 94 42 *23 65

ships in North American and European waters after Yorktown with all the freed-up capacity going either to the Caribbean or to Indiaindicates that Britain was prepared to cut her losses on the American mainland but determined to defend her other possessions. In the spring of 1781, when Great Britain had all of 37 capital ships in North America and the West Indies, France had 30 ships either in the Caribbean or en route there and another 8 in North America or en route there. (Six were in India, with another five en route. There were also 20-plus Spanish capital ships in Havana and other Caribbean ports). Since the Royal Navy had to leave a number of ships to guard Britains Caribbean possessions, de Grasse in 1781 enjoyed the temporary superiority in numbers that enabled him to take the initiative, and the calculated risk, that made the victory at Yorktown possible.

*(after Battle of the Saints)

The Role of the French Navy

Spain (1779) and the Netherlands (1780), ended that advantage.
1 cu or six livres 1/10 cu or 12 sols 1/20 cu or 6 sols The value of the eighteenth-century coins was determined by their weight and bullion content irrespective of the issuing country. All coins, which are reproduced in original size, have the same observe and reserve images without denominating a specific value. British crowns, Spanish Milled Dollars, and French cus were similar in size, weight, and silver content and circulated freely in the colonies. While encamped at Head of Elk in early September 1781, Rochambeau loaned Washington 24,000 cus in French coin to pay the Continental Army; Robert Morris repaid the loan in February 1782 with Spanish dollars, the famous Pieces of Eight. One French cu, often called a French Crown in the colonies, represents approximately three weeks wages for a common soldier in Rochambeaus army.

Spain >70 50 <70 8 58 The Netherlands >70 <70

40 8 48 ? 11 11

45 9 54 1 13 14

43 11 54 1 18 19

1 sol or 12 deniers

1/2 sol or 6 deniers

1 liard or 3 deniers

More important than absolute numbers was where vessels were deployed. Until 1778, Great Britain was able to concentrate all of her naval forces in the North American theater and in the West Indies; once France had joined the Americans, the distribution of British Naval forces changed dramatically (chart, right). In 1777, more than 40% of the Royal Navy, 25 to 27 ships, had been in American water. The perceived French threat to the Sugar Islands reduced the presence of the Royal Navy in American waters by twothirds. The high number of vessels fitting in British ports or on convoy duty in 1780 and 1781 clearly shows the strain on the Royal Navy. Finally, the reduction in numbers of British

* >70 = ships with more than 70 guns <70 = ships with between 50 and 70 guns Source: Jonathan R. Dull, The French Navy and American Independence: A Study in Arms and Diplomacy, 1774-1787 (Princeton, 1975), pp. 359-376.

Distribution of British ships, 1778-1782 North America West Indies Europe India Elsewhere/ fitting/ convoy duty, etc.

1778 14 (+13)* 4 (+1) 30 1 (+1)* 2 1779 8 27 (+1) 31 (+10) 8 5 1780 5 (+6) 31 (+6) 25 5 16 1781 10 27 28 5 (+5)* 19 1782 8 45 17 11 (+6)* 7 *Figures in parentheses indicate number of additional vessels en route. (Order of battle as of 1 July 1778 and 1779; 1 April 1781 and 1782)

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etween 1776 and 1783, France spent 1,054 million livres on the war effort. 91% of this outlay had to be financed by loans, and by the end of the war her total constituted debt stood at 4,538 million livres with an annual debt service of more than 200 million. At the same time the marquis de Lafayettes annual income of about 100,000 livres made him one of the wealthiest people in France. A 74-gun ship cost about 1 million livres to build and equip, and in 1776, the ordinary income of the French crown stood at 377.5 million livres. Most of the money after 1775 went to the navy: its budget rose from 33 million livres in 1775 to 169 million in 1780 and peaked at almost 200 million in 1782. During these

million livres in loans to be repaid after the end of the war. Another 6-million-livre loan from France in 1783 brought French expenditures in direct support of the American rebels, including those for the expdition particulire, to about 48 million livresless than 5% of total expenditures. Britains expenditures for the war ran to 2,270.5 million livres. More than 40% of this total was funded by loans as well, which raised her national debt from 131 million (3.013 million livres) to a staggering 245 million or 5.635 million livres. In 1783, a full two-thirds of Britains tax revenue went to servicing a debt that was 25% larger than that of France, even though Britains population was only one-third the size of Frances. Robert Morris, who assumed the superintendency of finance in 1781, estimated the US public debt in July of 1782 at about 30 million Spanish milled silver dollars. Financial instability continued until the ratification of the federal constitution in 1789. When the federal government assumed all state expenditures for the war (approximately $25 million in 1783), in 1790, the total domestic debt, state and federal, stood at about $27 million. Arrears in interest payments added another $13 million. Funded in the Compromise of August 1790, which brought the seat of the federal government to the South, less than $160,000 of the federal debt

was still outstanding in 1817. Even today, the federal debt contains arrears open since the Revolutionary War. ($55,757.80 was merged into the title old debt in 1880). The American foreign debt for the war was paid off relatively quickly. At the end of 1789, that debt stood at about $11.7 million, close to 60 million livres. Throughout the 1780s, only the Dutch loans (28 million livres by 1788) had been served. With the help of further loans from Amsterdam, the debt to Spain was paid off by 1794, and on 3 March 1795, Americas remaining public debt to France was paid off as well. Settlement of private debts (e.g., with the heirs of Beaumarchais) took until 1835. Franois Souls in his Histoire des troubles de lAmrique Anglaise (Paris 1787; vol. 4, p. 200), gave the US debt, domestic and foreign, in 1786 as $42,942,837 or 230 million livres (at 5.4 livres per dollar). Based on Alexander Hamiltons figures of 1790, the cost of the war to the United States ran about $27 million (146 million livres) or $40 million with interest included (216 million livres)about 13% of the 1,054 million livres spent by France and 6.5% the 2,271 million Great Britain spent in the failed attempt to keep her colonies.

On 68 September 1781, the allied army camped just south of Hollingsworth Tavern in Elkton, Maryland. Washington paid his troops with hard currency borrowed from Rochambeau.

The allied supply wagon train left the Alexandria, Virginia, encampment (right) on 26 September for Yorktown.

The Financial Cost of the War

same years, the army budget increased marginally from 93.5 million livres in 1775 to 95 million in 1783. Expenditures for the expdition particulire were minimal within the overall war effort. American historian Claude C. Sturgill has computed them at 12,730,760 livres, about 1.2% of the total cost of the war. Through intermediaries such as Beaumarchais, the colonists received about 2 million livres worth of aid in kind; outright French subsidies amounted to about 9 million. Between 1778 and 1782, the United States obtained 18

uring the encampment at Head of Elk, Washington paid his troops with about 24,000 cus he had borrowed from Rochambeau. This day, 8 September 1781, wrote Major William Popham, will be famous in the annals of History for being the first in which the Troops of the United States received one months Pay in Specieall the civil and military

A Soldiers Pay
staff are excluded. For many a Continental soldier this was indeed the first and only time he ever received real money during his years of service. Private Martin remembered that we each of us

received a MONTHS PAY, in specie, borrowed, as I was informed, by our French officers from the officers in the French army. This was the first that could be called money, which we had received as wages since the year 76, or that we ever did receive till the close of the war, or indeed, ever after, as wages. Another enlisted man, John Hudson of the First New York Regiment, who had celebrated but his 13th birthday on 12 June 1781, recalled that it was at Head of Elk that I received the only pay that I ever drew for my services during the war, being six French crowns, which were a part of what Robert Morris borrowed on his own credit from the French commander to supply the most urgent necessities of the soldiers. My comrades received the same amount.

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The Washington-Rochambeau route is signicant as an example of joint

Franco-American cooperation under Washingtons overall leadership.

the common good. Together they recognized the opportunity that offered itself in Virginia, but it was Washington who took the brave decision to change strategy and march south, and together they brought the campaign to a successful conclusion. That victory would have been impossible without the naval component provided by the fleet of Admiral de Grasse, but the coordination of the movements of land and naval forces, thousands of miles and three-weeks in travel time apart, was the most difficult component of the campaign. The virtually flawless execution of the campaign has led American historian Jonathan R. Dull to single it out as the most perfectly executed naval campaign of the age of sail.

Planning for the march and its execution stands as a testimony to the professionalism of the French and American general staffs. Planning such an extensive campaign that depended on the cooperation of the French navy must have been very difficult for men of different languages, backgrounds, and cultures. Most Americans, including General Washington, spoke no French and had to communicate through interpreters, mostly French volunteers in the Continental Army. Rochambeau spoke no English; neither did many officers on his staff, with the notable exceptions of the chevalier de Chastellux and the duc de Lauzun. Here, too, the communications gap was bridged by Frenchmen such as Du Bouchet and Fleury who had served in the Continental Army. American officers such as Henry Knox were largely selftaught. The French were career soldiers, and their engineers and artillery officers had trained at the most advanced military and technical schools of the time. Washingtons command of a foreign army as well as his own on American soil is an extraordinary episode, unique in US history. There would have been no Yorktown and no American independence without Washington. The American force he led demonstrated his tenacity in holding together and building an effective army, trained and disciplined in the crucible of war. Yet as supreme commander, he proved enormously flexible, keeping on excellent terms with his more experienced military partner Rochambeau, who in turn accepted Washingtons leadership for

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ranois Joseph Paul comte de Grasseborn into an old noble family in southern France in 1722was a career officer in the French navy, and served the king in campaigns in the Meditarranean, in India, and in the Caribbean.In 1779 he commanded a squadron under the comte dEstaing at Grenada and was commanding officer of the French fleet in the Caribbean once dEstaing had sailed for Europe after the unsuccessful siege of Savannah. His health failing, the 58-year-old officer sailed for France in late 1780 as well. His stay in France was short. On 22 March 1781, Louis XVI promoted de Grasse to rear admiral, and sent him back to the West Indies with 20

French ships are lined up on the left and British on the right in this painting of the Battle of the Capes.

remained before New York rather than marching to Virginia, the campaign of 1781 would end in failure, and like dEstaing, he too would return from America in disgrace. Next, de Grasse made another bold gamble. Rather than detaching ships to protect the annual homeward-bound convoy from the Caribbean, he entrusted it to the care of a single 64-gun vessel. The risk was rewarded: the Actionnaire left San Domingo with 126 merchantmen in late October and made it safely to France. The stage was set when de Grasse raised anchor with 28 ships of the line and supporting frigates at Cap Franais (Haiti) on 5 August and headed north. His ships were bursting with passengers: an 80gun-ship, 190 feet long, a 46-foot beam with a hold of 22 feet, carried a regular crew of some 940 men. (Most of them were needed to work the cannon: it took 15 men to service just one of the thirty 36pounders on the main deck during battle). They were also carrying some 3,000 men of the infantry regiments Gtinais, Agenais, and Touraine under the comte de SaintSimon, 100 artillerymen, their guns, and 100 dragoons. Along the way de Grasse dispatched the frigate Aigrette to Havana to pick up 1.2 million livres that Rochambeau had requested in July to pay and feed his army. It took all of five hours to collect these funds from public and private sources, and on 17 August the Aigrette rejoined de Grasses fleet.

On 31 August de Grasses fleet dropped anchor in the mouth of the York and the next day began unloading men and material for the siege of Cornwallis. De Grasses hour of glory was still to come. Cruising off Cape Charles, the lookout on the Aigrette at around 9:30 a.m. on 5 September reported sails approaching from east-northeast. The sails were those of Vice Admiral Thomas Graves, Rear Admirals Samuel Hood and Sir Francis Drake and their 19 ships of the linetwo 98s, twelve 74s, one 70, and four 64sa 50-gun ship, six frigates and a fire ship. Going full speed, around 6 knots, or 7 mph, they were making straight for the main entrance of the bay. Though he knew that 19 sails were approaching Hampton Roads, there was not much de Grasse could do. Wind and tide were against him, and much of his personnel was on land. De Grasse had to leave some 90 officers and about 1,900 men behind when he cut cables around noon as the tide was turning. De Grasses flagship, the 104-gun Ville-de-Paris, three 80s, seventeen 74s, and three 64s moved out of the channel to meet the enemy. Short of hands and hampered by the north-northeast wind, they were slow forming a battle line: De Grasse, the 11th ship in line, did not clear the bay until almost 1:00 p.m. Rather than order close action and head straight for the French line as it was straggling out of the bay, Graves at around 2:15 p.m. gave
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Admiral de Grasse and the Battle of the Capes

ships of the line, three frigates and 156 transport. Concurrently, the vicomte de Rochambeau sailed for Newport with badly needed cash for his father, and the news that the second division of infantry would not be coming after all. Rochambeau was free to draw up his own plans for the coming campaign, possibly in cooperation with de Grasse, who could provide naval support. De Grasses convoy, reinforced by six ships of the line from Martinique, arrived off Port Royal, Martinique, on 28 April. British Rear Admiral Samuel Hood was waiting for him, but in a stroke of that good fortune that would shine on the Franco-American alliance all year, Hood had but 18

ships of the line against de Grasses 26. Hoods superior, Admiral George Rodney, had captured the Dutch island of St. Eustatius in February, and booty estimated at more than 3,000,000 (70 million livres) had fallen into British hands. Wanting to protect the loot, Rodney had withdrawn four of Hoods ships, giving de Grasse the superiority he needed to get his convoy safely into Port Royal on 6 May. Following his conquest of Tobago in early June, de Grasse sailed for Santo Domingo, where four more ships of the line joined his fleet on 16 July. As de Grasse was sailing for San Domingo, Rochambeau on 8 June learned of the admirals arrival in the West Indies. On 15 June Rochambeau had information from de Grasse that he would be in San Domingo later that month and could be in American waters by 15 July at the earliest. Rochambeau immediately dispatched the aptly named Concorde to San Domingo to apprise de Grasse of FrancoAmerican plans. He also informed

him of Cornwalliss arrival in Virginia, and hinted strongly that he would prefer de Grasse to sail for the Chesapeake: There are two points at which an offensive can be made against the enemy; the Chesapeak and New York. The southwesterly winds and the state of defense in Virginia will probably make you prefer the Chesapeak Bay, and it will be there [sic] where we think you may be able to render the greatest service. In any case it is essential that you send, well in advance, a frigate to inform de Barras where you are to come and also General Washington. Upon reading this letter in mid-July 1781 (it took even a fast sailing frigate two-and-one-half to three weeks to make the trip), de Grasse opted to sail for the Chesapeake. His choice involved considerable risk, since it was based upon reading between the lines of Rochambeaus letter. If the Franco-American army

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order to get into line ahead formation: Graves wanted to bring his vessels into a roughly parallel position with the approaching French fleet. The maneuver not only took 1 1/2 hours to perform, it also greatly extended the heretofore tight formation of the British fleet. This gave the French time to clear the entrance of the bay. As Graves lined up for battle, his fastest ships, which had been in the lead, found themselves at the end of the column. That included Hood on the Barfleur, who had been fourth in line, but now had fifteen ships ahead of him. Three 74s under Drake, already leaking badly when the fleet had sailed from New York five days earlier, formed the new lead division. As the ships took their places in the line, Graves, much to the consternation of his officers, ordered them to wait for the French center to come abreast. This allowed de Grasse to bring up his rear. When battle commenced, he not only would have five more ships and 1,794 cannons versus 1,410 British gunsbut thanks to Graves, they would also be sailing in closer formation than their opponents. His best and fastest ships would line up with Gravess slowest and weakest. The two fleets were arranged like the sides of a funnel when Graves raised the flag to head toward the enemy. According to the Londons log, it was precisely 3:46 p.m.; six hours had passed since the fleets had spied each other. What happened next has been debated ever since.
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Hood later claimed that Graves forgot to lower the flag signaling line ahead as the standard close action went up. Graves maintained that he flew engage the enemy throughout the day and hoisted line ahead only twice. Hood and his captains, according to Graves, misunderstood the signal. Irrespective of flag signals, once the cannon began roaring, Hood knew that the battle had begun and should have fallen on the French rear. Why he did not will always remain a mystery. Confusion reigned on board the British fleet: Drakes leaky division followed the signal and at 4:15 p.m. the Shrewsbury opened fire, but with the wind blowing toward land and the French fleet, British vessels could only use their upper gun decks while the French could employ their full firepower. Hood continued with line ahead, until Graves sent a frigate ordering him to attack at once. But the French held the advantage: when hundreds of cannon began to spit fire and destruction, de Grasses ships fired broadside after broadside into Drakes division, which still had to turn before its cannon could reach them. Seven ships, including Hoods Barfleur, never caught up. At 5:30 p.m. they began trading longdistance fire; an hour later Graves ordered the fleet to disengage. Both fleets spent the next day, 6 September, making repairs and drifted to the south on the 7th. At nightfall on the 9th, de Grasse headed back north. As he

approached he saw de Barras fleet riding at anchor in Lynnhaven Bay. De Grasse knew that he had achieved his goal: Washington and Rochambeau were on the way, and with de Barras seven ships of the line and two transports safely in the Bay, Cornwallis was caught. Graves returned briefly to the Chesapeake on the 13th only to find de Barras there. Seeing that it would be unwise to attack the now 35 French ships with his 18, Gravesunaware that Rochambeau and Washington were marching on Yorktownreturned to New York. On his arrival, he was dejected. He wrote to the Earl of Sandwich, The signal was not understood. I do not mean to blame anyone, my Lord. I hope we all did our best. De Grasses victory at the Capes highlights more than any other event the vital importance of the French navy for American independence. It was de Grasses fleet that kept the Royal Navy from rescuing Cornwallis when it sailed out to meet the British on 5 September 1781. There was no Continental Navy that could have stopped Graves, Hood, and Drake. Though he spent but two months in American waters and never set foot on American soil, de Grasse is among the three Frenchmen who contributed most to American independence. His strategic vision, writes Jonathan R. Dull, made possible the most important naval victory of the 18th century.

Admiral Franois Joseph Paul, comte de Grasse

Distribution of the Armed Forces at Yorktown

American army: 9,150 Continentals 350 officers and 5,500 men (return of 9/26/1781, including 411 sick) [includes Lafayettes forces and other reinforcements who joined along the march 3,300 officers and men

Militia French army: 9,300 Rochambeaus forces Saint-Simons forces

425 officers and 5,300 men (return of 11/11/1781, including 741 detached and 427 sick) 225 officers and 3,300 men (including 800 marines)

French navy: 28,400 French marines Ship crews

5,200 officers and men (minus about 800 marines at Gloucester) 24,000 officers and men (18,000 under de Grasse, 6,000 under Barras)

British forces: 9,700 15 September 19 October

8,885 effectives, plus 840 naval personnel 7,247 rank and file (4,750 fit for duty), plus 840 naval personnel for a total of 8,100 rank and file at surrender. The force comprised 4,418 British troops, 1,900 German auxiliaries, and 800 Loyalists (of whom 142 from North Carolina did not surrender). The vast majority of the missing 1,600 men were casualties.

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T H E R OU T E AS M A N I F E S TAT I O N O F T H E I N T E R NAT I O NA L WA R E F F O RT

The Washington-Rochambeau route is signicant as the rst true acknowledgement of America as a sovereign nation.

If the alliance of 1778 brought the diplomatic recognition of the United States as a sovereign nation, the behavior of French troops toward their American allies put this recognition to the test. Recognizing General Washington as the commander-in-chief of the joint force brought much-needed prestige. The parade of Rochambeaus troops before the Continental Congress, the review of these same troops by Washington, and the surrender of British General Charles OHara to American general Benjamin Lincoln rather than to Rochambeau all proved that the French were prepared to treat their ally as an equal on the international scene. By its alliance with France, the United States gained international recognition, and through its recognition by the French army, the Continental Army as an outward symbol of American sovereignty was elevated from a rebel revolutionary force to the status of a national army. In the US military in particular, French influence remained strong long after the end of the conflict. Throughout the war Americans lacked the expertise and training necessary in the technical branches of the armed forces, such as the artillery, engineering, or cartography. French volunteers provided this expertise. Training and expertise provided by French advisers and volunteers helped shape the Continental Army and its successor, the United States Army, into a skilled, professional fighting force. Even today, the US Army Corps of Engineers awards the Fleury Medal for excellence in engineering, while the coat of arms and the motto of the US Army Engineering School are that of the French school at Mezires: Essayons!Let us try!

In late September 1782, American and French forces met at Peekskill to say their farewells. To the French, the transformation of the Continental Army since Yorktown was startling. On 20 September, the French army passed in review before Washington, and then, on the 22nd, Clermont-Crvecur and his fellow officers went to watch the maneuvers of the American army and were truly impressed. This proves what money and good officers can do to make good soldiers. we

the transformation of this army into one that was in no way inferior to ours in appearance. Their officers too were well turned out. Rochambeau and his staff were impressed as well and gave the Continental Army the highest praise possible in the late eighteenth century when they put it on par with the army of Frederick the Great. Dr. James Thacher described the scene thus: The whole army was paraded under arms this morning in order to honor his Excellency Count Rochambeau on his arrival from the southward. The troops were all formed in two lines, extending from the ferry, where the count crossed, to head-quarters. A troop of horse met and received him at Kings

US-French Encampment at Peekskill, September 1782

found 8,000 of the American army. Now they were all uniformed and well groomed. We were struck with

Ferry, and conducted him through the line to General Washingtons quarters, where, sitting on his horse by the side of his excellency, the whole army marched before him, and paid the usual salute and honors. Our troops were now in complete uniform, and exhibited every mark of soldierly discipline. Count Rochambeau was most highly gratified to perceive the very great improvement, which our army had made in appearance since he last reviewed them, and expressed his astonishment at their rapid progress in military skill and discipline. He said to General Washington, You have formed an alliance with the King of Prussia. These troops are Prussians. Several of the principal officers of the French army, who have seen troops of different European nations, have bestowed the highest encomiums and applause on our army, and declared that they had seen none superior to the Americans.

Peekskill encampment site, drawn by Rochambeaus cartographer Louis Alexandre de Berthier.

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John Singleton Copley, The Death of Major Pierson, 6 January 1781. On 6 January 1781, a French landing party of about 800 men under the command of Baron de Rullecourt landed on the Channel island of Jersey. In the subsequent fighting both Rullecourt and Major Francis Pierson of the 95th Regiment were killed. The French force was defeated and had to surrender but such raids forced Britain to commit substantial resources to the defense of the waters around the British Isles.

Island of St. Eustatius Until its capture by British Admiral Rodney on 3 February 1781, this tiny Dutch island in the Caribbean was one of the most important neutral entrepts for trade with the North American Continent. Rodneys booty was estimated at 3,000,000 or 70,000,000livres, almost six times the 12,000,000 livres the expdition particulire cost the French crown. 4-20
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5 Historic Use of the Route

he roads that constitute the Washington-Rochambeau route predate the American Revolutionary War by decades, some even by centuries. The Eastern Seaboard of Colonial America was traversed by a network of roads, some of which had been used by Native Americans for centuries prior to the American Revolutionary War. These roads, known variably as Post Road or Kings Highway or the Old Trail in Colonial America, were used for travel, trade, and military campaigns. After the outbreak of the revolution, the armies of both sides followed these roads on many occasions during their operations. Their use as conduits for the deployment of the opposing forces was well-established before the French and American armies took them in 1781 and 1782 during and after the Yorktown Campaign.

roads south from Philadelphia to Yorktown were surveyed in the summer of 1781, by Erskine's successor Simeon DeWitt at the express order of Washington for the purpose of facilitating the march to Yorktown. These maps have not been published in their entirety but are preserved in the collections of the New-York Historical Society. Except for the routes of the Continental Army from Newburgh to Philipsburg in July 1781, of the French army from Crompond/ Yorktown Heights to Boston after September 1782, and for a very few short sections such as the march from Christiana, Delaware, to Head of Elk, Maryland, the Washington-Rochambeau route throughout consists of multiple

The roads are historically significant by themselves as the lifelines of the economies of Colonial America, but they take on additional importance as components of the WashingtonRochambeau route. The route consists of sections of various lengths of these colonial roads, such as the Boston Post Road in Connecticut, the Albany Post Road in New York, the Assunpink Trail in New Jersey, and the Kings Highway in Delaware. These roads are interspersed with mountainous passes such as the Clove in Suffern, New York, and

the crossing over the Susquehanna at Bald Friar Ferry and Ford in Maryland. When strung together, they formed the fastest and most convenient way to reach Williamsburg in the summer of 1781. The historic locations of the land routes that form the WashingtonRochambeau route can be identified with great accuracy. Based on original documents, the roads taken by the various components of the French and American armies can be traced on a modern map with a high degree

of precision. The roads that formed the French route were surveyed shortly following the march, in great detail, by Louis Alexandre de Berthier. His maps were published by Anne S. K. Brown and Howard C. Rice, Jr., in 1972. On the American side, George Washingtons cartographer Robert Erskine surveyed the roads in New York and New Jersey during the 1770s. The
The Christiana Tavern in Christiana, Delaware, where Washington, Rochambeau, and Lafayette all stayed at various times: an example of a significant resource in need of preservation.

routes. Military needs of providing flank cover from British attacks determined the route taken by Lauzuns Legion in Connecticut in June 1781 and that of Continental Army units through New Jersey in August of that year. The logistics of providing thousands of men with food, firewood and shelter made it necessary for the units to follow separate routes as well. Even Philadelphiaat 28,000 inhabitants, Americas largest city could not long feed and house the armies, now 7,000 strong, and their thousands of animals. Smaller towns along the route, such as Baltimore with 10,000 inhabitants and Wilmington with 1,200 people, were in no position to handle the multitudes at their gates.

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After the arrival at Head of Elk, the slow-moving artillery and the wagon train took the land-route to Williamsburg, while the soldiers boarded ships at Head of Elk, in Baltimore and in Annapolis. French officers used every opportunity to visit battlefields, natural sites, and famous Americans along the way. Washington took the opportunity to deviate from the most direct route to Williamsburg, hosting Rochambeau and senior French officers at his estate at Mount Vernon. Though the route is of great diversity, it is clearly discernible in a multitude of manifestations. Many, if not all, of these roads still exist today under different names and in different conditions, ranging from six-lane interstate highways to abandoned road segments listed on the National Register of

A plaque in Virginia marks the route of the march, one of a series given by the French government and installed during the American bicentennial.

Historic Places. Driving through sections of eastern Connecticut along country roads flanked by eighteenth-century stone walls, or through rural Virginia to Gloucester, one is aware of traveling along a historic route. On other sections of the route (e.g., through Philadelphia or Hartford), 200 years of economic development have all but obliterated the original routes. But even there, memorials and annual celebrations keep alive the knowledge of being on a historic trail and on historic ground. In some states, such as Virginia, the marking is consistent and highly visible. Other states, such as Connecticut, are engaged in remarking the trail.

But the trail also comprises hundreds of miles of water lanes and river crossings, some of the most scenic components of the Washington-Rochambeau route. Water routes were as well established in 1781 as were land routes, with interconnecting portage routes, five between the northern Chesapeake and the Delaware River alone. The most direct of these water routes, and the one taken by the French and American armies in 1781 and 1782, was that from Christiana, Delaware (or Christeen, as it was called in the eighteenth century), past Cooch's Bridge to Head of Elk in Maryland. Economic historian Richard Buel, Jr., found traffic on that route sufficiently heavy to justify the maintenance of a regular shallop service between Christian Bridge and Philadelphia. At the beginning of their march, French forces used watercraft to cross Narragansett Bay from Newport to Providence. The crossing of rivers such as the Hudson from Kings Ferry to Stony Point as well as the Connecticut, Housatonic, Delaware, and Schuylkill rivers were major logistical achievements.
Kings Ferry was a key Hudson River crossing, linking Stony Point (foreground) and Peekskill along the Washington-Rochambeau route.

But rivers and waterways did not only pose obstacles. Despite the dangers inherent in coastal trade after the outbreak of the war, they provided opportunities as well. Water transportation, especially of heavy or bulky goods was faster and cheaper than transporting goods on land. In a military campaign this meant primarily artillery, foodstuffs, and baggage, and wherever possible Washington used the waterways along the route in 1781 to his advantage. From Trenton onward, Colonel John Lamb's Second continental Artillery, except for a short, tenmile portage through Delaware, traveled to Virginia by water. By 29 August 1781, Deputy Quartermaster Samuel Miles had 31 craft capable of carrying more than 3,200 men waiting for the armies at Philadelphia. Once the

head of the Chesapeake had been reached, Washington tried everything to get enough watercraft to ship his troops to Williamsburg. At least 12 sloops and eighteen schooners were waiting at Head of Elk, and dozens more were hired before the year was out. An Estimate of Money due on Contract made for the passage of the Army stores, Baggage &c. from Christiana Bridge to Virginia, and from thence to the Northward Commencing 28 August 1781 brings the total of watercraft employed in the campaign to at least 22 sloops, 60 schooners, as well as shallops and a myriad of smaller vessels. And though the building patterns on the shore have changed since 1781, the water routes on the Chesapeake in particular recall the anxious weeks of September 1781 leading up to the siege.

Rochambeau, Washington and the Allied Army crossed the Susquehanna River at a ferry near Rogers Tavern in Perryville, Maryland.

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6 Resources
he Washington-Rochambeau Route offers numerous and varied resources. Based on statewide studies in Connecticut, New York, and Delaware, and preliminary overviews in the other states, an estimated 750 resources are directly associated with the route, with an indeterminate number of resources on side-trails. The resources of the Washington-Rochambeau route can be divided into twelve categories:

1 Campsites and bivouacs 2 Historic road segments 3 Water routes and river crossings 4 Archeological and underwater sites 5 Buildings and building sites 6 Tombstones and/or grave markers and other emblems 7 Natural landscape features 8 National parks 9 State parks 10 Historic districts 11 Plaques, tablets, and markers 12 Paintings and murals Many or most of these resources are already protected as National Historic Register sites or National Historic Landmarks; others have or will receive this status as a result of state efforts carried out in connection with the WashingtonRochambeau route. Some are federally owned, some are state

parks, some are owned by communities or private organizations. A few are already well-established destinations; others are being restored and readied for historical interpretation. Numerous plaques, tablets and markers attest to the commemoration of the route since the 1781 march. They were placed by federal, state and local authorities; by patriotic organizations such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Society of the Cincinnati; by historical societies; and by organizations such as Rotary Clubs. Except for those of the Saratoga campaign in New York, all major battlefields of the Revolutionary War in New England, the Middle Colonies, and in Maryland and

Virginia lie along or near the route. So do many of the nation's most cherished historical treasures, such as Newport, Independence Hall, Mount Vernon, Colonial Williamsburg, and Colonial National Historical Park in Yorktown. The WashingtonRochambeau route therefore

functions as an overarching theme that binds together geographically many American Revolutionary War sites along the east coast. Both a land- and waterbased trail, it passes through most major population centers along America's east coast. Its multitude of resources provides a wealth of diverse historical, educational, and recreational experiences for more people than any other scenic or historic trail within the National Park System. Numerous resource clusters along the Washington-Rochambeau route combine within a concentrated area historical, educational, and recreational opportunities. This is most obviously the case in Newport, Rhode Island, and

Boston, Massachusetts, the routes two anchors in New England. The same holds true for Williamsburg and Yorktown, the routes southern ends in Virginia, where rich historical and educational opportunities are coupled with primarily water-based recreational possibilities. Other land-based route segments, such as Washingtons Mount Vernon, Washington, DC, or the city of Philadelphia, offer a whole trail experience as well. Water-based segments from the northern tip of the Chesapeake, from Baltimore, and from Annapolis, to Cornwalliss sunken fleet off Yorktown and Gloucester, offer multiple trail experiences as well. Linking the resources along these trails, the WashingtonRochambeau route offers a unique context and potential for historical interpretation, for educational and recreational programs, and for commemorating the Franco-American alliance and the national effort for independence in 1781.
Hallocks Mill Pond at Yorktown Heights, New York. Looking to keep his troops occupied while he and Washington determined a military strategy, Rochambeau ordered them to dig a canal that rerouted a stream through their camp (and reversed its flow into this pond).

RESOURCES

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Ordonnance de Police, 26 November 1781. To celebrate Admiral de Grasses victories in the Caribbean and in the Battle of the Capes as well as the victory at Yorktown, the inhabitants of Paris and its suburbs were ordered to illuminate their houses on 27 November 1781, during the time that a Te Deum was celebrated at the Cathedral of Notre Dame. 6-2

SIGNIFCANCE

THEMES

7 Bibliographic EssayA Note on Resources

cholarly as well as popular history studies of the FrancoAmerican campaign of 1781 have traditionally focused on three themes: 1 the marquis de Lafayettes Virginia campaign in the spring and summer of 1781; 2 the role of the French fleet under the comte de Grasse; and 3 the siege of Yorktown and the surrender of Lord Cornwallis.

The march of the French army from Newport, Rhode Island, and of the Continental Army from Newburgh, New York, is usually covered in a transitional chapter necessary to lead the combined armies to the plains outside Yorktown. No in-depth study of the march properits planning, logistics, the interaction between the troops and the civilian population, and the impact of the march on the local economies, to name but a few topicshas ever been undertaken, either at a state or national level. With its focus on the march proper, a study and assessment of the WashingtonRochambeau Revolutionary Route, for possible designation as a National Historic Trail, could fill that void. The historical research necessary for such a study presents numerous

challenges, not so much from a lack of French and American primary sources as from their nature and location. The geographic extent of the route means that the sources are widely distributed among dozens of collections in state libraries and archives in at least nine states, and in federal repositories in Washington, DC. Primary sources used in this study are extraordinarily diverse. They are written in three languages: English, French, and German. They encompass traditional resources, such as diaries, letters, and maps, as well as less traditional resources such as orderly books, enlistment records and pensions applications, mill ledgers and account books, National Register and National Historic Landmark files. Telling the story of the march requires giving equal attention to the grand strategy and to the microhistory of the hundreds of localities and sites that make up the route. It requires familiarity with local histories, state histories, and international relations. It requires using the papers and writings of the key decision makers such as George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau, as well as those of the mill-owners and tavern-keepers along the way. Frequently the events occur within a very tightly

focused time frame, often just a few days in 1781 and in 1782, but cover a vast geographic area. Alternately, in the case of winter quarters the focus is a small area but a six- to eight-month time frame. The nature of the sourceswhich flow more amply for one aspect in one state or locality and less so in other areas or regionsas well as the fact that no Continental Army troops marched through Rhode Island, Connecticut, or Massachusetts in 1781 and 1782, shifts the focus of the project from year to year, from state to state, and from region to region. The following bibliographical overview provides a complete inventory of French primary sources, but is not meant to be complete or exhaustive with respect to American sources. Nor does it list available secondary source materials, except where they relate to the primary sources mentioned. As in the more extensive bibliography included in a seperate Appendix to the Historical Narrative, it is arranged topically and is meant to give an idea of the range of resources available and the many-faceted possibilities for interpretation arising from them.

1) CARTOGRAPHY

Any study of the march of the combined Franco-American armies to Virginia has to begin with the identification of the routes and their location on the ground today. On the French side, the indispensable collection of primary source materials is the compilation of maps and routes published by Howard C. Rice, Jr. and Anne S. K. Brown in The American Campaigns of Rochambeaus Army 1780, 1781, 1782, 1782.1 Volume 2 reproduces maps of the routes and camp sites located in the Rochambeau Papers and the Rochambeau Family Cartographic Archive (GEN MSS 146) at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University and in other repositories worldwide. These maps were drawn mostly by Louis Alexandre de Berthier and, though not always to scale, provide the exact location of the camp sites. This superbly edited volume is indispensable for anyone

interested in the march of Rochambeaus troops from Newport to Yorktown in 1781 and back to Boston in 1782. There are very few sites and routes that Rice and Brown either could not locate or that lay outside their immediate research interest. These include the route of Lauzuns Legion through Connecticut in June 1781,2 the camp of Rochambeaus Second Brigade near Newport, Delaware, in September 1781,3 and the 1782-83 winter quarters of Lauzuns Legion in Wilmington4. Using sources either not available to Rice and Brown or not used by them, this study attempts to fill in these gaps in our knowledge of the marches of the French forces.5 On the American side there also exists a complete body of cartographic work for the marches of 1781 from Philadelphia to and from Yorktown. Once the decision to march to Virginia was made in August 1781, George Washington ordered his cartographer, Simeon

1 2 volumes (Providence and New Haven, 1972) 2 See Robert A. Selig, Rochambeau's Cavalry: Lauzun's Legion in Connecticut 1780-1781. The Winter Quarters of Lauzun's Legion in Lebanon and its March Through the State in 1781. Rochambeau's Conferences in Hartford and Wethersfield. Historical And Architectural Survey (Hartford, 2000). 3 There is a map of that campsite in the journal of an unidentified officer of the Soissonnais regiment in the Huntington Library. The journal is listed in Rice and Brown, but the authors did not inspect it for their work. 4 Robert A. Selig, The Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route in the State of Delaware, 17811782. An Historical and Architectural Survey (Dover, 2002) 5 For a list of these sources see below: 3) Personal Accounts
BIBLIOGRAPHIC E S SAY

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DeWitt, to draw up maps of the routes to be taken by the Continental Army to Yorktown. These maps are preserved as Erskine-DeWitt Maps in the NewYork Historical Society (NYHS) under the call numbers 124 A-U for the march from Philadelphia to Yorktown in August and September 1781, and 125 A-K plus half-sheet C 125 for the march from Yorktown to Elkridge Landing in November and December 1781. There are no maps for the routes of the Continental Army from Philipsburg, New York, through New Jersey to Philadelphia, but there are many contemporary maps of New Jersey on which the route can be traced with the help of orderly books, diaries, and other primary source materials. Unlike the French maps, DeWitts maps are drawn to scale, with mile markers indicated on the maps where available. They do not show the campsites but point out numerous landmarks, such as inns, churches, fords, ironworks, etc., which makes these, in the majority unpublished maps, important resources not only for the Washington-Rochambeau project but for state and local history as well.

well as supply issues are addressed in itineraries and official orders for the march published in Volume 2 of Rice and Brown. These official road descriptions are supplemented by the account of Louis Alexandre de Berthier, published in Volume 1 of Rice and Brown. Berthier, an assistant quartermaster general, provides a very detailed description of the order and organization of each column of the march until late August 1781, when his account ends abruptly in mid-sentence. Another invaluable source for French troop movements is the Livre dordre of Rochambeaus corps which allows a minute reconstruction of the daily life of the soldiers in America. The livre, equivalent of an Orderly Book in the Continental Army, is preserved in the Archives Gnrales du Dpartement de Meurthe-et-Moselle in Nancy, France, under the call number E 235. Unfortunately it ends on 17 August 1781 just as the troops got ready to break camp and set out for the march to Yorktown. A continuation of sorts of the Livre dOrdre is the Journal des oprations du corps Franais, Depuis le 15 Aot, a 14-page manuscript narrative of the march of the French army to Virginia, the siege of Yorktown, and the surrender of Cornwallis. From the appearance of the handwriting throughout this volume, it seems that it is the original day-to-day

record dictated by Rochambeau. For the return march of 1782, there exists a 191/2 page manuscript, partly autograph, with heading on first page, 1782, and heading on page 16, 1783, giving Rochambeaus narrative of the military and other events of that year and early 1783. Both of these manuscripts are in the Rochambeau Papers at Yale University. A major source for French army logistics are the Jeremiah Wadsworth Papers in the Connecticut Historical Society. Wadsworth was the chief agent for the French forces in America, and his agents supplied Rochambeaus troops throughout their stay on the American mainland. Reconstructing the logistics behind the American march is both easier and more difficult than for the French side. It is easier because the Americans unlike the French, who paid in cash for their purchasesleft a trail of IOUs along the way. But these IOUs, which cover everything from purchases to ship rent for the passage to Yorktown to tavern bills to bridge tolls and compensation for pasturage, are preserved in many public and private repositories and in many record groups. In the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), many records pertaining to this time period can be found among a 126-microfilm reel record group entitled Miscellaneous Numbered Documents

and on the microfilms of Record Group M 926, Letters, Accounts, and Estimates of the Quartermaster Generals Department 17761783, which occasionally covers French purchases as well, or in the well over 100 microfilm reels of Record Group 93, Revolutionary War Rolls. Many more records are located in state archives in record groups that are named variously Executive Papers, Auditor of Account Papers, or Revolutionary War Claims Papers, which very often yield the most complete information in the volumes covering the years 17891791, rather than in those for 17811782. Beyond that, state and private historical societies such as the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford, Connecticut, (Jeremiah Wadsworth Papers), the Delaware Historical Society, or the Rockefeller Library at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Williamsburg, Virginia, and the local history collections in the public libraries along the route preserve valuable materials for the reconstruction of the march. A second, more immediate if very uneven source for the reconstruction of the march, is the orderly books of the regiments involved. Orderly books record the daily orders for each regiment, including the place where the regiment

is at the time and where it was to march that day and set up camp. Of the five infantry regiments that made the march to Yorktown in 17811st New Jersey, 2nd New Jersey, Canadian (Congress Own), 1st Rhode Island, 1st New York, and 2nd New Yorkone copy of the orderly book of the 2nd New York (from 9/24-10/10/81) has survived in the New York State Library #10464, vol. 10, part 1; another copy (from 9/2610/30/81) is available at NYHS microfilm #149, reel 15. In addition, the orderly book of Colonel Lambs 2nd Continental Artillery has survived in two versions (6/2010/21/81 and 8/410/27/81) in NYHS microfilm #143, reel 14, and NYHS microfilm #118.1, reel 12. Lastly, the orderly book of the LTC Gimats Light Infantry Regiment (Muhlenbergs LI Brigade, 5/1810/30/81), is available in the Connecticut Historical Society (CTHS) microfilm Reel 3, frames 939 to end and Reel 4, frames 4-10, as well as at NARA, M853, reel 8, vol. 52 (6/710/2/81).6 Except for a small group of about 85 Delaware recruits, the same regiments/units1st New Jersey, 2nd New Jersey, 1st New York, 2nd New York, 1st Rhode Island, Hazens Canadians, Lambs Artillery, the Light Infantry as well as the

2) LOGISTICS AND ARRANGEMENT OF THE MARCH

On the French side, orders and arrangements for the march as

7-2
BIBLIOGRAPHIC E S SAY

6 The most exhaustive list of orderly books can be found at www.RevWar75.com, a Web site maintained by John K. Robertson and Robert McDonald.

Commander in Chiefs Guard, Joseph Plumb Martins Corps of Sappers and Miners, and the Corps of Artificersmade the return march in NovemberDecember 1781. Unlike for the march to Yorktown, not a single Orderly Book has survived; the first orderly book that we have is for Col. Lambs Artillery Regiment, which wintered in Burlington, New Jersey, from 7 December 1781 to 4 February 1782, and marched to the Highlands in August 1782, preserved in the NYHS, microfilm: #152; reel 15. Moses Hazens regiment escorted British POWs to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and wintered there.

Campaigns, Rice and Brown provide a list of journals, diaries, memoirs, letters, and other primary sources available at the time of publication of their book. Since then, almost two dozen primary sources have appeared in European and American archives that can be added to the 45 sources (i.e., accounts of events in America written by officers in Rochambeaus army) listed by Rice and Brown. Most surprising is the fact that three journals/diaries/memoirs of enlisted men have come to light since 1972. The most important of these three is the journal of Georg Daniel Flohr, an enlisted man in the Royal Deux-Ponts, in the Bibliothque Municipale of Strasbourg, France.7 Among the Milton S. Latham Papers in the Library of Congress was found the Journal Militaire kept by an unidentified grenadier in the Bourbonnais regiment.8 Finally there is the Histoire des campagnes de lArme de Rochambaud (sic) en Amrique written by Andr Amblard of the Soissonnais infantry.9 Also added now is a most valuable new source, the papers of Antoine Charles du Houx baron de Viomnil, Rochambeaus second in command. Comprising some 300 items and about 1,000 pages, the Fonds Viomnil is preserved in the Acadmie Franois Bourdon

in Le Creusot, France. This material has never been used before and sheds much new light on the decision-making process at the top of the French military hierarchy. For Lauzuns Legion, long the only component of Rochambeaus army without a contemporary eyewitness account, a manuscript journal kept by Lieutenant-Colonel Etienne Hugau entitled Dtails intressants sur les vnements arrivs dans la guerre dAmrique. Hyver 1781 1782. Hampton, Charlotte et suitte has come to light in the Bibliothque municipale in the town of Evreux, France.10 Among new sources are also the correspondence of Captain Charles Malo Franois comte de Lameth, aide-de-camp to Rochambeau and aide-marchal gnral des logis (May 1781), and of his brother Captain Alexandre Thodor Victor chevalier de Lameth, who replaced Charles Malo Franois in the summer of 1782.11 Also unavailable in 1972 was the Journal de lArme aux ordres de Monsieur le Comte de Rochambeau pendant les campagnes de 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783 dans lAmrique septentrionale kept by comte de Rochambeaus 21-yearold nephew, Louis Franois Bertrand Dupont dAubevoye, comte de Lauberdire, a captain in the Saintonge infantry and one of his aides-de-camp.12

The largest body of materials not listed in Rice and Brown concern the Royal Deux-Ponts, regiment of infantry: a letter by Jean-Franois de Thuillire, a captain in the Royal Deux-Ponts preserved in the Archives Nationales,13 two letters by Louis Eberhard von Esebeck, lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Deux-Ponts, dated Jamestown Island, 12 and 16 December 1781,14 and the papers and letters of Colonel Christian de Deux Ponts, which have been in part deposited in and in part acquired by German archives.15 Copies of

four letters written from America by her ancestor Wilhelm de DeuxPonts are in the possession of Ms. Nancy Bayer.16 Journals kept by Dupleix de Cadignan of the Agenois,17 and Xavier de Bertrand, a lieutenant in the Royal DeuxPonts, have not been located.18 Indispensable for biographical research on the 1,034 French officers serving in dEstaings, Rochambeaus, and Saint-Simons forces, as well as on the French officers serving in the Continental Army is Gilbert Bodiniers Diction-

3) PERSONAL ACCOUNTS

While sources such as the orderly books or the Livre dordre have rarely been used in historical analyses of the 1781-82 campaigns, personal accounts by American and French military personnel letters, diaries, and memoirs have provided a wealth of source material for the history of the war. Nevertheless, much new ground remains to be broken in this area, historians having traditionally focused on a few well-known and easily accessible sources rather than the treasure trove of lesserknown material available in outof-the-way places. In an appendix to Volume 1 (pp. 285-348) of their American

7 Reisen Beschreibung von America welche das Hochlbliche Regiment von Zweybrcken hat gemacht zu Wasser und zu Land vom Jahr 1780 bis 84. Robert A. Selig is currently preparing an English translation and edition. 8 Milton Latham Papers MMC 1907. 9 Amblard, who enlisted at age 19 in 1773, was discharged as a captain in 1793. His manuscript is located in the Archives Dpartementales de l'Ardche in Privas, France. For unknown reasons, numerous passages from his journal can be found verbatim in a journal kept by an unidentified officer of the Soissonnais regiment that is listed in Rice and Brown. See Robert A. Seligs A New View of Old Williamsburg. A Huntington Library Manuscript provides another glimpse of the city in 1781. Colonial Williamsburg. The Journal of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Vol. 22 No. 1 (Spring 2000), pp. 30-34. 10 See Grard-Antoine Massoni, Dtails intressants sur les vnements arrivs dans la guerre dAmrique. Hyver 1781 1782. Hampton, Charlotte et suitte. Manuscrit de Claude Hugau, lieutenant-colonel de la Lgion des Volontaires Etrangers de Lauzun (Besanon: Universit de Franche-Comt, 1996) 11 The letters are in the Archives du Dpartement Val dOise in Cergy-Pontoise, No. 1J 191 and 1J 337/338. 12 Lauberdire's Journal is in the Bibliothque Nationale in Paris, France. See Robert A. Seligs America the Ungrateful: The Not-So-Fond Remembrances of Louis Franois Dupont dAubevoye, Comte de Lauberdire American Heritage Vol. 48, No. 1 (February 1997), pp. 101-106, and Lauberdire's Journal. The Revolutionary War Journal of Louis Franois Bertrand dAubevoye, Comte de Lauberdire Colonial Williamsburg. The Journal of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Vol. 18, No. 1 (Autumn 1995), pp. 33-37. 13 The letter is catalogued under B4 172, Marine. 14 John M. Lenhart, Letter of an Officer of the Zweibrcken Regiment, Central-Blatt and Social Justice, Vol. 28 (January 1936), pp. 321-322, and Vol. 28 (February 1936), pp. 350-360. 15 The papers of Christian von Zweibrcken deposited in the Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv-Geheimes Hausarchiv in Munich are owned by Marian Freiherr von Gravenreuth; those deposited in the Pflzische Landesbibliothek in Speyer were acquired at auction and are owned by the library. 16 The letters are owned by Anton Freiherr von Cetto in Oberlauterbach, Germany. 17 The last known owner of this manuscript was Bernard Zublena, domaine de lagarde, 32 250 Montreal, Canada. 18 The journal is quoted in Rgis dOlon, LEsprit de Corps dans lAncienne Arme Carnet de la Sabretache 5th series (1958), pp. 488-496. Rgis dOlon is a descendant of Bertrand.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC E S SAY

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naire des officiers de larme royale qui ont combattu aux tats-Unis pendant la guerre dIndpendance 1776-1783 3rd edition (Chailland, 2001). Enlistment records or contrles of enlisted personnel in Rochambeaus corps, indipensable for statistical data on his troops, are preserved by the Service Historique de lArme de Terre in the Chateau de Vincennes; only those of Lauzuns Legion are in the Archives Nationales in Paris. While the correspondence of officers such as Rochambeau is of the greatest importance for the identification of the route and the grand strategy behind the campaign, it is in the papers, letters, and accounts of its participants that one finds the details, the personal encounters, and the stories that bring the route to life. The same, of course, holds true for the American side, but the body of resources is infinitely larger. In his Revolutionary America 1763-1789. A Bibliography (2 vols., Washington DC, 1984), the last major bibliography published on the Revolutionary War, Ronald M. Gephart lists more than 20,000 items just in the holdings of the Library of Congress. Since then, thousands of titles have been added to those listed in Gepharts bibliography. Other valuable resources include Stetson Conn and Robert W. Coakley, An Army Chronology of the American Revolution (revised) (Washington, D.C., 1974); Joyce L. Eakin, Colonial
7-4
BIBLIOGRAPHIC E S SAY

America and the War for Independence Special Bibliography 14. (Carlisle Barracks, 1976); Terry M. Mays, Historical Dictionary of the American Revolution (Lanham, 1999); J. Todd White and Charles H. Lesser, eds. Fighters For Independence: A Guide to Sources of Geographical Information on Soldiers and Sailors of the American Revolution (Chicago, 1977); Robert K. Wright, Jr., Continental Army. Army Lineage Series (Washington, D.C., 1983); Charles H. Lesser, ed. Sinews of Independence: Monthly Strength Reports of the Continental Army (Chicago, 1976); and Howard H. Peckham, ed., Toll of Independence: Engagements & Battle Casualties of the American Revolution (Chicago, 1974). If less than half of the accounts by officers in Rochambeaus little army have been published in their entirety, the situation is similar for accounts by American participants. The papers of major participants such as George Washington, Henry Knox, and Benjamin Lincoln are available either in print or on microfilm; a complete list of diaries kept by enlisted men and NCOs, many of them unpublished, can be found at http://www.RevWar75.com, though the best-known source is the account penned by Joseph Plumb Martin, Private Yankee Doodle (Hallowell, ME, 1830; repr. Boston, 1962). Martins account contains much information on th`e campaign of 1781/82, as does the un-

published diary of Sergeant-Major Hawkins of the Canadian Regiment in the Pennsylvania Historical Society and numerous other journals and diaries listed in Gepharts and other bibliographies. A unique source on individual soldiers and the war that can be easily overlooked is the pension applications of Revolutionary War veterans in the National Archives. The autobiographies attached to these applications are lengthy at times and full of information not found anywhere else. On numerous occasions soldiers who deserted or were discharged from Rochambeaus regiments applied for pensions as well, and their biographical essays shed much light on the integration of immigrants into postrevolutionary American society.

The majority of these sources, however, are not yet published and need to be researched on site. A unique resource for WashingtonRochambeau study is the McDonald Papers in the Westchester County Historical Society in Elmsford, New York. John McLeod McDonald (1790-1863) had been trained as a lawyer. After a stroke in 1835, he could no longer practice law and became interested in the history of the Revolutionary War. Accompanied by Andrew Corsa, Washingtons and Rochambeaus guide during the Grand Reconnaissance of 2123 July, 1781, he traveled through Westchester County interviewing eyewitnesses in preparation for a history of the Revolutionary War. His interviews with 241 men and women, white and black, free and slave, fill more than 1,100 pages of handwriting. McDonald never wrote his history, but his interviews form a unique oral history resource for events in the "neutral ground" between British and American lines.

trading firms, and merchants operating along the route confirms the enormous impact French forces had wherever they went. On 24 August 1781, 7 French guines show up for the first time in the Lea Mills Account Book of Brandywine Village. By early September, 1/2 Joes, pistols, doubloons, and guineas have completely replaced Continental dollars, so that on 11 November 1781, Thomas Leas neighbor Samuel Canby expressed in his diary the hope that: as I apprehend from the present prospect of things in our Country that people generally will rather be encouraged to go into Business more than there has been opportunity for these several Years past as there is nothing but Specie now Circulating as a currency. When French forces returned to Wilmington the following year they commented with surprise on the number of houses built between 1781 and 1782, and attributed their construction to French silver. Lee Kennett has estimated that between public and private funds, French forces may well have disbursed 20 million livres in coin, possibly doubling the amount of specie circulating in the thirteen colonies. Even if the amount of specie was closer to the estimate of Timothy R. Walton who writes in The Spanish Treasure Fleets (Sarasota, 1994), p. 183, On the eve of the American Revolution, about half the coins used in

4) PRIMARY SOURCES DESCRIBING FRANCOAMERICAN ENCOUNTERS

Another often-neglected resource of paramount importance for the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route study are diaries, letters, or memoirs by civilian Americans describing encounters with their French guests. Some of these sources, such as the diaries of Ezra Stiles, president of Yale, are published and easily available. Many were published locally in small, private editions or in county historical magazines and newsletters that are not usually indexed or accessible through computerized searches.

5) ECONOMIC IMPACT

The presence of French forces and their bullionhad an enormous economic and emotional impact on the cashstarved colonies, but research on this economic impact is still in its infancy. Even a brief look into the ledgers and account books of tavern keepers, mill-owners,

the British North American Colonies, some 4 million pesos (24 million livres) worth, were pieces of eight from New Spain and Peruan infusion of 20 million livres was bound to have had a major impact on the American economy. But Kennett may still be right. In his Las Damas de la Havana, el precursor, and Francisco de Saavedra: A Note on Spanish Participation in the Battle of Yorktown, The Americas Vol. 37, (July 1980), pp. 83-99, James A. Lewis estimates intergovernmental loans, such as that for de Grasse in August 1781, at about 2 million pesos and loans arranged by private lenders at 3 million, possibly 4 million pesos, for a minimum of 30 million livres (at an exchange rate of 6 livres per peso).

Battle Road site and useful links to other sites:

www.ziplink.net/~mrkmcc/ resources.htm89

www.xenophongroup.com/mcjoynt/ march, an extended chronological

Battles and skirmishesmore than 2,600 sites with references plus transcripts of primary sources:
www.281.com/robertson/battles/ battlemenu.htm

description of strategy and movements from July 1780 to September 1781 at www.xenophongroup.com/ mcjoynt/campaign, or the route of the French wagon train from Annapolis, Maryland, to Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781 at
www.xenophongroup.com/mcjoynt/ wagon.htm

Johnson, Samuel, Dictionary of the English language. This site has a search engine that allows many types of searches.
www.hti.umich.edu/english/johnson/ main.html

Primary sources: culture, politics, military, etc.: www2.pitnet.net/primarysources/ Revolutionary War web site, including documents:
www.grandrepublican.com

Lauzuns Legion:
www.lauzunslegion.com

Rochambeau Revolutionary Road:

www.ctssar.org/revroad/index.htm

Brigade of the American Revolution (reenactment organization):

www.brigade.org

Military actions of the American Revolution:

www.sar.org/history/ docsbatt.htm

George Washington Diaries:

www.memory.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml/

Royal Deux-Ponts Regiment of Infantry: http://bluepost.tcimet.net/deuxponts/ Saintonge Regiment of Infantry:

www.ai.mit.edu/people/sfelshin/ saintonge/85hist.html

Chronology of major events in literature, theater, politics, science, religion, music, and art:
www.english.upenn.edu/~jlynch/Chron/

George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress:

www.memory.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml/ gwhome.html

Military documents, including extracts from diaries and journals written during the American Revolution:
www.hillsdale.edu/dept/ history/documents/war/index.htm

Continental Congress:
www.memory.loc.gov/ammem/bdsds/ bdsdhome.html

6) INTERNET RESOURCES

Eighteenth-century bibliographies:
www.personal.psu.edu/special/C18/ engrave.htm

This listing eliminates the standard prefix http:// from web addresses, but many browser programs will add it automatically when the web address is typed. American Revolution Bibliographies at the US Army Center of Military History:
www.army.mil/cmh-pg/

The 147,000 photographic images are organized into eight series that can be searched by keyword or browsed with a hyper-linked series list. Successive pages are linked, allowing one to read complete documents and journals. George Washington Papers at the University Press of Virginia: www.virginia.edu/gwpaper/ Interdisciplinary resources for 18th-century studies:
www.personal.psu.eduspecial/ C18srsr.htm

Military history, American Revolution:

www.cfcsc.dnd.ca/links/milhist/ usrev.html

Sons of the American Revolution: www.sar.org. See also www.sar.org/history/rochambo.htm, a site on the WashingtonRochambeau route efforts The Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route Historic Trail Association:
www.AmRevandFrance.com

Northwest Territory Alliance (a reenactment group):

www.nwta.com/main.html

Eighteenth-century clothing resources: www.costumes.org Eighteenth-century maps:

www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/ maps/maps.html

Expdition Particulire: American Revolution documents:

www.americanrevolution.org www.xenophongroup.com/mcjoynt/ep

Archiving Early America:

www.earlyamerica.com/

There is a section of advice on how to read 18th-century documents.

A series of web pages that cover all aspects of the French expeditionary army and its activities on the American continent from 1780 to 1782, such as a list of the dates and places of encampments from Providence to Yorktown at

John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Librarys catalog at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Virginia. The library has some popular finding aids on the webchoose Library to get to the Librarys offerings:
www.history.org

Orderly books of units can be found at www.revwar75.com/ There is also a list of major and minor repositories, archives, and libraries (with links) where primary-source materials are located. Primary-source documents pertaining to early American historyformation of American politics, culture, and ideas.
www.universitylake.org/ primarysources.html

This is the regularly updated website of the WashingtonRochambeau Revolutionary Route Historic Trail Association with information on upcoming events, links to state and local studies, and to websites of sponsors and stakeholders in the project. Yale Law School Avalon Project documents bearing principally on diplomatic history:
www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/ diplomacy/br1814m.htm
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8 Study Team and Illustration Sources

Study Team
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NORTHEAST REGION SYMPOSIUM SCHOLARS AND CONTRIBUTORS

Illustration Sources
2STUDY LEGISLATION, PURPOSE AND TASKS

Boston Support Office > Larry Gall, Team Manager for Stewardship & Partnership > Brian Aviles, Project Manager > Vicki Sandstead, Historian > Paul Weinbaum, Historian Philadelphia Support Office > Terry Moore, acting Chief of Planning > Deirdre Gibson, former Chief of Planning National Capital Region > Gary Scott, Chief Historian

CONSULTANTS

Goody, Clancy & Associates > Christine Cousineau, Project Manager > David Spillane, Senior Project Associate > Steve Wolf, Graphic Designer and Editor > Paul Santos, Graphic Designer Dr. Robert A. Selig, Project Historian

Ren Chartrand, author and former senior curator, National Historic Sites, Canada Dr. Harry Dickinson, Robert Lodge Professor of British History, University of Edinburgh, Scotland General Gilbert Forray, retired Chief of the Army Staff, French Army, and recipient of the Grande Croix de la Lgion dHonneur, France Jean-Ren Ghan, Counselor for Cultural Affairs to the French Embassy, Washington Dr. Sarah Purcell, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Grinnell College, Iowa Dr. Ray Raymond, MBE, FRFA, Political Officer, British Consulate General, New York

Page 2-1 Both photographs: study team

3HISTORICAL NARRATIVE

NPS REVOLUTIONARY WAR PARKS CONTRIBUTORS

Karen Rehm, Colonial National Historical Park Diane Depew, Colonial NHP Frances Delmar, Independence NHP Special acknowledgements to the Connecticut Historical Commission

Page 3-1 Sige dYorcktown by Louis-CharlesAuguste Couder, 1836. Galerie des Batailles, Chteau de Versailles, France Page 3-2 Map: Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island Drawing: Art Division, New York Public Library Page 3-3 All photos: study team Map: Berthier Papers, No. 21-25, Princeton University Library Page 3-4 Top photos: study team Portrait: The Quarterly Bulletin of the Westchester County Historical Society, April 1932 Page 3-5 All: Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University, Providence Page 3-7 Map: National Park Service Photo: study team

Page 3-8 Portrait of Washington: painted by Robert Edge Pine, 1785-87, Independence National Historical Park Page 3-9 Collection of Robert A. Selig Page 3-12 Robert Erskine maps 124B, New York Historical Society The Battle of Paoli, John U. Rees French tents, Andr Gousse, Parks Canada Page 3-133-16 Maps produced by Impact LLC, Red Hook, New York, edited by study team
4SIGNIFICANCE THEMES

Page 4-1 Henry Knox Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society Page 4-2 Top: Henry Knox Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society Bottom: Delaware Historical Society Page 4-3 Library of Congress Page 4-4 Left: study team Right: New-York Historical Society

Page 4-6 Top: Muse Historique, Strasbourg, France Bottom: Collection of Robert A. Selig Page 4-7 Right: Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University, Providence Left: Robert A. Selig Page 4-8 DAR Magazine, November 1984 Page 4-9 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; bequest of Charles Allen Munn, 1924 Page 4-11 Upper right: www.geocities/ kdw72696/tour-peq.htm DeGrasse: www.photogallery.com/ places/virginiabeach/vb17 Lower left photograph: Alicia N. Wayland All other photos: study team Page 4-14 Coins: Robert A. Selig Page 4-15 Right photo (marker): www.xenophongroup.com/ mcjoynt/vawrrmrk.htm Left photo (tavern): Robert Reyes, National Parks MidAtlantic Council, Inc.

STUDY

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ILLUSTRATION

SOURCES

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Page 4-17 U.S. Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis Page 4-18 The French Navy and the American War of Independence, Information Office, French Embassy (New York) page 4-19 Anne S. K. Brown and H.C. Rice Jr. The American Campaigns of Rochambeaus Army, 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783 Volume II The Itineraries, Maps, and Views. Princeton University Press, 1972. illustration 143 Page 4-20 Top: Tate Gallery, London Bottom: National Maritime Museum, London

5HISTORIC USE OF THE ROUTE

Page 5-1 Study team Page 5-2 Lower left: Robert Reyes, National Parks Mid-Atlantic Council, Inc. Top: www.xenophongroup.com/ mcjoynt/vawrrmrk.htm Lower right: study team

6RESOURCES

Page 6-1 Study team Page 6-2 Bibliothque Nationale de France, Paris
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Washington-Rochambeau RevolutionaryRoute
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