 Jean
Baptiste Donaben de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, was born in Vendome,
south west of Paris, in 1725. His first combat experience was in 1742
during the Austrian War of Succession ; he participated in the
Bohemian, Bavarian, and Rhine campaigns. Thereafter, he was named
advisor to the Duke of Orlans. He distinguished himself again during
the German campaign of 1757-1758, and was appointed to the rank of
Marshall in 1761. When France sided with the Revolutionaries in
America, Louis XVI and his minister Vergennes, wanted to limit their
support to providing more naval assistance. But by the end of 1779,
the situation in the colonies had became so difficult that the King
agreed to give La Fayette 5,500 men. The soldiers had been chosen from
among the best regiments in the kingdom. They were placed under the
command of Rochambeau whose own son had joined the expeditionary
force. They sailed for America in July 1780. Rochambeau advised
Washington to attack Cornwallis in the South instead of Clinton in New
York. This decision led to the victory of Yorktown. When he returned
to France, Rochambeau became military governor of Picardy, in Northern
France. Although he was an aristocrat, he rallied to the cry of the
French Revolution, and assumed command of the Northern Armies in 1790.
He resigned from his post in 1792, following a disagreement with
General Dumouriez. Arrested during the Terror, he was released by
Napolon and received a Marshalls pension in 1803. He died in Thor
in 1807.
The important role played by the French
forces under the command of Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de
Rochambeau, during the American Revolution is represented by this
small manuscript atlas consisting of 46 maps recording the camp sites
occupied by the French army following the defeat of the British at
Yorktown. Leaving Williamsburg, Virginia, at the beginning of July
1782, the French troops marched northward, averaging 10-15 miles per
day.
Their journey, which followed approximately
the route of present-day U.S. Route 1 and Interstate 95, ended at the
beginning of December 1782, just outside of Boston. Depicted here is
the site at Alexandria, Virginia, where the French troops were
encamped July 17, 1782.
With the invaluable help of a combined French
military force commanded by the Comte de Rochambeau, General George
Washington and his Continental Army cornered and forced the surrender
of a large British army under the command of Lord Cornwallis. This
defeat at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781, forced the British
to seriously negotiate for a peace and recognize American
independence.
Although Washington had been an inveterate
diary keeper since age sixteen, his diary for 1781 was one of only two
he kept during the course of the Revolutionary War (the other was a
weather diary for early 1780). Addressing his lapse, Washington
admitted "I lament not having attempted it from the commencement
of the War." |
