Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau

Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur de Rochambeau
Rochambeau wearing the sash of the Order of Saint Louis
Born	1 July 1725 Vendôme, Orléanais, France
Died	30 May 1807 (aged 81) Thoré, Loir-et-Cher, France
Buried at	Thore Cemetery, Thore-la-Rochette
Allegiance	Kingdom of France  Kingdom of the French
Years of service	1742–1792
Rank	Marshal of France
Battles/wars	War of the Austrian Succession Seven Years' War American Revolutionary War French Revolutionary Wars
Awards	Order of the Holy Spirit Order of Saint Louis Society of the Cincinnati

Marshal Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau (French pronunciation: ​[ʁɔʃɑ̃bo]; 1 July 1725 – 10 May 1807) was a French nobleman and general who played a major role in helping the Thirteen Colonies win independence during the American Revolution. During this time, he served as commander-in-chief of the French Expeditionary Force that embarked from France in order to help the American Continental Army fight against British forces.

Military life

Rochambeau was born in Vendôme, in the province of Orléanais (now in the département of Loir-et-Cher). He was schooled at the Jesuit college in Blois. However, after the death of his elder brother, he entered a cavalry regiment, and served in Bohemia, Bavaria, and on the Rhine, during the War of the Austrian Succession. In 1747 he had attained the rank of colonel.

He took part in the siege of Maastricht in 1748 and became governor of Vendôme in 1749. After distinguishing himself in the Battle of Minorca (1756) on the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, he was promoted to Brigadier General of infantry. In 1758, he fought in Germany, notably in the battles of Krefeld and Clostercamp, receiving several wounds during the latter.

Landing of a French auxiliary army in Newport, Rhode Island on 11 July 1780, under the command of the comte de Rochambeau. This image, one of 12 scenes from the American Revolution printed in Allegemeines historisches Taschenbuch, was by Daniel Nickolaus Chodowiecki, a well-known Polish engraver. The John Carter Brown Library at Brown University had acquired the book by 1870.

American Revolution

NPS map of the W3R Route

Bataille de Yorktown by Auguste Couder. Rochambeau and Washington giving their last orders before the battle.

Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown by John Trumbull, depicting Cornwallis surrendering to the French troops of General Rochambeau (left) and American troops of Washington (right). Oil on canvas, 1820.

In 1780, Rochambeau was appointed commander of land forces as part of the project code named Expédition Particulière.^[1] He was given the rank of Lieutenant General in command of some 7,000 French troops and sent to join the Continental Army, under George Washington. In the American Revolutionary War Rochambeau commanded more troops than Washington did. Count Axel von Fersen the Younger served as Rochambeau's aide-de-camp and interpreter. The small size of the force at his disposal made him initially reluctant to lead the expedition.^[2]

He landed at Newport, Rhode Island, on 10 July, but was held there inactive for a year, owing to his reluctance to abandon the French fleet blockaded by the British in Narragansett Bay. Brown University, then named the College in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, served as an encampment site for some of Rochambeau's troops, and the College Edifice, now known as University Hall, was converted into a military hospital.^[3] In July 1781, Rochambeau's force left Rhode Island, marching across Connecticut to join Washington on the Hudson River in Mount Kisco, New York. From July 6 to August 18, 1781, the Odell farm served as Rochambeau's headquarters.^[4] There then followed the celebrated march of the combined forces, the siege of Yorktown and the Battle of the Chesapeake. On 22 September, they combined with Marquis de Lafayette's troops and forced Lord Cornwallis to surrender on 19 October. In recognition of his services, the Congress of the Confederation presented him with two cannons taken from the British. These guns, with which Rochambeau returned to Vendôme, were requisitioned in 1792.

He was an original member of The Society of the Cincinnati.

Return to France

Upon his return to France, Rochambeau was honored by King Louis XVI and was made governor of the province of Picardy. He supported the French Revolution of 1789, and on 28 December 1791 he and Nicolas Luckner became the last two generals created Marshal of France by Louis XVI. When the French Revolutionary Wars broke out, he commanded the Armée du Nord for a time in 1792 but resigned after several reversals to the Austrians. He was arrested during the Reign of Terror in 1793–94 and narrowly escaped the guillotine. He was subsequently pensioned by Napoleon and died at Thoré-la-Rochette during the Empire.

Legacy

Honors

A statue of Rochambeau by Ferdinand Hamar was unveiled in Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., by President Theodore Roosevelt on 24 May 1902, as a gift from France to the United States. The ceremony was made the occasion of a great demonstration of friendship between the two nations. France was represented by ambassador Jules Cambon, Admiral Fournier and General Henri Brugère, as well as a detachment of sailors and marines from the battleship Gaulois. Representatives of the Lafayette and Rochambeau families also attended. A Rochambeau fête was held simultaneously in Paris.

In 1934, American A. Kingsley Macomber donated a statue of General Rochambeau to the city of Newport, Rhode Island. The sculpture is a replica of a statue in Paris. It was from Newport that General Rochambeau departed with his army to join General Washington to march on to the Siege of Yorktown.

The French Navy gave his name to the ironclad frigate Rochambeau.

The USS Rochambeau was a transport ship that saw service in the United States Navy during World War II.

On Monday, 30 March 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, a provision of which is to designate the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route as a National Historic Trail.

One of the bridges in the complex of bridges known as the 14th Street Bridge (Potomac River) connecting Washington D.C. with Virginia is named for him.

Memoirs

Rochambeau's memoirs, Mémoires militaires, historiques et politiques, de Rochambeau were published by Jean-Charles-Julien Luce de Lancival in 1809. Of the first volume, a part that was translated by M.W.E. Wright into the English language was published in 1838 under the title of Memoirs of the Marshal Count de R. relative to the War of Independence in the United States.

Rochambeau's correspondences during the American campaign were published in H. Doniol's Histoire de la participation de la France en l'établissement des Etats Unis d'Amérique, or History of French Participation in the Establishment of the United States, in 1892; (MLA citation, Doniol, H. Histoire de la participation de la France en l'établissement des Etats Unis d'Amérique, Vol. V. [publisher unknown] Paris: 1892.)

Miscellany

Major General Comte Jean de Rochambeau in Lafayette Park, Washington, D.C.

US Postage Stamp, 1931 issue, honoring Rochambeau, George Washington and De Grasse, commemorating 150th anniversary of the victory at Yorktown, 1781.

• Rochambeau's son, Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur was an important figure in the Haitian Revolution, French Revolutionary, and Napoleonic Wars.
• Rochambeau Middle School in Southbury, Connecticut is named for the comte de Rochambeau, as is the Rochambeau Bridge which carries Interstate 84 and U.S. Highway 6 between Southbury and Newtown, Connecticut (Rochambeau's army marched through the area during the American Revolutionary War). There are also various shopping centers and minor streets named in Rochambeau's honor throughout Connecticut.
• The French international school (lycée français) in Bethesda, Maryland is named Lycée Rochambeau.
• A bridge over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., is also named for Rochambeau.
• There is a Rochambeau Drive named in his honor in Greenburgh, New York and in Williamsburg, Virginia, which is not far from the Yorktown battlefield.
• There is a Rochambeau Avenue named in his honor in Providence, Rhode Island, as well as a Rochambeau Street in both New Bedford, Massachusetts and Dobbs Ferry, New York.
• There is a Rochambeau Avenue named in his honor in the Bronx, New York.
• There is a Rochambeau Place in Springfield, Virginia.
• There is a statue of Rochambeau in Newport, Rhode Island and another in Washington, D.C. on Pennsylvania Avenue across from the White House in Lafayette Park that, according to the United States Park Service was sculpted by Fernand Hamar and cast by the Pal d'Osne foundry in France and dedicated 24 May 1904, and a statue memorializing his meeting with George Washington in Dobbs Ferry, New York.
• There is a Rochambeau Playground in the Richmond District in San Francisco, California.^[5]
• There is a "Rochambeau Farm" on the Historic Guard Hill in Bedford Corners, New York.
• There is a santa monument at French Hill in Marion, Connecticut close to the Asa Barnes Tavern, the eighth campsite of his troops through Connecticut in 1781.

Motto and coat of arms

Coat of arms	Motto
	VIVRE EN PREUX, Y MOURIR[6] (To live and die as a gallant knight)

Notes

1. Kennett, Lee (1977). The French Forces in America, 1780–1783. Greenwood Press, Inc. Page 10
2.  Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, Count de Rochambeau". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
4. Lenore M. Rennenkampf (February 1973). "National Register of Historic Places Registration:Odell House". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2010-12-24.
5. Rochambeau Playground
6. Johannes Baptist Rietstap, Armorial général : contenant la description des armoiries des familles nobles et patriciennes de l'Europe : précédé d'un dictionnaire des termes du blason, G.B. van Goor, 1861, 1171 p

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "^{article name needed}". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. In turn, it cites as references:
  • Arthur Du Chêne, "Autour de Rochambeau" in Revue des facultés catholiques de l'ouest (1898–1900)
  • E. Gachot, "Rochambeau" in Nouvelle Revue (1902)
  • H. de Ganniers, "La Dernière Campagne du maréchal de Rochambeau" in Revue des questions historiques (1901)

External links

• France and the American Revolution at the John Carter Brown Library

Jean-Baptiste-Donatien Count de Rochambeau at Find a Grave