Rochambeau Revolutionary Route in the State of New York, 1781-1782
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THE WASHINGTON - ROCHAMBEAU REVOLUTIONARY ROUTE IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK, 1781-1782 An Historical And Architectural Survey Project Historian: ROBERT A. SELIG, Ph. D. Project Director: Dr. James M. Johnson, Colonel, US Army (Ret.) Sponsor: Florence Gould Foundation Administered by: Hudson River Valley Greenway 2001 Hudson River Valley Greenway Capitol Building Capitol Station Room 254 Albany, NY 12224 Tel.: (518) 473 3835 Fax: (518) 473 4518 www.hudsongreenway.state.ny.us Copyright © Robert A. Selig For additions/corrections/suggestions contact the author at www.xenophongroup.com/vita/selig For additional copies of this report contact: Hudson River Valley Institute Marist College 3399 North Road Poughkeepsie, New York 12601-1387 Phone: Fax: 845-575-3052 845-575-3560 [email protected] TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 1. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5 2. INTRODUCTION Purpose of the Project 6 Scope of the Project 7 Goals of the Project 8 Sources 9 3. METHODOLOGY 3.1 Criteria for Selection: How Sites Were Chosen for Inclusion 12 3.2 The Form 14 3.3 Other Parts of the Survey Report 15 3.4 Recommendations 15 4. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THE ROUTE 17 5. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 5.1 France and Great Britain on the Eve of American Independence 21 5.2 French Aid prior to the Alliance of 1778 24 5.3 The Failed Invasion of 1779 and the Decision to send Troops to America 33 5.4 The Comte de Rochambeau and the troops of the expédition particulière 35 5.4.1 The Officer Corps 36 5.4.2 The Rank and File 44 6. THE EXPÉDITION PARTICULIÈRE IN RHODE ISLAND 6.1 The Transatlantic Journey 49 6.2 The Old World Meets the New World 51 7. THE CONNECTICUT EXPERIENCE (1781 7.1 Order and Organization of the March 63 7.2 The March of Rochambeau's Infantry through Connecticut, June 18-July 2, 1781 66 7.3 The March of Lauzun's Legion from Lebanon to Ridgefield, June 21-July 2, 1781 70 AMERICA MEETS FRANCE OUTSIDE NEW YORK CITY 8.1 The March of the French Forces to Philipsburg, July 2-6, 1781 76 8.2 The March of the Continental Army to Philipsburg, July 2-4, 1781 80 8.3 The Encampment at Philipsburg, July 4/6-August 18/19, 1781 81 8.4 The Grand Reconnaissance, July 21-23, 1781 93 NEW YORK OR THE CHESAPEAKE? 3 FRANCO-AMERICAN STRATEGY IN THE SUMMER OF 1781 9.1 The Conference at Wethersfield 100 9.2 The Washington-Rochambeau Correspondence with Admiral de Grasse 108 9.3 14 August 1781: The Day that shook the World 115 THE MARCH FROM PHILIPSBURG TO POMPTON, AUGUST 18 - 26, 1781 10.1 The March of the Continental Army to Stony Point 125 10.2 The March of the French Army to Stony Point 126 10.3 The March from Stony Point 131 11. THE VICTORIOUS ARMIES RETURN 11.1 The Return March to Crompond, September 13 - 24, 1782 132 11.2 The Camp at Crompond/Yorktown, September 24 - October 22, 1782 135 11.3 The March from Crompond to Boston, October 22 - December 25, 1782 136 12. CONCLUSION 139 13. BIBLIOGRAPHY 143 14. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CURRENCIES AND EXCHANGE RATES 148 15. DOCUMENTS 15.1 Treaty of Paris (February 10, 1763) 15.2 Treaty of Alliance between France and the United States (February 6, 1778) Act Separate and Secret (February 6, 1778) Preliminaries of Peace (November 30, 1782) Declaration for Suspension of Arms and Cessation of Hostilities (January 20, 1783) Declaration signed in Paris by the American Commissioner (February 20, 1783) 15.7 Treaty of Paris (September 3, 1783) 16.1 Minutes of the Wethersfield Conference between Washington and Rochambeau, May 22, 1781 16.2 Minutes of the Meeting between Washington and Rochambeau in Philipsburg, July 19, 1781 17.1 Uniform and Equipment of a French Soldier 17.2 March Route of the French Army from Newport to Yorktown and back 18. SITE PROFILES AND INVENTORY FORMS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4 It gives me great pleasure thank the many people who assisted me in the preparation of this report. First of all thanks are due to the Florence Gould Foundation for funding the research, to the Hudson River Valley Greenway for administering the grant, and to project director Dr. James M. Johnson, Colonel, US Army (Ret.), for his assistance and guidance. Many a citizen of the State of New York has helped by various ways and means. Ms Tema Harnik, Director of the Lower Hudson Conference welcomed me to Elmsford, and gave me the opportunity to present my findings at a "Symposium on Interpreting American Revolutionary Sites & Stories" on 25 May 2001. Ms Katie Hite, director of the Westchester County Historical Society and Archives and its librarian Ms Elizabeth Fuller gave me access to their treasures, especially the MacDonald Papers; Ms Sarah Henrich, Executive Director, Historical Society of Rockland County, did the same on the other side of the Hudson. In Waterford, Peter D. Shaver and John A. Bonafide, Historic Preservation Program Analysts for Westchester and Rockland Counties in the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation gave generously of their time and advice. Dr. Joseph Meany, Jr., Office of the State Historian at the New York State Museum, provided information on earlier attempts at marking the Washington-Rochambeau Route through the State, and Albert D. McJoynt drew the maps. Robert Stackpole, Frank Jazzo, Peter Q. Eschweiler, and Richard Presser were invaluable for researching the Franco-American camp at Philipsburg and the Odell House; Ms Lynn Roessler and John Curran, Peekskill City Historian, John Martino of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Mike Clark of the New Windsor Cantonment and Thomas Flynn, Historian for the Borough of Yonkers, provided valuable images and information. Drs. Allan Gilbert (Anthropology) and Roger Wines (History) of Fordham University pointed out the Corsa/Rose Hill Manor archeological site to me. I was welcomed by Don Loprieno, Site Manager of the Stony Point Battlefield State Historic Site, Carol Hagglund, Director of Philipsburg Manor, and Laura Correo, Director, Van Cortlandt House Museum. Mr. Judd Levin generously shared his research on the Van Cortland House with me while Dr. Lloyd Ultan, Bronx Borough Historian, answered my questions on the Grand Reconnaissance in the Bronx. In driving most of the route with me, Ms Nancy Bayer of Garrison, also traced the journey her ancestor William de Deux-Ponts had taken 220 years earlier. In France, M. le comte Jacques de Trentinian, a descendant of an officer in Lauzun's Legion, answered many inquiries; so did M. Gérard-Antoine Massoni, an expert on Lauzun's Legion. John W. Shannahan, Historic Preservation Officer for the State of Connecticut graciously granted permission to re-use, in updated form, parts of the historical background essay from my report on the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route for the State of Connecticut. I would be greatly amiss if I would not thank my good friend and colleague Dr. Samuel F. Scott who generously shared his vast knowledge of Rochambeau's troops, as well as the late Donald Brandt and Dr. Philip J. Handrick, who have been interpreting the Royal Deux-Ponts since 1976 and who put their files at my disposal. The generous assistance provided by David P. Jensen, director of Hope College's VanWylen Library, and by Ms Helen Einberger, head of the Inter-Library Loan Department, greatly facilitated the completion of this report. Last but by far not least I would like to thank my wife Barbara and my children Mary, Sebastian, and Hannah for doing without me for three long weeks in the fall of 2000, and for their patience during the time I spent in front of the computer. Thank you all. INTRODUCTION 5 2.1 Purpose of the Project In a 1999, interview with the historical magazine American Heritage, renowned author David McCullough claimed that "When you're working on the Revolutionary War, as I'm doing now, you realize what the French did for us. We wouldn't have a country if it weren't 6 for them."1 Few historians of the war on either side of the Atlantic would dispute that there is at least a grain of truth in McCullough's statement. Still, the notion of Frenchmen fighting side by side with Continental soldiers for American independence comes as a surprise to most Americans: 220 years after Yorktown few Americans are aware of the critical importance of America's French allies during the Revolutionary War. The support provided by French King Louis XVI toward the success of that war has been largely obliterated in the collective memory of the American people. As the Revolutionary generation passed away in the 1820s and 1830s, and canals and railroads altered modes and patterns of transportation in the 1840s and 1850s, the memory of the "gallant" Frenchmen under General comte de Rochambeau, of their crucial contribution to American Independence, and of the bond forged in the crucible of war, was covered by the mantle of Revolutionary War iconography. A prime example of this development is given by Benson J. Lossing, who could write as early as 1852, that "a balance-sheet of favors connected with the alliance will show not the least preponderance of service in favor of the French, unless the result of the more vigorous action of the Americans, caused by the hopes of success from the alliance, shall be taken into the account."2 The tragedy of the Civil War and the turmoil of the (Second) Industrial Revolution brought massive economic and demographic dislocation in the 1860s and 1870s. As millions of immigrants from southern and east-central Europe settled mid-western and western America in the 1880s and 1890s, interest in the French alliance was increasingly confined to professional historians and Americans living in France.