Rochambeau, Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de, Commander of the French Army in America

Letter signed ("D de Rochambeau"), 2 pages (8 7/8 x 7 3/8 in.; 225 x 187 mm) on a bifolium, written in a clerical hand, Newport, 25 April 1781, to an unidentified correspondent but likely Col. Jeremiah Wadsworth (and/or his business partner John Carter [i.e., John Barker Church]), docketed on verso of integral blank, second leaf neatly inlaid.

The Elsie O. and Philip D. Sang Foundation (Sotheby Parke Bernet, 26 April 1978, lot 253) — Richard Maas Collection of Revolutionary Americana (Sotheby's, 7 December 1999, lot 155)

Cf. Robert Selig, March to Victory: Washington, Rochambeau, and the Yorktown Campaign of 1781 (Defense Dept., Army, Center of Military History, 2005)

Letter signed ("D de Rochambeau"), 2 pages (8 7/8 x 7 3/8 in.; 225 x 187 mm) on a bifolium, written in a clerical hand, Newport, 25 April 1781, to an unidentified correspondent but likely Col. Jeremiah Wadsworth (and/or his business partner John Carter [i.e., John Barker Church]), docketed on verso of integral blank, second leaf neatly inlaid.
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Rochambeau prepares the French army for the "march to victory" at Yorktown.

The French expeditionary force that landed at Newport in July 1780 was expected by the Americans to have an immediate impact on their war for freedom. But the commander of the nearly 5,300 infantry- and artillerymen, the comte de Rochambeau, saw no real chance of success in the field without the support of a French fleet, and he settled his men in Newport for a long encampment. After nearly a year of inactivity by the Rochambeau's troops, tensions between the fledgling allies mounted; on 9 April 1781, Washington confided to John Laurens that "it may be declared in a word, that we are at the end of our tether, and that now or never our deliverance must come" (Writings, ed. Firzpatrick, 21:439).

At just the time that Washington sent this despairing surmise, Louis XVI sent Admiral de Grasse into New World waters, bound for the West Indies, but allowing for the possibility that he might assist Rochambeau if called for. Rochambeau and General George Washington met the next month to plan the most complex operation of the American Revolution. The march to Yorktown yoked together two armies—as well as the French navy—operating under different languages, different rules of engagement, and different political agendas. The success of this maneuver was largely due to Rochambeau's meticulous preparation, as well as willingness to ultimately subvert himself and his men to the command of General Washington.

As the present letter shows, Rochambeau had begun to organize for a combined movement with the Americans even before his council with Washington. Since its arrival, the French army—which, unlike the its American allies, could easily pay its vendors—had been supplied by the firm of Wadsworth and Carter with beef cattle, sheep, corn, oats, straw, firewood, and other non-military goods. Rochambeau recognized that the offices of Wadsworth and Carter would be vital in equipping and provisioning his enormous supply convoy. (The Chief Engineer of the French forces, Louis Duportuil, estimated that more than 3,000 horses and 2,000 oxen would be required to move the army's stores and artillery pieces.) He here asks the merchants to prepare for the first phase of the march, which, due to the poor state of the British fleet in New York, he anticipates will not begin for at least another month:

"As we have not had for these five or six days past, intelligences more urgent than the last from General Washington, I presume that the embarkation of Mr. Clinton won't be so soon as he had reported it would. The return of the fleet at New-york and the great need it stands under to be repaired, will afford us time enough not to hurry too much our measures, So that I hope, sir, that our being ready against the 15th of may will be sufficiently timely against any occasion whatsoever. As to the 20 Waggons drawn by four good horses each, which I have had the honor to ask for the treasure, the General's and Intendants papers We shall only want the horses with their harness and Waggonners, as we have the Waggons. If you can buy these horses for us, it may be better than if they were hired, but then that service would employ 20 soldiers more as Waggoners, besides 150 that we are obliged to furnish for the field pieces, the number of Ox teams will consequently be 130."

Wadsworth and Carter met this obligation, as they did many others over the next six months. French troops began leaving Newport on 11 June. By 6 July they had reached White Plains, where they were reviewed by Washington. After reconnoitering Clinton's fortifications at New York and determining them too strong to attack, the combined armies turned southward for Yorktown. There Lord Cornwallis's army was besieged by some 18,000 ground troops (almost equally divided between French and American), supported by more than 28,000 French sailors and marines commanded by Admiral de Grasse, who had taken Chesapeake Bay. On 19 October the British surrendered and the "World Turned Upside Down"—due in no small part to such mundane details as the horse and oxen teams supplied to Rochambeau by Wadsworth and Carter.