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General Rochambeau
Being Received by George Washington
Rochambeau,
JEAN BAPTISTE DONATIEN DE VIMEUR, COUNT DE, military
officer; born in Vendome, France, July 1, 1725; entered the army at
the age of sixteen years, and in 1745 became aid to Louis Philippe,
Duke of Orleans. He afterwards commanded a regiment, and was wounded
at the battle of Lafeldt. He was distinguished in several battles,
especially at Minden. When it was resolved by the French monarch to
send a military force to America, Rochambeau was created a
lieutenant-general and placed in command of it. He arrived at
Newport, Rhode Island, in
July, 1780, and joined the American army under Washington, on the
Hudson, a few miles above New
York. He led his army to the
Virginia peninsula, and assisted in the capture of
Cornwallis at
Yorktown, Oct. 19, 1781, when he was presented with one of the
captured cannon. In 1783 he received the decoration of Saint Esprit,
and in 1791 was made a marshal of France. Early in 1792 he was
placed in command of the Army of the North, and narrowly escaped the
guillotine when the Jacobins wielded supreme power in Paris.
Bonaparte gave him a pension in 1804. He dictated Memoirs (Paris,
1809). He died in Thore, May 10, 1807. A monument to his memory was
unveiled in Washington, D. C., May 24, 1902. |