French Army Campsites 19 (south), and 35 (north) near John Suffern’s Tavern

Location

Suffern, NY 10901

Who?:  French
Units:  Bourbonnois, Soissonnois, Saintonge, Royal Deux-Ponts plus campaign artillery and Lauzun's Legion consecutively
Direction:  north
Destination:  Yorktown, Virginia (Continental Army and French Infantry) and Gloucester Courthouse (Lauzun's hussars) in 1781, Crompond/Yorktown Heights, New York and from there to Boston, Massachusetts (French infantry) and winter quarters 1782/83 in Wilmington, Delaware (Lauzun's Legion) in 1782
Date:  August 25/26, 1781 (First Brigade), August 26/27, 1781 (Second Brigade) and September 13/14, 1782
Public Access:  1

The First Brigade of the French army followed one day behind the Continental Army. It left its camp at Haverstraw on Sunday, August 25, 1781, for Suffern, its nineteenth camp since departure from their first camp in Providence, Rhode Island, on June 18, 1781. While some of the officers stayed at John Suffern’s Tavern, the men of the First Brigade and the Wagon Train camped west of the Mahwah River on the west side of Washington Avenue to about half-way to the bridge on August 25. The next day, August 26, the Second Brigade occupied the same ground.