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Rochambeau’s army order book, unpublished, transcribed in full and put into context by the author, brings us into daily life of french army. No, the French army was not idle! This source is the last proof of the daily decision-making by the general staff in order to build a coherent structure and military confidence in an operational framework in foreign territory from July 1780 to August 1781. It reveals the instruments of the secret of success and of cooperation. This first volume covers the initial period in Newport from July 1780 to April 1781.

Efforts upon the waves played a critical role in European and Anglo-American conflicts throughout the eighteenth century. Yet the oft-told narrative of the American Revolution tends to focus on battles on American soil or the debates and decisions of the Continental Congress. The Untold War at Sea is the first book to place American privateers and their experiences during the War for Independence front and center. Kylie A. Hulbert tells the story of privateers at home and abroad while chronicling their experiences, engagements, cruises, and court cases.

W3R-US, Maryland Veteran Museum, and Port Tobacco Chapter, NSDSR, sponsored the Rochambeau Reception on August 27, 2023. The venue was the Maryland Veterans Museum at Patriot Park located in Southern Maryland.

The goal for the Rochambeau Reception was to educate the public of the Washington Rochambeau Route through Southern Maryland. Four wayside signs were contracted to depict the route of French soldiers traveling through Southern Maryland region on their way to Yorktown, VA.

The 4th annual March to Yorktown in Westfield, New Jersey, sponsored by Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary Route Association NJ and the Washington-Rochambeau Route was a huge success this past Sunday, August 27th!

About 40 people attended the W3R Garden Party fundraiser for W3R-US on August 27 in Franklin Township NJ, at the Black Horse Tavern, now privately owned, where the Marquis de Chastellux stayed en route to Yorktown in 1781. Rarely opened for events, the tavern is marked on the Louis-Alexandre Berthier map from the 1781.

The July 2023 edition of the W3R-US bulletin.

American independence would not have been achieved without diplomatic, financial, and military support from Europe. And without recognition from powerful European nations, the young country would never have assumed an independent status “amongst the powers of the earth.” This collection of essays not only offers new glimpses into the ways in which various European powers and actors enabled American patriots to fight and win the war, it also highlights the American Revolution’s short- and long-term impact on the Atlantic world.

One of our friends from across the Atlantic, the Friends of Lauzun’s Castle, are requesting your help! The Friends of Lauzun are seeking donations so that the commune of Lauzun may buy back Lauzun’s castle in order to better preserve it for future generations. They also have plans to install a room in the memory of Armand-Louis de Gontaut-Biron, his legion from the War of Independence and the regiment of Lauzun’s Hussars. The window to help is very small, as fundraising must be complete by September 25th.

The American Friends of Lafayette is thrilled to announce the upcoming thirteen-month bicentennial celebration of Major General Lafayette’s triumphant return tour to America! August 16, 2024 kicks off the beginning of this monumental occasion with hundreds of events planned tracing the footsteps of Lafayette on his tour of America as the “Guest of the Nation” between 1824–1825, in the exact order he traveled.

In anticipation of the upcoming Bicentennial celebrations, the AFL has created a video with Director James Lee, in order to bring awareness, excitement, and have some fun in launching the countdown to next year’s events.

T. Cole Jones’s book, Captives of Liberty: Prisoners of War and the Politics of Vengeance in the American Revolution sets out to answer those questions. Using examples from the Canadian campaign, Battle of Brooklyn, Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga, and the Southern campaign as case studies, Jones argues that Americans believed they were upholding European customs in their handling of prisoners of war. But when the British did not extend the same courtesies, Americans found it increasingly difficult to justify providing adequate care and respect for their enemy. “Atrocity rhetoric compounded real accounts of British mistreatment of American captives in the press,” Jones writes, which drove Americans to demand harsher treatment towards their enemies, setting off a spiral of competing violence against each other. As the war dragged on, honor was replaced with the need for revenge.