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| - On July 10, 1780, French troops sent by King Louis XVI commanded by Rochambeau arrived with an army of 450 officers and 5,300 men in Narragansett Bay off Newport, Rhode Island. In June 1781, Rochambeau's force left Rhode Island to join the Continental Army near White Plains, New York. The American and French troops took a combination of strategic roads and waterways from Philipsburg through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, the future District of Columbia, and Virginia, reaching Williamsburg in late September 1781.
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| abstract
| - On July 10, 1780, French troops sent by King Louis XVI commanded by Rochambeau arrived with an army of 450 officers and 5,300 men in Narragansett Bay off Newport, Rhode Island. In June 1781, Rochambeau's force left Rhode Island to join the Continental Army near White Plains, New York. Judging from the maps in the Rochambeau Collection and the early maps of Providence, the French army, on leaving the camp ground between Broad and Plane Streets, passed through the present Stewart Street to High Street, and west along this to the junction (Hoyle Tavern), where, leaving on their right the road to Hartford, they took the road to the left, then called the Monkey Town road, now Cranston Street, and followed this to Monkeytown, now Knightsville. The army here turned to the right following the old Scituate road over Dugaway hill by the late Pippin Orchard School house, over Apple House hill and Bald hill, crossing the Pawtuxet at the village of Kent and on to Waterman's Tavern, fifteen miles, the end of the first day's march and the first camp. "Waterman's Tavern is still standing in good condition near Potterville on the old Scituate road a mile or so north of the new state highway," noted one account in 1924: "It is now the home of Mr. Elmer A. Havens, who shows two wells of small diameter neatly stoned, that are said to have been dug by the French troops that camped here, both on the march to Yorktown and on the return march. The instructions for the march say : 'The camp is in quite a good position although in the midst of woods, having a brook in front, and behind, the tavern and the main road from Providence to Watermans much better than that by Angells tavern. The accommodations for divisional headquarters are not aboundant but more than at Angell's tavern or Whipple house.'" On June 19, the regiment of Royal DeuxPonts under the Baron de Viomenil, set out for the camp at Waterman's, followed on the 20th by the regiment of Soissonnais under the Count de Viomenil (brother of the Baron), and on the 21st by Saintonge, under the Marquis de Custine. With the departure of this last regiment, there were left in Providence a guard for the baggage and munitions stored in the Old Market House, and the surgeons and attendants at the hospital in University Hall. The American and French troops took a combination of strategic roads and waterways from Philipsburg through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, the future District of Columbia, and Virginia, reaching Williamsburg in late September 1781. With a French royal fleet blocking the Chesapeake, barring British reinforcements from New York or a sea escape for Cornwallis' army, Washington and Rochambeau's three-week siege of Yorktown ended in Cornwallis' surrender to Washington on October 19, 1781. After their victory, Washington and the Continentals returned to defend northern posts while Rochambeau and his troops wintered in Williamsburg prior to marching north the following summer. Both armies were warmly celebrated by the towns and cities along their return routes. Rochambeau and the French Troops in Providence in 1780-81-82 Howard W. Preston. (Read before the Rhode Island Historical Society,March 12, 1922.) They marched across Connecticut to join George Washington on the Hudson River at Dobbs Ferry, New York. The advance party was led by Armand Louis de Gontaut or Duc de Lauzun. Lauzun's Legion marched ahead of the main army and stayed ten to fifteen miles (24 km) to the south protecting the exposed flank from the British. The combined armies then marched through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland to Yorktown, Virginia. On September 22, they combined with the Marquis de Lafayette's troops and forced General Cornwallis to surrender on October 19 after the Siege of Yorktown and the Battle of the Chesapeake. After Yorktown, the French troops marched north again eventually ending in Boston, Massachusetts. On Monday, March 30, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, one of whose provisions was to designate the Washington–Rochambeau Revolutionary Route as a National Historic Trail.
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