FAMILY TREE : OUR FRENCH ANCESTORS

Many of the Rochambeau Chapter members are direct descendants of French patriots who actively defended the cause of American Independence. 

Some of the ancestors in our French family tree are mentioned below.

Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau, Maréchal de France
born: Vendôme, 1725  -  died: Thoré (Loir-et-Cher), 1807


A descendant of an old family in the Vendôme area, Rochambeau entered the king's service at the age of 17 and took part in various military campaigns during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI.

During the War of Succession of Austria, which he ended with the rank of Colonel, he won distinction at the battle of Raucoux and Lawfeld (1747).

During the Seven Years War,  he brilliantly commanded the Auvergne Regiment and won glory at the battle of Clostercamp (1760).  Inspector General of the Cavalry in 1761, he was appointed Governor of Villefranche-en-Roussillon in 1776, then of Vendôme in 1779.

In 1780, Louis XVI promoted him to Lieutenant General and entrusted him with the command of 6,000 soldiers sent to North America to support the colonists in their revolt against England. With his calm demeanor, his military prowess and many other skills, Rochambeau admirably seconded Washington, thus contributing to the surrender at Yorktown in 1781.

Upon his return to France, he was made Chevalier du Saint Esprit (1783);  then, Governor of Picardy (1784), and finally, Governor of Alsace (1789).  Rallying to the French Revolution, he was placed at the head of the Army of the North (1790-1791), and was elevated to the title of Maréchal de France.  Following a disagreement with Dumouriez, he resigned and retired to Vendôme.  Arrested during the Terror, he was incarcerated in the Conciergerie and released after Thermidor.

The Maréchal de Rochambeau left us his Mémoires Historiques, militaires et politiques, published in 1809.

His personality and decisive role in the War of Independence inspired the French branch of the Daughters of the American Revolution to name their chapter in his honor.


- source: website of the Rochambeau Association
 

After a short military career, he was appointed France's ambasador to Poland and became, at the age of 35, head of Louis XV's secret intelligence.  He led the King's secret service during the Seven Years War, and, even when exiled, continued to advise the King until 1774.  He devised a plan to land in England in 1763. With his brother, Victor-François, Maréchal de France and with the support of enemies of the Minister Choiseul, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Broglie led a plot against the King's minister.

Broglie later fell out of favor when Louis XVI came to the throne: unlike his predecessor, Louis XV, the new king had no intention of maintaining a system of parallel diplomacy.  He therefore dispatched Broglie to Metz to serve alongside his brother, Victor-François, in command since 1771.

Known as the King of Americans, Broglie took an interest in the early warning signs and development of the War of Independence, and organized the departure of the French volunteers to America.

He died in 1781, the year of the war's decisive turning point.  


- source: text by Dominique Favreul, from historical sources
 

Gilbert Motier, Marquis de La Fayette
born: Chavaniac (Auvergne),1757 -  died: Paris,1834

An officer of the Dragons of Noailles, he first learned about the revolt of the American insurgents in August 1775, during a dinner organized by the Comte de Broglie with the Duke of Gloucester, brother of the King of England.  At the time, Louis XVI, King of France, secretly supported the insurgents. From then on, La Fayette dreamed of glory and a great military destiny for himself.

On December 7, 1776, he signed a secret agreement to defend the insurgents au nom d'une liberté que j'idolâtre (in the name of liberty that I worship).  At the age of 19, he set sail on the ship La Victoire and arrived on June 13, 1777, in South Inlet near Georgetown, South Carolina.  The American Congress finally accepted his command as Major General in the American army under the orders of George Washington.

La Fayette participated in the decisive battle of Yorktown (1781), alongside Washington and Rochambeau.

In 1824, when he was invited to return to the United States as the last surviving general from the War of Independence, he was given a hero's triumphant welcome all along his journey which lasted a year.  He is one of a very few to have been proclaimed an honorary citizen of the United States.


- source: text by Dominique Favreul, from historical sources