ROCHAMBBAU, ro-shail-b6, Jean Bap tiste Donatien de Vimeur, Collis DE, French marshal: b. Vendome, 1 July 1725; d. Thore, 10 May 1807. He was the son of the governor of his native town and was brought up for the Church, but at 17 entered the army. He fought with distinction in the war of the Austrian Suc cession, attained the rank of colonel and in 1749 succeeded his father as governor of Ven dome. During the Seven Years' War he did excellent service in Minorca (1756) and later in Germany, winning the rank of brigadier-gen eral. He was made lieutenant-governor in 1780 and in the same year was dispatched at the head of an army of 6,000 men to co-operate with the American forces in the War of Indepen dence. In July he landed in Rhode Island and, intrenchin himself at Newport, held his posi tion until June of the following year, when, in pursuance of a plan of campaign arranged be tween Rochambeau and Washington, the French troops, reinforced by some 3,000 men, marched across Connecticut and joined the American army on the Hudson near Dobbs Ferry, whence was begun the southward march for Yorktown. The city was invested on 29 September and after two brilliant assaults by the French troops and the defeat of the English fleet by the French under 'De Grisie in thisipeake Bay, Cornwallis surrendered. Rochambeau's serv ices to the American cause were enhanced by the utter absence of jealousy or self-assertion on his Part; be placed himself implicitly under Washington's orders and within his own army maintained the sternest discipline. Congress voted its thanks to the French commander for his valuable services and presented him with two guns taken at Yorktown. Returning to France in 1783, he took part in the earlier events of the French Revolution and after being raised to the rank of field-marshal was given in 1791 command of the Army of the North. Re
garding with disfavor the progress of the Rev olutionary policy, he resigned in June 1792 and soon after was imprisoned at Paris, regaining his liberty at the end of the Reign of Terror in 1794. In 1804 Napoleon made him an officer of the Legion of Honor. A statue of Rocham beau was erected at Vendome in 1899 and a replica of it, a gift of the French republic to the United States, in Lafayette square, Wash ington, was unveiled with much ceremony in 1902 by l'resident Roosevelt. He left behind him (Memoires du Marechal de (1890), translated, in part, into English by M. W. E. Wright (1838) under the title 'Memoirs of the Marshal Count de Rochambeau Rela tive to the War of Independence of the United For his correspondence during hls term in America consult Daniel, (Histoire de la participation de la France I l'etablissement des Etats Unis d'Amerique) (Vol. V, Paris 1892). Consult also Gachot, (Rochambeau) (in Nouvelle Revue, Paris 1902) ; Jusserand, J. A.
A. J.'Rochambeau in America) (Washington 1912;; Lodge, Henry C., 'A Fighting Frigate and Other Essays) (New York 1902) ; chambeau) (published by the Joint Commission on Library of the United States Congress, Washington 1907) ; Soule, Francoise, 'Histoire des troubles de l'Amerigae anglaise? (Paris 1787) and the anonymous work, 'Journal des operations du corps francais sous le commande ment du comte de sometimes attributed to Rochambeau.