Video Tag: France

François-Jean de Chastellux and American Independence

Iris De Rode
March 2, 2023

François-Jean Chastellux, a major general in the French army, member of the Society of the Cincinnati and cousin of the marquis de Lafayette, played a central role in the Franco-American alliance during the Revolutionary War. Recently, a collection of more than four thousand pages of Chastellux’s private papers were discovered at his estate in Burgundy, […]

George Washington, the Society of the Cincinnati, and the Origins of American Neutrality

Sandra Moats
November 16, 2021

George Washington and his cabinet issued the Neutrality Proclamation in 1793 to shield the United States from European warfare. This proclamation owed its existence to numerous sources, including Washington’s military experiences and European diplomatic precedents. A lesser known, but highly influential, inspiration came from the Society of the Cincinnati, whose French members had served alongside […]

Image of three French officers who served in the American Revolution and wrote memoir accounts of their time in America.

French Memoirs from the War for American Independence

Ellen Clark, Normand Desmarais, Robert Selig and Andrew Woelflein
July 12, 2021

The American Revolution marked the beginning of an age of democratic revolutions that swept over France and challenged the old order throughout the Atlantic world. The French officers who served in the American War of Independence, whether as idealistic volunteers or resolute soldiers of their king, remembered the experience for the rest of their lives. […]