Video Tag: French Participation

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. […]

Louis XVI biographer John Hardman presents the 2019 George Rogers Clark lecture discussing the factors that ultimately led to French support for the War for American Independence.

Louis XVI and the War of American Independence

John Hardman
October 25, 2019

Aid sent by Louis XVI tipped the scales in favor of a Patriot victory in the War for American Independence. However, this assistance was far from assured. John Hardman argues that the French monarch possessed sharp political insight and talent in foreign policy, and his choice to support the Patriot cause was nearly lost. Why […]

Christy Pichichero discussed the military enlightenement and the French army at the American Revolution Institute.

The American Revolution and the French Military Enlightenment

Christy Pichichero
October 10, 2019

Christy Pichichero illustrates how the French Enlightenment philosophies of foreign officers in the American Revolution informed their perspective of American customs. Selecting the marquis de Chastellux and the comte de Rochambeau—whose memoirs are a part of the Institute’s rich archival collections—among her examples, Dr. Pichichero labels these men “military philosophers” who brought Enlightenment philosophy to […]

Librarian Rachel Jirka discussed two French accounts of the Yorktown campaign.

Two Narratives of the French Army’s March to Yorktown

Rachel Jirka
August 14, 2015

French narratives of the march to Yorktown from the American Revolution Institute’s collection—written by Henri-Dominique de Palys, chevalier de Montrepos, and Robert Guillaume, baron de Dillon—are highlighted in this presentation by Rachel Jirka, an Institute librarian. The narratives detail the French army’s march to Yorktown in 1781 and provide insight into the French experience marching […]

Robert Selig presents a lecture on the march to Yorktown at the American Revolution Institute’s headquarters.

The March to Yorktown

Robert Selig
July 16, 2015

The epic march to Yorktown undertaken by the French and patriot forces was the largest troop movement in the Revolutionary War. From 1781-1782 French forces marched under the command of the comte de Rochambeau to and from Yorktown, alongside their American allies led by George Washington, as they traveled from Newport, Rhode Island, and West […]

Rochambeau and Lafayette

Julia Osman
July 24, 2012

The marquis de Lafayette and the comte de Rochambeau were each vital to the fight for American independence, but they took different paths to their service in the American war. Unlike most other French officers, Lafayette did not seek a position in the American army to bolster his military resume or to simply follow his […]

King Louis XVI

Julia Osman
July 24, 2012

King Louis XVI’s people called him the “Liberating King” for his support of the American Revolution, so how did he end up beheaded at the guillotine? Professor Osman assesses Louis XVI’s conduct during the American and French Revolutions and how he met his downfall. The fortune he spent in support of the American War of […]

Victory at Yorktown

Julia Osman
July 24, 2012

In August 1781, British commander Lord Cornwallis moved his troops to Yorktown, Virginia, hoping he could more easily receive supplies and reinforcements via the York River, near the Chesapeake Bay. Professor Osman details the events that followed, leading to the allied victory at Yorktown. The allied Franco-American forces, most under the command of the comte […]