Video Tag: Historical Documents

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. […]

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 […]