''Expédition Particulière'' (English: Special Expedition) was the codename given by the

Kingdom of France The Kingdom of France ( fro, Reaume de France; frm, Royaulme de France; french: link=yes, Royaume de France) is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period. ...

for the plan to sail French land forces to North America to support the

colonists A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settl ...

against Britain in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. Numbering 5,500 troops, the Expedition arrived in America on 11 July 1780, led by the Comte de Rochambeau. Another 2,500 men were intended to join the war effort, but could not escape the British blockade of Brest. After remaining inactive for almost a year, Rochambeau marched his troops south to rendezvous with

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...

for a planned attack on

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. At Rochambeau's urging, Washington abandoned the planned attack and instead they moved into

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

to join with the French fleet of Admiral François de Grasse to trap

Lord Cornwallis Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805), styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as the Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army general and official. In the United S ...

's British army at Yorktown; the subsequent Franco-American siege ended in British surrender in October 1781, which hastened negotiations towards a peace treaty ending the war.

Background

France had been in contact with

American Patriots Patriots, also known as Revolutionaries, Continentals, Rebels, or American Whigs, were the colonists of the Thirteen Colonies who rejected British rule during the American Revolution, and declared the United States of America an independent n ...

as early as 1774, and by 1776 was sending large amounts of covert financial aid and military supplies to their cause. Following the loss of a British army during the

Saratoga Campaign The Saratoga campaign in 1777 was an attempt by the British high command for North America to gain military control of the strategically important Hudson River valley during the American Revolutionary War. It ended in the surrender of the British ...

of 1777, France signed a Treaty of Alliance in February 1778 recognising American independence. The subsequent

Franco-American Alliance The Franco-American alliance was the 1778 alliance between the Kingdom of France and the United States during the American Revolutionary War. Formalized in the 1778 Treaty of Alliance, it was a military pact in which the French provided many su ...

legitimised the American cause while securing direct French aid in the war. Shortly thereafter, a French fleet under

Charles Hector, comte d'Estaing Jean Baptiste Charles Henri Hector, comte d'Estaing (24 November 1729 – 28 April 1794) was a French general and admiral. He began his service as a soldier in the War of the Austrian Succession, briefly spending time as a prisoner of war of the B ...

sailed out to coordinate with American allies against the British, with the aim of helping bring a swift end to the war. The initial attempts to seek victory were beset by problems. An operation against Newport miscarried in 1778; the following year, the Franco-American

Siege of Savannah The siege of Savannah or the Second Battle of Savannah was an encounter of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) in 1779. The year before, the city of Savannah, Georgia, had been captured by a British expeditionary corps under Lieutenan ...

ended in defeat. D'Estaing and his ships then sailed for home, with relations between the allies severely strained.

Expedition

On 2 May 1780, Admiral Ternay d'Arsac departed Brest with a seven-ship and three-frigate squadron, escorting 36 transports carrying troops to support the

in the

War of American Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. The squadron comprised the 80-gun ''Duc de Bourgogne'', under Ternay d'Arsac (admiral) and Médine (

flag captain In the Royal Navy, a flag captain was the captain of an admiral's flagship. During the 18th and 19th centuries, this ship might also have a " captain of the fleet", who would be ranked between the admiral and the "flag captain" as the ship's "First ...

); the

74-gun The "seventy-four" was a type of two- decked sailing ship of the line, which nominally carried 74 guns. It was developed by the French navy in the 1740s, replacing earlier classes of 60- and 62-gun ships, as a larger complement to the recently-de ...

''Neptune'', under Sochet Des Touches, and ''Conquérant'', under La Grandière; and the 64-gun ''Provence'' under Lombard, ''Ardent'' under Bernard de Marigny, ''Jason'' under La Clocheterie and ''Éveillé'' under Le Gardeur de Tilly, and the frigates ''Surveillante'' under Villeneuve Cillart, ''Amazone'' under La Pérouse, and ''Bellone''. ''Amazone'', which constituted the vanguard of the fleet, arrived at Boston on 11 June 1780.

Organization

The Special Expedition contained four regiments of foot:Selig, Robert (2007). ''March to Victory.'' U.S. Army Center of Military History. Special Publications CMH Pub 70-104-1, p. 3. * Régiment de Bourbonnais * Régiment de Soissonnais * Régiment de Saintonge * Régiment de Royal–Deux–Ponts One battalion of artillery: * Second Battalion, Régiment d'Auxonne One combined-arms legion: *

Lauzun's Legion The 5th Hussar Regiment (''5e régiment de hussards'' or ''5e RH'') was a French Hussar regiment. Formation under the Ancien Régime The 5th Hussar Regiment was formed under the Ancien Régime. It was the last regiment created under the monarch ...

Yorktown Campaign

In July 1781, Rochambeau's army left Rhode Island and marched across Connecticut to join Washington's army on the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between New ...

Dobbs Ferry Dobbs Ferry is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 10,875 according to the 2010 United States Census. In 2019, its population rose to an estimated 11,027. The village of Dobbs Ferry is located in, and is a p ...

, New York. From there the combined forces marched overland to Virginia. During this time, Admiral de Grasse managed to defeat a British fleet sent from New York City to evacuate British General

Charles Cornwallis Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805), styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as the Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army general and official. In the United S ...

at the

Battle of the Chesapeake The Battle of the Chesapeake, also known as the Battle of the Virginia Capes or simply the Battle of the Capes, was a crucial naval battle in the American Revolutionary War that took place near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on 5 September 17 ...

on September 5, trapping Cornwallis on the Yorktown peninsula. On September 22, Rochambeau and Washington combined forces with those of

Marquis de Lafayette Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (, ), was a French aristocrat, freemason and military officer who fought in the American Revolutio ...

and began the

siege of Yorktown The Siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender at Yorktown, or the German battle (from the presence of Germans in all three armies), beginning on September 28, 1781, and ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virgi ...

. The siege ended with the surrender of Cornwallis on October 19, 1781.

Departure to the West Indies

Rochambeau's force spent the winter in Virginia. The following year they moved north towards

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

. Washington again tried to interest Rochambeau in an attack on New York City, Charleston or Canada but the Frenchman rejected the proposals. Orders instead arrived for his expedition to go to the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater ...

and in late 1782 it sailed from Boston for

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...

. However, by then the Peace of Paris had been agreed and the planned 1783 campaign in the Caribbean never took place. In late April the French sailed for home, reaching Brest and

Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...

in June and July 1783.

Legacy

The Expedition has been described as the only substantial force of foreign allies ever to serve on United States soil for an extended period.Scott p.3

Notes, citations, and references

Notes Citations Bibliography * * * * *

External links

The Expédition Particulière in Rhode Island.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Expedition Particuliere 1780 in the United States 1781 in the United States 1780 in France 1781 in France Military operations of the American Revolutionary War