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Major General Comte Jean de Rochambeau

Washington, Italy

Major General Comte Jean de Rochambeau

Major General Comte Jean de Rochambeau is a bronze statue honoring Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, a French nobleman and general who played a major role in helping the Thirteen Colonies win independence during the American Revolutionary War. Rochambeau joined the French milita

ry as a teenager; he participated in the War of Austrian Succession, after which he was promoted to colonel, and the Seven Years' War. During the war in America, Louis XVI asked him to lead a force of 5,500 French soldiers to assist the fight against the Kingdom of Great Britain. He and George Washington later worked together in the successful siege of Yorktown. He led the Army of the North during the French Revolutionary Wars, but was arrested and almost executed during the Reign of Terror. His military rank was restored by Napoleon, and he died a few years later in 1807. In the late 1800s, a plan was made to erect four statues in Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C., honoring foreign heroes of the war. The statue of Rochambeau was the second one erected. French embassy official Jules Boeufvé worked tirelessly to have the statue installed, a replica of the original statue in Vendôme, France...

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