Yale Bulletin and Calendar

November 8-15, 1999

Volume 28, Number 12

Reading to feature letters of
Revolutionary War partners

To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the death of George Washington, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library will host a reading of selections from the correspondence between the Revolutionary War general and Rochambeau, the commander-in-chief of the French troops sent by Louis XVI to help the American insurgents.

School of Drama students Brennan Brown and Ronald Dean Nolen will read passages from the letters between Washington and Rochambeau in the form of a dialogue between the two military figures. The event will be held at 5:15 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 11, in the Beinecke Library, 121 Wall St. A reception will follow. The reading, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Beinecke and The Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Connecticut.

Rochambeau -- more formally, Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau -- and his corps of about 5,500 soldiers combined with Washington's American forces to secure the victory at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, considered the turning point in the American War of Independence.

In the months leading to that battle, Rochambeau and Washington frequently corresponded, and they continued that habit until Washington's death in 1799. The war-year letters contain a running commentary on military tactics and maneuvers, while those written after Rochambeau returned to France discuss, among other matters, the French commander's meeting with Benjamin Franklin and the beginning of the French revolution.

A collection of Rochambeau's papers and maps concerning the Yorktown campaign was donated to Yale by the late alumnus Paul Mellon in 1992. (Washington's letters are in the Library of Congress.) Selections from Yale's archive will be on view at the Beinecke Nov. 11-Dec. 22.

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