Posted on 06/27/2011 5:34:18 AM PDT by Pharmboy
Seven are buried in unmarked graves near Old St. Peter’s Church, which was used as military hospital during fight for American independence.
Memorial stone in front of Old St. Peter's Church honors the eight French soldiers who died in Van Cortlandtville during the Revolutionary War.Credit Jeff Canning Photos France sent 44,000 soldiers and sailors across the Atlantic Ocean to help the infant United States win its independence from British rule during the Revolutionary War. Five thousand of them died during the conflict, eight of them in Van Cortlandtville. The body of one, an officer who was a member of the French nobility, was returned to France; the other seven men rest in unmarked graves between Old Saint Peter’s Church and the Little Red Schoolhouse.
French forces commanded by Gen. Rochambeau were in the Cortlandt-Peekskill area in 1781 and again in 1782 while en route to and from Yorktown, Va., where they helped compel the surrender of British forces under Gen. Charles Cornwallis. During that time, Old Saint Peter’s and, possibly, the neighboring Baptist church that is now the site of the Schoolhouse were used as military hospitals. The causes of death are unknown, but diseases such as dysentery and food poisoning are leading suspects, given the unsanitary and unhygienic conditions of military life and the limits of medical care at that time.
Those of us who have lived through or studied the more recent military actions of the United States, including World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East, often approach these events from the perspective of superpower America sending forces “over there” to help friends in need. But 233 years ago, the situation was quite different. The infant United States was struggling to win its independence from the mighty British Empire and the prospects were not bright during the first years of the revolution. We needed help, and France was one of several nations that sent troops to our aid. The fact that aid to the rebellious colonies conveniently afforded France an opportunity to weaken the British in one theater of a global conflict between the two European powers does not diminish the importance of that aid to the United States.
From a global perspective, the conflict in the American colonies did not occupy center stage; it was but one act in a long-running military drama between England and France that raged in many parts of the globe, sandwiched between the French and Indian War and the wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era. The American colonies’ rebellion against their master afforded the French, still smarting from their losses less than a quarter-century ago, an opportunity to gain revenge against the British. Thus, French aid to the Americans conveniently advanced the interests of both countries. The Americans were grateful for the aid but accepted it reluctantly because it involved an entangling alliance with a traditional enemy. But, as historian Thomas A. Bailey of Stanford University wrote in his book, The American Pageant: A History of the Republic, “… when one’s house is on fire, one does not inquire too closely into the background of those who carry the water buckets.”
France was but the first European power to join the Americans against the British. In 1779, a year after the Franco-American treaty of alliance, Spain entered the fray, followed by Holland in 1780. Several other European nations, while not actively joining the fighting, were increasingly hostile toward the British. The American rebellion had widened into a world war.
Professor Bailey offers this perspective: “To say that America, with some European aid, defeated England, is like saying, ‘Daddy and I killed the bear.’ To the Mother Country, struggling for her very life, the scuffle in the New World seemed secondary. The Americans deserve much credit for having kept the war going until 1778, with semi-secret French aid. But they did not achieve their independence until the conflict erupted into a multi-power world war that was too big for Britain to handle. From 1778 to 1783, the French provided America with large sums of money, immense amounts of equipment, about one-half of her regular armed forces, and practically all of her naval strength.”
Yes, the French may have had their own agenda, and their motives in helping the United States were not completely altruistic. But the fact remains that, whatever their motives, they provided assistance when it was desperately needed and helped make possible our independence. Later, the United States was not found wanting when France needed American help during the first and second world wars and on other occasions. Many Americans who responded by going “over there” made the supreme sacrifice and never returned to their homeland but lie in honored repose in cemeteries across the seas.
Just so, eight French soldiers – Lt. Antoine Alexandre de Mauvis de Villars, Jean Bonair, Joseph Duguin, Claude-Pierre Dumageot, Alexis Labrue, Georges Mochl, Philippe Mortagne and Jean-Joseph Paquay – answered their nation’s call and never returned home alive, but instead became an honored part of the Van Cortlandtville community.
Too bad the French have fallen so far from their noble roots.
Re-enactors of French RevWar troops, Newport, RI in 2005
The RevWar/Colonial History/General Washington ping list...
Re-enactors of French RevWar troops, Newport, RI in 2005
The RevWar/Colonial History/General Washington ping list...
During their own revolutuin, they systematically dug up those roots, chopped them out, burned them, then salted the ground in which they grew.
France has no one to blame for her fall but France.
Sorry about the double-ping...the first attempt brought a “downstream server error” and I never thought it posted.
Thanks for the ping.
BTTT
I think you need to fast forward to World War I. The French fought bravely, and lost an entire generation.
We need to remind ourselves that many times—when American needed help France was there. We helped them but they helped up—France was our First Ally —we must remember that.
I don’t dispute that. But France’s decline began with their revolution, halted briefly with Napoleon’s imperialist dreams, then accelerated once he was deposed.
The radical egalitarian myth that painted the Place du Concorde red with innocent blood pretty much eradicated the last vestiges of French nobility — in more ways than one.
Yes, well, thank you France (and other countries) for your support during the RW. But it’s a faulty idea that if it wasn’t for the support of the foreign contingent, we wouldn’t have gained our independence. Eventually we would have become independent. As are all former Brit colonies that chose to do so. However, we might not have had as wise men as the ones who created the constitution. But, nevertheless, we would have eventually become independent.
Thanks Pharmboy. Forgotten heroes in forgotten graves are forgotten no longer.
Great post.
French culture and history ping.
Completely agree.
Look no further than the Professor confirming this (in contradiction to his overall theory):
"To the Mother Country, struggling for her very life, the scuffle in the New World seemed secondary."
As you mention, the colonists would have eventually won their independence...the Rev war was too distant for England and would have become far too expensive for them to continue in the long term.
The French support (appreciated) simply accelerated the inevitable.
Is that Boston?
Newport, RI.
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Thanks for posting another gem.
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