Free Republic

ELIZABETH -- Many of the headstones marking the graves in New Jersey’s oldest cemetery are no longer readable, not only because they’re worn, but because they’re partially underground. While excavating around the headstones in the Old First Presbyterian Church cemetery in Elizabeth last week, archaeologist Seth Gartland found stones had sunk several feet, leaving only the top half exposed. When workers elevated the decaying stones, Gartland discovered inscriptions that had long been hidden. Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerRows and rows of markers in the cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church on Broad St. The cemetery is currently undergoing a project of preserving...

IN PURSUIT OF LIBERTY: COMING OF AGE IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION By Emmy E. Werner Potomac Books, $17.95, 190 pages Reviewed by James Srodes Too often books about children are written in an infantile voice as if the audience is somehow unable to read adult themes unless the prose is watered down. Happily, the book at hand is a compelling history that is both clearly written and a riveting experience for both adults and young people who are interested in Revolutionary War history from a different perspective. The story of young people, even children, in our War for Independence has...

MILFORD -- A 1907 catalog of the New Haven County Historical Society listed several rare and odd items, including a necklace from an Egyptian mummy, slave chains, a small block of wood from the Old South Bridge in Concord, Mass., which the British guarded at the start of the Revolutionary War. But lot 23 in the inventory -- "a skull of an American soldier, one of 42 who died of the 200 in a destitute and sickly condition that were brought from a British prison ship ... and suddenly cast upon the shore of the town of Milford on the...

BOSTON — Somewhere along an industrial stretch of river pocked with rotting piers and towering salt piles north of Boston lies the answer to one of the great riddles of the Revolutionary war. Where is the final resting place of the British schooner, the HMS Diana? The river — known as Chelsea Creek — separates the city of Chelsea from the East Boston neighborhood of Boston. Today the river is plied by oil tankers and is home to a landscape dotted with the city's iconic tripledeckers. But more than 200 years ago, the creek was the site of one of...

Revere thoroughly deserves his place in American history, but another courageous American has been ill-served by those who write books about the Revolutionary War. Revere was 40 at the time of his journey, but she was a girl of 16. Born at Patterson, Putnam County, N.Y., on April 5, 1761, she was the eldest of 12 children born to Henry and Abigail Ludington. On the stormy night of April 26, 1777, she is said to have been putting her younger siblings to bed when the family had a visitor. Close to exhaustion, a messenger had come to tell her father...

BENSONHURST — History came alive on Liberty Weekend this past Saturday and Sunday with the annual celebration of early Brooklyn history at the 17th century New Utrecht Reformed Church. This year’s events also celebrated the church’s designation as part of the American Revolution Heritage Trail. The new trail placards are posted just behind an iron fence on 18th Avenue at the entrance to the church at 84th Street. One shows an 1890s photo of the church. The other is a map of Brooklyn at the time of the Revolutionary War showcasing historic sites. With the raising of a 13-star “Betsy...

On April 15th, 1775, Major General Thomas Gage decided to send a column of seven hundred troops (two hundred over the magic number that the Concord Congress had set) to Concord under the command of Lt. Col. Francis Smith and his second, Major John Pitcairn. Gage had no intention of tolerating anything approaching a repetition of the action at Fort William and Mary. Learning that the depot in Concord held a growing store of gunpowder and arms, he sent these soldiers twenty miles from Boston to seize the military supplies. On the evening of the 18th, Dr. Joeseph Warren, President...

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times Bowling Green, a parade ground and cattle market in the Dutch era, was laid out in 1733 during the period of British colonial rule. Bowling Green, the uneven gated ellipse at the foot of Broadway, evokes history more than most spots in New York City. Legend has it — though historians give the legend almost no credence — that Indian tribal leaders used the land for meetings and to negotiate the sale of Manhattan to Peter Minuit in 1626. What is known is that the site was a parade ground and cattle market in...

The Magazine's First EditionDavid Reuwer, Publisher History buff publishes magazine about the war for independence A dark blue Liberty battle flag of the American Revolution flies outside David Reuwer’s Camden office, while pictures of early patriots — Ben Franklin, John Adams, Henry Laurens — line a wall inside. “The Revolution and its era, it is a narrative of who we are,” said Reuwer, 50, whose S.C. license tag reads “Rev War.” “It’s our identity, and it created something that is still playing out.” Reuwer’s passion led him recently to publish American Revolution, a magazine he hopes to print five times...

In Boston, history is always just below the surface. And in Charlestown, underneath a row of genteel gardens, in the middle of a teeming city, is believed to be a mass grave containing the bones of possibly dozens of British soldiers killed in one of the most important battles in American history. The site, part of the sprawling Bunker Hill battlefield, has been pinpointed by a curator from Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia and a Charlestown historian who are confident they know where the bodies were buried - 15 feet underground in what had been a rebel-dug ditch that featured some...

One of the most oft-repeated mantras about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that there is no military solution; the only solution is to talk with our enemies. This mantra also has a popular corollary: Because we must ultimately negotiate with the Palestinians, decisive military action is counterproductive - it merely sows hatred that makes the inevitable dialogue that much harder. It is ironic that the leading proponents of these theories are Jews and Europeans - two groups well acquainted with the obvious counterexample: The Allies never negotiated with the Nazis either during or after World War II; they destroyed Nazi Germany...

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- After painstaking restoration, 5,400 Revolutionary War documents are ready to leave a Philadelphia conservation center for their home in New Jersey. The $700,000 project begun in 2005 has restored documents belonging to the New Jersey State Archives, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Tuesday. The 18th century papers, discolored, brittle and frayed, tell stories of patriots killed in battle, of spies for the British and of armies from both sides that destroyed property and stripped farms of crops and livestock. Using chemical baths and tissue-thin paper for repairs, snip... New Jersey saw more military engagements than any...

Melissa Haneline/The Post and CourierJai Cassidy-Shaman handles two Revolutionary War letters Tuesday bought at auction by the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum in Columbia. Like so many first-time visitors to the Lowcountry, Charles Campbell was enchanted. In a letter to his father back home in Britain, Campbell gushed about the natural beauty of the Holy City in spring. Captain's letter "Charlestown is a handsome and well built town situated on the extremity of a tongue of land formed by two large & navigable rivers, Cooper and Ashley;" he wrote, "it lays open to the sea, and...

Yesterday evening, despite heavy rain during the day and still threatening skies, 200 or so people gathered in Fort Greene Park to attend the rededication of the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, which honors the approximately 11,500 Revolutionary War combatants captured by the British who died aboard old warships anchored in Wallabout Bay (adjacent to the present Brooklyn Navy Yard site) and used to house prisoners of war. Conditions aboard these ships were so horrendous that almost one third of those imprisoned did not survive. The monument, a Doric column designed by the eminent architect Stanford White, was dedicated exactly 100...

On November 25, 2008, to celebrate the 225th anniversary of the evacuation of the United States of America by British troops, the Palisades Parks Conservancy, in collaboration with the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, Scenic Hudson, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and Palisades Interstate Park Commission will symbolically light five beacon sites that replicate the original signal locations used by the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. These vital systems summoned the militia in both New York and in neighboring New Jersey and warned residents of the approaching British Redcoats. The types of...

The House has approved a bill aimed at preserving Barrett's Farm, a Revolutionary War landmark in Concord, Mass. snip... The farm belonged to Col. James Barrett, a leader of the Middlesex Militia. It was used to store colonial militia weapons and was searched by the British during the fighting at Concord's Old North Bridge on April 19, 1775. The Senate is considering a similar measure.

Bob Jannoni and Lou Cook at the Burial Hill monument to the General Arnold casualties. (Emily Wilcox/Globe Correspondent) The brigantine General Arnold was heading south out of Boston, carrying supplies and reinforcements to struggling Revolutionary War troops in the Carolinas, when, on Dec. 25, 1778, a northeaster hit the New England coast. Hurricane-force winds and blinding snow forced Captain James Magee to seek shelter in Plymouth Harbor. It was a mistake. The ship ran aground on White Flat, a treacherous sandbar half a mile from shore and safety. There, as the storm raged on over the long Christmas weekend,...

Last month, workmen jacked up a 206-year-old yellow clapboard house, levered it onto a set of remote-controlled dollies, and trundled it two blocks to a new site in St. Nicholas Park, overlooking East Harlem in New York City. The Grange, as it is called, was the home of Alexander Hamilton, best known as co-author of the Federalist papers and America's first secretary of the Treasury. But this founding father also had an extraordinary role in the infant nation's attempt to come to grips with the curse of slavery. Born in the West Indies, Hamilton was one of the most ardent...

A rendering of a statue honoring Revolutionary War veterans. Photo Credit: Courtesy Of Loudoun Revolutionary War Memorial Committee Photo What expression would an 18th-century woman have donned as her husband left for war? It depends on which government official you ask. snip... ... In an artist's rendering, the man gazes toward the horizon with a determined stare. The boy's head is upturned, as he looks with pride at his father. The wife? "She's looking pretty beat; she's looking like she's sad," Supervisor Kelly Burk (D-Leesburg) said. "If we could get the representation of her to be more looking forward...

Thomas Schaller for Robert A.M. Stern Architects Renderings of the proposed American Revolution Center, on private land within the Valley Forge National Historical Park EAGLEVILLE, Pa. — A local planning board has approved a proposal to build a $250 million visitor center and conference facilities on privately owned land in Valley Forge National Historical Park. Opponents say the decision increases the risk of commercial development in other scenic and historic national parks. The Planning Commission of Lower Providence Township, about 15 miles northwest of Philadelphia, voted unanimously late Wednesday in favor of the project, the American Revolution Center. The...

Death, disease and injury were the fate of thousands held at sea More Americans died in British prison ships in New York Harbor than in all the battles of the Revolutionary War. There were at least 16 of these floating prisons anchored in Wallabout Bay on the East River for most of the war, and they were sinkholes of filth, vermin, infectious disease and despair. The ships were uniformly wretched, but the most notorious was the Jersey. Following the Battle of Long Island in August, 1776, and the fall of New York City soon after, the British found thousands of...

SANFORD (May 21, 2008): A Sanford native who fought in the Revolutionary War is in need of more than just a flag and marker this Memorial Day. Nathan Powers lived on the Grammar Road and was laid to rest there in the Powers Cemetery, about a half-mile from the junction of Route 4. He died 181 years ago and the wear and tear of his headstone shows it. That's where Sumner Thompson of Scarborough comes in. He believes that a veterans organization should step up and purchase a new gravestone. A retired Scarborough resident and World War II veteran, Thompson,...

Carl Arndt, a volunteer with the Coastal Heritage Society, sifts through the dirt excavated from a small section of Emmett Park. (John Carrington/Savannah Morning News) The digging for Revolutionary War artifacts in Madison Square began months before Rita Elliott and several other Coastal Heritage Society archaeologists discovered musket balls in Sgt. William Jasper's shadow last week. The work actually started in late 2007 when Rita and her husband, and fellow archaeologist, Dan Elliott embarked on a three-week research campaign that took them to six repositories rich in Revolutionary War documentation. They visited the William L. Clements Library at the...

During the Revolutionary War, particularly in the rural areas of the American South, much of the violence could be attributed not to members of the military but to civilians. Even neighbors became mortal enemies depending upon whether or not they aligned themselves against or with the British Crown, and partisan bands of patriots and loyalists often roamed the countryside, causing a great deal of mayhem. On a 400-acre farmstead on the Georgia frontier in Elbert County, near the banks of the Broad River, lived the Hart family whose matriarch Nancy became a legendary figure in our national war for independence....

More than a year after gaining federal recognition, the Crossroads of the American Revolution National Heritage Area has been awarded $150,000 in aid from Washington. The heritage area ties together New Jersey's Revolutionary War sites and landscapes as well as the state and national parks that highlight the pivotal role New Jersey played in the Revolution. big snip... Reps. Rush Holt (D-12th Dist.) and Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.) have been instrumental is pushing for the funding. "Despite featuring over 290 military engagements and serving as a buffer between the rebel stronghold of Philadelphia and the British stronghold of New York,...

Steven Senne/Associated PressThe Cincinnati medal. A gold medal that was created for George Washington and presented to the Marquis de Lafayette was auctioned at Sotheby’s in Manhattan on Tuesday for a record $5.3 million, and will remain in France after residing there for 183 years. The enameled patriotic badge was bought by the Fondation Josée et René de Chambrun at the Château La Grange, Lafayette’s historic home 60 miles east of Paris. snip... The medal will be available to the public by appointment at Chateau La Grange “as soon as Sotheby’s gets it there,” he said, adding that “the...

Paulsboro is home to a key military installation from the Revolutionary War. Somewhere in the ground overlooking the Delaware River, amid the trees and brush at a Paulsboro oil-storage terminal, is a long-forgotten piece of American history. Identified on a British map 230 years ago as a "rebel fort," the site was the nation's first federal land purchase, made the day after the Declaration of Independence. It's the "birthplace of homeland security," says a group of local historians, preservationists and municipal officials who hope to restore the fort as a national historic site. They hope to uncover its earthen walls...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — In a small survey boat, maritime archaeologist J. Lee Cox Jr. was checking the bottom of the Delaware River at the Sunoco Logistics pier in South Philadelphia when he got a hit on the side-scan sonar. A pipe? A log? A hazard to the oil tankers docking nearby? No one was sure until a diver was sent down weeks later and found a strange pointed object buried in the muck about 40 feet down. Earlier this month, Cox identified it as the business end of a cheval-de-frise, an iron-tipped log once embedded in the river, along with...

General Pulaski Memorial Day, 2007 [Oct 11th] A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America More than two hundred years after the death of General Casimir Pulaski, we honor the life and legacy of a Polish patriot and American Revolutionary War soldier who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. Casimir Pulaski first demonstrated his devotion to the cause of liberty while defending his native Poland and earned a reputation for courage and resolve. He later met Benjamin Franklin in Paris and learned of America's struggle for independence. Inspired by freedom's call, Pulaski joined General George Washington in...

MOVE OVER LAFAYETTE -- Last week, Meridian International House -- a Washington center for advancing global relations -- held a two-day symposium to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Lafayette, one of the major figures in the American Revolution. Also last week, Spain's ambassador to the United States, Carlos Westendorp, laid a wreath at the foot of a statue to one of the lesser figures of the revolution. This was Barnardo de Galvez, a Spanish general who fought the British in Florida, often alongside American revolutionaries. The fact that Spanish forces fought in the Revolutionary War is a...

Adam Leonberger | Senior Photographer People in period dress are present during the announcement of events in Lafayette that will commemorate Marquis de Lafayette's birthday. The Greater Lafayette community is coming together this fall to celebrate the 250th birthday of the Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette was a French statesman who inspired the names of Lafayette and West Lafayette. The community is arranging 24 events throughout the fall to commemorate his birthday. The Marquis de Lafayette Celebration Committee Chair Ramona Lawson said the birthday is an important milestone in the Lafayette community. "It's another opportunity for our community to come...

On March 15, 1781, American forces inflicted heavy losses on the British Army at Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. The redcoats had seemed invincible only a few months before. Winter clouds scudded over New Windsor, New York, some 50 miles up the Hudson River from Manhattan, where Gen. George Washington was headquartered. With trees barren and snow on the ground that January 1781, it was a "dreary station," as Washington put it. The commander in chief's mood was as bleak as the landscape. Six long years into the War of Independence, his army, he admitted to Lt. Col. John Laurens,...

Ten months to the day after Lord Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown to effectively validate the American Revolution, a force of British Loyalists and Indian allies mauled a contingent of Kentucky militia pursuing them. The Battle of Blue Licks was the last of the Revolutionary War in what was to become Kentucky. The bloody confrontation wiped out 70 to 80 of the militia - about 7 percent of the white male population in the territory - in 15 minutes.Although the battle was a bitter defeat for the Americans, it set the stage for the expedition less than a...

Two Middleburgh men are on a mission to commemorate a local hero and re-create a historic landmark. Former Middleburgh Mayor Gary Hayes and Jay Lawyer are seeking legislative funding to restore the Middle Fort and build a monument to Revolutionary War hero Timothy Murphy. Hayes and Lawyer have collected letters of support from all the towns and villages in Schoharie County and the Mohawk Valley Heritage Corridor Commission and have contacted Assemblyman Peter Lopez, state Sen. James Seward, U.S. Rep. Michael McNulty and Sen. Hillary Clinton. Hayes said Murphy is credited with firing the single shot that ended the Battle...

IN MY OPINION One of the first lessons you learn when studying history is that history books are usually written by the side that wins the war. After the Civil War, the South's role in the American Revolution was relegated to practically a footnote. My 10th-grade U.S. history book basically had two paragraphs about the South's role -- the British took Charleston, there were lots of backwoods skirmishes in the Carolinas at places such as Kings Mountain and Cowpens, and the British surrendered at Yorktown. The implication was that the only battles of consequence took place within 200 miles of...

In the popular mind, the American Revolution was mostly about liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- and the war that followed the Declaration of Independence wasn't much of a war. We imagine toy soldiers in red coats chasing picturesque rebels. Actually, the War of Independence was horrific, according to John Ferling, a leading historian of early America. It was a grinding conflict that rivaled, and in some ways exceeded, the Civil War in its toll on American fighters when looked at on a per-capita basis. Ferling chronicles the suffering in his new book, "Almost a Miracle: The American Victory...

The following is my take—in order of importance—on our Founders. For my purpose here I looked at a combination of several things, but most important, the following two: intellectual and fighting contributions, e.g., how much support did an individual Founder supply at various pre-war conventions, as a pamphleteer or at the Constitutional Convention, and, how much did he risk his life on the battlefield? I do this to learn (from fellow Freepers) as much as to hear myself talk. I am an amateur on the RevWar and George Washington, and would welcome corrections, additions, whom you think should be deleted,...

TRENTON, July 3 (AP) — When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to honor the grave sites of Declaration of Independence signers, don’t count New Jersey in. It can’t afford it. Five Declaration signers are buried in the Garden State: four New Jerseyans and a Pennsylvanian. But an effort to preserve their graves, promote their lives and honor them with graveside plaques has stalled in the state, which was home to several key Revolutionary War battles and calls itself the Crossroads of the American Revolution. A plan to spend $200,000 to preserve and newly mark the graves...

CHARLESTON, S.C. --Hundreds gathered at the end of Charleston Peninsula to watch the unveiling of a statue to honor Revolutionary War hero and former South Carolina governor, Maj. Gen. William Moultrie. Moultrie's most famous battle was fighting off a British attempt to capture what was then called Charles Town Harbor. Moultrie and his group of about 400 men battled from a fort made of sand and palmetto logs on Sullivans Island. Moultrie's unit held firm against an estimated 2,000-strong British group trying to cross from what's now Isle of Palms. "This statue represents freedom and liberty, from now to eternity,...

Christophe Calais for The New York Times Michel de Rochambeau at home in Vendôme with a portrait of his forebear Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, who fought with George Washington at Yorktown and had a chateau at Thoré-la-Rochette. THORÉ-LA-ROCHETTE, France — Michel de Rochambeau likes to think that the life span of a tree separates him from his most illustrious ancestor. He recently had dozens of young lime trees planted in a row along the two-mile road that winds along the Loir River leading to his modest chateau in northern France. They replaced trees that had been planted by...

BROOKLYN — Fort Greene Park is both a popular neighborhood park and a historically significant site. The 30-acre park is home to tennis courts and playgrounds, a visitors’ center and a monument to Revolutionary War heroes, and is host to events such as concerts, poetry readings, and civic gatherings. The park, which is bounded by Myrtle Avenue, DeKalb Avenue, Washington Park and St. Edwards Street, has been named May’s Park of the Month. “History comes alive at Fort Greene Park,” said Commissioner Adrian Benepe. “What was once a Revolutionary War fortress, known as Fort Putnam, is now a majestic park...

Aaron Houston for The New York Times The 1787 letter from George Washington, beneath his image in a scrapbook begun in 1826. Aaron Houston for The New York TimesBill Schroh, director of operations at the Liberty Hall Museum, looking at the Washington letter. UNION, N.J., April 26 — The letter from George Washington is pasted between poetry and party invitations, stuffed into a dusty scrapbook amid jokes and cutouts of handsome men, and all the highlights of a lucky little girl’s life. It was written in May 1787 and addressed to Jacob Morris, grandfather of Julia Kean, the precocious...

BOSTON -- Paul Revere gets all the glory for his midnight ride. After all, it was a stirring tale of patriotism told by a great storyteller. But one young messenger who called the colonists to arms during a remarkable five-day dash across five states is a mere footnote -- a man mentioned in historical documents that didn't even get his first name right. They called him Trail. His name was Israel Bissell, and he is one of the Revolutionary War's most unheralded heroes. Bissell, a 23-year-old postal rider when the war broke out on April 19, 1775, rode day and...

Institute for Advanced Study and preservationists dispute land parcel Photo by Dent Yang The Princeton Battlefield State Park is the site of a critical turning point in the Revolutionary War. The future of 25-acre corner of the site owned by the Institute for Advanced Study is now in question, as the Institute lobbies to build faculty housing there. The Princeton Battlefield has been a place of quiet contemplation for more than two centuries, where scholars and aspiring history buffs can walk on the hallowed ground of one of the nation's most pivotal battles. Yet a new struggle has emerged on...

The American Revolution Center RESTORING HISTORY The tent in 1909. Lisa Godfrey for the American Revolution CenterAlthough conservators worried that the edge, or selvage, of a torn bit of linen wouldn’t fit the hole in the tent, it matched perfectly. For nearly a century, a large oval-shape linen tent where George Washington is believed to have slept during the Revolutionary War sat on display in Valley Forge, Pa., with a gaping hole in its roof. But now a combination of luck and forensic detective work has led to the discovery of the missing section of fabric — snipped out,...

VALLEY FORGE, Pennsylvania A long-planned Revolutionary War museum will be built on private land after years of arguing with the U.S. government over the previous site, museum organizers said Wednesday. The American Revolution Center would be the United States' first comprehensive look at the Revolutionary War. The new site is within the boundaries of Valley Forge National Historical Park, the place where George Washington's troops waited out the winter in 1777. The museum is buying about 130 acres (52 hectares) of land for $7.1 million (€5.4 million) and hopes to begin construction on the $150 million (€114.6 million) museum in...

Stratford Hall Robert E. Lee was born here Jan. 19, 1807, at the impressive H-shaped brick home built in 1730-38 by ancestor Thomas Lee. It's in Westmoreland County, about 40 miles east of Fredericksburg. A leading figure under English rule, Thomas Lee produced sons who were leaders of the Revolutionary War. Two sons -- Richard Henry and Francis Lightfoot Lee -- were the only brothers to sign the Declaration of Independence. Thomas' granddaughter, Matilda Lee, inherited the house and married another notable Lee, her second cousin Henry "Lighthorse Harry" Lee. "Lighthorse Harry" was a Revolutionary War hero, a governor...

Richard Ryerson thanks those in attendance at the David Library of the American Revolution for helping him celebrate the publishing of the five-volume encyclopedia on the American Revolutionary War, which he co-edited. (Photo by Matthew Fleishman) The David Library of the American Revolution can add a new book to its shelves. Well, five books to be exact, as the Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War edited by Richard Ryerson, the academic director at the library, and Gregory Fremont-Barnes was published. The David Library celebrated the release with a cocktail party in Ryerson's honor on Friday, October 13. A five-volume...

Mount Vernon officials want to reinvigorate the public perception of the Founding Father, which they fear is that of the stodgy, stern face on the dollar bill. They commissioned life-size sculptures--at a cost of more than $1 million--to serve as a centerpiece for a new $95 million visitors' center to open on the estate grounds in October. (AP) A decade ago, the people who run Mount Vernon noticed many of their visitors knew little more about George Washington than that he was the country's first president. Beginning Friday, visitors there will be able to learn much more about him...

WASHINGTON French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie visited a U.S. Revolutionary War battlefield Thursday in an effort to highlight historical ties between France and the United States, then met with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld about modern wars with more strained U.S.-French relations. snip...Through an interpreter, she said the special forces "have been extremely involved in those missions, and they have paid ... a rather heavy burden." She said the expansion of NATO's role in Afghanistan is an appropriate time to reassess France's presences there. At Yorktown, Virginia, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) south of Washington, Alliot-Marie helped commemorate the 225th...