Speaker, dr. Christy pichichero. Dr. Pichichero, our good friend and neighbor, is an associate professor at george mason university. Her talk this evening is being held in conjunction with our current exhibition, revolutionary reflections french memories of the war for america, which is on view in our gallery immediately behind this fireplace and will be open after the talk this evening. Dr. Pichichero will be discussing war and the enlightenment in the context of french experiences during the American Revolution. Many french officers of this era, such as rochambeau, whose writings are featured in our show, consider themselves military philosophers who brought enlightenment and philosophical spirit to their military enterprises. Their experience is in america had a profound impact on their politics and worldviews when they returned to france after the war. These themes are at the center book, theheros military enlightenment war and culture in the french empire from louis xiv to napoleon, published by Cornell University press in 2017. Dr. Pichichero has a bachelor of arts in comparative literature from princeton, a bachelor of music from the Eastman School of music, and a phd and french studies from stanford university. She has been a member of the george mason faculty since 2011. And, i just learned this evening, she has recently been elected president of the western society for french history. Among her many other honors and awards, the society of the cincinnatis fellowship which she received to support her research on the military enlightenment. Our fellowship program, which was established in 2007, provides support to bring up to six scholars annually to our library to conduct research. During dr. Pichicheros fellowship year, i invited her to lunch with her fellow fellows, all the rest of whom were graduate students in the throes of work on their doctoral dissertations. I have always remembered the advice the wise professor gave them. This is a wonderful time of your life. Make sure you take time to enjoy it. And so, please join me in welcoming dr. Pichichero. [applause] dr. Pichichero good evening. Thank you so much for being here this evening. And an enormous thank you to ellen, to kelsey, to the staff here at the anderson house, to the American Revolution institute, and to the society of cincinnati for doing this doing me this great honor of inviting me to give you some information, some thoughts, on the subject of the American Revolution and the French Military and light meant. It is a tremendous privilege to be here, to stand alongside george, who is standing in front of my alma mater. [laughter] it is really a dream come true. Thank you for being here to share this with me. I begin my remarks today as one would expect in a talk with the American Revolution and the french and lightman in its title that is to say i will begin by citing the french writer voltaire making fun of the english. I bring us to chapter 23 of voltaires famed philosophical tale candide. In this particular chapter, voltaire wielded his sharp and sarcastic pen to critique the seven years war. Of 1756 to 1763. The war have been going on for three years when candide was released to the public, and it was a war that voltaire decried as being sublimely foolish. Voltaire opened chapter 23 with the tails taleupon a missed eponymist protagonist candide and a dutch philosopher sailing towards the coast of england and discussing the seven years war. First comes the famous line in which martin says that the english and the french are equally ridiculous for engaging in this war over, i quote, a few acres of snow in canada. Continuing the quote, they spend much more on this beautiful war than the whole of canada is worth. [laughter] andperhaps more ridiculous nefarious was the british penal code, which they witness as they near the english shoreline. Which candide and martin witness as they near the english shoreline. The coast was lined with crowds of people attentively watching a big man kneeling, his eyes bandaged, on the upper deck of a warship in the harbor. Four soldiers were positioned opposite this man. Each of them fired three bullets pointblank into his skull, with in the tranquility world, and the whole assembly dispersed, feeling perfectly satisfied. What is all this, said candide, and demon exercises his powers in these parts . Then he said, who was the big man killed with so much ceremony . He was an admiral, they responded. And why kill this admiral . It is because he did not kill a sufficient number of people. He gave battle to a french admiral, and it was found it was not near enough to him. But, said candide, the french admiral was just as far from the english admiral as the latter was from him. That is indisputable, they replied, but in this country, it is seen as good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others. Candide was so overwhelmed and shocked by what he saw and heard that he did not want to set foot on shore, and made a bargain with the dutch skipper to conduct him to venice without delay. This episode was based on a shocking true story. Just two years before candide was published, a british officer , john being, was sentenced to public execution by firing squad on the upper deck of his ship, the hms monarch. This disproportionately cruel punishment was meted out to penalize him for losing the battle of majorca in 1756. Bings decided that had exercised in excess of caution and shown an ability to adapt his traditionalist tactics to changing circumstances. As the first line of battleships was battered by the french and the second was unable to advance within cap within cannon range of the french fleet. And the second line advanced. Bing retreated to gibraltar, judging as a failure his failure and leaving the last british garrison on the island. The naval victory and the taking of majorca were trumpeted near and far in the french press. It was a triumph of symbolic importance in the early stage of the war and of strategic value, especially when the treaty of paris was devised and majorca was exchanged for the french antilles and an island off the coast of brittany. As this occurred in voltaires narrative events, the cruelty and cost of war extended far beyond battles themselves. Crimes were perpetrated not only by enemies, but the very states for which a military man had been willing to lay down his life in combat. I have lingered on this textual example because it foreground s several of the issues i will speak about this evening. Candides episode in is set in the seven years war. Incensed louis the 14th and others to take up arms in the American Revolution. Revenge, they say revenge, they say, is a dish best served cold, and the decade or so between the close of the seven years war and the initiation of french aid for the american cause allowed france to prepare to hit back at england to partially rebalance the system of global imperial power. And relatedly, the humiliating losses of the seven years war not only a fueled not only fueled, in part, the french engagement in revolution, but it contributed to growing national prejudice in france. Between the latter wars of louis 14th and the french revolution, france experienced a dramatic military decline that stunned not just the armed forces, but the entire nation. During the war of spanish succession, important political aims were met, but france suffered military defeats all over West Central Europe as john churchill, the duke of marlborough, and the prince of savoie marched their armies toward paris, successfully defeating the french. Save for a handful of victories, bungling and ineffectiveness also severely hampered French Military performance in the war of austrian succession. During the seven years war, french naval power was virtually annihilated and armed forces inured tremendous losses europe, india, africa, and the americas, succumbing to the tiny state of prussia on the continent and losing nearly all of its strongholds overseas. For the largest, wealthiest, and most populous country in europe, one that had achieved great military glory in its far removed in its far removed and more recent past, these losses were seen as no less than a national disaster. Losing this war was not just an exacerbating force, but a critical motivator for both the critiques and the reforms of what we call the military enlightenment. While many equate the enlightenment with pacifism and wholesale condemnation of war in all of its forms, in reality, the world of the french enlightenment met and conjoined with the military sphere in many varied and significant ways. Aire did not volt leave this at condemning the seven years war. Instead, he engaged with a specific event and the harshness of the British Naval penal code. In the French Military enlightenment, public intellectuals, military leadership, and many others were deeply involved in thinking about war and military policy from philosophical and practical perspectives. Instead of simply condemning war, they fostered reforms that could aid in resolving Frances National crisis and alleviate, to some extent, the multifarious brutalities of war. Understanding this context in france is critical for interpreting the writings of french officers who crossed the atlantic to fight in the American Revolution. This brings me to my third and final reason for including the vignette from chapter 23 in candide. One of the French Military officers present recorded details of the entire campaign in his memoirs and offered this and this officer is none other than rochambeau. Many scholars and enthusiasts are accustomed to reading the translated and abridged version of his memoirs, relative to the independence of the United States, published in 1838. However, this is a small section, only 100 pages, of a 400page memoir. He records details and personal impressions of his entire military career which spanned more than 50 years. He chronicles his experiences of the war of austrian succession, the seven years war, the American Revolution and the french revolutionary wars. These wars brought him to different parts of the world from the mediterranean to flanders, to yorktown. In my talk today, i will focus on rochambeau and make mention of a few other french officers. I will argue that these should be seen in connection with military enlightenment and the roles of military men in this era of global warfare. In thinking about the subject of the exhibitions here in the , revolutionary reflections, french memories of the war for america, we are encouraged to contemplate french experience is of the u. S. Or for independence from multiple perspectives in time. There is a sense of the present in the firsthand phenomenal, logical experience of fighting in america that french officers recorded in their memoirs. But in writing memoirs, there is also a looking backward into the past, to recollect these experiences, whether it be hours, days, or years later. Rochambeaus memoirs were published in 1808 and its likely he wrote them after his military career came to a close. So memory and reimagining have a role here. To takelso curious french experiences in the American Revolution as a point of departure and look forward to hypothesize on their significant and influence on france in the period that followed, especially during the french revolution. The latter line of inquiry had been of particular interest to historians of france, who have long sought to treat the influence of political ideals like liberty and natural rights as well as cultures of leadership and warfare from the american to the french revolution. Scholars research and teach atlantic revolutions, analyzing the american, french, and haitianrevolutions revolutions together, theres a wonderful consortium that is getting ready to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2020 and is entirely dedicated to studying this fascinating age in history in a global context. Examining rochambeaus memoirs in their entirety, unsettled and unsettled or nuanced many of my assumptions about the heroes of the American Revolution. About the camaraderie between the french and americans that the society of the cincinnati camera rates, about the lenses through which french officers viewed American Culture and what mattered to these officers that we may not have expected. One of my favorite anecdotes in rochambeaus memoirs regards our dear friend lafayette, who transformed himself from a tragically awkward but wealthy fish out of water to a champion of the American Revolution. We know him as a darling of George Washington. And perhaps the first grade americanophile. His home with his wife on the paris was a hub of American Culture and francoamerican political encounters in the city. There, french elites rubbed elbows with the jeffersons and jays and others at lafayettes american dinners where english was the language of choice for conversation and where evening entertainment was often offered by his own anastasia and George Washington lafayette. Even the invitations to these soirees were printed in english. The american dinners were intended to be authentic and succeeded, as even the puritanical Abigail Adams felt very much at ease at the lafayette home. During the war, however, lafayettes enthusiasm for the american cause created issues, notably in communications between washington and rochambeau. Since there was a language barrier between rochambeau and washington, the latter decided , and this is from his memoirs, decided he would send lafayette to me with full powers from him. During the protracted time of tension with the British Forces mobilizing in new york and long island, lafayette came to speak with rochambeau about possible ways forward before returning to washingtons camp. Rochambeau recalls i assume as soon as lafayette returned to washingtons headquarters, he wrote me the most depressing most pressing dispatches, reminding me of the substance of our former conversations, and urging me in the name of that general to join him immediately, to fend off a forthwith attack on the island of new york. He finished with a species of summons, founded on the policy of the country and implying the campaign was the last effort of his, washingtons patriotism. We were the more displeased at these dispatches as, by the same courier, i received letters from general washington himself, and not a single sentence of those letters alluded to the proposed plans of lafayette. Rochambeau ascertained that lafayette was, perhaps more than washington, anxious to strike a decisive blow by attacking the center of the enemy position. Rochambeau wrote back to lafayette in french and washington in english to explain his perspective on why this attack was ill advised and that to request that all future communications between him and washington be direct and not without the interference of a third person. Lafayettes enthusiasm for america could go a little too far sometimes. If you think back to his home in paris that is filled with objects from america and little George Washington singing songs in english, you could think a lot of french would think it was a little much. After complaining about lafayettes enthusiasm, however, rochambeau immediately wrote a paragraph celebrating his virtues and defending saying washington forgave this as well, often referring to the youthful ardor of his friend to express washingtons sentiments with greater energy. The digressions in rochambeaus memoirs where he interrupts what could be a rather dry narrative of events to relay impressions and judgments are some of the most interesting part of his writings and have not received sufficient attention. These commentaries as well as other more ancillary incidents are key to understanding the cultural lens through which many officers interpreted their experiences during the french revolution sorry, the American Revolution. Take, for example, a digression that occurs at the end of the u. S. War for independence. Rochambeau remarks, i have never mentioned the multitude of addresses of the towns and assemblies general of the different states of america presented to the general, and all of which were expressive of their feelings of sincere gratitude toward france. Some offered the good wishes of the inhabitants for the success of future operations, others for those of the army. I will only speak of one of these addresses on account of its essence is the of its eccentricity. I added the asterisk. That word is a problem. Its a translators liberty. I continue a step you a ation of the ancient society of friends in philadelphia, the quakers, a ccosted me. General, explained the eldest of the party, it is not on account of your military abilities. We care not for your accomplishments. But you are a friend to mankind and therefore we have come to pay our respects to thee. Why, of all the expressions of praise and gratitude, why did why was this one the one that rochambeau chose to memorialize in his writings . It was not because of his eccentricity. As i mentioned, that word is not in rochambeaus own memoir. That was added by the translator. Its because these marks reflect a system of values and warfare. Ones that he brought with him from france and that are reflective of what his what is termed the military enlightenment. The military enlightenment, as i mentioned, was born of the crisis marshall martial crisis that plagued france, but also the experiences of the first global wars. The enlightenment is perhaps best understood as a Development Viewed themselves as enlightened, compared to antiquity and other proceeding historical times. To this narrative, which grew out of the quarrel of the ancients and moderns that took place in french academy, and here i quote historian dan edelstein. The present age was enlightens ed because the philosophical spirit of the scientific revolution had spread to the educated classes. Institutions of learning and even parts of the government. Participants of the military enlightenment saw themselves as actors in the history of progress and they shared conviction that the conditioning of the armed forces and the functioning of warfare generally needed to be improved. In the name of advancement in these areas, agents of the military enlightenment applied a critical philosophical spirit, this to acquire a deeper understanding of war and the military and to propose and implement a myriad of reforms. The enlightenment was in part philosophical, contemplating war and its rightful conduct, ideal martial characteristics, the relationship between war and citizenship, and the costs of war, its consequence in its economic, moral, physical, and emotional terms. The military might meant was also practical and technical. Indeed, military, aiming to affect palpable change and mentalities and practices pertaining to uniforms, weaponry, tactics, drills, and medicine. These dialogues and debates not bound by the chambers in versailles, nor were they confined to the army, the navy, and their administrations. They engaged a far greater public. Like full tear, the public intellectuals of the day, the elites, theorists, poets, historians, doctors, mathematicians, engineers, and more. They were vital for members of aristocratic nobility of the sword, whose justification of socioeconomic folk of france was tied to war. They were also common for the folk of france who sons marched off to war and shouldered the heavy tax burden that financed the many wars of the 17th and 18th centuries. War and military were, in the most pervasive and profound sense, arenas of national concern. The military enlightenment was thus part of a broader phenomena of enlightenment, engaging in the same narrative and embracing philosophy in order to make war and military endeavors reflective of an enlightened aged. Philosophically and politically, participants wrought a wide range of perspectives. Some are atheists. Some were deists. Some brought christian moralities while others embraced secular moral philosophy. Sought universal adoptedes, while others principles that acknowledged human fallibility, confronting infinite contingency. Some advocated for classical republicanism while others were unabashed royalists. Despite this diversity, and overarching project of the military enlightenment emerged, one that entails a bipartite ambition. The first aim was to a wage war only when necessary, and to do so effectively and efficiently, in order to achieve martial objectives while sparing costs and precious resources, especially manpower. The second goal was to wage war humanely, and in a fashion that reflected the dignity, morality, rationality of the human race. French military officers of all ranks saw themselves as leaders in the military enlightenment, and the french archives are filled with memoranda and letters that attest to their commitment, innovation, and progress. Many of them were considered military philosophers who were dedicated to truth and the moral tenants of making good war. This involved rationality and civility and discipline, as well as calling on ones innate empathy and sociability to conduct war in a more humane fashion and build bonds with comrades and allies. Lexicon, ament, its fellow feeling, as adam smith put it, represented a departure from traditional themes. They were an Authentic Development of this period in history. While rochambeau never declared himself a military philosopher, his understanding as an agent of military enlightenment is clear. He opened his memoirs with a declaration of his devotion to relaying the truth and only the truth. He wrote and this is my translation from the french the truth must be the basis of history. I could only write on which i saw or alert of heard of in a certain manner. One might find blanks in the four great tableaux of the wars i have portrayed. I preferred to be quiet rather than to risk violating this first principle of truth and fidelity, from which one must never stray. In addition to this commitment to truth, rochambeau had an attachment to the moral values of civility, discipline, and waging war humanely as a friend of humankind. It is for this reason, i believe, that he cherished his dashesf his encountered o encounter of the quaker above his encounter of the quaker above all others and only recorded this conversation in his memoirs. It is important to recall that military officers were among the most prolific world travelers during this time due to the wars of empire. France had dispatched missionaries and scientific teams, established trade posts or colonized lands on six of seven continents, excluding antarctica, and had sailed six three of five of the worlds oceans. Ice in the antarctica ocean prevented extensive exploration. Merchants were active in west africa, sugar plantations in the caribbean, fisheries and for r trade posts in american colonies, in the indian subcontinent, and china. Economic hubs throughout the mediterranean sea. In this era of mercantilism, the french sanctioned monopolies for private companies and works to secure frances position in world trade. Colony, now haiti, was the premier producer of sugar in the world. Louis the 15th, louis the 16th, and their ministers were keenly focused on colonizing the french part of the island, protecting the human and material cargo transported on ships going to and from the island. Land units asd well as metropolitan regular army units were deployed. Their task was to patrol and protect french interests, a process referred to as military colonization, and aid the military, when trade routes became the pathways and locale of warfare. Empire and diaspora shaped the careers of military men in multiple ways. Some held commissions in the army and the navy and participated in battles across the globe, from the european continent during the war of austrian succession to india, in the seven years war, to the caribbean and north america during the revolutionary war. In these experiences, military officers occupied a number of important positions in addition to their military roles. They were governors general, diplomats, cartographers, and pseudoethnographers. They relayed valuable information about lands, leaders, cultures, and the military. They had navigational logs, memories, and memoirs, and also essays on learned subjects that spoke about policies, politics, and commerce of different indigenous groups. This was a source of inspiration and challenges of the military philosophers of the 18th century. These ways were adopted by and they adopted embraced local ways of war. They coupled with native women, depended on native medical practices and traded their rations for moccasins. They scalped enemies and were scalped themselves. Oceans away, they trained and led forces of indian mercenaries and struck up tenuous alliances with local authorities. They collaborated with african princes in senegal to ensure a supply of enslaved people all people and the security of french slave trading posts and ships. Such experiences could not but transform these men, confirming or debunking stereotypes about ethnic others and about the allegedly place of superiority of european culture in society. Like their counterparts who never left europe, they recorded their observations, wrote reports and recommendations, and authored treatises on the places and peoples with whom they interacted. While a plethora of cultural misunderstandings and misgivings took place, published works in manuscripts conveyed the system the interest, cultural adaptability and the ecological legitimacy they exercised as explorers and inhabitants albeit, at times temporary of these faraway worlds. Many military men thus saw themselves as purveyors of creatorsand meant and or translators of historical and global knowledge. I am currently engaged in a digital humanities project that is revealing the prevalence of military intellectuals in certain parisian salons and different french academies, a testament to their centrality in Knowledge Networks and production during this era. Their works were consumed avidly by both military and civilian readerships. All of this helps us find an answer to the most basic question we seldom ask why did they write these memoirs in the first place . Recontextualizing is critical to our understanding of why and what they wrote. Let us turn again to the letter. Of the 492 officers that traveled with rochambeau to aid to the american cause, war journals and other personal ounts are extant [inaudible] i will not test you on these things afterward. Names]g french collections of memoirs and letters have been assembled from rochambeau and others. These documents not only reveal military details of rochambeaus campaigns in collaboration with the americans, but also show how these french warrior authors engaged in cultural analyses and communicated their ideas that to back to their homeland. Officers debated on the earance, moores, and appearance, mores, and fighting capacities of their allies and to positions on the practice of slavery. Some condemned it. While others purchased enslaved people to use as domestic servants. Rochambeau noted clinically and here im quoting racial terminology of the time which is now unacceptable. A dog often lives a happier life and is more better nourished negros andor mulattos. Officers were most interested, however, in americans of european descent, though they tended to snub their american counterparts due to a difference in social standing. The former were aristocrats, while Many American officers were of the humble artisan class of blacksmiths, shopowners, and innkeepers. Rochambeau relayed an anecdote on the subject. A Good American villager asked him he is speaking about the duke a Good American villager asked, of what trade was his father in france . My father, he replied, does nothing. Typical aristocrats. But i have an uncle who is a martial. Making allusion to him. Very good, said the american. Thats a very good trade. Frances American Allies in their fight for independence from england also represented a political danger. At least potentially. While many were enthusiastic about the american fight for freedom, the crown and many highranking military officers were nervous about whether the fires of the fervor would jump from american soldiers to french ones. Carnation laws were implemented to keep french and american soldiers from socializing. Officers seemingly avoided one another as well. One remarked, one never sees a french officer with an american one. We had a strong understanding between us, but we did not live together. This, i think, is the best thing that could have happened to us, their character being so different from ours, corals would have surely broken out quickly. On the french side, hardly five of every 100 were not noble, and outside of sharing in military service, they had very little in common with their american homologs, who were often cobblers, butchers, and, most often, innkeepers. French officers felt far more cultural affinity with enemy officers. Rochambeau and lausanne invited highranking officers to dine british and german officers to dine with them in their camp. Rochambeau even lent money to lord Charles Cornwallis so that he could cover is immediate which the british general promptly reimbursed, along with a friendly gift of Cheshire Cheese and 100 bottles of wine. Cornwallis knew how to please a frenchman, but not how to win a war. Journal writers within the French Forces noted the grandiose sociable gestures made by the french toward the british and has seen and hessian officers at yorktown, which made american officers quite jealous. Although french officers referred to keep company with english and german officers, they passed judgment on the unenlightened and downright grotesque behavior of these foreign gentlemen as well. He was appalled at atrocities perpetrated against americans in jamestown, virginia. He recounted with horror the vision of a young, pregnant American Woman whose body had been mutilated and eviscerated, then hung on the door with her defunct fetus hanging from her hollow womb with a sign that read, damned rebel, no longer shall you give birth. The humane impulses of the military enlightenment were silent on this occasion, and many others during the century. Kinder hospitality and mores could be found between generals the booze was bourgeoisie, met in cities like boston and newport. However, there were some american mores that french officers could not fathom. A number of officers marveled at the practice of bundling, which allowed young couples, engaged to be married or unengaged, to spend or even entire night alone hours together in a bedroom. There, they were to remain completely clothed, but could kiss and devote themselves to tender caresses, excepting those that only marriage has a right to permit. Bundling, he a show of incredible trust, selfcontrol, and respect bundling, he concluded, is really only for americans. Policies and prejudices that fueled antifraternization would not be the last thing character of social relations between french and american officers. When the war of independence drew to a close, general henry knox suggested information of a society that would permit the officers of a general to care for the widows of fallen compatriots and serve the ideas of the revolution in public and private memory. The society was founded in may 1783, and was named for lucius quintus cincinnatus, who left his farm to become Roman Council and then wartime dictator. However, once piece had been settled, he returned lawful power to the senate and went home to plow his field alongside his family. George washington became the societys first president. Initially, the membership of the society of the cincinnati, which had a chapter in each former colony, was limited to American Army and Navy Officers who had served a minimum of three years. Still, Society Members sought to make a gesture of gratitude and to forge an enduring bond of friendship with their french counterparts and therefore invited highranking officers to join the society as well. Rochambeau, lafayette, and another were among 14 french founding members of the society. A French Branch was founded in december 1783. And here we have a document located here at the society, in our archives, that shows the first list that was compiled in january 1784 of the french society. Memoirs by french officers revealed that friendship between french officers and american officers had not necessarily been common during the war itself. However, the image and dream of friendship that the society of cincinnati promulgated still characterizes the alliance between france and United States to this day. Id like to conclude my remarks today with a few thoughts on why it matters to read french memoirs on the war for america through the lens of the military enlightenment. First, this perspective allows us to view the memoirs and their authors in a new light. We can see these french officers as they saw themselves, as important agents in the pursuit of enlightening war, who aspired to embody enlightenment, intellectualism, cosmopolitanism, and morality in an age of global warfare. This perspective also draws attention to different parts of the memoirs and brings into relief issues that french officers thought to be important. New genealogies of influence can emerge from such queries. The question of attitudes towards slavery is one area to which i had a privilege of focusing while i was here as a fellow, at the society of the cincinnati in the library. Certain metropolitan french officers exhibited the limits of their humanity during the American Revolutionary war, as they did not so much as bat an as i mentioned. In newport, rochambeau and others purchased enslaved people by domestic servants. Replacing the people they would have hired on the european continent. At yorktown, he proclaimed the negros who were not reclaimed by their masters those of us who didnt have a servant were very happy to find one and for so cheap. Yet fighting alongside free men of color was an experience that marked a certain officers profoundly and may have played a role in turning the metabolism is. Them into abolitionists. American and British Forces both employed africans in their armies. American forces employed a greater number of africanamericans, such that they composed about 1 4 of the troops. There were black and mixedrace soldiers who fought valiantly alongside metropolitan French Forces, build their service resulted in though their service resulted in death or forced military service. Though it is difficult to trace a colorful relationship between racial intermittent such as the , membership of the society of the friend of blacks, founded in 1788 in france, under the leadership of sheds light on to this question. The society had 95 founding members, of whom between 1 5 and 1 4 were military officers of the army or navy. Of these military men 1 3 had fought in the American Revolutionary war and were members of the society of the cincinnati. One fought and witnessed the courage of the volunteers and other men of color at engagements such as the siege of savannah of 1779. He later became the naval minister during the directory. And worked to enforce the abolition of slavery in san dominick, as well as establishing a school near paris for black and mixedrace children. He also became the most courageous and vehement voice in favor of maintaining the policy of abolition when napoleon wanted to reinstate slavery in 1802. He combated napoleons unabashed embrace is him on the basis of humanity in human equality, but to no avail. Rereading the memoirs by french officers in light of the military enlightenment also allows us to have a more nuanced and complete picture of the foreignness and clumsiness of the earliest days of french and american allegiance. This image, which you may have seen on the website, advertising this talk, is a marvelous example. I will give you a closer view. Let me see if i can use my pointer. Yes. Ok. So here we have a stone inscription, america and the seas, we thank you for their freedom. Up here we have the gallic rooster and the fleurdelis. And then we have the bust of louis xvi. Franklin, washington and it is a little bit hard for you to the, but washington is spelled waggingston on this document. And if you think this is an outlier, there are documents including documents written by lafayette, where washingtons name is spelled waggingston. Maybe its the french pronunciation. Maybe closer to washington. And then we have this very ,nteresting figure right here subduing england, which is represented by the lion in the quarter. This figure is a totally bizarre hodgepodge. He is quite pale and androgynous with long flowing light brown hair and is donning not just the expected icons of liberty, but also an animal skin and a multicolored plumed headdress and skirting or belt somewhat reminiscent, albeit in a kind of fantastical way, of native american ceremonial garb. Im endlessly amused by this image with its infelicitous spelling of washingtons name. And this odd figure that really encapsulates what many french thought of america during the 18th century. In some ways, it reflects who we are today a strange, colorful, and beautiful and here, this text says in writing, i become beautiful. So a strange, colorful, beautiful conglomeration of different cultures and people seeking to right the wrongs of history, to conquer oppression, to establish our rights, and to live in freedom. This image can perhaps inspire us, since we are inheritors of this same struggle, which continues today in our country, and we must pursue the fight together of seeking liberty and justice, not just for the few, but for all. Thank you. [applause] [inaudible] hello. Professor, thank you for that wonderful talk, and they do in particular for emphasizing the role of slavery in your thoughts. I think thats a really important point. I would like to ask you if you have any sort of thoughts on how slavery fits or does not fit into the wider narrative of the military enlightenment. Is it the underside of the military enlightenment, the exception you mentioned of abolitionist or humanist. For the most part, slavery is a part and parcel of the reason these wars are being thought and then being fought and and people are becoming enlightened. Im thinking in particular of the example of haiti, which is relevant to this time. Both for france and the u. S. This time period both for france and the u. S. , because when the haitian revolution happens, the french attempt to crush it. The fighting that happens in haiti is incredibly brutal. And the americans are terrified because the United States at this time depends on an economy of slavery and is frightened of the idea of a giant black that. Tion undoing i want to know more about how you see that example fitting or thank you so much for that not fitting into this narrative thank you so much for that . Thank you so much for that question. You kind of indicated it. Theres really two sides to this coin happening at the same time. And its true for a lot of different groups. Part ofor example, as the military and light mins, much more care is given to the commons older, for the common soldiers health and hygiene and also for a type of democratization of heroism, to start recognizing the hero with some of these individuals, and there are really interesting stories of how, for example, in may sonic lodges, common soldiers who came to fight in the American Revolution were brought back to france and then celebrated in these very elaborate ceremonies in the lodges, in freemason lodges. So there is this part of celebrating the subaltern. And then on the other side at any moment, anyone can ignore s and commit atrocities many times, those atrocities goes unpunished go unpunished. Many groups never really receive respect. That example that i gave of the American Woman and this horrible torture that she succumbed and then this grotesque example, being flouted for all to see women were a part of society who were absolutely sort of not included in this, maybe just barely at the beginning of the french revolution. And so one can imagine what the , how centrallavery it is to frances power at the time, how many people are actually invested in the slave trade in one way or another many of these military figures are a part of that world and as we know, napoleon own wife was a part of that world intimately and critically, not intellectually critically, but in terms of the importance of her familys finances, involved in the slave trade. So there are many people who are sort of uncritical about slavery or about who support it or of theate this Movement Board of scientific racism pseudoscientific, right . Is not a lot of science about it. But the concept of race is coalescing at this moment, at the moment when it can be operationalized in some way to justify the continuation of slavery. So we have officers who are absolutely involved in this and who confirm all of the negative developing stereotypes about people i have test people of african descent and why they should continue to be enslaved. On the other hand, and this is this other literature about colonial warfare which is really burdened which has really thatoned in the past year, on the ground, people had to work together. The spanish pinkies twodoor model of going at conquering other people and forcing their way was often not what happened area it was a needs to understand other cultures and people in order to collaborate with them, and there is also a sense of growing respect for these different people, and you have writers, military writers who are connecting french culture and values values of native americans and saying, we have so many similarities, we are they are attached to honor like we are. They enjoy dancing like we do, and there is this a whole sort of other piece of the population, the military population in enlightenment, who are more supportive of a generous stance, of a stance that goes towards equality, and there are people, interesting writings in the archives where, for one example, one of the officers who served in san they foundaiti him one of these people, who said free people of caller, you should stand up. You have strength, you have a you to be a we want part of what we do in the military. One can be skeptical and say yeah, they are just looking for manpower, but this is one of the difficult questions, studying the history of emotion. That its easy to always be cynical. Say oh, everything they did and said was just to get people to serve. They just needed manpower. And on the other hand, its very clear in narrative about people who the french officers would see as ethnic others and about common soldiers, who they also saw as quite different from themselves, almost a different species, where there is sincere attachment and respect and desire to uplift these people. So its a really its an issue that has two sides that are really developed sides sides that are really developed. Its something i talk about in my book, and its fueling some of my work for my next project. Keep looking for my work out there. Thank you for that question. [inaudible] contribution and the congressmans of the accomplishments of a young the 1780, 1781 rochambeau american campaign. Later on, he became napoleons chief of staff. As a logistical genius, he was responsible for many of napoleons victories. Napoleon used to issue the battle plan. He would translate that into an action plan. So he made a substantial contribution to french history, military success, so on. So i think he was mentioned in rochambeaus memoir. Im not sure, but could you please comment on that . Thank you so much for that. And it may well be that you know more about this individual that i do. It sounds like this is somebody whos life you have studied. So i really look forward to hearing more about what you know about this persons trajectory. He constitutes, indeed, one of the sort of tactical geniuses and also one of these officers whose career spans a period that seems unlikely in sunway. In some way. How could you be a revolutionary serving in the American Revolution and then be an officer serving a dictatorship . It is something that is very interesting about the careers of these military men, and to think about who was able to survive the guillotine, who survived the french revolution, what were the narratives that were deployed in order to help them survive, and also some luck, in many cases. People who were jailed were able to get out. Robespierre himself was routed just in time for many of these people to survive. And of course, this was really critical, both for the french revolution and for the napoleonic era. Because the military experience of someone like berthier and other officers who survived was central to the initial successes of napoleons campaign. So losing these officers would have been a tremendous, tremendous drain and casualty for the French Military. [inaudible] yeah, yes. You had that slide up there where you list the ideas that broadly speaking characterized the military enlightenment. Curious, what proportion of the senior or otherwise prominent french officers of the time subscribed more or less to this . Was this an isolated subculture or did this characterize the leadership of the french army broadly . I am assuming it is something in the middle, but can you talk about it a bit, please . Yes, thank you so much. Im trying to get back to that slide. I would say the French Armed Forces at the time the very top officers, generals, and oftentimes colonels are also the most powerful grandees, aristocratic families of france. So they are absolutely, positively sitting in the salons in paris and also participating in these conversations at her side at versailles. These people are very well read. Other historians, like ira gruber has conducted a study and worked here at the library of the society of the cincinnati to show what were the reading lists, the common readings that officers engaged in for pleasure, but also to inform themselves in preparation for fighting these battles all over the planet. So there is definitely an elite segment of the population that is reading rousseau and using the vocabulary of moral philosophy of the social contract. Be steepedm seem to with the vocabulary of moral philosophy, which never made it back to that list of terms, and what is interesting, in the archive especially, that is where you see some middling officers who were maybe less powerful, who did not have as much money and who likely were never sitting in those fancy parisian salons they too, surprisingly, had a lot of the same discourse in what they were writing. Lets see if this is going to be next one. No yes. This wasnt really shocking and interesting discovery, to imagine a sort of trickledown effect, because these gentlemen maybe had a less extensive than the higher officials and the higher officers. And also came from the provinces rather than paris. And it is part of what made me write this book. I said, something is happening in the French Armed Forces. This is part of the language of talking about war and talking about military reform. A quick followup to that would you hypothesize those middling officers who were not in those salons are they getting that at the Officers Mess . Over brandy or whatever it is the french drink at the end of the meal . Yes, it happens in a lot of places. That is one thing i had to think about in my book, how is this happening sort of logistically that this type of discourse and this way of thinking is permeating through the french army, at least through the officer corps, to a certain extent. Absolutely. It is people having casual conversations in cafes, in aeemason lodges this is very important aspect of how the military enlightenment is happening in freemasonry. Many lodges the spread of freemasonry in france was in large part thanks to the French Military, because they established masonic lodges in many of the different towns where they stayed temporarily and set up barracks. So they would establish a military lodge and the troops would move on, but the lodge stayed become populated by local people. Lodges were a part of it. People were definitely reading. People were corresponding, so there were all these different mechanisms by which this information was permeating. And that is where the question sociability is really key. This is an age of sociability. This is an age where sitting down and speaking to one another its not the age of the iphone, where we do not speak to one another. We gaze into our phones, even when we are right next to each other. This was an age that really cared deeply about discussion, about dialogue, and about debate. To so that culture was key the sort of blossoming of the military enlightenment. Thanks for that question. Thank you for a wonderful talk this evening. She will be at the rear of the ballroom signing books. Please join us for refreshments in the winter garden. And if you havent had a chance to see the exhibition, you are invited to do so. Thank you, again. Thank you, everyone. Thank you so much. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] this weekend on the presidency, a look at pulitzer prizewinning artist pat oliphants political cartoons, focusing on the presidencies of george h. W. Bush, bill clinton, and george w. Bush, including Barack Obamas twig and eight election. 2008 election. Heres a preview. I will start with this one. Incredibly timely. February 11, 1999, this is after bill clinton is included on impeachment. He is dancing on the left, cigar, bongos, smoking a saying free at last, free at last. Other corner,the saying punk says moving finger writes and moves on. People will remember, post impeachment, clinton was fairly popular, and he actually left office fairly popular. ,istory does doesnt write once and we have seen the way that history has continued to reevaluate bill clinton and his perceptions have changed over the last couple years as well, but it does show that even an impeachment effort that failed still leaves a mark in history, and that is something that is not to be underestimated, either in 1999 or 2019. Learn more sunday night. Youre watching american istory tv. Announcer each week, american artifacts takes viewers into archives, museums, and Historic Sites around the country. Up next, we visit the International Spy museum to tour their exhibit on cold war berlin. Our guide is lead curator alexis albion who explains how the city came to be divided after world war ii and shows us artifacts used by the east germans to spy on visitors and