This upcoming 250th anniversary. Examining our american experiment as key. This revolution of ours created waves across the world. With its lasting impacts, felt even today. This symposium the world turned upside down the American Revolution. Its impact on a global scale. Well study the effects of this revolution that trans formed governments and the governed across the globe. Appropriate as we consider the birth of our nation, is to acknowledge the Ancestral Lands of our Indigenous Peoples on which we gather. We recognize the many tribes who moved through this region trading and drawing resources from the land and waterways. We honor their descendants today. Our community is shaped by the diversity of its people. Past, present and future. And we affirm that this is central to the values of the place we now call alexandria. I have a few important housekeeping notes before we begin. We will have 15 minutes of question and answer after each presentation. So please line up behind the microphone to ask your questions for those here in person and for those on zoom. Please type your questions in the chat and we will ask them in real life. We do have author books for sale downstairs, so if you would like any of our books, our authors to sign your book, please visit with them over the course of the day. And then lunch is on your own and there are a ton of options here in oldtown. So if you need some recommendation, please look for our Historic Alexandria staff who will be happy to point you in the right direction. So with that, please welcome Phil Greenawalt with emerging revolutionary war to introduce our first speaker. Good morning. How . We are so grateful to have norm the mayors with us here today. Norm is a Professor EmeritusProvidence College and providence, rhode island. Hes the author of the guide of the American Revolutionary war series, 13 volumes about the war on land, sea and overseas, as well as americas first ally, france and the American Revolutionary war. And washingtons engineer. Louis, the port title and the creation of an army corps enormous translated annotated a number of french works, including louis, francois, baton du pont all day view camp de la deer, which takes up a whole slide in the biography. His journals, published as the road to yorktown, the french campaigns in the American Revolution, 1780 through 83. He also translated the gazette. Francois, the french newspaper that was actually published in newport, rhode island, by the french fleet that brought the company rochambeau, and his 5800 french troops to america in july of 1780. Norm was a pioneer in the cdrom industry, setting up the First Network of rhode island. For those watching on zoom, theres a little disks that used to come on your computer. Hes an active reenactor. Serves on the board of directors of the bovine center at the university of massachusetts, dartmouth. Please welcome enormous presents, reevaluating our french allies. A new look at popular assumptions of the french army through the diary of count de lauberdiere. Thank you very much, phil. Im sure youre all here expecting us to talk about whats whats in our books. Im going to take a different path. Im going to talk about whats not in the book. What i mean by that is that 18th century diaries are more like scrapbooks. They contain a lot of stuff that is not pertinent to the to the diary. For example, this particular diary includes maps. It includes illustrations, handdrawn illustration scenes. One of them being that of carltons bridge, which is a an engineering feat of of the 18th century. Several diaries talk about it, but hes the only one who has an illustration of it. And its not in the book. You have to look at the manuscript for that. There there are also several issues of newspapers, and thats going to be one of the topics im going to cover. There are laudatory poems, congressional citations and all kinds of other stuff that gets included in there. But even though i translated all of it and intended that it be published as an appendix, it didnt get included. So the first thing i want to talk about is the gazette. Francoise. This is the when the french fleet came here, they brought a Printing Press and this became the first the first of what became expeditionary public nations. Much as those of you whove served in the military, youre familiar with stars and stripes. This is the ancestor of stars, not of stars. And stripes were of that genre of publication. This is the first publication for soldiers in a foreign land. And whats important about this is that there are six issues and two supplements in existence. And the the the press was set up in newport and it was it was set up at a time when the soldiers are getting bored. They needed something to do. So they they started publishing this newspaper. The up here you see where you can get a facsimile version of ive done a. Theres a facsimile version such as this. The entire newspaper. And theres an english translation of it right here. This is the last page of the test of the second supplement. And there are there are no issues after that that that that exist. The original of this is in the rhode Island Historical society. Ive seen several iterations of this. There are a couple of iterations in print. There are a couple of it went from print. It was microfilm and more recently, its available electronically through the american newspapers database. All of the the iterations that ive seen have a tear in this corner. Always the likelihood of having the exact same tear. You know, every iteration is or in several publications is extremely astronomically rare. So we know that the the issues that are in the Historical Historical Society are the only ones in existence. At the end of the the article at the end of the issue, you have a french paragraph, if translated with an english paragraph requesting rags. The reason for requesting rags is that paper in those days was published with rag fiber. We didnt have cotton fiber at the time, so a wood pulp. So the the rags fiber is the the medium for publication. And hes hes looking for a good supply of rags. People assume that because the paper is looking for rags, that they dont have enough of material to to print to print subsequent editions. So since there are no issues of this journal of this magazine that exist after this date, the assumption was that the press may have gone out of business. Another thing is that people thought that maybe because after a period of a couple of months, the french soldiers had learned enough english that they didnt need a translation of english newspaper articles, that they were pertinent to them. The next paragraph, both in french and english, indicates that the newspaper is planning to publish an almanac. The following year. So this is at the end of actually this is published on january second, 1780. 1780 now. 1781. So theyre planning on publishing an an almanac for the year 1781. This this line down here is whats called the california. And im going to talk a bit more about that in a moment. The lumberjack journal has a supplement to the diary. This is the origin the the the the top of the issue that was published in 1780. The one that we just looked at this is the supplement thats included with lumberjack diary. And it reads number 93, which means that there were 87. My assumption has given the the title to what the layout of the title, the design of the page, the font and everything that there were published by the same press. And i was really excited to find that this was number 93, which meant that the public that the press did not go out of business in 1780 and the beginning of 1781. But when i looked at the color fun to this issue, i found that the it was published by the of the the french fleet. But it had the place of publication in paris. And im wondering, how did the press get from rhode island to paris in 1781, while the troops were on the march to yorktown . So i did i started doing more research into that, and i found out that the this issue is a supplement to the gazette. France was, which i had translated about 20 years ago. This is the supplement to the gazette. The france very similar title, but the two different publications. And i found a copy of this online and to verify that it does follow in that sequence. So this publication did not go to buy two twice a week public portion in 1781, but these are two different publications. However, the public, the press, the the navy press did not go out of business because it did publish the the the almanac that i mentioned. This is the the title page of the almanac. And in addition to that, it published a an account this is a four page account. This is a four page account of the admiral that touches the battle in the chesapeake. In 17, in march of 1781. This is the articles of capitulation, which happened to be after yorktown, of course. So the the press was still operating. Was it was it still in newport . I dont know, because the you know, all the troops had moved down to yorktown and the the the french troops wintered in williamsburg that whenever i think maybe the the the navy had gone back to rhode island. But in any case, they published that. In addition to that, they published this voyage of newport to philadelphia. This is the First Edition of france was marketed to shot to lose voyages to new of travels in america. The second edition is is a two volume set published as it does under the title travels in america in french and then english translations have been published in a number of other languages. So the press did not go out of business that year. In fact, this this issue of the press published 27 copies and the count de lauberdiere had had a copy because he makes mention of it in his in his diary. The next item that i want to talk about is a map. This is a map by which shows the the landing sites. You have a landing site here. And two landing sites down here. Newport is and Rhode Islanders think that russia bore and the navy landed right here around the long wharf around here where kings park is. This map is you can see the name there to show up here. They took succeeded admiral, to tell admiral germany died on december 15, 1780. They took immediately took command of the navy at that time and remained in command until march 13th, 1781, when he was replaced by admiral deborah. So this this map had to be done in the First Quarter of 1781, judging by the appearance of it, it looks to be. Very, very similar to the maps done by louis alexandriacaen. Louis Alexander Berthier was one of russia most quartermaster stores, and he was his his main job was was make it cartographer. Youre making maps. The problem with the touche and berthier is that neither one of them were at the landing when when the troops arrived here in 17 eight in 1780. Neither one of them were with the navy at the time. Berthier missed the boat in britain, brest and had to take another another ship over. And he didnt arrive until october. So his his information is what what what he says in his diary is that where he indicates the landing sites is hes marking landing sites that he expects the british to land if theyre going to attack newport. So this is the map that that appears in, in nobodys diary. You notice up here, theres no indication of of a landing site. The two landing sites are down here. This is a detail of that of that map. So this this right here says landing site. Landing site. And he indicates this woods castle. And the importance for this is that he is the only diarist to mention where the landing site occurred. All the diaries tell you that the troops landed. They arrived in newport and they landed first. One day this regiment lands. The next day the another regiment lands. And so on. He is the only one who says that they they landed and they landed at woods castle and but he doesnt say that on the landing day. He says this in october, on october 7th and october 10th. In the diary, he indicates that the troops aboard russian bow has something, has to do something to do, revive their spirits, keep them occupied. So what he does is he has them play war games. And he says the war games are held at the landing site at woods castle, which is five miles from the campsite. Now, this is a 1780 map. This is this is a better map overlaid with a google map. And the reason i wanted i overlaid this map is i wanted to find out this line of defenses is the british line of defense around newport. And i wanted to find out where does this line actually go in zigzag in the city. But im finding that im getting more use out of it for for planning and plotting where the french were. This set of camps here, this is the french camp. This is the schwarzenegger camp over here, the bubonic camp is down here. Royal depot, st george and schwarzenegger. And if you measure from woods castle, which is now whats called such was point, its a wildlife preserve today from there, coming over this causeway to here, its exactly five miles. And thats what little badger says in his diary. This is a blessed school. Which map of newport. This is Touro Synagogue right here. And this is the Baptist Church. They were the currently the the Baptist Churches over is about right here. No, its right right about here. This this is the Second Baptist Church in newport. There were six Baptist Churches over the period of years. The current one, the third Baptist Church, is about over here right up around here. But this is the Second Baptist Church. And the importance of that will be ill point that out in a moment. Well, when the when the french arrived a little bit here notes that they arrived at 11 00 in the morning. But theres such a heavy fog that they dropped anchor and they waited until late afternoon. The fog lifted around 3 00 while i lifted around noon and they started to prepare, landing around 3 00. Now rush on boat and his son donostia, the vermeer are on different ships and different. They decided that the only the last ship in the fleet to arrive in it at the newport would be the one to to to land. So rush on boat and his son both have to transfer ships to go to the amazon which is the last ship in the to arrive in newport. They then take the captains and go ashore from there. So they arrive sometime around late, about 5 00 in the afternoon. And here you see this is a quote from. Dynasty and the russian boys diary indicating that he and his father came ashore. Now, the they were coming ashore along with jack deville. Jack abbeville is the quartermaster general. And the purpose that they were going to go ashore is to scout out where theyre going to to lay out the camp, which is where i showed you earlier this option. This vessel is a. This is a cutter. So that gives you an idea of what the what what what the captains would look like. And so thats the kind of boat that we take ashore. This. This is long wharf right here, which is which is where people think that rochambeau landed. This building is the colony house, and the Baptist Church would have been right about here. So the. Looking up from the from the wharf straight up to the colony house is a very imposing view. Its a beautiful building. The british use this building as a hospital during the during their occupation of newport. The french did not a lot of people assume that the french use that building as a hospital, but no diary. None of the french diaries actually talk about the the the colony house other than saying its a village. Its a grand state building. Its a beautiful public building. So thats about the extent of it. They dont talk about it as a hospital. When russia arrived, one of everybody thinks that they were welcomed with a big brass band and lots of, you know, lots of troops massed on the on the shore and everything. Russia always severely disappointed, he said nobody was there. If you read general heaths diary, general heath, as the Continental Army commander of the new england area, hes in providence, which is about 45 miles away. And hes talking about how, you know, he gave a proper reception to russian bull. Well, hes covering his tail because he wasnt there. Nobody heard, was there . And this is this is from his diary. And he talks about how russia but went ashore with deville. They they ran into mr. Wharton, who was a quaker. Mr. Wharton lived three houses up from where the colony house was, and what offered him some some horses invites him to t that evening russian bull asked who is in charge of the militia in the area and Christopher Greene is in charge. But hes not at that particular site. Hes elsewhere in the newport area. So they send out an express to go get him to bring him to russia on board, let him know that that russian boy and his troops have arrived once. Bear in the view of many bear in the view of many is russia boys second in command when he realizes that russian boys ashore with no bodyguard, he decides that hes going to send the Grenadier Company of the boat when theyre regiment board bonnybridge element is the senior regiment of russian boys army. So he sends the the to the Grenadier Company are the so the crackerjack troops of the regiment. They are the people who are in time of riot. They would be the what you your when they call out the riot act. Theyre the ones who show up. Theyre the sort of elite troops look more like the someone like the rangers today. They you had to be five feet eight inches tall to be to be even considered to be a grenadier and. Look in addition to being five feet eight inches tall, you had these bearskin caps which added another 8 to 12 inches to your height. The german grenadiers had they had tight coats which shorter sleeves. So the reason for that is that these guys look like theyre giants who are busting out of their clothes, much like the incredible hulk, the french. The french did the same very, very similar look at the the cuffs on the on these sleeves, these guys are from the schwarzenegger regiment. You can tell theyre schwarzenegger because of the are the salmon colored facings and the the cuffs. This is the