Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau
(1725-1807)
BIRTH
July 1, 1725
Orleanais, France
Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur
FATHER
Joseph Charles II de Vimeur
(c. 1697-1779)
Children
Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Rochambeau
(1755-1813)
Marshal Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau was a French nobleman and general whose army played a critical role in helping the United States defeat the British Army at Yorktown in 1781 during the American Revolutionary War. By 1747, he had attained the rank of colonel. He took part in the siege of Maastricht and became governor of Vendôme in 1749. The Odell farm served as Rochambeau's headquarters from 6 July to 18 August 1781.
BORN
Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur
Orleanais, France
Married Name
Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur was born in Vendôme, in the province of Orléanais, and he was educated at the Jesuit college in Blois. After the death of his elder brother, he entered a cavalry regiment and served in Bohemia, Bavaria, and on the Rhine during the War of the Austrian Succession. By 1747, he had attained the rank of colonel. He took part in the siege of Maastricht and became governor of Vendôme in 1749. He distinguished himself in the Battle of Minorca on the Seven Years' War outbreak and was promoted to Brigadier General of infantry. In 1758, he fought in Germany, notably in the Battle of Krefeld and the Battle of Clostercamp, receiving several wounds at Clostercamp.
In 1780, Rochambeau was appointed commander of land forces as part of the project code-named Expédition Particulière. He was given the rank of Lieutenant General in command of 7,000 French troops and sent to join the Continental Army under George Washington.
He landed at Newport, Rhode Island on 10 July but was held there inactive for a year due to his reluctance to abandon the French fleet blockaded by the British in Narragansett Bay. The College in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (now Brown University) served as an encampment site for some of Rochambeau's troops. In July 1781, the force left Rhode Island and marched across Connecticut to join Washington on the Hudson River in Mount Kisco, New York. The Odell farm served as Rochambeau's headquarters from 6 July to 18 August 1781.
Washington and Rochambeau then marched their combined forces to the siege of Yorktown and the Battle of the Chesapeake. On 22 September, they combined with the Marquis de Lafayette's troops and forced Cornwallis to surrender on 19 October.
CAREER
DEATH
Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, died at his estate at Thoré on May 10, 1807, aged 81. His final years followed military distinction, retirement and the dangers of the French Revolution. He had been imprisoned during the Terror and survived, then lived into the Napoleonic period, when his earlier service received renewed recognition. He met Napoleon in 1801, received a pension and was later appointed to the Legion of Honor. His death was therefore the end of a long retirement rather than a battlefield death connected with the American campaign for which he is best known. The biography reviewed does not establish a specific terminal disease or describe a complete course of final illness. His imprisonment years earlier should not be presented as a demonstrated immediate cause, and age alone does not justify a medical diagnosis. He was buried at Thoré, near the estate with which his later life was associated. A careful narrative can describe the sequence of survival, retirement and recognition before his death while leaving symptoms, medical treatments and bedside conversations unassigned where the source does not document them.
Rochambeau tomb, Thore Cemetery
Cimetière communal de Thoré-la-Rochette, 41100 Thoré-la-Rochette, France
GRAVE
Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau Was Here
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