Rochambeau Collection

Papers and revolutionary war maps of comte de Rochambeau

The personal papers of Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau (1725-1807), commander in chief of the French forces during the American Revolution, were purchased by act of Congress in 1883. Spanning the years 1777 to 1794, the collection consists of one volume of manuscript histories covering some of the revolutionary war years, five volumes of correspondence and papers dating chiefly from the 1780s, and nine letterbooks containing copies of letters sent and received by Rochambeau (1780-84). Of particular note are materials relating to the French branch of the Society of the Cincinnati, which Rochambeau founded in 1784, and correspondence conducted with George Washington chiefly after Rochambeau's return to France in 1783. A partial inventory, received with the 1,800-item collection, complements the finding aid compiled by the Manuscript Division. The Rochambeau papers have been microfilmed.

For his personal use Rochambeau retained maps of fortifications and troop positions prepared by the French army engineers. Forty manuscript and twenty-eight printed maps were acquired with the Rochambeau papers and transferred to the Geography and Map Division along with a manuscript atlas containing plans of fifty-four French encampments during the army's 1782 march from Yorktown to Boston. Selected items are described and reproduced in The American Campaigns of Rochambeau's Army, 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972. 2 v. E265.R513), translated and edited by Howard C. Rice, Jr., and Anne S. K. Brown. The maps are individually recorded in the Library's computerized map catalog. The atlas is listed in the atlas card file in the division reading room and described as number 1335 in A List of Geographical Atlases in the Library of Congress (Washington: Govt. Print Off., 1909. 1208 p. Z6028.U56, v. 1; reprint, Amsterdam : Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, under the direction of Philip Lee Phillips.