Meet The Men Who Are Walking In The Footsteps Of Rochambeau

WATERBURY — The Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury will participate in the efforts of the National Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary Route Association in its work to mark the entire trail of the historic march of US and French troops to Yorktown, Va. A special event at the Mattatuck Museum on Thursday, June 24, from noon to 1 pm, will focus on this historic march.

In May of 1780, some 10,000 French soldiers and sailors left France to support the American Revolution, including some 5,500 soldiers who marched through Connecticut (including Newtown) in Rochambeau’s French Expeditionary Force. Lee Patrick Anderson, who portrays a French soldier in the infantry, and Ralph Nelson, portraying a captain in the French Grenadiers, will stop at the Mattatuck as they reenact this historic march from Newport, R.I., to Virginia.

Visitors can join them as they recount the hazards, hardships and hospitality that the French army met during its three years in America. The pair will continue from the museum to Break Neck Hill in Middlebury, where they will spend the evening at the historic Josiah Bronson House just as soldiers did in June 1781.

The reenactment of the march by these soldiers is taking place to commemorate the 225th anniversary years from 2003 to 2008. As part of the aid promised in the 1778 Treaty of France US Alliance, these soldiers marched from Newport to New York to join Washington’s Continental Army, and then both armies marched south to  Yorktown.

The program in Waterbury is being co-sponsored by the 5th Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Line, Alliance Française, Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, Daughters of the American Revolution (Trumbull-Porter chapter), National Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary Route Association and the State of Connecticut Advisory Commission on American and Franciphone Cultural Affairs.

The program at the museum is free, however donations will be accepted for Mr Anderson and Mr Nwelson. Participants should bring a brown bag lunch or preorder from the museum’s Exhibition Café. Call 203-7853-0381, extension 10 to RSVP or order lunch.