Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau

Portrait painted by Charles-Philippe Larivière around 1834

Drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin

Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau (born July 1, 1725 in Vendôme , France , † May 10, 1807 in Thoré-la-Rochette ) was a Marshal of France .

Life

Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau was the son of a governor of Vendôme. Initially he was destined for the clergy and studied with the Jesuits in Blois , but after the death of his older brother in 1742 he embarked on a military career by joining the Régiment de Saint Simons cavalerie as a cornet . He took part in the campaigns of the War of the Austrian Succession with distinction . During this war he fought in the Saint Simons cavalry in Bavaria, Bohemia and on the Rhine , became adjutant to the Duke of Orléans and Count Clermont and was present at the sieges of Antwerp and Namur . Then he fought in the Battle of Roucourt and, after he had been promoted to Colonel of the Régiment de La Marche in March 1747 , as its commander on July 2, 1747 with the Battle of Lauffeldt , in which he received two serious wounds. In 1748 he overran Maastricht under Löwendal .

After the Treaty of Aachen , Rochambeau married Jeanne Thérèse Tellez d'Acosta in 1749. He continued to train his infantry regiment and took part in the 1756 expedition against Menorca under Marshal Richelieu at its head . For his courage he was awarded the Order of Saint-Louis and was promoted to Brigadier des armées du roi . He was then used in the Seven Years' War in Germany. Here he withstood Ferdinand von Braunschweig in 1757 , took Regenstein Castle , attended the fighting near Krefeld and Minden and suffered several wounds in the battle of Kampen Monastery in October 1760 . On February 20, 1761 he became Maréchal de camp and in 1769 was given command of the infantry in Alsace . In this position he was not only adviser to the court in important military plans, but was also supposed to take over the Ministry of War, which he refused several times out of modesty.

On March 1, 1780 Rochambeau was by Louis XVI. elevated to lieutenant-general and received supreme command of the 6,000-strong auxiliary corps that took part in the American Revolutionary War on the side of George Washington . On July 10, 1780 Rochambeau went ashore with his corps in Rhode Island , but was prevented by the English General Clinton from advancing further. It was not until a year later, after a large French fleet had arrived under Grasse , that he was able to leave Rhode Island in July 1781, then marched through Connecticut and united with Washington on the Hudson River in August . With this he now quickly advanced to Virginia and forced the 8,000-strong British army under Cornwallis to surrender on October 19, 1781 at the Battle of Yorktown .

Rochambeau's merits in this struggle, and in particular the strict discipline of his soldiers, which he maintained even under the most difficult conditions, met with great recognition from the Americans. The Congress awarded him and his troops the gratitude of the nation and handed him two of the British captured guns, which he took with him to his homeland. The French court also praised his achievements, which earned him an honorable admission to Versailles . He was by Louis XVI. appointed governor of Artois , later also of Picardy . In 1788 he sat in the second assembly of notables and then, sent by the king, kept the calm in Alsace.

After the outbreak of the French Revolution and before the start of the intended war against the allied powers, Rochambeau received on December 28, 1791, at the same time as Luckner, the marshal's baton and command of the Armée du Nord . However, he spoke out in favor of the defensive, while Dumouriez called for the offensive against the German Reich. Rochambeau led the Flemish army and was supposed to support Lafayette . The expedition failed in April 1792 and Rochambeau was almost cut down by the soldiers in Valenciennes . Since his warnings were unheard, he resigned his command on June 15, 1792, appalled by the wilderness of the troops, and retired to his estate near Vendôme.

After the fall of the Girondins , Rochambeau was arrested, taken to the Conciergerie in Paris and brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal . He was already sitting on the cart that was to take him with many other convicts to the place of execution when the hangman, who found the wagon overloaded, pushed him back with the words: "Away, old marshal, you will get it another time." the early fall of the reign of terror saved him. By Napoleon in 1803 to Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor appointed and provided a marshal after his accession to the throne with the title and the pension, the hochbejahrte Rochambeau could this favor enjoyed only a short time. He died on May 10, 1807 at the age of 81 in Thoré-la-Rochette.

The Mémoires militaires, historiques et politiques de Rochambeau (2 vols., Paris 1809) was published by Luce de Lancival . His correspondence during his military service in the United States was published in the fifth volume of Henri Doniol's Histoire de la participation de la France en l'établissement des États Unis d'Amérique (Paris 1892).

A statue of Rochambeau made by Fernand Hamar , a gift from France to the United States , was unveiled by President Theodore Roosevelt in Lafayette Square, Washington on May 24, 1902 . The ceremony was celebrated as a demonstration of friendship between the two nations.

From Rochambeau's marriage to Jeanne Thérèse Tellez d'Acosta, his son Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau (1755-1813) came from; he was also a general and fatally wounded in the Battle of Leipzig .

Designations

By Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur 1867, the ironclad Rochambeau , 1911 the passenger ship Rochambeau and 2015 Asteroid , (96178) Rochambeau named.

literature

• Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 13, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, pp. 870–871.

Web links

Commons : Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur de Rochambeau  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia (English)