The French general who led 5,500 soldiers to help the Thirteen Colonies

Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, was a French nobleman and general who played a major role in helping the Thirteen Colonies win independence during the American Revolutionary War. He joined the French military as a teenager and participated in the War of Austrian Succession, where he was promoted to colonel at 21 years old. He then spent a decade fighting in the Seven Years' War.

In 1780, Louis XVI asked Rochambeau to lead a force of 5,500 French soldiers to assist the fight against the Kingdom of Great Britain. Rochambeau refused George Washington's initial plan to attack New York because the French Navy had not arrived, but he eventually agreed to attack New York in 1781 after promised French troops and navy forces failed to arrive. He joined Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse to attack General Charles Cornwall in Virginia and worked with Washington in the successful siege of Yorktown. He later led the Army of the North during the French Revolutionary Wars, but was arrested and almost executed during the Reign of Terror. Napoleon later restored his military rank before he died in 1807.

In the late 1800s, a plan was made to erect four statues in Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C, honoring foreign heroes of the war. The statue of Rochambeau was the second one erected. French embassy official Jules Boeufvé worked to have the statue installed, which is a replica of the original statue in Vendôme, France. Congress authorized the plan in 1901.

Sculptor Fernand Hamar delivered the replica to the United States in 1901, and the dedication took place on May 24, 1902. President Theodore Roosevelt spoke during the unveiling and dedication ceremony. The bronze statue rests on a tall base adorned with a woman depicting Victory holding a sword and two flags, and an eagle. A portion of the statue's inscriptions has faded due to weather.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons