Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau (7 April 1755 – 20 October 1813) was a French military commander. He was the son of Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau.

Biography

He served in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

as an '' aide-de-camp'' to his father, spending the winter of 1781–1782 in quarters at Williamsburg, Virginia. In the 1790s, he participated in an unsuccessful campaign to re-establish French authority in

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...

and

Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue () was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city in the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer ...

. Rochambeau was later assigned to the French Revolutionary Army in the Italian Peninsula, and was appointed to the military command of the Ligurian Republic. In 1802, he was appointed to lead an expeditionary force against

(

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

) after General Charles Leclerc's death. His remit was to restore French control of their rebellious colony, by any means. Historians of the

Haitian Revolution The Haitian Revolution (french: révolution haïtienne ; ht, revolisyon ayisyen) was a successful insurrection by slave revolt, self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolt ...

credit his brutal tactics for uniting

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

and ''

gens de couleur In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; plural: ''gentes'' ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same Roman naming conventions#Nomen, nomen and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a ''stirps'' (p ...

'' soldiers against the French. After Rochambeau surrendered to the rebel general

Jean-Jacques Dessalines Jean-Jacques Dessalines (Haitian Creole: ''Jan-Jak Desalin''; ; 20 September 1758 – 17 October 1806) was a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent First Empire of Haiti, Haiti under the Constitution of Haiti, 1 ...

in November 1803, the former French colony declared its independence as Haïti, the second independent state in the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

. In the process, Dessalines became arguably the most successful military commander in the struggle against Napoleonic France.Christer Petley, ''White Fury: A Jamaican Slaveholder and the Age of Revolution'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), p. 182. At the

surrender of Cap Français The Blockade of Saint-Domingue was a naval campaign fought during the first months of the Napoleonic Wars in which a series of British Royal Navy squadrons blockaded the French-held ports of Cap Français and Môle-Saint-Nicolas on the northern ...

, Rochambeau was captured aboard the frigate ''Surveillante'' by a British squadron under the command of Captain John Loring and returned to England as a prisoner on

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

, where he remained interned for almost nine years. He was exchanged in 1811, and returned to the family ''

château A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Nowaday ...

'', where he resumed the work of classifying the family's growing collection of maps, which his father had begun. He also enriched the collections with new acquisitions, in particular ones contributed by the military campaigns of his son,

Auguste-Philippe Donatien de Vimeur Auguste-Philippe Donatien de Vimeur, marquis de Rochambeau (26 January 1787 – 3 February 1868) was a French nobleman, military officer and politician. Biography Vimeur was the son of Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau and the ...

, who served as the aide-de-camp for Joachim Murat and was with Murat's cavalry in the Russian campaign in 1812. He was mortally wounded in the Battle of Nations, and died three days later at

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

, at the age of 58. In addition to his legitimate son, Vimeur was survived by an illegitimate son, Lewis Warrington, conceived in

Williamsburg, Virginia Williamsburg is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula ...

, when Vimeur was a young officer serving with his father in America during the Revolutionary War.

Motto and coat of arms

Sources

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References

External links

A Guide to the Donatien Marie Joseph de Vimeur Rochambeau Papers

The Louverture Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rochambeau, Donatien-Marie-Joseph De Vimeur, Vicomte De French people of the American Revolution People of the Haitian Revolution 1755 births 1813 deaths Military personnel from Paris Viscounts of France Names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe Governors of Saint-Domingue 1800s in Guadeloupe 18th-century French military personnel 19th-century French military personnel French Governors of Martinique Governors general of the French Antilles French commanders of the Napoleonic Wars French military personnel killed in the Napoleonic Wars