French Officers at the Battle of Rhode Island

Comte Jean Baptiste Charles Henri Hector d’Estaing (1729–1794) held positions as admiral in the French navy and major general in the French army. Five weeks after King Louis XVI signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, in February 1778, whereby France sided with the Americans in their war of independence, the admiral left France with 12 ships of the line (equivalent to today’s battleships), 3 frigates and a number of transports, all bringing some 4,000 French soldiers to America. By the end of July, the powerful French fleet had made its way to Narragansett Bay, where d’Estaing planned to cooperate with an American army under the command of Major General John Sullivan to capture Newport, as well as the rest of Aquidneck Island, from a British occupying force.

When the French fleet went out to engage the British fleet off the Rhode Island coast on August 11, 1778, both fleets got caught in a hurricane that caused more damage than the combat. The British fleet went to New York to refit; the French fleet, with more storm-caused damage than the enemy, went to Boston to refit. As General John Sullivan counted on the French army to defend the western part of Aquidneck Island, he sent Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette to Boston to plead with d’Estaing to allow at least the troops to return to Rhode Island. D’Estaing refused and Lafayette was on his way back from Boston when the Battle of Rhode Island occurred.[1] General Sullivan positioned the First Rhode Island Regiment, later known as the Black Regiment,[2] to help defend the western part of the island against three Hessian attacks.

Although Admiral d’Estaing refused to send his troops to the Battle of Rhode Island and Lafayette had not yet returned, this does not mean that the French were not present at the battle. This article identifies several officers who participated in the action.

One of them was Marie Louis Amand Ansart de Marisquelles, born in the town of Marisquelles in the Pas-du-Calais region of France in 1742. He entered l’École royale du génie de Mézières (Royal Engineering School of Mézières) and spent much of his time working for a few years with his uncle, the French military engineer Marc René, marquis de Montalembert, studying the art of iron work. His family forged cannon for the French army and he had been a military engineer under Lieutenant General Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval. He joined the King’s Guard and became a confidant and close friend of King Louis XVI. He was soon appointed captain of the infantry.

He set sail for America in 1776. Upon arriving in Massachusetts on December 6, 1776, he immediately went to the General Court of Massachusetts at the State House to present his credentials. He offered to share his technique for making cast iron cannons and to supervise the making of all cannons if Massachusetts would pay the expenses for all land, buildings, machines, and all other materials needed to establish the foundries. Instead of casting cannons with a cylinder, which always leaves little holes or cavities which frequently cause bursting, he proposed to cast solid cannons and bore them. He would produce them at the rate of one every 24 hours. In exchange, he requested $300 in cash to reimburse him for his travel expenses to America and payment of $1,000 a year until the end of the war and “after that time the sum of 666 2/3 dollars yearly” during his life. It is not clear if Massachusetts accepted this arrangement.  He also requested an appointment to the rank of colonel without pay or command to give him legitimacy. Massachusetts not only appointed him to the rank of colonel but also made him Inspector of the foundries of Massachusetts, a position he kept until the end of the war. He built furnaces for the casting of cannon and other iron products at Stoughton, Titicut, and Bridgewater.

When Ansart learned that General Sullivan was gathering an army to oppose the British in Newport, he requested permission to go to the front, stating that he expected no command. The Board of War sent him to Sullivan on July 31, 1778, and he was appointed one of General Sullivan’s aides-de-camp. While stationed there, General James Mitchell Varnum arrived at the camp along with the Marquis de Lafayette.

Ansart was injured during an assault in the Battle of Rhode Island, probably in the action at and around Quaker Hill. The wound incapacitated him for the remainder of the war. He returned to Massachusetts and was appointed, on August 31, 1778, to help erect defenses for Admiral d’Estaing’s fleet stationed in Boston Harbor.

Ansart married a Boston woman, Catharine Wimple, and resided in the Wimple household in Boston until the end of the war. Their first two children were born there. The family moved to Dracut, Massachusetts, around 1784. Catherine bore ten more children, some of whom intermarried with General Varnum’s children (Varnum originally hailed from Dracut).

After a visit to France at the beginning of the French Revolution, Ansart successfully applied for naturalization to become a legal United States citizen in 1793. In his naturalization, he removed all names and titles, and left his name as Louis Ansart. He died in his sleep on May 22, 1804.[3]

Martial Jean Antoine Crozat de Crenis was born on January 17, 1739, and during the Seven Years’ War in Europe (the French and Indian War in America) volunteered for three years in the artillery, and as a supernumerary gendarme in the Dauphin’s light horse regiment, from February 3, 1759 to March 23, 1762. He was a dragoon and quartermaster in the Clermont volunteers from April 15, 1762 to March 26, 1763. He served as captain of one of the two companies sent to Cayenne on March 26, 1763.

He entered the Hôtel des Invalides in 1767 as a lieutenant and became a lieutenant in the Corsican legion on September 1, 1769. He was promoted to captain on March 29, 1775. He came to America in 1778 on the recommendation of Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de l’Aulne, comptroller general of France. He distinguished himself at the Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey on June 28, 1778.  He took part in the Battle of Germanton in late 1777, the aborted Canadian Expedition, and the Battle of Rhode Island. He held the rank of lieutenant-colonel of cavalry. He was appointed captain attache to the 6th Chasseurs à Cheval Regiment on April 8, 1779. He was made a Knight of Saint-Louis on June 9, 1781. He transferred to the Régiment des chasseurs des Ardennes on September 20, 1784. He died on July 9, 1785.[4]

Louis Gourlet Duplessis (Gourlet Duplessy), a native of Paris, had been living in Québec for 26 years when he joined Colonel James Livingston’s regiment of Canadians as a sergeant. He recruited fifty Canadians for the regiment.  He took part in several actions with his regiment, particularly the Battle of Rhode Island. He was eventually taken prisoner and returned to France after his release. He resided in Noyon, Picardie, in 1780 and requested Benjamin Franklin for assistance.[5]

François Amable Monty (Francis, Montée) (regimental records consistently list him as Francis and some early regimental records sometimes spell his last name as Montee) was born at Chambly, Québec, Nouvelle-France on February 20, 1736.

In September 1775, American Generals Philip Schuyler and Richard Montgomery led an invasion force to the Chambly area (in what is now the French part of Canada) to try to oust the British, who had conquered New France in 1763. As part of their campaign, they called upon local French Canadians, who had little love for the British, to assist the invasion force. Chambly grain merchant James Livingston (a member of the famous Livingston family of New York) began organizing a local militia to help. They helped capture Fort Chambly, on October 18, and then the city of Montréal.

General Montgomery officially recognized Livingston’s militia as an American Regiment on November 20, 1775, and granted it permission to begin formal recruiting. Thirty-nine-year-old François was commissioned a lieutenant on November 25. Livingston’s Regiment took part in Montgomery’s disastrous attack on Québec City on December 31, 1775, providing a diversion at the Saint-Jean Gate in the midst of a blizzard. The diversion did not work, and the Americans retreated with heavy losses, including the death of Montgomery. The surviving Americans attempted to set up a siege. The Second Continental Congress officially recognized Livingston’s Regiment as the 1st Canadian Regiment on January 8, 1776.

On the night of June 7, 1776, Livingston’s Regiment was part of a force under General William Thompson which marched toward Trois-Rivières to attack a British force believed to number about 300-600 men. However, the British force was much larger than that. Thompson had convinced a local farmer to lead his troops to Trois-Rivières, but instead the farmer purposely led them into a swamp, giving the British time to set up for a counterattack. When that came, the Americans fled in disarray and many were captured. Most of Livingston’s Regiment made it back to Sorel.

The regiment was back in Chambly by June 15th, with the British following, sacking and burning the properties of those who joined the American forces as well as of suspected sympathizers. Those who had joined from the Chambly area gathered their families and what possessions they could load onto the wagons. These refugees presumably included Francis’s family. The army left the south end of Chambly on Sunday morning, as the British were entering the north end. They crossed the border by boat to Isle-aux-Noix, where the 8,000 soldiers and their refugee families were able to rest for ten days. From there, the army moved to Isle-la-Motte, Crown Point and then to Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York.

The regiment, which had never recruited its full complement of men, was seriously depleted after the retreat, and so was assigned garrison duty in the Mohawk and Schoharie Valleys of upstate New York for the rest of 1776 so that it could be reorganized and re-fitted as part of the Northern Department. Francis Monty was promoted to 1st lieutenant in Captain Jean Baptiste Allen’s (sometimes recorded as John Allin) 4th Company on December 8, 1776.

Two of Francis’ sons, 15-year-old Francis Jr. and 13-year-old Jacques were enlisted in Captain Abraham Livingston’s company of the 1st Canadian on December 19, 1776 (Abraham was the brother of Colonel James Livingston who continued to command the regiment).

Livingston’s Regiment was moved to the Hudson River Valley in late summer 1777, in response to the British invasion under General John Burgoyne. It is unclear whether Francis took part in either of the Saratoga battles.

General Washington ordered Livingston’s Regiment to join Brigadier General James Varnum’s brigade in July 1778. The troops marched from around White Plains, New York, 163 miles to Providence, Rhode Island. They were stationed at Bristol for most of the campaign. In the Battle of Rhode Island on August 29, Francis was wounded by a musket ball in the left thigh in the fierce action at Quaker Hill. Records show that Francis signed pay rolls for both the 4th Company and the 2nd Company; it is possible he had moved to the 2nd.

After Sullivan’s Army safely retreated off Aquidneck Island, the situation with the British remained at a stalemate, and the 1st Canadian and a number of other Continental and Rhode Island regiments were kept in the area to keep the British contained though 1779. The soldiers of the 1st Canadian spent most of their time around Bristol and Freetown, until November 1779, when the 1st Canadian was attached to General John Stark’s brigade at Hartford and ordered to New Jersey.

The men reached Morristown, New Jersey, by December and started building log cabins for their winter quarters. Livingston’s Regiment was detached and moved to General Edward Hand’s Brigade on December 17. Along with many other Continental troops, they built their cabins at nearby Jockey Hollow. The winter at Morristown turned out to be one of the coldest of the whole war and saw 21 separate snowstorms hit the area.

The troops were still in the Morristown area, at Camp Mendham, in April 1780. Francis evidently had been sent on an espionage assignment into Canada for General Schuyler some time earlier. While he was gone, a captain from another company mustered two of Francis’s sons without his permission. The two sons were not specifically named, but the fact that he refers back to the beginning and that he only mentions bringing two sons with him, these are probably Francis Jr. and Jacques. Francis then wrote a letter to General Washington appealing for redress.

Livingston’s Regiment was ordered to camp in Clove, New Jersey, on June 30, 1780, and a month later. On July 31st, the regiment’s soldiers were ordered to take up position in the redoubts at Stony Point and Verplanck’s Point, taking their orders now from General Benedict Arnold stationed at West Point. Two months later, General Arnold began plotting with British spy Major John André to defect and provide the enemy with troop and armament information for the Stony Point, West Point and Verplanck’s Point emplacements.

By October, disease and desertion had taken its toll on the 1st Canadian, and the regiment was down to a mere 118 officers and men. As part of a major reorganization of the Continental Army, Congress decided to eliminate the 1st Canadian. Those who had enlisted in New York were to be transferred to a New York regiment, and those from New Jersey were to go to one of that state’s regiments. The Canadians who had stuck with Livingston since the beginning would be absorbed into Colonel Moses Hazen’s 2nd Canadian Regiment. All the consolidations became official on January 1, 1781.

The reduction in regiments meant fewer officers were needed. With the deactivation of the 1st Canadian, Francis Monty officially retired as a First Lieutenant (discharge date of January 21, 1781). Several of his sons were transferred to Hazen’s Regiment, including young Jean. It was likely because of them that even though he was no longer an officer, Francis continued to serve with Hazen’s as a volunteer for about a year. According to historians Sullivan and Martin, “The Montys served in three companies: John, Claude and Joseph in Captain Olivie’s 3rd Company; Francis Sr., Francis Jr., and Jacques in Captain Gosselin’s 7th Company; Enfant Amable (volunteer), and Jachet(?) (volunteer) in Captain Selin’s 8th Company.”

Francis was listed as no longer with the unit in the regimental records as of January 1, 1782. As a result of his service as an officer, Francis became an original member of the New York Society of the Cincinnati.

After the war, Francis settled initially on a farm at Chazy, New York. His younger brother, Joseph Antoine Monty, had left Québec in 1774 and had settled near Chazy aswell. (He possibly joined the army in 1776.) Francis was awarded a pension as well as an additional bounty of 200 acres of land (issued January 22, 1790) as a result of his injury incurred at the Battle of Quaker Hill. Francis died on February 8, 1809 in Chazy.[6]

François Louis Teissedre de Fleury (also identified as François Fleury) was born at Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort (Gard, Languedoc) on August 28, 1749. He was trained as an engineer and served in the French Army during the Corsican campaign. He volunteered in the Rouergue Regiment on May 15, 1768, was promoted to second lieutenant on August 28, 1768, and became deputy regimental adjutant on February 5, 1772.

François Louis came to America with Philippe Charles Jean Baptiste Tronson du Coudray in 1776 and was appointed captain. François Louis demonstrated his bravery in the action at Piscataway, New Jersey, on May 10, 1777, after which he was appointed a captain of engineers (May 22, 1777). At the Battle of Brandywine in September south of Philadelphia, his horse was shot out from under him. He then served capably during the brutal Siege of Fort Mifflin, on the Delaware River in Pennsylvania, where he was wounded in November. He soon became Lieutenant Colonel de Fleury (Nov. 26, 1777) and he developed a remarkable plan to attack British ships on the Delaware with rocket-propelled boats.

He was sent to join Lafayette in early 1778 to prepare for an expedition into Canada which was aborted. George Washington made him an assistant to Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben at Valley Forge in late April 1778. Steuben wrote to the minister of war, Alexandre-Marie de Saint-Mauris, prince de Montbarey, on November 13, 1778, that “M. de Fleury has won admiration universal of this army.” He was wounded at the Battle of Germantown in early October. He was the only foreigner to obtain one of the eight medals celebrating major military actions. He served during the Monmouth campaign in June 1778 where he was second in command of the rangers (chasseurs) of Lee’s division.

A month later, Fleury served in the Rhode Island Campaign. As an aide to Lafayette, General Sullivan gave him an important message to deliver to Admiral d’Estaing, informing the French commander that the American army had landed on the northern part of Aquidneck Island a day earlier than scheduled (d’Estaing was then with his ships off Jamestown). At the Battle of Rhode Island, Fleury helped lead an advance group of troops on the West Road, with Colonel John Laurens and Major Silas Talbot of the Continental Army. They helped delay and exhaust the German attackers before the Hessians were repelled three times later in the day to the north near Butts Hill.

While leading one of the attacking columns at Stony Point in July 1779, Fleury won an award for being the first attacker to enter the British bastion. Granted leave to return to France later that year, he returned to fight at the Siege of Yorktown in October 1781.

He returned to America with Rochambeau’s army to Newport as major of the Saintonge regiment, having been appointed to this rank on March 19, 1780. He was made a Knight of Saint-Louis in 1781. He was discharged from the Continental Army on January 1, 1782.[7]

Anne-Louis Tousard (Touzard) was born in Paris on March 12, 1749. He enlisted as an artillery midshipman on December 14, 1765. He became a student on June 3, 1768, and graduated from the artillery school in Strasbourg, France, in 1769 with a 2nd lieutenant’s commission. He was appointed captain in the colonial artillery on November 24, 1776, at the request of his family who wished to remove him from a harmful passion that had also created a lot of debt. He went to America in December 1776 with the French officer Coudray. Tousard began his service in the Continental Army as a volunteer when he arrived at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the summer of 1777.

After Coudray’s accidental death in October, Tousard received a commission as a captain in the Continental Army and was attached to the Marquis de Lafayette’s staff. He took part in the planning and construction of the fortifications at Fort Mifflin, Pennsylvania and at West Point, New York. He fought at Brandywine, Germantown, Valley Forge and Monmouth. He was appointed military adviser to allied Oneida Indians in March 1778. He was present with the Oneidas when they covered Lafayette’s retreat before a far superior British force at the Battle of Barren Hill on May 21, 1778.

In the Rhode island Campaign, he helped plan the siege lines of the American army outside Newport, in Middletown. During the Battle of Rhode Island, in the fierce action at Quaker Hill, during a charge against enemy forces to capture British artillery when he was practically by himself, his horse was shot from under him and his arm was struck by a musket ball. Lafayette, in a letter to Washington, described the scene:  “[R]unning before all the others to take a piece of cannon in the middle of the enemy with the greatest excess of bravery, he was immediately covered with their shots, had his horse killed, and his right arm put in pieces.  He was happy enough not to fall in their hands.” Tousard had to have his right arm amputated. Sullivan wrote that the French major bore the loss of his arm from the cannonball “with the most heroic fortitude.”

By the Continental Congress’s resolution of October 27, 1778, it was “Resolved, that the gallantry of Monsieur Tousard in the late action on Rhode Island (when he was wounded and lost an arm) is deserving of the highest applause and that Congress in consideration of his zeal and misfortune, do promote the said Monsieur Tousard to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the service of the United States, by brevet, and that he do receive a pension of thirty dollars per month, out of the Treasury of the United States during his life.”

After his recovery and back in France, he was made a Knight of Saint-Louis on July 3, 1779. He was appointed major of the provincial regiment of Toul on April 5, 1780, then lieutenant-colonel of the Cape Regiment on July 18, 1784. On the island of Haiti, he led his regiment to suppress the slave uprising that became the Haitian Revolution.

He sailed for Philadelphia on April 14, 1793. He was promoted to Major 1st Artillerists and Engineers United States Army on February 26, 1795; and Lieutenant-Colonel 2d Artillerists and Engineers on May 26, 1800. He aided Eleuthère Irénée du Pont in establishing gunpowder mills in Delaware, which would prove vital to American interests. After being named inspector of artillery in 1800, Tousard became commander of the Second Artillery Regiment in January 1801. He was honorably discharged on June 1, 1802.

The one-armed Tousard returned to civilian life and was appointed French vice-consul in Philadelphia in 1805. He was appointed sub-commissary of commercial relations at New Orleans in July 1805. He was commissary at the same city during the War of 1812, and later served as consul at New Orleans from 1811 to 1815.

He joined General Victor Leclerc at Saint Domingue, Haiti, and returned to France on June 1, 1804. He was employed as an honorary consul in New Orleans under the Empire. He died in Paris on May 4 (or 8), 1817. He was a Freemason and the author of a pamphlet, Aux mânes du colonel Mauduit, published at the Cape in 1791.[8]

Louis-Pierre, Marquis de Vienne (Devienne) was born in Paris on September 15, 1746 and commissioned a lieutenant in the French Army on July 7, 1754. He became a cornet of cavalry in the Clermont dragoon regiment on February 10, 1757, and captain on October 21, 1757. He had been a captain for twenty years and served throughout the Seven Years War. He resigned from the French Army on November 30, 1776. His father (François-Louis), a major general in the French service, wrote to Benjamin Franklin in 1777 to request that his son, who wished to serve in America, be recommended to Washington.

He went to America in 1778 on board the Continental Navy frigate, the Queen of France. He arrived at Valley Forge in June 1778, the day before the British troops evacuated Philadelphia. He participated in the pursuit of the British over Sandy Hook, New Jersey; and reconnoitered, with four dragoons, the British route of march the day before the Battle of Monmouth and examined the positions of their camp. No sooner than they had encamped, he passed between two of their advanced guards into their tents and captured two grenadiers and sent them to General Lafayette. He served as Lafayette’s aide-de-camp without pay or expense to the United States during the campaign of 1778, including at the Rhode Island Campaign. He also served as General Washington’s aide-de-camp. He fought at the Battle of Monmouth, after which Congress appointed him brevet lieutenant-colonel on July 15, 1778.

Upon the arrival of the Comte d’Estaing’s fleet off Narragansett Bay, he joined the fleet and served as quartermaster of the disembarkation troops. He participated in the Battle of Rhode Island but had nobody to command. He applied for a furlough on September 5, 1778 to return to France. Washington sent him a certificate of his service on September 29 and Congress approved the furlough on October 27. He was discharged on October 16, 1778.

Later in the broader war with Great Britain, he took part in the siege of the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia, and, according to him, also in the fighting of the island of Grenada. He also claimed to have fought at d’Estaing’s attack on Savannah, Georgia, in the Fall of 1779, but that is doubtful as he returned to France on May 1, 1779 for health reasons.

He emigrated in 1791 during the French Revolution and served in the army of the Princes in 1792, and in Condé’s army in 1800. He returned to France in 1802, settled in Fontainebleau and then in Mantes. He was appointed colonel at the Restoration and honorary major general on May 23, 1825. He resided in Riom in 1820 and in Saint-Gennain-en-Laye a few years later. He was still alive in 1829.[9]

Most of these volunteer French officers who participated in the Rhode Island Campaign are unknown by all but a few Americans. Yet their contribution to the independence of Rhode Island and the United States is impressive.

Notes:

[1] Lafayette returned to Rhode Island at 11 pm on August 30. All the troops, except less than 1,000 men or the rearguard, had already crossed the strait at Howland’s Ferry to the vicinity of Fort Barton, in Tiverton. Lafayette was understandably mortified that he missed the action. Letter of General Sullivan to Congress August 31, 1778 in Charlemagne Tower, The Marquis de LaFayette in the American Revolution: With Some Account of the Attitude of France toward the War of Independence (New York: Da Capo Press, 1970), vol. 1, p. 490; Harlow G. Unger, Lafayette (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002), p. 87.

[2] The Evening Post and General Advertiser (Boston, Massachusetts), in its edition of November 13, 1779, was the first newspaper to refer to the First Rhode Island Regiment of Continentals under the command of Colonel Christopher Greene as the Black Regiment.  It wasn’t until 1821 that the moniker became a popular designation, beginning with The New-York Evening Post, January 24, 1821.

[3] John Marshall Varnum, The Varnums of Dracutt (in Massachusetts), A History of George Varnum, His Son Samuel Who Came to Ipswich About 1635, and Grandsons Thomas, John and Joseph, Who Settled in Dracutt, and Their Descendants (David Clapp & Son, 1907) ; Sara S. Griffin, “Col. Marie Louis Amand Ansart De Marisquelles,” Contributions of the Lowell Historical Society, 1st ed. (n.p., n.d); Silas Roger Coburn, History of Dracut, Massachusetts, Called by the Indians Augumtoocooke and before Incorporation, the Wildernesse North of the Merrimac, First Permanment Settlement in 1669 and Incorporated as a Town in 1701 (Lowell MA : Press of the Courier-Citizen Co., 1922).

[4] Service historique de l’ Armée de Terre (château de Vincennes), Yb 650; 1 Ye, n°5 866; 1 Yf n°12 781; André Lasseray, Les Français Sous Les Treize Étoiles (1775-1783), Imprimerie Protat frères; se trouve à Paris chez D. Janvier, 1935; Giovanni Fabbroni to Thomas Jefferson, September 15, 1776, in Founders Online, National Archives, at https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0216; Washington Chauncey Ford, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 6, p. 992; Benjamin Franklin to George Washington, April 2, 1777, in Founders Online, National Archives, at https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-23-02-0367.

[5] Louis Gourlet Duplessy to Benjamin Franklin, Aug 11, 1780 and Sept. 13, 1780, in Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Yale University; Gilbert Bodinier, et al., Dictionnaire Des Officiers de l’Armée Royale Qui Ont Combattu Aux Etats-Unis Pendant La Guerre d’Indépendance, 1776-1783: Suivi d’Un Supplément à Les Français Sous Les Treize Étoiles du Commandant André Lasseray, 5e éd. augm. et corr, Service historique de l’Armée de terre: Editions Mémoire & Documents (2010, Supplement).

[6] Francis Monty to George Washington, April 29, 1780, George Washington Papers, Series 4, General Correspondence, 1780, Library of Congress; Francis Bernard Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of the Revolution (Nichols, Killam & Maffitt, 1892), p. 297; Berthold Fernow, New York in the Revolution (Albany, NY: Weeds, Parsons and Company, 1877); Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File B.L.Wt.1393-200, for Francis Monty, New York, Record Group 15, Case Files of Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Based on Revolutionary War Service, National Archives; Nell Jane, Barnett Sullivan, and David Kendall Martin, A History of the Town of Chazy Clinton County, New York (Burlington, VT: George Little Press, Inc., 1970); Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database  online, (http://www.dar.org/), Record of Francis Monty, Ancestor # A079113; Lieutenant Francis Monty to George Washington, April 29, 1780, Founders Online, National Archives at https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-25-02-0366.

[7] Service historique de l’ Armée de Terre (château de Vincennes): Yb 353 ; 4 Yd n°3 761. A.N.: D2c 177, E 185 ; EE 889 (21) Colonies ; Ludovic de Contenson, La Société des Cincinnati de France et La Guerre d’Amérique: 1778-1783, Facsim, reprint, Originally published: Paris: A. Picard, 1934, A. Picard, 2007; Lasseray; Georges Six, Dictionnaire Biographique des Généraux et Amiraux Français de La Révolutions et de L’empire (1792-1814) (Saffroy, 1934); Christian McBurney, The Rhode Island Campaign, The First French and American Operation in the Revolutionary War (Yardley, PA : Westholme, 2014), pp. 112-13, 119, 172, and 189.

[8] Service historique de l’ Armée de Terre (château de Vincennes): Yb 670; 1 Yf n° 667; Ye; 2 Yf n°3 756. A.N.: D2c 102; E 380 Colonies ; Contenson; Lasseray; Le Carnet de la Sabretache, 1910, p. 122-126; Henri Jougla de Morénas and Raoul de Warren, Grand Armorial de France (Frankelve: Berger-Levrault, 1975), n°33 397; «Notes généalogiques », par le colonel Étienne Arnaud, 7e série, Cahiers du centre de généalogie et d’histoire des îles d’Amérique, n°27; David Geggus, Généalogie et histoire de la Caraïbe, n°171, juin 2004, p. 4217. His name appears on a November 7, 1777 list of officers wanting to return to France. Anne-Louis de Tousard Papers, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan; Anne Louis de Tousard papers (Collection 664), Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Anne-Louis de Tousard to George Washington, January 26, 1795, Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-17-02-0295; Heitman, Historical Register; Lafayette and Sullivan quotes from McBurney, Rhode Island Campaign, pp. 181-82.

[9] Service historique de l’ Armée de Terre (château de Vincennes): 8 Yd n°2 607, Lasseray; Grand armorial de France, n°34 713 ; Marquis de Vienne to George Washington, September 29, 1778, Founders Online, National Archives, at https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-01-02-0581; The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Letters dated Aug. 6, 1777; Sept. 1, 1777; and Dec. 1, 1778; Ford, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 11, pp. 692–94 and vol. 12, p. 1066; Letters in George Washington Papers, vol. 1, pp. 19, 196-197, 278,416; John Laurens, The Army Correspondence of Colonel John Laurens in the Years 1777-8 (New York Times, 1969), p.  203; Le Marquis de Lafayette, et al., Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution-Selected Letters and Papers, 1776-1790 April 10, 1778-March 20, 1780 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2019), vol. 2, pp. 96, 99, and101; Board of War to George Washington, July 17, 1778, Founders Online, National Archives at https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-16-02-0096.