Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau (1 July 1725 – 10 May 1807) was a French aristocrat, soldier, and a Marshal of France who participated in the American Revolutionary War. During the French Revolution, he commanded the Armée du Nord, but was arrested during the Reign of Terror and narrowly escaped the guillotine.
Rochambeau was born in Vendôme, Loir-et-Cher. He was schooled at the Jesuit college in Blois. However, after the de...
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Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau (1 July 1725 – 10 May 1807) was a French aristocrat, soldier, and a Marshal of France who participated in the American Revolutionary War. During the French Revolution, he commanded the Armée du Nord, but was arrested during the Reign of Terror and narrowly escaped the guillotine.
Rochambeau was born in Vendôme, Loir-et-Cher. He was schooled at the Jesuit college in Blois. However, after the death of his elder brother, he entered a cavalry regiment, and served in Bohemia, Bavaria, and on the Rhine, during the War of the Austrian Succession. By 1747, he had attained the rank of colonel.
He took part in the siege of Maastricht in 1748 and became governor of Vendome in 1749. After distinguishing himself in 1756 in the Battle of Minorca on the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, he was promoted to Brigadier General of infantry. In 1758, he fought in Germany, notably in the battles of Krefeld and Clostercamp, receiving several wounds...
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