Comte de Rochambeau was the professional soldier on the French side of the alliance that won the American Revolution. A career officer with thirty-eight years of service in the wars of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War behind him, he was promoted to lieutenant general in 1780 and given command of the French Expeditionary Force — about 5,500 troops — sent to America to fight alongside Washington. He landed at Newport, Rhode Island in July 1780, spent a year coordinating with Washington while waiting for additional French ships and troops, then in August 1781 the combined Franco-American army marched south to Virginia. With the French fleet under de Grasse blocking Chesapeake Bay, they trapped Cornwallis at Yorktown. The siege ended on October 19, 1781 with Cornwallis's surrender — the last major land battle of the war, and the action that forced the British government to negotiate the Treaty of Paris. Rochambeau returned to France in 1783 (the year of this figure) and was made a Marshal of France in 1791. This figure shows Rochambeau in the elaborate dress uniform of a French general officer of the late ancien régime — dark blue coat with heavy gold embroidery on the lapels, cuffs, and pocket flaps, red waistcoat and breeches with matching gold trim, the cocked hat with white plume, and the powdered wig and queue of the period. The W. Britain sculpt is unusually detailed in the gold work, appropriate for a man whose dress reflected his rank in a notably hierarchical army. He pairs naturally with Marquis de Lafayette 1783 — the other half of the French command in America — and General Washington Mounted for a Franco-American command group depicting the Yorktown alliance. 1/30 scale (60mm), matte-painted, single figure boxed. Catalog number 10087. As with the rest of the W. Britain modern range, the painting is photographic-quality detail intended to read well in dioramas and display cases.
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