Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau
| Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau | |
|---|---|
Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Rochambeau in the uniform of the Régiment d'Auvergne
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| Born |
7 April 1755 Paris, Kingdom of France |
| Died | 20 October 1813 (aged 58) Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony |
| Allegiance |
 Kingdom of France Kingdom of the French French First Republic First French Empire
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| Service/branch | French Army |
| Years of service | 1769–1813 |
| Rank | Divisional General |
| Battles/wars |
American Revolutionary War French Revolutionary Wars Napoleonic Wars |
| Awards | Name inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe |
| Relations | Son of Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau |
Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau (7 April 1755 – 20 October 1813) was a French soldier, the son of Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau.
He served in the American Revolutionary War 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 and Saint Domingue. 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 Saint Domingue (Haiti) 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 credit his brutal tactics for uniting black and gens de couleur soldiers against the French. After Rochambeau surrendered to the rebel general Jean-Jacques Dessalines in November 1803, the former French colony declared its independence as Haïti, the second independent state in the Americas.
At the Surrender of Cap Français, 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, where he remained interned for almost nine years.
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