In France, the American Revolutionary War is known as the “American War”. If the American colonists fought against Great Britain from April 1775, France did not officially enter the conflict until February 1778, with the signing of a treaty of alliance, and did not send troops only in the summer of 1780.
The French contingent, made up of around 6,000 men, was commanded by General Rochambeau. La Fayette fights for his part in the army of Washington. The fine flower of the French nobility fought in America:the Baron de Vioménil, the Chevalier de Chastellux, or even Jacques Anne Joseph de Vauban. We also find in the ranks the Swede Axel de Fersen.
The French set up their headquarters in the port city of Newport, Rhode Island. In the summer of 1781, the army joined that of Washington north of New York, then descended towards Virginia, covering 800 kilometers on foot. At the end of September, it laid siege to the city of Yorktown, where the British General Cornwallis took refuge. A French squadron, commanded by the Comte de Grasse, blocks Chesapeake Bay, preventing Cornwallis from receiving reinforcements. On October 19, the British capitulated. The War of Independence ends.