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François Jean de Beauvoir, Marquis de
Chastellux, (5 May 1734, Paris - 24 October 1788, Paris) was a military
officer who served during the War of American Independence as a
major general in the French expeditionary forces led by general
Comte de Rochambeau.
Being on general Rochambeau's staff for the duration of the war,
Chastellux acted as the principal liaison officer between the
French commander in chief and George Washington. However the
Chevalier de Chastellux was also widely recognized, at the time of
his campaigns in America, as a highly talented man of letters and a
member of the French Academy.
Early
literary career
He first became known as a writer, historian and philosopher. He was the third member
elected to occupy Seat 2 of the
Académie française in 1775.
Military career in
America
After arriving in America in July 1780, Chastellux participated
to the American Revolutionary War
as a Major General in the French expeditionary force led by general
Rochambeau. During the
following year, he was third in command of the French forces
engaged at the decisive Siege of Yorktown in 1781 where the
British were ultimately defeated. Major General de Chastellux was
fluent in English and with his strong
ideological support of the American cause, he served the alliance
well. During the latter part of the campaign he was the principal
liaison officer between George Washington and French general
Rochambeau. Thereafter, Chastellux remained a personal friend of George
Washington for life. Furthermore, the College of William and
Mary and the University of Pennsylvania also awarded Chastellux
with honorary degrees. After his return to France, Chastellux also
remained in contact with Thomas Jefferson, now the American
representative in Paris, whom he had previously visited on his
Virginia estate at Monticello.
His
late literary career
Major General de Chastellux placed on record and published in
1786 his complete recollections of the American War of
Independence. This included a description of his travels in America
after the war had ended. Because of his literary talent and acute
sense of observation, Chastellux descriptions of George
Washington as an effective yet profoundly human leader in
wartime stand among the most vivid and most accurate in
existence.
Bibliography
- Essai sur l'union de la poésie et de la musique
(1765). Réédition : Slatkine, Genève, 1970.
- De la Félicité publique, ou Considérations sur le sort des
hommes, dans les différentes époques de l'histoire (1772).
Réédition : Publications de la Sorbonne, Paris, 1989.
- Iphigénie en Aulide, opéra (1773)
- Éloge de M. Helvétius (1774)
- Voyages de M. le Marquis de Chastellux dans l'Amérique
septentrionale, dans les années 1780, 1781 et 1782 in two
volumes,chez Prault,Imprimeur du Roi (1788). Modern
réédition : Tallandier, Paris ,1989. An English translation by
Howard C.Rice was published in 1963 under the title:" Travels in
North America in 1780,1781 and 1782"
- Chevalier de Chastellux at the Battle of Yorktown" in:
"Yorktown Battlefield-Chevalier de Chastellux" (U.S.National Park
Service)
- This article incorporates information from the revision as
of December 2008 of the
equivalent article on the French Wikipedia.
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