BOLTON -"At Bolton Center, or a short distance to the east, Rochambeau's troops camped in 1781, while en route from Newport to the Hudson. Several 18th century houses have preserved their old lines and their fine interior woodwork. In the Asa White Place, built 1741-43 and in somewhat poor repair, an upstairs room still shows bayonet and bullet holes made by French soldiers during a drunken brawl."
COLCHESTER -"The Rochambeau Encampment in 1781 was on the knolls west of Bacon Academy."
EAST HARTFORD -"...the Squire Elisha Pitkin House with two chimneys and a gambrel roof, built in 1740-50.....Rochambeau stayed here twice when he came to Hartford for conferences with Washington. The French troops were quartered along what came to be known as Silver Lane, because they were paid in silver, which was a rarity. The silver was stored in the Forbes House, still standing on Forbes St. near the Hockanum River. The Rochambeau Boulder, placed by the Sons of the American Revolution, is in the small park on the right side of Silver Lane (cor. Lawrence St.)"
FARMINGTON -"In the small parkway at the highway junction, is the Rochambeau Monument. The actual site of the French camp in 1781 was a mile farther south, on the west side of R. 10 below the village."
LEBANON -"The Trumbull Homestead....known as the Redwoods, was built originally in the early 18th century...A legion of Rochambeau's Army, consisting of 500 mounted hussars commanded by the Duc de Lauzun, were quartered in Lebanon in 1780-81, and the officers were guests of the Trumbulls in this house. Their barracks were to the west, on both sides of Colchester Rd., and it is possible to make out the line of some of the earthworks. The grave of an "Unknown Soldier" from this corps lies on the left of Colchester Rd., across Pease Brook."
MIDDLEBURY -"North St. leads from the village past Breakneck Hill, with a fine view of the surrounding country. Rochambeau's troops camped at the foot of the hill, and marched over the dirt road which runs north and then west. The camping ground is marked by a stone monument."
NEWTOWN -"As we climb to Newtown Street on U. S. 6, we pass on the right the Hawley Schook, given to the town by Miss Hawley, with an endowment, in memory of her parents. At the corner by the flagpole, facing the highway from Sandy Hook, stands the Congregational Church, erected in 1808. It has inherited from the earlier building the bell and weathercock, the latter showing marks of target practice by French soldiers. Rochambeau camped twice in Newtown, in 1781 southwest of the Church, and on the return trip in 1782 back of Hawley School."
RIDGEFIELD -"After the burning of Danbury, on April 26, 1777, Gen. Tryon's force, harassed by the gathering militia, retreated to Ridgebury, in the north section of Ridgefield. Part of the British troops marched through Ridgebury Street, and part by the old Bogus road, now a wood road, cutting across country farther east. Near the cemetary at Ridgebury is the Ensign Samuel Keeler Tavern, built in 1730, a stopping place for Washington in 1780. One of the main roads from Boston to New York turned south at this point. Rochambeau also had headquarters at the Tavern; the French troop were encamped just east of here in 1781."
SCOTLAND -"Rochambeau's army, in 1781, camped on the hill southeast of the village center."
SOUTHINGTON -"....on the Plantsville Rd., is a monument to Rochambeau, who camped here in June 1781, and again in November 1782. Nearly opposite, among a group of old houses, is the Barnes Tavern, where the French officers were entertained."
WEST HARTFORD -"There is a boulder for our French allies, Rochambeau's troops having camped on the slopes of Talcott Mt. on their return from Yorktown."
WETHERSFIELD -"Turning south on Main St., we come to the Webb House, ....was built in 1752 by Joseph Webb, a wealthy merchant and West India trader. It came to be known as Hospitality Hall.....A meetin was arranged here between Washington and Rochambeau, and in 1781 the five-day conference which planned the Yorktown campaign."
-"Welles Corner, where the road from Hartford joined the Wethersfield-Farmington road, was an important landmark on the route to the Hudson River, used by Washington and by Rochambeau's army."
-p. 145 - Farmington - "The Rochambeau Monument, a bronze plaque on a boulder in a small park at the junction of Main St. and Farmington Ave., commemorates the encampment of the French General's troops within the town in 1781."
-p. 440 - East Hartford - "Left on Silver Lane past several interesting old houses to a small Green, 0.4 m., where stands the Rochambeau Boulder, commemorating the camp made here by Rochambeau's army on the way to join Washington and again on its return from Yorktown. The silver in which the soldiers were paid was so rare in this country that the side road on which the army camped has ever since been known as Silver Lane."
-p. 445 - Colchester - ""On the knolls, a short distance north, (of the green) is the Site of the Encampment of Rochambeau's Army in 1781."
The dates for the overnight encampments of Rochambeau with the regiment Bourgonnais, or first division, are as follows: ( I am omitting Rhode Island sites)
Camp 3. Plainfield, Connecticut, June 19, 1781. That camp on the westward march was opposite the newer cemetary of today.
Camp 4. Windham, June 20, 1781. ...The camp in Windham was about a mile west of the village and was nearly sixteen miles from Plainfield.
Camp 5. Bolton, June 21, 1781. The army encamped east of the church.
Camp 6. East Hartford, June 22, 23, 24, 25, 1781. The camp there was north of Nathaniel Warren's on Silver Land which derived its name from the French opening kegs of coin to pay their men. Private and public houses on Main Street entertained the officers. It is said that they had an army hospital in the second meetinghouse.
Camp 7. Farmington, June 26, 1781. The four French regiments encamped four successive days toward the south end of the village, near the present vacation home, called the "Lodge." There is a tradition that Rochambeau and his officers stayed at the Elm Tree Inn.
Camp 8. Barnes's (Baron's) tavern, June 27, 1781. Some divisions encamped in that part of Southington called Marion, on what was later named French Hill on the right of the Meridan road, going west. The officers were entertained at the tavern which was kept by Asa Barns or Barnes, who gave a ball for them. The army then proceeded through Waterbury.
Camp 9. Breakneck Hill in Middlebury, June 28, 1781. That name was well deserved. The camp was about a mile north of the church and Rochambeau with his suite were entertained at Isreal Bronson's tavern.
Camp 10. Newtown, June 29, 30, 1781. The camp site is south of the middle district school. From there, on advices to Rochambeau from Washington that he was "now in a very disaffected part of the country," Rochambeau was directed to divert his march past Danbury. His route was along West Worcester Street over Hull's Hill.
Camp 11. Ridgebury, July 1, 1781. The French army arrived on Rochambeau's fifty-sixth birthday and encamped east of the Ridgebury Congregational church on the Danbury road. According to an entry in Washington's Diaries for June 28, 1781, Washington had requested him "to file off from Ridgebury (Ridgefield) to Bedfor (New York) and hasten his March....
On the return march across Connecticut, the French army advanced in two divisions, one day apart. Rochambeau was with the artillery in the first division.
Camp 40. Danbury, October 23, 1782. The camp site was in Plum Meadow Grove, not occupied by the old Catholic cemetary. The route went through Bethel.
Camp 41. Newtown, October 24, 25, 1782. The French army stayed tow days in Newtown and encamped below Chruch Hill, where Queen Street joins the Southbury road.
Camp 42. Middlebury, Breakneck Hill, October 26, 1782.
(Camps 42-45 were on the same sites as in 1781.)
Camp 43. Barnes's (Baron's) tavern, October 27, 1782.
Camp 44. Farmington, October 28, 1782.
Camp 45. Silver Lane, East Hartford, October 29 - November 4, 1782.
Camp 46. Bolton, November 4, 1782. The camp was in the northwest part of the present Andover, then Coventry, and was on a different site from that on the westward march.
Camp 47. Windham, November 5, 6, 1782. The camp was east of the green and north of the Canterbury road.
Camp 48. Cantorbury (Canterbury), November 7, 1782. The site of the camp is over a mile west of the village.
Camp 49. Voluntown, November 8, 1782. The French spent that night east of Sterling Hill or about opposite the schoolhouse. That was the last camp of the French army in Connecticut.