BOLTON – Top French scholars will help explore a revolutionary battlefield in Connecticut where French infantrymen stopped on their march through the state in 1781 to join General George Washington’s Continental Army.
Archaeological excavations planned for July at Bolton Heritage Farm stick to 2019 Connecticut scholars in a French domain where infantrymen from Hartford, New Britain and other state communities battled hardened German infantrymen in the final year of World War I. Connecticut scholars, French counterparts, helped repair a trench segment near the village of Seicheprey, where French and American infantrymen fought between 1914 and 1918.
Christine Pittlsey, project director for the Connecticut State Library, organized the excursion to France and is coordinating reciprocal vacations and planned excavations at the town’s 100-acre farm, which has remained little replaced since revolutionary times. Pittlsey is recruiting 15 top-tier academics from Connecticut, who will work with 15 French scholars to sift through and search for artifacts left by longtime foot infantrymen.
“One of the interesting things is that we have the names of all the French infantrymen who were here,” Pittlsey said.
Before their visit, the French academics will study the infantrymen from their hometowns who participated in the American campaign, which, according to Pittsley, “will add a whole new framework of wisdom about what this holiday looks like. “
Some recent descriptions describe the holiday as miserable.
An account of the Washington-Rochambeau National Revolutionary Road Association, W3R for short, describes Bolton at the time as a small town with steep, “terrifying” roads. French officer Jean-François Louis de Clermont-Crèvecoeur wrote that “we often have difficulty locating a flat position in which to set up camp. “An assistant to the leader of the French forces, Marshal Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, the Comte de Rochambeau, wrote in his diary that “we arrived at Bolton with the greatest difficulty, because all roads were terrible. . . Part of [Bolton] is in the middle of a hill, at the foot of which we camped.
The long hill and flat segment at its base are located on Bolton Center Road. Former state archaeologist Nicholas Bellantoni called the farm the best-preserved revolutionary war in Rochambeau’s direction through Connecticut, former Bolton city historian Hans DePold wrote in a local history bulletin.
“If you put one of those French foot soldiers in today, I would recognize it,” Pittsley said.
An archaeological survey of Camp No. Five in Rochambeau some 20 years ago exposed uniform buttons, musket bullets and other artifacts. Artifacts, said Pittlsley. La state archaeologist Sarah Sportman, who can be contacted, will lead the excavation.
Bolton Heritage Farm is indexed on the National Register of Historic Places. The assets are also a state archaeological reserve, where the detection of unauthorized steel is prohibited. Information symptoms describing Rochambeau’s march and camp were posted this year through the National Park Service near a barn on the property. The city also has the gigantic blank space on the hillside that served for many years as the Congregation’s prestoría.
Bolton has preserved it as a vital component of local and national history and has organized occasions and reenactments on the farm, adding a 225th anniversary birthday component in 2006 featuring reenactors from Connecticut and the French Revolutionary War, city historian John Toomey said.
DePond’s extensive studies helped Bolton buy the farm from Rose’s circle of relatives in 2000, Toomey said.
“This network effort was instrumental in preserving French Camp No. 5, which is one of Bolton’s many contributions to our War of Independence,” he said. “We are all proud of our national treasure that we have here in the charming historic centre of Bolton. . “
Rochambeau arrived in Newport, R. I. , in July 1780 at the head of an army of 450 officers and 5,300 men. France had supported the American patriots with money and materials since 1776, and in March 1780 King Louis XVI approved the sending of troops. Assembly at Wethersfield in May 1781, Rochambeau and Washington agreed to join forces near New York. The French-American army would march on Yorktown, Virginia, and force British forces on October 19 of that year.
The W3R website provides detailed descriptions of each of the march’s camps. The long line of French soldiers, each carrying a musket and a device weighing about 60 pounds, passed through Bolton with 250 cars of ox-drawn materials and some of the soldiers’ wives and children. From 21 June, the Bourbonnois regiment camped on the farm, followed for the next 3 days through the Royal Deux-Points, Soissonnois and Saintonge regiments.
Some officials above corporate rank who did not camp with the troops stayed in local taverns, adding Oliver White’s tavern across the street from the camp on Brandy Street and Bolton Center Road, a red space that still exists. Rochambeau remained in the rectory, the Reverend George Colton’s apartment, whose sloping grounds, known locally as the minister’s farm, the site of the camp.
There is a story frequently told about Colton, known as “the High Priest of Bolton” because of his height (some accounts described him as 6 feet 8 inches tall). The congregation’s minister and his wife had no children and Colton reportedly approached the wife of a Royal Colon grenadier and offered to adopt their 4-year-old daughter and pay the equivalent of her husband’s 10-year salary. The soldier and his wife, attached to their little girl, refused. DePold wrote that the story “spread through the army to the newspapers of Paris, where the Rev. Colton of Bolton and the soldier’s wonderful honor and sacrifice made headlines. “
The planned excavation gives the possibility of more stories. French academics plan to stay for two weeks, Pittsley said. The grants cover some of the expenses, but organizers still want to raise money for food and lodging, he said. Plans come with trips to Bristol’s Compounce Lake, a pizza evening with New Haven’s celebrated trio of cakes (Sally’s, Pepe’s and Modern), museum visits and a picnic.