Revolutionary Road in Connecticut

This newsletter is to provide a means for keeping historians, re-enactors, and other interested people aware of the activity to list the Revolutionary Road in the National Register of Historic Places. The Revolutionary Road was the choice of Rochambeau's French army when they marched from Newport to Yorktown and back to Boston. The goal is also to encourage registration not only the Connecticut portion, but also the Revolutionary Road that passes through Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

France to Validate the Revolutionary Road

Word is getting out that France has heard you and will recognize the Rochambeau Route heritage as something Europeans want to visit. This is not a French movement but a movement of Americans of all heritage who want to recognize the sacrifices our French lead allied army made when at Yorktown they bore twice the casualties of our Continental Lines. With a name like State Representative Pamela Zeigler Sawyer who first introduced the legislation there should be no doubt about that.

Or what about the name of our primary archaeologist, Mary Harper, who passionately writes how she is willing "to work hard and knock herself senseless trying to preserve these sites (French encampments) for the future."

Then there is Dr. Robert Selig the primary route historian who teaches in America and has German citizenship.

This is one project which objectively proves that one does not have to be French to love the French for what they did for a distant people struggling to be free. In fact most of us don't even know how to correctly spell French words (the author included). So here is a first lesson. In the future when we write or if you are about to write, please note the following now has corrected spelling.

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Le Souvenir Français

The Honorable François Bujon de l'Estang

Ambassade de France aux Etats-Unis

François Bujon de l'Estang

Washington, DC

The Honorable Richard Duque

Consulat General de France a New York

934 Fifth Avenue

New York, N.Y. 10021

212-606-3623 Fax -3620

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Note in the above the minor spelling corrections (for an American) but very important in French. There is the use of the "cédille" sign under the "c" of Français , which makes it an "s" sound, otherwise it's normally a "q" sound. This also applies to the first name "François". (François Bujon de l'Estang)

Now here is how to create the "ç" at your keyboard. It is simply done by depressing ALT key while keying 135 on your right keyboard. Then release the Alt key and the "ç" magically appears.

The French Ambassador's name is Bujon de l'Estang. The "l'" in front of Estang is very important and stands for "the".

So now you know what those funny letters are for, and you may even know something your little computer wiz hasn't learned yet.

Have You Written?

We hope most people have made contact with their preservation officer by now. Now is still a good time to write the French Ambassador and Consulate.

Re-enactor Humor-- Wisdom from the Line

The parson said that having such a perilous job I should be thinking about the hereafter. I am a religious man I said I was. I told him I think of the hereafter all the time. No matter where I am - not just at the Meeting House, but on detail, pushin on after the Redcoats, cooking provisions, or g'in ta the tavern, I constantly ask myself, "Now jus what am I hereafter?"