The Rochambeau Trail is a very important piece of American history – but most people don’t know much about it. French Commander Rochambeau marched 680 miles from Newport, Rhode Island to Yorktown, Virginia with his 5,000-troop army. There, they helped George Washington’s Patriot troops win the final major military action of the Revolutionary War. But wait until you hear the unbelievably complex military decision Washington had to make – without sufficient information at hand – that literally changed the course of history. Expert historian Dr. Robert Selig will have that story. Also, you’ll learn about Sal Lilienthal of Kent, CT – the first person to ever bicycle the trail, as part of a program to promote the trail. And, we’ll hear from Johnny Carawan, the National Park Service official who is responsible for the trail.
Hello and welcome to amazing tales from off and on Connecticut’s beaten path I’m Mike Allen here with another story about historically significant people places and events from Connecticut’s long and fabled past today on Amazing tals we’re completing our two-part series on the Rambo Trail the 68 0 m Trail upon which
General roshambo marched his 5,000 French troops in 1781 to come to the aid of George Washington’s Patriot Army and together they fought the last major battle of the Revolutionary War in Yorktown Virginia bringing freedom from Great Britain to the young United States my guests are Johnny caraan the trail
Administrator for the National Park Service for the Washington Rambo revolutionary route National History historical Trail s Lilian Thal a Kent Connecticut resident who actually biked and kayaked the entire length of the trail to help promote it and returning from part one Dr Bob celing the foremost expert on the roshambo March and the
Revolutionary War and now part two of a trail like no other it brought us Freedom to quickly recap the highlights that we heard in part one of this two-part series The roshambo Trail is 680 Mi long stretching from Newport Rhode Island to Yorktown Virginia it’s named after French military commander Rambo he and his 5,000 French troops landed in Newport to help George Washington’s Patriot army fight the
British in the Revolutionary War they had come because after 5 years of fighting the Patriots weren’t doing well against the British they needed help and they asked the French to provide It the French were happy to help because they would then have a long-term Ally in the seemingly NeverEnding Wars that France
Always was fighting with England if the French didn’t help and the Patriots lost the War the British would control all of North America and the long-term prospects for France would be quite Bleak when we left off R Shambo and Washington had met in Hartford and agreed that their number one Target was
New York City it was agreed to attack there in the summer of 1781 the French troops would March through Connecticut and head to Greenberg New York in Westchester County where they would join up with Washington’s forces and final preparations would be made for the assault now as a reminder the Patriots
Had held New York City until late 1776 then shortly after the signing of the Declaration of Independence the British sent a huge swarm of soldiers to the city well they drove George Washington and his army out of the city forcing them to retreat back into New
Jersey if for no other reason pure Pride was reasoned enough to try to retake New York but more importantly the British had established their North American headquarters in New York City if the British could be driven out of New York the Patriots would certainly win the war
Once and for all well the big year for this effort was 1781 it was then six years into the Revolutionary War and a lot was writing on this joint campaign between the French and the Patriots in March of 1781 the French forces were still in Rhode Island where
They had landed the year before Washington visited Rambo in Newport to review the troops two months later in May of 1781 the two generals met in Weathersfield just south of Hartford this was a major strategic meeting to finalize the plans the mood was rather Grim as they took stock of Their Own
Forces and what they do with the British stronghold in New York they realized they’d have to do more reconnaissance plus the Patriots in French realized that they weren’t as formidable as perhaps they needed to be the French were simply a far better military outfit according to Dr Bob seelig the average
Time of service is over five years you know the Continental Army isn’t even five years old at the time not too many years before this time the French had referred to the Continental Army as looking like ducks in Cross belts however the Patriots had taken steps in the ensuing years to improve themselves
For instance they no longer accepted young teens from farms throughout the colonies in those six years of war the Patriots had started to get smarter still culturally the two sides couldn’t have been more different the Continental Army had corporal punishment and floggings not the French and continental
Army soldiers often had to Simply go without something that Bob says the French and actually came to admire there’s more than one officer that says uh not getting paid getting a little bit to eat only and the way they are treated that’s not something that would fly in
The French army but regardless of competence there was now work to do and strategic plans to draw up at that may meeting in Weathersfield Washington and roshambo understood that the French navy would be saing into New York Harbor about two months later in mid July and this was going to be critical the
Success the French navy would complete what’s known as The Siege ring their blockade of New York Harbor would stop British ships from being able to resupply British forces in the city this while roshambo and Washington’s men attacked Manhattan and Brooklyn from the north since the British technically outnumbered the combined Patriot French
Forces the support of the French navy was instrumental to success so with this knowledge the final decision was made they would attack attack New York City Rosano marched his troops now across Connecticut headed toward Greenberg New York in July before the French navy arrived Washington in a change of plans
Decided to Stage a surprise attack on an estate called morrisania the estate was located just north of the island of Manhattan in what is today the Bronx Washington wanted to send a message to the British at the time roshambo and laon’s French troops had finished marching across Connecticut
And were on the Connecticut New York Border in Ridgefield Washington sent a letter to Rosano asking him to change plans and send his Lieutenant laon’s troops to morania for the surprise attack instead of going to Greenberg the letter just happened to arrive in Ridgefield on Rambo’s birthday well Bob
Says lazan was to meet up at morania with Patriot forces commanded by a man who just happened to be named Lincoln in the days before self phones and other Communications the um Lincoln and loon do not arrive at their destination at the same time the mission essentially
Had to be called off with forces retreating to the north they’re going up basically sprainbrook Parkway up toward Westchester County moris Saia by the way is today part of the Harem River Rail Yard south of I 87 in the Bronx down there’s nothing uh left of at this point
The troops had established large campsites in Greenberg New York they’d be there for 6 weeks it was their first chance to really get to know each other before the big attack on New York City Washington and R Shambo used this time to conduct several reconnaissance missions they needed to know where the
Forts and troops were located and what types of defenses the British had in place well while in Greenberg Washington stayed at the Applebee house it used to be in the Ardsley section of Greenberg near where Arsley High School is today it is no longer standing Rambo’s headquarters were at the Odell house in
The Hartsdale section of Greenberg the Odell house is still standing in fact it’s in the process of being restored Washington was starting to worry the French navy hadn’t arrived in New York Harbor as planned he needed a backup plan so he ordered his Engineers to devise a strategy for taking New York
Without the Navy blockade and that picture didn’t look very pretty on August 14th 1781 the entire universe changed the Navy now was a month overdue and the troops were waiting for combats well it was on this fateful August 14th day that Washington was in his headquarters at
Applebe house he received a letter it was from the commander of the French Fleet the fleet it seems wouldn’t be coming to New York after all instead they were going to be sailing further south to Chesapeake Bay navigating New York Harbor presented too many logistical difficulties for them but
They would be in place for an attack against the southern British forces under the command of General corn Wallace Bob seelix says that posed a huge challenge for Washington part of the problem is that on the 14th of August he doesn’t even know where corn walles is it was thought at the time
That corn Wallace would be moving his troops away from the coastline and further Inland and if that was true the French Fleet would be of no help to Washington and Rano could he take New York City without the French Fleet being in New York Harbor the problem with this
As Washington had to admit to himself is that he simply did not have the manpower to lay Siege to New York City figur he at least 20,000 uh continental army forces and militia and he barely had 10 the British had 13,000 troops in New York City what if Washington called
Off the New York Siege and marched South to take on corn Wallace that would leave the 13,000 British troops in New York City free reign to sail up the Hudson River and cut off New England from the rest of the colonies and if they left to fight in Virginia who knows what might
Happen and what if they lost the battle to Corn Wallace certainly that would Mark the end of the war of independence and the colonies would belong to Great Britain forever the stakes literally couldn’t have been higher what would be the outcome of a wrong call well Bob says it’ll be different for Washington
Than it would be for the battle hardened French who after all already had their own country okay you know win some lose some if this goes wrong for the Continental Army if this goes wrong for Washington he may just find himself uh being hung from the nearest tree by the
British the next day August 15th Washington showed the French Fleet Commander’s letter to rosam Bo didn’t matter though Washington had already made his decision he ordered roshambo to prepare his troops to March South to Virginia well the very next day August 16th Washington finally got a little bit
Of good news he learned that corn Wallace had dug in at Yorktown Virginia on the water that meant the French navy could close the sieg ring while Washington Ro shambo’s troops attacked on land Washington told Rambo to proceed through New Jersey along an inland route so the British in New York City would
Know their whereabouts at this point suffice it to say Washington’s decision worked out quite well cord Wallace was beaten and the British decided at that point to call it quits they gave the Patriots their country and headed back to England after all England still had Canada the
Next part of this story concerns the effort that’s underway to preserve the tremendous history of this Trail for the future and for that we turn to Johnny caroan he’s the trail administrator for the Washington R Shambo revolutionary route National Historical Trail well that’s a mouthful but it basically means
He’s in charge of the roshambo Trail for the National Park Service the roshambo Trail as a formal concept was only approved in 2009 by Congress during Barack Obama’s administration and for now Johnny is a 1man show but he has big plans and a great vision and is working
Very hard to pull many strings together to make the trail more widely known to begin with Johnny has a summary statement about this Trail the Washington rochambo revolutionary route National Historic Trail is a story about ordinary people doing extraordinary things and he knows that despite the incredible history it’s a story that’s
Not yet well known there’s a significance to this trail that um we’re finding that it that people are still learning about it today Johnny says the trail is loaded with opportunities for teach aable moments what makes it really exciting is this Trail really tells a lot of the Lesser known stories of the
American Revolution for example one of Johnny’s main objectives is to dispel a commonly held misconception about who actually won America’s Independence for her you know my thought of the American Revolution was uh was the white male uh you know the the Mel Gibson in the movie
Patriot that was kind of the the aspect that I thought when I thought of the American Revolution and he plans to take that ball and run with it to tell the true story of the diversity involved with the drive for American independence there’s a lot of opportunities for
People learn in Greater detail the involvement of women and children Native Americans African-Americans all who contributed to to our nation’s uh Freedom the rhambo trail won’t be the same as say the Appalachian Trail a 2200 mile long dedicated hiking path from Georgia to Maine instead there’s going
To be an effort to secure and preserve a number of places along the trail now in Eastern Connecticut where there’s been less development over the years many of the sites remain pretty close to their original states but once you get closer to New York and Fairfield litfield and
New Haven counties a number of the sites have already been permanently Disturbed still there are endless opportunities to use online technology to help pinpoint locations on maps in fact Dr Bob seelig is the author of all of the site descript destion that you’ll find on the
Main website for this Trail in fact you should bookmark this site it’s w3r D us.org again that’s w3r us.org and that stands for Washington Rambo revolutionary route w3r some sites already have the w3r plaques installed and more are coming Johnny says he realizes he can’t do it
Allone loone another part of his plan is to staff up his crew in 2023 with interpretive Park Rangers at select locations to help people understand this remarkable part of our history I called them the school teachers to the park they help to interpret the value and meaning of objects and places to people
One of Johnny carolan’s brilliant marketing ideas was to offer a $10,000 grant for ideas and proposals on how to promote the trail will enter s lilan Sal’s a resident of Kent Connecticut and there he runs his business the bicycle tour company and on the side he’s written two books on the Revolutionary
War there was revolutionary Connecticut published in 2012 and revolutionary battles experience America’s roads to Independence published in 2014 well we’ll end the suspense s won that grants but you don’t know yet about the incredible proposal he put forth that W it or the unbelievable difficulties he had to face in
Implementing it s proposed to bicycle and kayak the entire 680m length of the roshambo Trail he’d bring along some bike riders with him and he’d stop along the way for special events a home run idea well s based his idea on what he’s observed over the years with his bike
Touring company something he calls experience learning in one such case he took students on a ride to Ridgefield that’s where there was a major Skirmish between British and Patriot forces back in 1777 after the British had burned dambury and were heading back to their ships off the coast of Westport when you
Go to the spot where you know Benedict Arnold was pinned down by his horse and there was a blockade on Main Street in Ridgefield or the spot where General Worcester was mortally wounded you know you could see a light golf in the kids heads you know this is wait what
Happened here and then they go back and and research it or this is where uh the British fired a cannonball into te killer Tavern and you could actually see The Cannonball it’s still there from a couple hundred years ago he says he likes to cast such historical events in
Sports terms students often relate to such terminology and Come Away with a greater appreciation for the events regarding the final Siege of Yorktown he tells his writers that it’s like the Super Bowl of the war or the seventh game in the World Series and it’s Extra
Innings and this is the team that scored the winning run s says he considers himself fortunate to live in Connecticut to me we’re right in the middle American Revolution here I mean you could travel by car 8 hours in each direction and you could cover 2third of the American
Revolution having won the Grant S then had to plan out exactly how to pull it off only Co got in the way and the 2020 version had to be postponed then in 2021 with the virus still a problem substantial adjustments had to be made s says the park service was wasn’t
Entirely comfortable with some of the very narrow treacherous roads that bicyclists would need to navigate plus Co argued against too many public activities so they said he should go It Alone s got his bike his Chase van and a small support crew out to Newport Road Island where the Rambo Trail Begins the
First stage actually required s to be in his kayak in the water that Rambo’s troops had to cross to get from Newport to the Rhode Island mainland on nansa Bay most of the time it’s at least 3 four 5 6 feet of chop and and on the
Ocean side it’s even more so I wasn’t used to that but once I started practicing that I really enjoyed it salad agreed with the park service to hold at least one Marquee event in each States Connecticut’s event was held in Waterberry there two French soldiers buried um at East Farm Cemetery in
Waterberry so we had a cemeter uh ceremony there with three enactors at at their grave site it was right after that event that a spell of bad luck befell s in his plans he was supposed to ride his bike from that Waterberry Cemetery to the Odell house Rambo’s headquarters in
Greenberg where another event was scheduled unfortunately for Sal and his crew the follow-up van with his kayak spare bicycle multiple spare parts and spare clothes broke down while passing through New Town I called my dad and says can you go rent to U-Haul so we could took all the stuff from the van
Put in the U-Haul Jeff and my dad put everything from the van into the U-Haul while I continued biking the Odell house was still 50 m away but he made it on time an important part of this promotional undertaking was to highlight Johnny carolan’s vision of educating the
Public about the diversity that existed during the American Revolution one great example is the first Rhode Island regiment it was almost entirely comprised of africanamerican soldiers s says that during the war the regiment had been assigned to protect a Crossing on the croon river in Yorktown New York
There was a skirmish it’s called The Battle of Pines Bridge um and there’s a monument to the first red Arland regiment um at Yorktown Heights New York so we had a ceremony there from there s was to face yet another test in fact a much more daunting challenge in Delaware
He staged an event with some children on their bicycles near Wilmington before settling down for the evening we stay overnight in Delaware at a hotel and the next morning the van was stolen everything my bikes my kayak um all my spare parts everything so I bought that
Bike right there the cheapest bike in the store we rented a car and kept on going s realized he had to Simply keep his focus and as unbelievable as these events were he was on a mission no no one’s allowed to mention the truck no one’s allowed to talk about insurance it
Was just like no one’s talking about this and all we’re focusing on is the ride that day fortunately he had a cousin who lived in the vicinity who owned a boat and a kayak s was able to do a ceremonial paddling in the Chesapeake Bay in his cousin’s kayak and
Yet a potential mishap of even more significance was just narrowly avoided a threat that came from Mother Nature herself to despite all the stuff that happened with the van and the stuff getting stolen and the truck and all that we got unbelievably lucky with the
Weather we did get some rain and the day the tornado was supposed to hit Wilmington um we didn’t get a drop of rain so all’s well the ‘s well s’s amazing bike and kayak trip took two weeks in August of 2021 and he has tons of pictures and
Memories to show for it well except that’s not the end of Sal’s story this was kind of a warm-up ride for the 250th anniversary the semiquincentennial or 250th birthday of the United States is just around the corner in 2026 and S already has his date set up for the next bike trip we
Want more people involved we want the events to be bigger we want to bring people from Europe over especially France to be biking and kaying with us sou figures at the actual year of the country’s 250th birthday 2026 will be overrun with competing activities so he’s targeting 2025 he plans to start at
Newport in June of that year and right up to the victory monument in Yorktown Virginia on the 4th of July [Applause] 2025 well that’s it for this episode of amazing tales from off and on Connecticut’s beaten path I want to thank my guest for this episode Johnny caroan the trail administrator for the National Park Service for the Washington R Shambo revolutionary route National Historical Trail s Lilian Thal the Kent
Connecticut resident who actually biked and kayaked the length of the trail to help promot it and Dr Bob celing the foremost expert on the Rambo March and the Revolutionary War please follow me at my main podcast website amazing tales C.P podbean.com also in between episodes you can check out my Facebook page at
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Here on amazing tales from off and on Connecticut’s beaten path I’m Mike Allen be safe and stay Healthy amazing tales from off and on Connecticut’s beaten path is a production of True North Associates LLC