Heh. I'm fine... if you don't count "mad as a wet hen."

And it's beginning to rain again. Sigh.

Cannot remember where, exactly, you are in TX, but thinking of you and praying you are OK.

Awwwwwwwwwww... I'm fine. Definitely sick of the dang rain.

I've spent many a holiday vacationing in that area and so glad this July 4 wasn't one of them. The entire situation is FUBAR and makes my blood boil so...

Love you to the moon and back!

Love you more and hugs. :)

I lost electricity yesterday (and still trying to catch up).

Nice post!

Does anyone know how or where the French admiral Compte de Grasse survived the French revolution's Terror, that tried to kill all noble Frenchmen - noble Frenchmen like the Compte de Grasse?

Comte de Grasse didn't live to have to survive the Reign of Terror. After Cornwallis/British surrendered in October 1781, Comte de Grasse was ordered back to the West Indies where his flagship Ville de Paris was defeated and he was captured in April 1782 by the English Admiral Rodney's British fleet (CW wrote about, above). He was held prisoner in England until paroled in August when he returned to France and much criticism for his defeat and loss of around 3,000 men. He subsequently demanded a court martial of his captains who were acquitted circa 1784, but his naval career was effectively over. He died in Paris in January 1788 before the French Revolution, but his children fled France and the revolution and eventually settled in South Carolina.

Interestingly, he had also had a child out of wedlock (with an Indian woman in Calcutta) named Azar Le Guen at birth. Comte De Grasse took Azar to Paris and sponsored his education and adopted him, changing his name to George de Grasse, and he too eventually immigrated to the United States and settled in New York City by 1799 and worked as a servant to Aaron Burr (yes, that Aaron Burr) by at least 1802 -- Burr calling him "my man George (late Azar Le Guen, now George d'Grasse)" -- in a letter to his daughter Theodosia. Burr had given land in Lower Manhattan to George, and on July 5, 1804, George de Grasse became a naturalized citizen of the United States, rather rare for a man of color at that time. Also interestingly, on July 11, 1804, Burr fatally wounded Alexander Hamilton in the most famous duel in American history. There's a whole lot more to the story (of course) -- de Grasse even named one of his children Theodosia Burr DeGrasse (after Burr's daughter, lost at sea) and Burr had two children with his servant Mary Emmons -- but those are the main points you can find by piecing together details buried in a multitude of letters in the National Archives, Library of Congress, records of New York, census records, etc.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/De_Grasse-63

Go back far enough in the history of America, it seems like they're all intertwined.

Correspondence of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Burr, Hamilton and so many of our founding fathers are saved and archived, and a person can spend hours/days/months reading them and learning the most interesting details. Anyone who really wants to delve into history, start reading what I refer to as the "your obedient servant" letters. The archives are full of them. :)

A "ragtag irregular army of farmers" that had been whipped into shape by Prussian-born Baron von Steuben who didn't speak a word of English (except curse words) when he arrived at Valley Forge in 1778, and therefore his orders were written in French and then translated into English by his own aide-de-camp with help from aides-de-camp of General George Washington, two lads in their 20s by the name of Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens (who spoke fluent French).

Fast forward to March 1781 when Laurens and Thomas Paine (yes, that Thomas Paine) were sent to France to assist Benjamin Franklin, American minister in Paris; they met with King Louis XVI where Laurens secured promises that French ships would support American operations that year. Ever the realist (with brass testicles), Laurens had explained to the French that without their aid in the Revolution, Britain might force Americans to fight against France. Laurens and Paine returned to America in August 1781 with 2.5 million livres (roughly equivalent to English pounds) of silver from the French (huge). In July 1781 after he captured Tobago in the West Indies (British sugar islands), Louis XVI ordered Admiral Comte De Grasse to support Rochambeau against Cornwallis in the Chesapeake, and the rest is history.

Which is why, this Independence Day, I will personally be lifting my glass in a toast to a French admiral, and the French sailors who served under him. Because without Admiral Compte de Grasse's efforts, we might not even have an Independence Day to be celebrating.

Along with a glass to Laurens, Lafayette, Rochambeau and so many others since Washington and Hamilton get enough credit as it is. ;)

Okay, well, not that last bit. :)

Cannot remember where, exactly, you are in TX, but thinking of you and praying you are OK. So tragic! Let us hear from ya if you get the chance.

Love you to the moon and back!

R

Okay, I'm a history freak. Most people don't know that the French navy defeated the British navy off the coast of Virginia, allowing Washington and Lafayette to defeat Cornwallis at Yorktown. But some do, I bet.

And how can we talk about the French support of the American revolution, without noting the irony that Louis XVI spent too much money on that support, money dedicated to weakening his enemy Great Britain, money he didn't have, money he tried to raise by calling the Estates General in 1789 to approve new taxes. The resulting French Revolution, often referring favorably to the American colonial revolution and its democratic ideology, overthrew and eventually executed said King Louis XVI.

Oops. Does anyone know how or where the French admiral Compte de Grasse survived the French revolution's Terror, that tried to kill all noble Frenchmen - noble Frenchmen like the Compte de Grasse?