Our Book

Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route
and the Franco-American Alliance

Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route

At the request of the Society of the Cincinnati and the American Society of the French Legion of Honor, Donna Passmore and Jan Smulcer researched, wrote, and illustrated Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route and the Franco-American Alliance. They were asked to tell this critical story because of the scholarship and storytelling abilities demonstrated in their curriculum, Why America Is Free. A copy of this book is now included with the curriculum.

“The alliance between the nascent United States and the Kingdom of France during the American Revolution was crucial to the success of the patriot cause. … In Jan and Donna’s telling of this story, they make it clear these were flesh-and-blood men and women whose ideals and passions drove this alliance and these two nations to their joint success at Yorktown.  George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, King Louis XVI, le Comte de Rochambeau, and so many others – all appear to us as living, passionate people with a cause that drives them to victory over tyranny.

Jan and Donna are to be commended for their extensive use of primary sources, as well as their exhortation to follow the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route, now maintained by the National Park Service. Jan and Donna’s book makes the study of history immediate and exciting.”

—Joseph W. Dooley

Past President General National Society, Sons of the American Revolution

“…Not only is the book an exceptional scholarly study of the ending of the American Revolution through the eyes of the successful alliance between the French and the Americans, particularly on their final march to Yorktown, but they have also explored that story with rigor, with beautiful writing, and with exceptional artistic design.

One of their incredible abilities throughout this book is their ability to take a complex and challenging subject—with multiple moving parts as well as personalities and armies from three different nations coming from multiple geographies across the Atlantic seaboard—and bring those disparate lines together into a compelling narrative approach that at once highlights the uniqueness of the individual, but at the same time keeps the whole story moving dramatically forward.”

—Douglas Bradburn, Ph.D.

President & CEO George Washington's Mount Vernon