Guillaume de Deux-Ponts, Count of Forbach, then Viscount of Deux-Ponts was the second son born of the morganatic union of the Duke of Deux-Ponts, Christian IV and Marianne Camasse. He entered the Royal Deux-Ponts regiment at the age of sixteen with the title of second lieutenant, then became a second-ranking colonel in 1777, at the same time as his brother Christian took command of the regiment with the rank of lieutenant colonel. In the treaty settling inheritance of the duchy of Deux-Ponts between the widow of the former duke and the new duke in 1777, he was mentioned under the name “Guillaume de Deux-Ponts, Count of Forbach, Captain of the Dragoons of Schomberg regiment”, a regiment that his father had set up just before his death in order to leave him in command. He became second lieutenant of the Royal Deux-Ponts regiment on November 12, 1778 and lieutenant colonel of that same regiment on October 2, 1779, and in 1780 became part of the expeditionary forces going to help the American insurgents battling the English in a war of independence.

Guillaume de Deux-Ponts held the title “count of Forbach” at the time of his participation in the American War of Independence. He appeared under this title in letters from the Baron of Viomenil, second in command of the French expeditionary forces, and it is under this name that he wrote an account of his American military campaign.1 On April 4, 1780, he boarded the Eveillé and set off with his brother. The convoy arrived off the coast of Newport, after an English attack, on July 11. Guillaume was charged with commanding the infantry and grenadier battalions of his brigade. More so than his older brother, he distinguished himself at the Battle of Yorktown in taking the left redoubt by storm on the night of October 14, 1781. Tarleton, the English officer who suffered the assault of the Royal Deux-Ponts regiment, wrote that Count Guillaume was among “the most unremitting of assailants.”2 The wound inflicted upon him during the siege reinforced his prestige. Rochambeau entrusted the copy of the English surrender document and the enemy flags, both to be handed over to Louis XVI, to the Duke of Lauzun and Guillaume de Deux-Ponts.

In October 1781, he boarded the Andromaque heading for Europe. With his return to Versailles, the American War of Independence came to and end for Guillaume. Ségur, the Minister of War, informed him in a letter dated December 5, 1781 that the king had awarded him the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis as well as the command of the first regiment of dragoons. He was also rewarded with the title “Viscount of Deux-Ponts”. However, he only appeared in the Almanac under the title “Knight of Deux-Ponts.”3