Leaving from Brest, the convoy was delayed, first by bad winds, then by damage incurred to one of the boats.2 On May 2, 1780, the convoy finally left the port of Brest and headed south. The precise destination was known only to the general staff around the Count Rochambeau. The flotilla was supposed to head to Charleston, South Carolina in order to bring help to the besieged American forces, but the capture of a privateer on the 18th of June brought word of the capture of this town by the English. De Ternay, who was in command of the fleet carrying Rochambeau’s expeditionary forces, then headed north towards Newport. The southern route crossing the Atlantic was favored over the other options. Admittedly, it was the route that was “the longest, that of commercial vessels”,3 but also the one that was the safest, the one by which de Ternay hoped to avoid English fleets.4

On July 12th and 13th, the convoy’s troops disembarked in Rhode Island. The expeditionary forces stayed there for a while due to the bad health of the troops — a large number of men had come down with scurvy — but also because the English were blocking the sea. The expeditionary forces finally took up their winter quarters in Newport. In March 1781, Chevalier Destouches, the fleet commander, organized two expeditions to the Chesapeake Bay. Meanwhile, Rochambeau, along with several of his aides-de-camp, took part in the Wethersfield Conference, during which they met General Washington and agreed upon the military operations to be conducted. The French corps was to meet up with the American army around New York in preparation for an operation against the city.

On June 10, 1781, the troops left the island of Newport on small boats and headed for Providence. The troops’ march to the American army camp in Phillipsburg lasted from June 18th to July 6, 1781.5 The expeditionary forces were split into four divisions that followed each other with one day’s march between each group. The Royal Deux-Ponts regiment was part of the second division, which explains why Flohr remembered June 19th as the date the troops left Providence and not the 18th. The direction, stages, and number of kilometers covered coincide more or less with those of this plan until they reached Ridgebury, Connecticut. Following a decision by Washington, the French started marching towards the southwest in the direction of Phillipsburg instead of going to Peekshill near King’s Ferry, as was originally planned. The trip from Ridgebury to Phillipsburg took two days.6

Flohr indicates that they reached Phillipsburg on July 9th, the other divisions arrived on the 8th or the following days. The whole of the united army, composed of Americans and Frenchmen, exerted strong pressure on the English garrison in New York. a few skirmishes occurred between the front-line soldiers of each camp. The legion of Lauzun and the dragoons of Delancey were involved in one of these fights on July 5th.

An attack against New York remained the most favorable option for Washington until the arrival of Admiral de Grasse’s telegram on August 14th. It informed Rochambeau and Washington that he was heading towards the Chesapeake Bay. Whereas he had received orders to work in the Antilles, an operation against Chesapeake Bay, located much further south than New York, seemed to give him the possibility to return faster. This decisive choice can mainly be explained by the arrival of de Grasse who gave the allies the naval support necessary to encircle Cornwallis, entrenched in Yorktown. Incidentally, New York was better defended by Clinton who had more men under his orders than the junior officer in Virginia.

When Rochambeau’s troops left Phillipsburg, he was supposed to meet up with Lafayette and Daniel Morgan in Williamsburg as fast as possible and before Cornwallis. To do this, the troops had to cross the Hudson River, and march to Chesapeake Bay to board the ferryboats at Head-of-Elk that were going to Williamsburg. According to Berthier, the army separated into two lines until they reached King’s Ferry (ferryboats facing the Westpoint fortress north-west of the camp).7 In all likelihood, Flohr advanced with the second line, the left one (composed of the logistics group and the artillery group), but his journey does not correspond exactly to the one Berthier describes. The two wings of the army met up at Hunt’s Tavern (Honds Tavern in Flohr’s diary) on August 21, 1781, before crossing the river on the 24th. Starting at Haverstraw, the journey Flohr describes roughly corresponds to the army’s up until Wilmington (a port at the mouth of the Delaware river, beyond Philadelphia).8

After the crossing of the Hudson, Flohr’s indications correspond within a mile or two to the itinerary indicated by the officers, except for the sixteen-mile journey between Whippany and Bullion’s Tavern, which Flohr considers to be just six miles. This rather large difference is probably due to a transcription error. a second difference — the distance between Wilmington and Head-of-Elk was estimated to be 21 miles by the officers against 12 according to Flohr — can be explained by the fact that Flohr did not have to immediately board the ferry that may have been at a distance.

Due to a shortage of ferryboats, only a small part of the army boarded in Head-of-Elk in order to be transported to Yorktown. Flohr and a large part of his regiment continued the march to Annapolis, which they reached on September 18th. In Annapolis, the ferryboats sent by de Grasse took on a large part of the troops, but there was no space for the logistics group and the large artillery. While Flohr landed in College Creek (Kolletz Kanting in his diary) and arrived in Yorktown on the 25th of September, the logistics group had to march to Yorktown. In Yorktown, the Royal Deux-Ponts occupied a position on the left wing of the united army. Once Cornwallis was defeated, the troops remained stationed in Williamsburg from November 17, 1781 to July 2, 1782 for its winter quarters.

At the time of departure from Virginia, the Royal Deux-Ponts repositioned itself opposite New York and threatened the English garrison to avoid it being deployed towards the south or towards the islands. Nonetheless, Cornwallis’s surrender put an end to the fighting in North America; the English evacuated Savannah and Charleston (all of the South) to concentrate on New York. The English defeat in North America was complete, but the fighting continued in the Antilles, India, and Europe (Gibraltar, Minorca) in order to obtain some advantages in anticipation of the peace settlement, which seemed very close at this date. As Flohr indicates, the French army was split up in four divisions (it followed, more or less, the route taken by Berthier with the logistics group for the outward journey). As indicates the fact that the troops stayed a whole month (July 25th-August 25th) in Baltimore, the troops were not pressed for time. On September 25th, a camp was made between Crompond and Hunt’s Tavern. On October 22nd, the march towards Boston started up again. Under orders of the King and the Minister of War, the expeditionary forces were summoned to leave North America to go to the Antilles with the flotilla from Boston, in order to prepare with Spain the capture of Jamaica. An operation against Jamaica had been intended for some time, but the defeat of the French flotilla at the Île des Saintes (April 9-12, 1782) compromised any serious attempt against the English in the Antilles. The movement of the expeditionary forces from then on responded more to defensive considerations.

The troops arrived in Boston on December 6, 1782. The routes mentioned by Flohr roughly correspond to those of the “Plans of the different camps occupied by the army under the order of Monsieur the Count de Rochambeau (1782 campaign)”.9

Placed under the orders of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, the flotilla left Boston on December 25 and 26, 1782 to head south in direction of Porto Cabello in Venezuela, where it had to await either orders or imminent peace. The hardships met at sea led to a great deal of damage. They led the admiral to authorize certain ships, among them the Ile de France with Flohr aboard, to stop in Curaçao, a Dutch island, to make necessary repairs and obtain supplies. a few days after the reunion of the whole army in Porto Cabello on March 24, 1783, the news of the peace proclamation was announced to the troops.

On April 3rd, the flotilla left Venezuela for Santo Domingo and Cap-Français, where a return voyage was supposed to be organized. On April 15th, the troops landed at Cap-Français. On May 4th, the convoy left the island of Santo Domingo.

On June 17th, part of the flotilla arrived at the port of Brest where the Royal Deux-Ponts landed on June 20th.