9. The first pages of the account are missing. The text therefore begins on page 5, following the pagination of the author. Thus, between the page written in approximate English and the beginning of this account, where we read of the French troops waiting for a departure aboard a transport ship that had been delayed several times, we are forced to imagine the account that Flohr gives of this nautical incident, the first in a long series. In comparison we can cite the description made by Viscount de Noailles of the event: “Ternay has the ships rigged to have them anchored in Berthaume. We are going to set sail, but the Comtesse de Noailles clumsily approaches the Conquérant, which breaks off her bowsprit and damages her such that we are forced to bring this ship back to port so that she may be repaired. The 250 men of the Royal Deux-Ponts that she was transporting are therefore going to stay”; Vicomte de Noailles, Marins et soldats français en Amérique pendant la guerre de l’Indépendance des Etats-Unis (1778-1783), Paris, Librarie académique Perrin et cie, 1903, 2nd edition, p. 168-169 [catalogue de la médiathèque Malraux]

10. The Black Rocks (Pierres Noires in French) are not the cliffs, but the reefs located off the Breton coast, at the exit of the Port of Brest. They are particularly visible on the map “Brest et Environs” by Joachim Du Perron, dated Summer 1780, kept in the Princeton University Library and published in volume 2, p. 206 of The American Campaigns of Rochambeau’s Army, 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783, translated and edited by Howard Rice Jr. and Anne Brown, jointly published by Princeton University Press and Brown University Press, 1972.

11. Military recruitment was a recurring problem in the armies of the Ancien Régime. It was most often carried out on a provincial basis, as the recruiting sergeants traveled through towns and villages searching for men to sign up. However, in spite of the promises of education, travel, and pay, the young men were not always attracted to the a military career. Most often the recruits were of lowly birth, making up an army of bandits and vagabonds, much to the distaste of the generals attempting to rule with an iron fist. Thus the recruiting sergeants tried as best they could to reach the middle class, into which Flohr was born. When the need for recruitment was more pressing, the recruiting practices became more insidious. To quote Maurice de Saxe in the-article-of his Rêveries devoted to the raising of troops: “Troops are raised by engagement, with surrender, without surrender, sometimes by force, most often by trickery [...] money is put in a man’s pocket, he is told he is a soldier”. Drink and women were also often employed to obtain the consent of future recruits. Thus in town the “enclosure practice” was developed. Men were confined in the room of an inn until they signed their commitment papers. Though these practices were generally opposed by the authorities, they were common nonetheless in the second part of the 18th century. We do not know what recruiting methods were used on Flohr’s friends. However, the recruiting campaigns of the Royal Deux-Ponts occurred both in the duchy of the same name and in Palatinate and in Alsace (491 men from Alsace-Lorraine according to Waltraud Pallasch and Pierre Balliet, “Elsässerund Lothingerim Regiment Royal Deux-Ponts”, Bulletin du cercle généalogique d’Alsace, 2007, n°157, 158, 159, and 160, pp. 5-7, 65-67, 125-127, 183-185). The soldiers were therefore mostly German-speaking. The bilingual posters put up in Strasbourg set the tone of this recruitment: “The superb youth who want to enter the aforesaid ROYAL DEUX-PONTS for 4 or 8 years may speak to Mr. de la Touche, Company Captain, who will give them a good appointment and an exact pay. In this way they will benefit from being educated for free, in learning to wield a weapon as well as in learning to dance and write. Young men who understand the French language and who know how to read and write will be promoted in little time if they have good behavior. Those who bring good men will be well rewarded”. Perhaps these promises of advancement proved attractive to the young Flohr and his Protestant friends who had already received a basic education.

12. The author did not copy names of ships, towns, or places, as well as proper nouns in a standard way throughout the text. Here the ship called Le Fandasque was christened Le Fantasque. It was a third ranking vessel with 64 cannons constructed in 1756. See Jean Roche, Dictionnaire de bâtiments de guerre de la flotte française de Colbert à nos jours, volume 1, JMR, 2005.