The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-06-16
Continued from page ID
The Debt America
Owes to France

out of sight of the English, and the
| English fleet was too disabled to at
| tempt to renew the fight. The squad
ron of De Grasse returned to Chesa-
peake Bay. The army of CORVALLIS
| was thus blocked from the sea coast,
and so the victory at Yorktown was
| assured On October 10, 1881, Corn
! wallis was forced to surrender to the
| Americans under Lafayette and the
French under Rochambeau, and both
under the supreme command of Wash
ington.
The fleets of D'Estaing and De
Grasse operated in American waters
and so directly contributed to Ameri-
can independence. The French fleets
and armies elsewhere also contributed,
though not personally engaged on
American soil or American water, and
so aided perhaps as much as those en-
gagged on the Chesapeake or at York
town. The feet of Count de Guichen,
who fought in the Antilles and was
there in constant contact with the
fleets whose operations were carried
on on the other side of the Atlantic,
gave direct cooperation to the efforts
of the French in America. Besides,
several of De Guichen's vessels were
added to the fleet of De Grasse and so
directly aided, in American waters, the
defeat Of CORVALLIS at Yorktown. The
Of NJ noct0rnhnc ond
De Barras brought Rochambeau's
army to Rhode Island. In July, 1880,
the army of Rochambeau had arrived
at Newport, the fleet being under COM
mand of De Ternay. After his death
DeStouches took command.
King Sends Help.
King Louis XVI, on the urgent re-
quest of Lafayette and his friends,
who had come to America as volun-
teers, determined to send an army. 1t
was not an allied army, it was merely
an American corps d'armee. The chief
would be under orders of Washington,
and the French officers would yield
precedence and command to American
officers of the same rank. The army
assembled at Brest in April, 1880, un-
der the command of Count Rocham-
beau, but of the six regiments which
composed it, only four, by reason of
insufficient transports, could be en-
barked. The regiments which came
to America, were the Bourbonnais, the
Soissonnais, the Saintonge, the Royal
DeuX-Ponts. To these were added the
Legion of Lauzun, 600 men, cavaliers,
800; artillery, 700. Sappers and min
ers of corps of engineers, reinforce
ments from the regiments of Neustine
and D'Anhalt, were sent, and the total
Of each regiment finally reached 1900.
This army of Rochambeau en-
barked on seven vessels, two frigates
and from twenty-five to thirty trans
ports. In addition to these regiments
and detachments, France also sent the
Regiment Agenois, part of which en-
barked on DEstaing's fleet in 1879,
took part in the siege of Savannah,
and returned to the Antilles, where it
had it's garrison. The entire regiment
embarked on Count de Grasses fleet
and took part in the siege and victory
at Yorktown.
The American army had to struggle
against numerous difficulties; volun-
teers were hard to obtain and money
was needed. In order to depreciate
the paper money the English counter
feited it. Three boxes of this coun-
terfeit were captured at Newport on
the Polly, containing 100000. After
the arrival of the French, the two
armies were employed during the first
month in organizing. From the first it
became necessary for Rochambeau to
occupy himself with the financial ques-
ton. All that was consumed by the
army was paid for in coin; King Louis
XVI made gift of six million livres
and present of money to Rocham-
beau.
The Church Assists.
At the time of the American War for
independence the Church provided the
French Government with many mil
lions, not as a loan, but as gift.
Without the aid given by France the
cause of America would have been
lost. BY royal decree dated Octo-
Der 80, 1878, the regular quinquennial
assembly of the French clergy was
called to meet on Monday, May 20,
of the following year. Cardinal de la
Rochefoucauld was elected President.
1t was at the session of June that
the subject of the American Revolu-
tion was taken up. A letter was read
from the King, calling attention to the
enormous cost the war with England
in behalf of the revolted American
colonies had entailed. After much de
batting the assembly voted thirty mil
lions of livres.
Though the Continental Congress in
1774-5 declared the Roman Catholic
religion to be one "fraught with i'm
pious tenets'' and one which had
''deluged England in blood and dis
persed impiety, bigotry, murder, and
rebellion, throughout every part of the
world yet when the French Alliance
was formed in the dark and sad days
of Valley Forge, when nakedness and