A New Look At How Rochambeau Quartered His Army in Newport (1780-1781)

For more than a century now historians of Newport have known about a French billeting list which showed where 91 officers were quartered for their first winter in America. It has four columns, one for the names of officers, another for the names of the streets, a third for the number assigned to each house, and the fourth for the names of owners. Thus list was first published in 1879, when J.A. Stevens printed an English translation of it as an appendix to his article in the Magazine of American History, Vol. III, entitled, The French in Rhode Island. A few years later in 1884, a copy of the original French list appeared in E.M Stone\u27s admirable labor of love and learning, Our French Allies. Both authors paid tribute to a common friend and fellow enthusiast, Mr. Henry Thayer Drowne, of Newport and New York City, who owned the original manuscript and had loaned them a copy. Eventually, this manuscript made its way to the Fraunces Tavern Museum, maintained by the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York, where it is part of the Henry Russell Drowne Collection