The Comte de Rochambeau led the French expeditionary army alongside Washington at Yorktown.
Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, was a French Army officer sent to North America in 1780 with thousands of troops. France had formally allied with the American revolutionaries in 1778, and its military support became critical to the American cause.
Rochambeau and George Washington coordinated the movement of their armies from the northeastern colonies toward Virginia in 1781. Their combined forces joined the siege of Yorktown, while French Admiral de Grasse commanded the fleet that blocked British reinforcement by sea.
Rochambeau’s role is sometimes confused with that of the Marquis de Lafayette, a French volunteer who commanded American troops in Virginia, or the Comte de Grasse, the naval commander at the Chesapeake. Rochambeau commanded the French land forces, while Washington directed the allied army overall.