The French Warships that Helped Bring
    Victory to the American Revolution

2021-04 If you read French you will enjoy reading la Marine de Louis XVI, by Prof. Patrick Villiers. See the editor's website www.ancre.fr under New Books. Cost: 89 Euros. Patrick is a long-time friend of the W3R®-FR

After-Dinner Conversations on WRRR-NHT History

A video series begun in November 2020. New topics will be added as they are produced.

2020-11: The Southern Campaign of the American Revolution and its relation to the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail. A conversation between Dr. Robert Selig (historical consultant for the WRRR-NHT) and Dan Smith (former Acting Director of the National Park Service), with host Larry Abell (Chair of the W3R®-US)

2021-02: The Extraordinary Volontaires Estrangers De Lauzun A light-hearted conversation about "the cavalry unit of the little army that France sent across the Atlantic in 1780 to tip the scales in the favor of American independence." A conversation between Dr. Robert Selig (historical consultant for the WRRR-NHT) and Robert Capps (descendant of Charles Lievin DePauw, a soldier in Lauzun's Legion), with host Dr. James Johnson (Director of the Hudson River Valley Institute).

Program Ideas for the 250th Anniversary Years, 2025-2033

December 15, 2020 We were reminded by April Antonellis of the National Park Service that it is important to
  • Plan Early to acquire affiliates, funding, and reservations
  • Sponsor Intelligent Designs to provide coordination, approvals, and publicity
  • Align with Wider Priorities to make your project's goals benefit from the wider historical, geographical, and social goals of the WARO
  • Have an Exit Strategy so that the items, publications, and relationships developed during the 250th period will continue to be useful afterwards
Your planning for WRRR-related events during the 250th Anniversary period (2025-2033) can benefit from considering the experiences of WRRR activities during the 225th Anniversary period (2000-2008). Many of these experiences were captured in reports posted on the W3R®-US website. These reports have been organized by date and are linked from an WRRR Historical Event Timeline which presents a concise historical overview of French aid to the U.S. during the years 1775-1783 and the commemorations of 25 years ago.

Here is a [*] A two-minute video overview of the W3R®-US and the work it is doing to help develop the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail (WARO)
(This video was made for a fundraising day in 2019.)

Numerous Videos:

[*] AmRev360 videos from the Museum of the American Revolution on a wide range of topics related to the ongoing American experiment, such as History has its Eyes on Us (the play Hamilton), When Women Lost the Vote (they had it only inNew Jersey), Mascots, Monuments, and Memory (who chooses them and why), and Finding Freedom (African American men and women in war-torn Revolutionary Virginia).

Guided Tours of Yorktown

September 15, 2020 -- The GPS-enabled "Yorktown Tour Guide" app (created by the American Battlefield Trust) is available as a free download from App Store, Google Play, or Web App. Download it to your cell phone or tablet for use when touring Yorktown VA. The app contains photos of the structures, directions to get from one site to the next, and both text and audio descriptions of the sites as they relate to the 1781 siege and victory at Yorktown.

Three Tours at Your Fingertips: The app takes users on three distinct tours:
  • Historic Yorktown Homes
  • the siege trenches, gun emplacements, and redoubts
  • the Allied Encampment
Audio interpretation is included at each of 21 stops along with integrated directions to each site with its map feature.

Aids for Education and Learning

Videos and Slideshows about the people, places, and events of French Aid 1775-1784

Here are a several links (provided by Lucy Poirier):
[*] Classroom resources on French Participation in the American War of Independence, Library of Congress
[*] Our Allies during the American Revolution [Ducksters Education Site]

This is the Archive Website for the W3R®-US

This archival site (w3r-archive.org) consists of
  • descriptions of French contributions to the U.S. struggle for independence
  • research reports to identify and interpret historical documents describing these French contributions. These studies were generally initiated and/or supported by the W3R®-US and its affiliates.
  • chronological reports on commemorations presentations, and re-enactment events related to these French contributions. These studies were generally initiated and/or supported by the W3R®-US and its affiliates.
  • a history of the legislative efforts to name the trail as a National Historic Trail.
  • lists of the achievements and activities of the W3R®-US
  • suggestions for touring areas along the trail by car, on bicycle, or on foot.
  • information about the W3R®-US organization: vision, mission, goals, charter, bylaws, officers, national affiliates, state organizations
Before January of 2018 this material was posted on a similarly-structured website at our original URL (w3r-us.org).

In January of 2018 the URL w3r-us.org was transferred to a completely re-designed website. A grant from the National Park Service (NPS) paid for the design of the new website. A grant from the Florence Gould Foundation is providing for increasing the amount of material on that URL. The new site has extensive interactive maps, well-documented historical narratives written by NPS-designated trail historian, Dr. Robert A. Selig, and links to many informative historic sites to visit along the trail.

Our plan is to gradually update and revise the files on the w3r-archive.org URL, and then to transfer them to the w3r-us.org URL.