June 18: RI Scouts Pass the Rochambeau Baton and Banner to CT  

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Re-enactors, Scouts, government officials, and the public gathered at the Nichols Farm off Rt 124 near the RI / CT state line on June 18 for a ceremony recognizing the ancient tradition of mutual cooperation between the states of Rhode Island and Connecticut. The ceremony also commemorated the 225th anniversary of the start of the French Expeditionary Force's march from Rhode Island to Virginia by passing from the representatives of one state to the next a tricolor flag of France and a ®-US flag, banner, and Rochambeau baton. This baton will be passed from governor to governor down the chain of nine states and will be presented to the French ambassador at Yorktown VA on October 19, the anniversary of the surrender of the British Army to the allied forces under Generals Washington and Rochambeau.

The cavalry element of the Second Continental Light Dragoons.*

The infantry element of the Second Continental Light Dragoons.*

Generals Rochambeau and Lafayette with Rochambeau's personal flag.*
[Several descendants of Gen. Rochambeau were among those in attendance.]

The Newport Artillery Company's color guard and the Second Rhode Island Continentals.*

Scouts from Rhode Island (Troop 39 Summit, Pack 1 Pascoag) passed the tricolor flag of France
to a Revolutionary War re-enactor, who passed it to Scouts from Connecticut (Troops 55 Plainfield, and 58 Lebanon).*

 
The ceremonial baton shown above** is similar to that used by General Rochambeau
in the eighteenth century. This baton was created for the W3R^®-RI
by Rhode Island silversmith Matthew L. Hopkins.

On behalf of the state of Rhode Island the Newport Artillery Company
passed the baton to the Second Continental Light Dragoons, representing Connecticut.*

This baton was then passed from one state to another along the trail as the marchers
from Americas March to Yorktown passed through, finally reaching
Yorktown in October, from which place it was delivered to David Holloway
(one of the full-route marchers of America's March to Yorktown).

On 2007 May 05 David Holloway (center, in white, with the blue and white flag
of the Bourbonnais Regiment) presented the baton to Major General Robert T. Bray,
the Adjutant General for Rhode Island. (Richard Sheryka provided this and the next photo.)

Gen. Bray then entrusted the baton to the safekeeping of the Artillery Company of Newport
-- the senior militia company in Rhode Island and operator of a handsome museum
in Newport, where the French Army stayed for ten months in 1780-81.

François Gauthier, French Consul-General for New England gave a brief address.*

A Second Continental Light Dragoon demonstrated pistol practice [done at a gallop].*

Two Second Continental Light Dragoons demonstrated saber practice [done at a walk].**

A member of the Newport Artillery Company explains his craft to a Cub Scout.**

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