March to Yorktown Reenactors to Pass Through Wrentham

December 2012 celebrates the 230th anniversary of the Expédition Particulière - the codename given to the French expeditionary army sent during 1780 to 1782 to support the American War of Independence. To commemorate this event, French and American reenactors will “March” the new Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail (W3R NHT), from Providence RI to Boston MA.

In 2006, the 225th anniversary of the 1781 Yorktown Campaign, the reenactors – who are all over sixty and known as "America's March to Yorktown" (AMTY) - marched the entire 700+ mile journey of the French Army under General Rochambeau, from Newport RI to Yorktown VA, using French records and maps as their guide. This year AMTY will finish this effort as they march the last leg of the route to Boston, where, after the victory over Cornwallis, the French army returned to board troop transports for the Caribbean, departing Boston Harbor on December 24, 1782.

Although this section of the 1782 march took three days, AMTY will be extending it to five days to facilitate school visits and speaking engagements. Due in part to their 2006 effort, including two visits to Congress and the work of hundreds of volunteers along the nine-state, and District of Columbia, route, Congress passed a bill that was signed by President Obama in 2009 designating the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route as a National Historic Trail.

The "March" will terminate at the site of the Boston Massacre on Saturday December 8. Interested parties/individuals are welcome to join the “March” along the way.  A ceremony celebrating the French march and that of the AMTY is being planned for 1:00 PM, December 9th, at the site of the USS Constitution. The ceremony is open to the public.

To follow the AMTY this December or to read the daily logs of the 2006 march, visit: http://www.marchtoyorktown.org

For more background on W3R, visit www.w3r-us.org  or go to the National Park Service website, www.nps.gov/waro for additional coverage of the March. For more immediate information please contact Michael Fitzgerald at: MajRobtRogers@aol.com  or by cell at; 860.912.7366