France and the Fourth of July

Admiral de Grasse in the gardens of the Trocadéro (Photo – fr.usembassy.gov)

As we approach the Fourth of July, we can also celebrate French heroes whom George Washington praised for their aid in the war of independence.

By Christopher Bonin

The French heroes were Lafayette, De Vergennes, Beaumarchais, Rochambeau—and also French Admiral François-Joseph Paul, Count de Grasse. Warships of both the French Navy and US Navy have borne the Admiral’s name. In 1781 De Grasse sailed to support General Washington on a Paris-financed ship called VILLE DE PARIS, accompanied by a fleet of more than 20 ships. After several days’ battles between the French ships and the British, September 5, 1781 saw American victory in the naval battle of Chesapeake Bay.

This battle prevented a British retreat from Yorktown. It helped make possible American victory at Yorktown, and arguably the independence of America. As General Washington said to Admiral De Grasse: “You have been the arbiter of the war.”

Abraham Kingsley Macomber (Photo from the collection of the ETH-Bibliothek)

Abraham Kingsley Macomber

Thanks to a Pasadenan, Abraham Kingsley Macomber, Paris has a monument of the Count de Grasse—financed and designed by Macomber—at the Trocadero Palace in Paris.

Macomber, whose family moved to Pasadena in 1883 when he was nine, was an adventurer, a businessman, a philanthropist, and a racehorse breeder. He was also a lover of military history.

In 1918, Macomber moved to France with his wife, where they split their time between Paris and a chateau (once owned by William K. Vanderbilt) in Carrières-sous-Poissy. The chateau still stands today. Macomber also owned a stud farm in Deauville (Normandy). He also sometimes hunted in Africa with Ernest Hemingway. (Readers may be familiar with the Hemingway story The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, not a flattering picture of that fictional character, to be sure).