Expédition Particulière

Expédition Particulière (English: Special Expedition) was the codename given by the Kingdom of France for the plan to sail French land forces to North America to support the colonists against Britain in the American Revolutionary War. Numbering 5,500 troops, the expedition arrived in America on 11 July 1780, led by the Comte de Rochambeau.

Another 2,500 men were intended to join the war effort, but could not escape the British blockade of Brest. After remaining inactive for almost a year, Rochambeau marched his troops south to rendezvous with George Washington's Continental Army for a planned attack on New York City. At Rochambeau's urging, Washington abandoned the planned attack and instead they moved into Virginia to join with the French fleet of Admiral François de Grasse to trap Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis's British army at Yorktown; the subsequent Franco-American siege ended in British surrender in October 1781, which hastened negotiations towards a peace treaty ending the war.