The Practitioners of Musick performed as part of a program at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, Saturday July 19th 2025 celebrating the “Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route.
“Of the happiness I have enjoyed in our private friendship. The remembrance of which will be one of the most pleasing Circumstances of my Life.” [ General Comte de Rochambeau on his relationship to General George Washington]
The “Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route” [W3R Route] also known as the “Route to Victory” is a National Historic Trail administered by the National Park Service. Stretching over 680 miles (1,090 km) the route commemorates the 1781 march of the Continental Army near the Hudson River, New York under General George Washington meeting up with the French Expeditionary Force under General Comte Jean-Baptist de Rochambeau from Newport, Rhode Island. The combined American and French armies evaded British troops marching through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland , and Virginia reaching Williamsburg. The French Royal Fleet had already won the Battle of the Chesapeake preventing the British from reinforcing or evacuating General Charles Lord Cornwallis’s army. The American and French troops placed under the command of the Marquis de Lafayette laid siege at Yorktown leading to Cornwallis’s surrender on October 19th 1781. The American-French alliance and victory at Yorktown were crucial in securing American Independence.
Among the esteem’d guests at the private event were Dr. R.Scott Stephenson CEO of the MoAR, Mayors from communities that were on the route as well as Marine Fraval-Vennel, Consule Honoraire de France à Philadelphie, Larry Abell, [ W3R ] US Chairman, Brad Fay [W3R] Victory Town 250 Director, Michael Newmuis, Philadelphia 2026 Director of Events, and Peter Wong of the National Park Service.
Dr. R. Scott Stephenson CEO Museum of the American Revolution and the Practitioners of Musick