The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 29, no. 7 (March, 1971)

successful siege of Grenada, July 4, 1779, Noailles's actions at the head of two
divisions drew from d'Estaing various praises and mention in dispatches, noting
"M. de Noailles's love for war, for his profession, in which I am pleased to anticipate
and predict he will go to the highest limit." During the unsuccessful joint
attempt by d'Estaing and the American General Lincoln to take Savannah the following
September, Noailles, who had been an enthusiastic advocate of the campaign,
was cited for "wise and truly military precautions and dispositions ... in
the execution of the Comte d'Estaing's orders in every circumstance." In a dispatch
to the Ministry of the Marine, d'Estaing wrote that Noailles "again deserved
the thanks of the king" for his excellent performance in the trenches. He received
the Cross of St. Louis and an apparently temporary brigadier generalship. The
expedition returned to France where Noailles was made lieutenant colonel of the
Royal-Soissonais regiment on March 8, 1780, in time to embark with Rochambeau's
army at Brest on April 6. The ships landed at Newport in July, and the
sociable young Vicomte began to make himself known to Americans, among
them the ladies of Newport, who entertained Rochambeau's officers until the
army finally marched on June 10, 1781, to join Washington on the Hudson River.
Noailles was apparently one of the French officers who accompanied their general
to his famous meeting with Washington held in Hartford on September 21,
1780, at the house of Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth. There Washington unsuccessfully
attempted to persuade Rochambeau to march south against the British
before the promised French fleet and additional troops had arrived. Noailles
seems to have agreed with Lafayette that Rochambeau was unduly cautious, for
he wrote a wildly ungrammatical letter to Colonel Wadsworth on October 23,
1780:
I pray you my dear colonel to be kind enough to send this packet of letters at my
brother the marquis de Lafayette. You know how much I ardently wish to serve
your country; this campagne end without that America may have receive any advantage
from the frensh army and without that one of his officers may have do
nothing for his own glory. if I can obtain to make war with your troupes this winter;
I hopes to can prove that they are frensh men able to sacrifice their own existence
with pleasure to serve an ally [illegible] which as obtained all and eternal rights to
their thankfulness.
The Vicomte's earlier claims to expertise in the English language seem as touching
as they were ineffective in argument with Maurepas.
Noailles and his fellow officers avoided the enforced waiting and boredom in
Newport by traveling through the northeastern states and flocking to Washington's
camp to meet the great man. On December 10 Washington wrote to Rochambeau
saying he had "experienced the highest satisfaction in the visits which
the Chevalier Chattelus [Chastellux], Viscount Noialles [sic], Count de Damas,
Count de Custine and Marquis de Laval have done me the honor to make me.
I have only to regret that their stay with me was so short." That particular jaunt,
during most of November and December, took the Frenchmen as far south as the
Brandywine battlefield and as far north as Fort Edward, above Albany. Washington
provided Noailles with a letter of introduction to Samuel Huntington, President
of the Congress in Philadelphia: "I have the honor to introduce to your
Excellency's acquaintance the Vis-count de Noailles, Colonel in the French army.
You will find in him an officer of distinction, a Gentleman who possesses those
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