[AMERICAN REVOLUTION]. ROCHAMBEAU, JEAN BAPTISTE DONATIEN DE VIMEUR, COMTE DE, General. Letter signed ("le Comte de Rochambeau") TO BENJAMIN HARRISON, GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA, Williamsburgh, Va., 24 June 1782. 2 pages, 4to, the two leaves partially separated, second leaf neatly inlaid, page 4 docketed in Harrison's hand. THE FRENCH ARMY'S FAREWELL TO VIRGINIA. A gracious letter from the Commander of French forces in America, written eight months after the stunning American/French allied victory over Cornwallis at Yorktown. At the request of General Washington, Rochambeau is preparing to depart from the York area for the northern theater of war. "The circumstances requiring that the corps of troops under my command should march towards the North, I have the honor to acquaint your Excellency that in three days the army will begin to move. Your Excellency is too sensible of the consequences that must result from the French Navy and American artillery that stay behind at York, and the French artillery at West Point being protected by some troops not to make the state [Virginia] furnish a corps of 1,000 men to defend Hampton and York. I shall leave a very small corps of convalescents and French artillery...and I beg of your Excellency to give orders for the most speedy march of the Troops that are to take our place....I enclose the letter which General Washington had sent me for you in case of the French Army's moving. If the events of the war do not send again the French Corps in Virginia, it [sic] shall never forget the good reception it has met with from the inhabitants in General and your Excellency in particular..." On November 18, 1781, the combined armies under Rochambeau and Washington forced the capitulation of Cornwallis and his army, trapped at Yorktown. Militarily, it was virtually the last significant action of the war, although the peace settlement was not finalized until September 1783. Rochambeau's army had remained in garrison in Virginia since the battle.