[ Autographs ] JEAN-BAPTISTE DE ROCHAMBEAU (1725 - 1807) French marshall who commanded French forces sent to aid the Americans in theRevolutionary War. With Washington, he was essential in the defeat of Cornwallis at Yorktown. An incredibly rare D.S. 1p. folio, Yorktown, Virginia, Oct. 21, 1781. Writing from the field of battle only two days after the British surrender, Rochambeau endorses a recommendationfor an engineer who helped him to successfully conduct that decisive siege! The document details the record of one Captain Henri Crublier D' Opterre, who, as the document relates in 1780: "...embarked the 1stof April with the army of Le Comte De Rochambeau ...1781 was charged with reconnaissance of the works of the Island of New York, executed on the 21st and 2nd of July under enemy fire, and served in the Siege of York where he was employed for 4 days in reconnaissance of the works, and where he constructed four trenches...". At the end of the service record Rochambeau has signed: "This Distinguished officer, I recommend him by Grace of the King, Rochambeau". Because the document is prepared in the form of a reference, it may well be that the engineer was now seeking to find employment in the American army. Rochambeau in war-dated material is rare, let alone an item signed from the scene of the surrender of the main body of the British army in the Americas. A two inch tear to left of center of document, away from all writing, apparently where a drop of water once touched the document, otherwise very good.