George Washington's Dilemma

There are a handful of well-known European soldiers who volunteered to join the Patriot Army. They include Lafayette, von Steuben and Kosciuszko. However, there are many other Europeans who appear in the letters, journals, army orders and resolutions of the Continental Congress. Who these Europeans were, and how many of them there were has been ignored by historians due to the scarce and obscure information about them. In addition, many of them had long and confusing names such as Denis Jean Florimond de Langlois de Mautheville Marquis du Bouchet which discouraged learning about them.

Now a team of unique Revolutionary War scholars have successfully tackled the story of the French volunteers who helped win American independence. They are Arthur Lefkowitz, who has a reputation for dogged research and Norman Desmarais who is fluent in French and has written extensively about French participation in the American Revolution. Their research has produced this groundbreaking book. It reveals that the Europeans who fought with the Patriots were either educated in France, officers in the French Army or influenced by the French to join the rebel cause. It lists 200 men who came from France as volunteers early in the war who were commissioned as officers in the Continental Army. Some of them were a great asset to General Washington while others were frauds who came to America to make money. The book focuses on some of the most interesting and important of the French volunteers. George Washington's Dilemma is a pioneering study of a previously ignored but fascinating aspect of the American Revolution.

Arthur Lefkowitz is an independent researcher. He is known for tacking offbeat but interesting subjects that present a research challenge.

Norman Desmarais is professor emeritus at Providence College. He is the author of fifty books and is fluent in modern and 18th century French. He is an active re-enactor, a member of Le Regiment Bourbonnais, the 2nd Rhode Island Regiment and the Brigade of the American Revolution.