Another companion was the Swedish Count Fersen, later the devoted friend of the unfortunate Queen Marie Antoinette, the driver of the carriage in which the royal family made the famous flight to Varennes in 1791, and himself destined to be trampled to death by a Swedish mob in 1810.

Other old and famous names there were: Laval-Montmorency, Mirabeau, Talleyrand, Saint-Simon.

It has been said that the names of the French officers in America read like a list of medieval heroes in the Chronicles of Froissart.
Only half of the expected ships were ready at Brest and only five thousand five hundred men could embark.

The vessels were, of course, very crowded.

Rochambeau cut down the space allowed for personal effects.