Adam Philippe, comte de Custine letter of recommendation (RLC.Ms.512)

Biographical note

Adam Philippe, comte de Custine (1740-1793) was a French general who began his military career as a captain in the Seven Years’ War (1754-1763) in Europe. He later served again as a colonel for the Saintonge regiment which was selected by Comte de Rochambeau (1725-1807), the general in charge of French troops during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), to participate in the French expeditionary force. Custine and his regiment arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, in August 1780, and remained there until June 21, 1781, when they began their march south towards Yorktown, Virginia. They arrived before the British fortifications at Yorktown in late September where Custine and his Saintonge regiment distinguished themselves, with the rest of Rochambeau’s French army, at the siege of Yorktown which ultimately brought an end to the Revolutionary War. Following the surrender of the British at Yorktown, Custine and his regiment returned to Rhode Island by November 1782, and sailed back to France in December.

Custine’s experience during the American Revolution made him sympathetic to the ideals of the French Revolution, and in 1789 he was elected to the Estates General. When his term ended, Custine again joined the French Army in 1791 with the rank of lieutenant general and was involved in the War of the First Coalition (1792-1797), during which he occupied the German cities of Spires, Worms, Mainz, and Frankfurt in the fall of 1792. When Custine and his French revolutionary army were forced out of Frankfurt by the Prussian army in the winter and later when he did not take any offensive action against the Austrians in northern France, he was accused of treason. Custine was found guilty by the Revolutionary Tribunal, a court instituted in Paris for the trial of public offenders, for having intrigued with the enemies of the French Republic. Comte de Custine was sentenced to the guillotine and died on August 28, 1793.