Book excerpt: Excerpt from The French in America During the War of Independence of the United States, 1777-1783 Before going to Europe in 1859, my father edited, at the request of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, "Letters and Papers relating chiefly to the Provincial History of Pennsylvania" (1855), and for the Seventy-Six Society "The Examination of Joseph Galloway" (1855), and "Papers Relating Chiefly to the Maryland Line During the Revolution" (1857). In sifting the manuscripts from which the materials for these volumes were drawn, his attention was called to the fact that the share which France had taken in the establishment of the independence of the United States had not been thoroughly studied or fairly narrated. His interest in the subject was awakened; and, accordingly, upon his arrival in the French capital, he at once began collecting books, engravings or other materials, with the view of preparing a work which should be a careful history of the part that France took in the war of independence of the United States. In addition to the materials upon the subject that my father collected in the United States, and several original manuscripts - as that of Dupetit Thouars, for instance - that he obtained in France, be bad access, through his many French friends - many of whom were descendants of those gallant gentlemen who crossed the ocean to aid us win our independence - to a large and valuable, in many cases till then unused, collection of documents. A description of the more important of these manuscripts will be found in the second chapter of this volume. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.