#duponceau

[livelaughlovelams]

I'm like 99.9999% I'm interpreting this weirdly and wrongly but uh I read somewhere that Du Ponceau would basically monitor every conversation the baron had with a woman and assuming they're lovers by the way that's just SO, SO FUNNY TO ME like bro he's not gonna hit on her you're in good hands this is the gayest man ever like 😭😭🤧🤧

To be fair this was also the "pretty young French secretary" and "plaything" website, so this isn't an 100% confirmed phenomenon, but if it is, c u t e.

Anygays.

[depressedrevolutionariesinlove]

pride month is not over yet! let the rage out

[john-laurens]

In honor of @depressedrevolutionariesinlove giving us an A+ cinnamon roll Du Ponceau in their art - here’s an actual picture of elderly Du Ponceau on display in the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia

[yr-obedt-cicero]

Every day this conversation lives in my head rent free.

[the-ancient-secretary]

Purely Platonic- I think not.

“One evening, at an inn in Virginia, a Frenchman, and a Virginian, were discussing about the manners of their respective countries.  The American, exclaimed violently against the horrid custom of the French, of kissing one another, at meeting, and parting.  The Frenchman made no answer, but as it was late, he took his candle, & went up to bed. He was soon followed by the Virginian, who after undressing, came to take his place in the same bed with his companion.  “Stop, Sir,” said the Frenchman, “that wont do; I shall kiss you as much as you please, but by Jupiter! I’ll not sleep with you”

First off- I would really love to know who the Frenchman and the Virginian were- if they existed. Also, this may be muddy given context, but this doesn’t sound purely platonic.  “I shall kiss you as much as you please” I would have a hard time recontextualizing to be platonic at all- but the second half of the sentence “by Jupiter! I’ll not sleep with you” makes it pretty clear that he was referring to NOT PLATONIC THINGS in this sentence.

(the Autobiographical Letters of Peter Stephen DuPonceau)

[thegrinningone]

these are some scetches of du ponceau inspired by @littlewritingrabbit’s AMAZING story “operation tortoise”

[ms-march]

Chapter 18- Luck be a Lady (Turn AMC)

Chapter 18 is published! There is a lot that is important to immediate plot build up in this chapter and a not so small cameo from Charlotte (Charlie) Harris from Band of Brothers!! If you like it please give it a like, reblog, and/or comment!

“When Lafayette rose from his chair that evening, collecting the plates and empty teapot onto the tray they had arrived in, he had made up his mind. There would be no more sitting here, telling himself all the things he should do. He would take action on them, and if they backfired right in his face, then at least he could console himself with the notion that he had tried.

He would go home tonight, no longer sleeping in her bedroom, walking around like a zombie in a weeks-old uniform. Home to his wife, who had been fretting with nervousness since she was first told that he would be away. Home to his daughters, young and pure of innocence and glee, just as Adrienne had been merely a week ago. Most importantly, tomorrow, when he made for headquarters, he would drag that stubborn Colonel with him."

Thank you to @culper-spymaster and @tallmadgeandtea for beta editing this chapter for me!!

[jack-the-sol]

Realized I haven't drawn Von Steuben before so here he is with his helper boyos! Bottom left is Duponceau, Top left is William North, then Steuben in the center, Laurens, Walker, and Hamilton. I didn't know their hair color so I guessed

[littlewritingrabbit]

hey, is du ponceau peter or pierre? i've seen it both ways and i'm a little confused as to what it was

Good question anon! He was called Pierre Etienne up until he became a US citizen on July 25th, 1781, when he switched to Peter Stephen, which I think it pretty much just an anglicized version of his birth name. Most of his publications that I’ve heard of are under the name Peter Stephen du Ponceau, so I’d guess that’s what he was called by everyone after he moved to the US for good.

[revolutionary-pirate]

General Washington had three aids [at Valley Forge]; Tench Tilghman, John Laurens, and Alexander Hamilton. Robert Hanson Harrison was his Secretary. I soon formed a friendship with Laurens, and Hamilton, as well as with Major Monroe, then Aid de Camp to Lord Stirling, and since President of the United States. With Harrison and Tilghman, I had but a common acquaintance. Laurens was master of several languages. I have a letter from him in Latin, Greek, English, French, and Spanish. With Monroe I corresponded almost daily, although our quarters were little distant from each other. After his elevation to the Presidency, he wrote me a long letter, expressive of his remembrance of our former friendship.

Autobiographical Letters of Peter S. Duponceau

A few thoughts on this quote: 1st - Duponceau had no recollection of Richard Kidder Meade, which actually really amuses me because it adds credence to my idea that Meade was really quiet unless you got to know him and that he was a generally unremarkable and forgettable guy to those who didn’t take the effort to get to know him or spend time with him. He might also have had so little interaction with Duponceau that Duponceau just forgot that Meade existed in general because he never even got onto acquaintance levels with him. It’s almost like Duponceau knew Washington had three aides with him at the time [Fitzgerald was on leave since Feb 1st and McHenry didn’t join the staff until May] and then concluded that the third one had to have been Tilghman even though it was actually Meade and Tilghman was just a volunteer secretary doing 1/3 of all the letter work.

2nd - James Monroe. It hit me while reading this that he was probably at the No Pants Flaming Shots Party, too. And when I was glancing back through my copy of The Drillmaster of Valley Forge, Lockhart mentioned Monroe as probably being an attendee and that amuses me to think about. Laurens, Hamilton, and Monroe at a no pants flaming shots party together. But then I remembered that Hamilton had written Laurens a letter via Monroe that was essentially a letter of introduction for Monroe, so I looked it up and it said “You know him to be a man of honor a sensible man and a soldier. This makes it unnecessary to me to say any thing to interest your friendship for him.” [x] which clarified that the three of them knew each other so it still works. 3rd - ‘Monroe and I wrote letters to each other almost every day even though our quarters were only a mile away from each other.’ Nothing to say I just really love this.

4th - the multilingual letter in question is this one. 

[queerstorian]

honestly,.,. Dream Job. Also, the Baron is a Gay Icon™ and I love him

[livelaughlovelams]

Just saw a source saying that Baron Von Steuben showed up all bedazzled as we know with his doggo and "secretary"...

"SECRETARY"?!

The QUOTATIONS!?

Oh damn you better tell me about this "SECRETARY" he had...wowwwwww

😭😭😭😭

Anygays, woohoo! Tags.

[depressedrevolutionariesinlove]

also this

[iafayettes]

We put the best face we could upon the matter. Once, with the baron’s permission, his aids invited a number of young officers to dine at our quarters, on condition that none should be admitted that had on a whole pair of breeches. This was of course understood as pars pro toto; but torn clothes were an indispensable requisite for admission, and in this the guests were very sure not to fail. The dinner took place. The guests clubbed their rations, and we feasted sumptously on tough beefsteak and potatoes, with hickory nuts for our dessert. Instead of wine we had some kind of spirits, with which we made ’salamanders,’ that is to say, after filling our glasses, we set the liquor on fire and drank it up, flame and all.

‘The life of Frederick William von Steuben’ - Pierre Duponceau on Baron von Steuben’s pantsless flaming shots party

[yr-obedt-cicero]

How many of you actually knew about Pierre-Étienne du Ponceau before Soup started drawing him

[the-ancient-secretary]

King Cong

“There were not wanting out of doors, disaffected persons, who railed at King Cong, and the bunch of Kings (such was the slang of the day among the tories;)”

Okay- WHAT!?

From what I can tell given the larger context of this paragraph- they are referring to Congress and its members.

I vote we all call Congress “King Cong” and all its members “bunch of Kings”. 

As George Washington once said “certain I am, that unless adequate Powers are given to Congress for the general purposes of the Federal Union that we shall soon moulder into dust.” 

OR

“unless adequate Powers are given to King Cong for the general purposes of the Federal Union that we shall soon moulder into dust.”

Source: The Autobiographical Letters of Peter S. DuPonceau