The help from France is often left a footnote in history as timely assistance from the French Navy at Yorktown but it is indeed much deeper. From the early days of the Revolution support came in the person of the Marquis De Lafayette who served as a line officer in the Continental Army and contributed approximately $200K of his own personal fortune to the cause.
Wounded at the battle of Brandywine and later the victor at the battle of Barren Hill he provided professional military training to the Continental Army during the encampment at Valley Forge in 1777. He is credited with turning the rebels into an army. All of which made him a hero in his home nation and help sway support to the patriots. He is often confused with Jean Lafitte the privateer who fought beside future president Andrew Jackson in the war of 1812 at New Orleans.
It is the Marquis who was referred to by the AEF in WW I “Lafayette We Are Here!”
Significant numbers of the French Army and Navy also fought at the direction of King Lois XVI including Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, Commander of the French Expeditionary Force. He famously refused the surrender of British forces at Yorktown from BG Charles O’Hara (on behalf of Cornwallis) directing him to General Washington as the Commander in Chief.
Liberty is contagious. Only a few years later the French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789. It is celebrated every July 14th.
Viva La France!!!