The next day, the French passed in review before Washington and Rochambeau, and the following day, under a pale blue sky, the Continentals reciprocated with a parade of their own. One French officer thought the rebels looked “rather good,” though another observed that many American soldiers were barefoot and an alarming number were either barely adolescents or somewhat old for the rigors of military service. He thought it hopeful that “a quarter of them were negroes, merry confident, and sturdy.”1
