About St. John's College
Annapolis Campus Tour
The French Monument (1911)
Who were the unknown French who lie buried on the edge of St. John's College's playing fields? Their names were never recorded, and the circumstances of their deaths are shrouded by the passage of over two centuries of time. During the Revolution, in 1781, Annapolis was the journey's end for some of the 4,000 French who were moving to Yorktown for the decisive battle of the American struggle for independence. Four unknown soldiers were buried on the shores of College Creek, and in 1911 a monument was erected in their memory.