Researching the travels of the French army through Connecticut during the American Revolution, historian Mary M. Donohue assumed that, in all likelihood, any physical evidence of the exact route was exceedingly scarce, if not lost to the ages. Likewise, finding tangible evidence of the campsites and taverns where soldiers and officers spent their nights seemed unlikely.

"I think there was some feeling on our part that, well, a lot has happened in 225 years; `I can't imagine we are going to find anything that remotely resembles anything the French would have seen'," she said.

But as the 225th anniversary year of the passage of the French army through Connecticut comes to a close, historians are surprised - shocked, Donohue says - at how much evidence of the old route they were able to find in recent years.