Thomas-Antoine de Mauduit du Plessis or Thomas Duplessis or Thomas-Antoine du Plessis-Mauduit (12 September 1753 – March 1791) is a French officer who fights with the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
Born in Brittany, he runs away to sea at age 12 and voyages in the eastern Mediterranean Sea for a time.
Later, he attends a famous French artillery school.
He is among a number of volunteers to join the fledgling American army in 1777, especially distinguishing himself for bravery at Germantown and skill at Red Bank.
At Valley Forge he helps train American officers in the finer points of tactics and artillery handling.
He defends a key position at Monmouth in the summer of 1778.
Receiving permission to resign from the American army at the end of 1778, he later fights with Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau's army.
In 1787, he takes command of a regiment in Haiti.
He resists the French Revolution, refusing to carry out instructions from the new government.
Instead, he carries out a repressive counterrevolutionary program which provokes a revolt.
When reinforcements arrive from France in March 1791, the new soldiers immediately take the side of the revolutionary faction.
Stirred up, du Plessis' own regiment riots and his men murder him.
