By: Brandon Browning
Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Moteir, otherwise known as Marquis de Lafayette was born on September sixth, 1757 in Auvernge, France. His father was killed in a battle before he turned two, in 1759. Soon after his father’s death, his mother moved to Paris and left young Lafayette with his grandmother and his aunts.
When Lafayette was eleven, his mother brought him to Paris to pick a wife for him. The only problem was that his mother died before she could pick one so his great grandfather ended up picking for him. In 1773, when Lafayette was sixteen he married Adrienne of the noble Noallies family when she was fourteen.
By 1776 he knew that he belonged alongside the American soldiers fighting with them for their country’s freedom. Lafayette had always felt strongly about freedom. He made the decision to pay for a ship to get to America. His ship set sail on May 20, 1777 with ten young men who, like Lafayette, wanted to fight for America.
The ship landed on the coast of South Carolina on June 14, 1777. Lafayette immediately fell in love with it. The men walked all the way to Philadelphia and went to the Continental Congress. When they got there, they were told that there was no need for any more French officers, so Lafayette asked to serve without pay and he was accepted.
The next day Lafayette met George Washington. They became very good friends and had an almost father and son relationship. On August 20, Lafayette sat with top-ranking officers at his first council of war.
Lafayette was in a few battles, the French made a treaty with America, the army even tried to get rid of Washington and Lafayette. Lafayette decided to go back to France. He was going to see what its plans were and he was going to decide if he should fight with the French army.
Lafayette left America and reached France in February of 1779. He was afraid because he thought he might get in trouble for desertion. His only punishment was confinement to his home for ten days and he was not allowed to see anyone but his family. Lafayette’s daughter, Henriette, died while he was at war but a new one was born shortly after he arrived in America. Her name was Anastasie.
When Lafayette’s confinement was ended, he could not go out on the streets without being mobbed, followed, and cheered. He couldn’t even go into a public performance without being given a standing ovation. He started to wear casual clothes instead of his uniform to draw less attention but that didn’t help at all. He was called the hero of the new world. Instead of going out in public he did other things like talking to officials about the American War.
When Lafayette was in France, on Christmas Eve his wife gave birth to a boy. He named him George Washington de Lafayette. Meanwhile in America, things were going badly. England had captured many cities and had taken 5,000 prisoners. Lafayette knew it was worse than Washington said it was, and he secretly had 6,000 French soldiers sent to America. Lafayette wanted to be in control of the men. The French were afraid of stirring up trouble in their own army if they gave command to him. He wanted to go to America to prepare Washington for the French Army. No one knew he was coming until he landed in Boston Harbor.
Washington was relieved when Lafayette told him about the army that was coming. He ordered an immediate attack on the British in New York. Rochambeau disapproved of the attack.
Washington and Lafayette were going to meet Benedict Arnold, but when they got to his house he wasn’t there. His family told them that he went over to the fort so they went to look for him. When they got there he wasn’t there either. The news was that Arnold helped a British spy and Arnold had gotten away safely.
After that, Washington sent Lafayette to Virginia to stop an advance by Cornwallis. Lafayette didn’t like doing missions like this because he would rather be with Washington planning an attack. In order to avoid battle, Lafayette zigzagged along the road. On June 10th, General “Mad Anthony” Wayne joined Lafayette’s army and Lafayette stopped the zigzag pattern and stayed on the road because he had more men. Cornwallis turned around as if he were running from Lafayette’s army. Lafayette chased after Cornwallis for 1,100 miles and ended up at the coastal city of Yorktown. Cornwallis expected ships to come down from New York to rescue him and Lafayette did not know what to expect. Lafayette sent a letter to Washington, and Washington wrote back saying that under no circumstances should Lafayette go north. He also said that there would be “aid from this quarter”. Lafayette thought that it might mean that Washington was coming to him to fight the war. The French showed up before Washington and Lafayette had to convince them to wait for Washington, so the French waited. On September 28th, the whole army moved forward to Yorktown where Cornwallis was barricaded. It was late at night and it was raining. They continued the battle and it turned into a hand-to-hand combat. It was over in ten minutes.
Lafayette decided to go back to France. He and his wife bought a house in Paris and moved their family there. Another daughter was born in 1783 while Lafayette was gone. In the new house he hung a framed copy of the Declaration of Independence.
The Peace Treaty between Great Britain and America was signed in September, 1783 and the following spring Lafayette went to America for a short visit. He stayed with Washington and his wife and spent two weeks there.
When Lafayette returned home, he was honored for his service in America. He had done a lot to make the friendship between France and the United States better. On July 26th, 1789 Lafayette was named the Commander of the National Guard. A year later he was promoted to Lieutenant General but resigned on October 8th.
Up until the end of his life, Lafayette still remained popular in France. He died in May 20th, 1834. He will always remain important to American and French history.
Bibliography
Freedman, Russell. Lafayette and the American Revolution. 2010.
Fritz, Jean. Why Not, Lafayette.1999.
"Lafayette, Marquis de." The World Book Encyclopedia. 2008
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<http://www.nndb.com/people/934/000049787/>. 2010.
National Center for the American Revolution/ Valley Forge Historical. "Who Served Here? The Marquis de Lafayette.
<http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/served/lafayette.html>. 1998-2010.
"The Marquis de Lafayette"
<http://www.history.org/almanack/people/bios/biolafayette.cfm>.
