HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.
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was expected, and the pulses and hearts of the people were quickened and warmed simultaneously, through some mysterious medium, throughout the whole Union. Citizens rushed from neighboring cities and villages to welcome the French nobleman, who, before he was twenty-one years old, had devoted himself and his fortune to the American colonies in their unequal conflict with the mother country for independence; and who, after fighting gallantly by the side of Washington through the Revolutionary War, returned to France with the only reward he desired or valued—the gratitude .)f a free people. General LaFayette was now sixty-seven years of age, with some physical infirmites, but intellectually strong, and iii manners and feeling cheerful, elastic and accomplished. The General embarked at i o'clock, a. m. At half past ' ~~ a discharge of cannons two his approach was anrc' -
City Hall.
f_om the bluff just below the landing at Poughkeepsie. Large piles o seasoned wood, saturated with tar and turpentine, were kindled upon that bluff, fed by hundreds of boys who had been intrusted with that duty, and which were kept blazing high, filling the atmosphere with lurid flame and smoke until daylight. Soon after sunrise, a large concourse of the citizens of Poughkeepsie, with a military escort, arrived at the wharf. The boat having arrived, Gen. LaFayette, accompanied by Col. Huger of South Carolina, (distinguished for his attempt to
Dutchess County Historical Society
