Mark W. Buyck, III: Gilbert du Motier Marquis de LAFAYETTE

from June 2022

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TURNING THE TIDE OF THE WAR...

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de LAFAYETTE

story by Mark W. Buyck, III

It is almost an immutable fact that without the help of France, America would not have defeated the British in the American Revolution. Imagine what our history would be if Washington, Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson were disgraced war criminals instead of the founding fathers of the United States of America. The Frenchman given the most credit for turning the tide of the war in the Patriot’s direction was a young Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette was born on September 6, 1757, into one of the wealthiest families in France. He began his military training at the age of 11, was orphaned by the age of 12 and was commissioned an officer in the Musketeers at the age of 13. At the age of 16 he was married to his 14-year-old bride and by all accounts, they had a loving relationship until her death in 1807. Lafayette was familiar with the American agents in Paris who in 1776 were lobbying the French government for assistance in their war against the British. One patriot, Silas Deane was responsible for recruiting Lafayette, Barron Johann de Kalb, Casimir Pulaski, and Barron von Steuben. On December 7, 1776 Deane enlisted Lafayette as a major general in the Continental Army, agreeing to serve without pay. Lafayette spent the next several months in defiance of his family and the French crown preparing for a trip to America. He purchased his own ship, the Victoire, which eventually left for America on April 26, 1777. Fifty days later, on June 13, 1777 Lafayette arrived in North Inlet in Georgetown county, South Carolina and spent his first night in America at the summer home of Benjamin Huger. There is a historical marker commemorating Lafayette’s landing in America on Highway 17 South about 1/2 mile north of the Winyah Bay bridge. Lafayette and his party made their overland way to Philadelphia. The Continental Congress commissioned him a Major General on July 31, 1777 and he would meet George Washington for the first time on August 5, 1777. Washington took a liking to the impetuous teenager who became a member of Washington’s staff. Lafayette was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777. He spent the winter of 1777-78 with Washington’s army at Valley Forge. Lafayette spent 1778 fighting with Washington’s army in the Northeast. He returned to France for approximately one year in 1779 where he worked with Benjamin Franklin and others to secure supplies and soldiers for the Patriot’s cause. He returned to America in 1780 and was instrumental during the Yorktown campaign and in the siege of Yorktown. He was with General Washington when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, effectively ending the war.

"I gave my heart to the Americans and thought of nothing else but raising my banner and adding my colors to theirs." - Marquis de Lafayette

Lafayette returned to France by January 1782 where he was welcomed as a hero. He continued to lobby for the American cause and was a participant in the negotiations which led to Britain’s ultimate surrender in the Treaty of Paris. He returned to America in 1784-85 and was greeted as a hero throughout the states. He visited New York City for the first time as it had been occupied by the British while he served in the Continental Army. He attended banquets and receptions in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Albany and Boston. He was regaled everywhere he went and never refused delivering an after-dinner speech. Four states granted him citizenship. He spent 11 days visiting George Washington at Mount Vernon. Washington wrote to Lafayette, “I have felt all the love, respect and attachment for you with which length of years, close connection, and your merits have inspired me. I often ask myself, as our carriages separated, whether that was the last sight I ever should have of you?” Lafayette replied, “Adieu, my dear General, it is with inexpressible pain that I feel I am going to be separated from you by the Atlantic… I find in your friendship a felicity that words cannot express.” While he was considered a hero of the American Revolution after he returned to France in 1785 it would be nearly 40 years before he returned to America. Next time we will recount the 1824-25 return of Lafayette as “America’s Guest.”