Revolutionary War

Lafayette and the American Revolution

In August 1775, shortly before his eighteenth birthday, Lafayette heard the news from America. The colonists had launched a revolution against Britain. Learning of the recent Battle of Bunker Hill and the siege of Boston, Lafayette was thrilled by the idea of the American’s noble fight for their rights and could think of nothing but joining the cause. 

 A year later, Lafayette was told that a Connecticut Lawyer, Silas Deane, was in Paris presenting himself as a merchant while secretly recruiting officers for the Continental Army.  This information, however, was not entirely correct, Deane was actually in France to hire four French military engineers and to acquire clothing, guns, and ammunition for the American army, not to recruit soldiers. However, while in the process of fulfilling his mission, Deane became carried away and began commissioning officers. And why not? Unemployed professional military men were flocking to his door looking for jobs, but most of these men were looking for a large salary and a high military rank. Lafayette arranged a meeting with Deane, who liked that this young Frenchman had military training and was also a wealthy Marquis with close ties to the king. Deane agreed to give Lafayette a commission as a major general in the Continental Army. Lafayette was just nineteen years old when he signed papers with Silas Deane. 

But leaving France to join the American army was not that easy. Not only had his father-in-law adamantly refused to allow Lafayette to join the cause, but a recent governmental decree had also been issued stating that French officers were not allowed to join the American army. Although the French King was sympathetic to the Americans and had secretly sent aid, openly allowing military aid might be asking for trouble with the British. Finding passage on a ship to America was now almost impossible.      

But Lafayette, being impulsive, resourceful, and wealthy, managed to find a way to cross the Atlantic. Breaking the law and risking his father-in-law’s ire, he purchased his own ship, hired a crew, and snuck out of France. The ship, La Victoire, left France on April 20, 1777, and spent the next two months at sea where Lafayette initially suffered miserably with seasickness. During the voyage, he prepared himself for life in the American army by reading military books and practicing his English.

Upon reaching Philadelphia Lafayette expected to be welcomed with open arms but instead found himself turned away. As Silas Deane had no authority to give commissions to officers, the papers Lafayette presented to members of the Continental Congress meant nothing. After days of being handed off to various people in charge, someone finally realized that Lafayette was a real Marquis with ties to the French King … and best of all, he was rich. In addition, he was not demanding pay but would serve as a volunteer; however, in exchange for his service, Lafayette insisted that he would only serve under George Washington. The Continental Congress approved his commission and he became a major general in the Continental Army on July 31, 1777. 

The rank was considered honorary when the Continental Congress commissioned Lafayette as a major general. However, whether due to his lack of English fluency or because it was not explained properly, Lafayette did not understand this distinction: he was ready to take charge of a regiment and head into battle. The same evening after signing the papers, Lafayette was formally introduced to Washington who had just learned that the young Frenchman would be under his command. Washington cordially welcomed Lafayette to “his family”, meaning his military family of personal aides, but Lafayette once again misunderstood and took the greeting to mean he was being invited into Washington’s personal family. 

Lafayette joined Washington’s military family as an aid and lived in quarters with Washington and his closest officers. Washington became Lafayette’s idol, mentor, and role model. At first Washington merely tolerated the eager young Frenchman, but over time their relationship grew close. Washington had no children of his own and Lafayette had lost his father when he was two years old. The two grew to be like father and son. 

For the first two months after joining the Continental Army, Lafayette pestered Washington for a real division to command. Washington considered Lafayette’s rank of major general as only honorary while Lafayette thought he was a real major general. Still, Lafayette persisted and saw his opportunity when the British and American troops met at Brandywine in Pennsylvania on September 11, 1777, and Washington reluctantly gave Lafayette permission to join the troops. Although the Americans lost the battle that day, Lafayette showed extreme courage under fire and led an orderly retreat even though he was shot in the leg during the battle. General Washington insisted that his personal physician tends to Lafayette’s wound and that he be taken care of as if he were Washington’s own son. Though Lafayette downplayed his wound, news of his heroic efforts spread in America and France.

Washington, impressed with Lafayette’s performance on the battlefield at Brandywine, realized that he was more than a rich Frenchman with ties to the King and gave Lafayette his first troops to command. Over the course of the next few months Lafayette fought in several battles in which he continued to demonstrate his military capabilities. In December,the Continental Army marched to Valley Forge where Lafayette would spend his first winter in America as an aid-de-camp for Washington. Here he met Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens. As a division commander, Lafayette made sure his troops were living to the best possible standards and he donated muskets and uniforms to men in need. Lafayette shared the hardships with his men, even when his rank as major general entitled him to special privileges. For this, he was loved by his men.  

America was a fledgling country and needed a powerful friend for assistance.  As France and England were often either at war or on the verge of war with each other, American delegates were sent to France to negotiate treaties of alliance with France in February 1778. According to this first military treaty of the new nation, the United States agreed to provide aid to France should England attack. France also recognized the independence of the United States as a nation, which of course, England did not. Lafayette was delighted to learn that his country was willing to become allies with the Americans. 

For the next months, Lafayette fought with courage and distinction in several battles and successfully worked with the members of the Oneidas Indian Nation to support the American cause, recruiting forty-seven men who fought bravely in battles against the British.   

Later in 1778, Lafayette returned to France on the American ship, Alliance hoping to win more support from the French. He was reunited with Adrienne, whom he had not seen in two years, and worked with  Benjamin Franklin and John Adams to help persuade the French government to send more troops and supplies to aid the Americans. In March 1780, Lafayette returned to America on the Hermione with the news that six thousand troops under the command of comte de Rochambeau, a seasoned French General, would soon arrive from France and that six French navy ships were on the way.   

Back in America, Lafayette was put in command of troops in Virginia where he pursued General Cornwallis and his British troops. To learn what the British were planning, Lafayette placed a spy in the enemy’s camp. One of his enlisted men was James, an enslaved man who belonged to a Virginia patriot and had permission from his owner to join Lafayette’s regiment. Lafayette asked him to pose as a runaway and work as a servant for General Cornwallis. When Cornwallis realized that James was familiar with the area, he assigned him to spy on the Americans. As a double agent, James passed helpful information to Lafayette and misleading information to the British. James was responsible for obtaining information on British locations and Cornwallis’s strategy that helped the Americans win the war. Later, when he became a free man, he took the last name of Lafayette.

Cornwallis had set up headquarters in Yorktown, unaware that Washington and Lafayette with the American army and Rochambeau and French troops were headed their way on land and that twenty-nine French navy ships were blocking the way of any British military aid. Cornwallis and his eight thousand men were trapped and forced to surrender, signaling the end of the Revolutionary War.