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| Charles Willson Peale portrait of Lafayette |
On this date in 1777, the Continental Congress commissioned Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, better known as the Marquis de Lafayette, a major general in the Continental Army.
He was all of 19 years old.
The French nobleman had sailed to America earlier that year at his own expense and in violation of an order from King Louis XVI. He developed an almost filial devotion to George Washington, was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine in 1777 and later returned to France to help negotiate additional aid for the American cause.
Lafayette returned to America in 1780 with news that French reinforcements were on their way. He took part in the decisive American-French victory at Yorktown in October 1781.
Passionately committed to the revolution, Lafayette once wrote to Henry Laurens, the president of Congress: “The moment I heard of America I loved her; the moment I knew she was fighting for freedom I burnt with a desire of bleeding for her; and the moment I shall be able to serve her, at any time, or in any part of the world, will be the happiest of my life.”
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| Washington and Lafayette at Valley Forge |
