Marquis de Lafayette: Education and Military Training
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, a name synonymous with courage, liberty, and transatlantic camaraderie, was a pivotal figure in both the American and French Revolutions. His journey from a young, orphaned nobleman to a celebrated military leader and champion of human rights is a testament to his unwavering commitment to Enlightenment ideals. This article explores Lafayette's formative years, his military education, and his distinguished service in the American Revolutionary War.
Early Life and Education
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, was born in 1757 at the Chateau de Chavaniac in Auvergne, France. His lineage was one of the oldest and most distinguished in Auvergne, known for its courage and chivalry. Lafayette's father, Michel Roche Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de la Fayette and Colonel of Grenadiers, was killed at Minden in 1759, fighting against the British. His mother, Marie Louise Jolie de La Rivière, was the daughter of the Marquis de La Rivière. Tragedy struck again in 1770 when both his mother and grandfather died, leaving the 13-year-old Lafayette an orphan with a princely fortune.
Even as a child, Lafayette wanted to be a soldier like the men in his father’s family. In 1768, at the age of 11, Lafayette was summoned to Paris to live with his mother and great-grandfather at the comte's apartments in Luxembourg Palace. He was enrolled in school and began a formal classical education at the Collège du Plessis, part of the University of Paris. His education was geared towards continuing the family's martial tradition. The comte, Lafayette's great-grandfather, enrolled him in a program to train future Musketeers.
Military Education and Early Career
At age thirteen, Lafayette was commissioned to serve in the King’s Musketeers and began his military education in earnest at the Military Academy at Versailles. In May 1771, aged less than 14, Lafayette was commissioned an officer in the Musketeers, with the rank of sous-lieutenant. He became skilled in drilling and horsemanship. In 1775, Lafayette took part in his unit's annual training in Metz, where he met Charles François de Broglie, Marquis of Ruffec, the Army of the East's commander. At dinner, both men discussed the ongoing revolt against British rule in the Thirteen Colonies. Historian Marc Leepson argued that Lafayette, "who had grown up loathing the British for killing his father," felt that an American victory in the conflict would diminish Britain's stature internationally. Lafayette became convinced that the American Revolution reflected his own beliefs, saying "My heart was dedicated." In September 1775, when Lafayette turned 18, he returned to Paris and received the captaincy in the Dragoons he had been promised as a wedding present.
Marriage and Courtly Life
At this time, Jean-Paul-François de Noailles, Duc d'Ayen was looking to marry off some of his five daughters. The young Lafayette, aged 14, seemed a good match for his 12-year-old daughter, Adrienne de La Fayette, and the duke spoke to the boy's guardian (Lafayette's uncle, the new comte) to negotiate a deal. After the marriage contract was signed in 1773, Lafayette lived with his young wife in his father-in-law's house in Versailles. He continued his education, both at the riding school of Versailles, where his fellow students included the future Charles X, and at the prestigious Académie de Versailles. In 1773, he wed Marie Adrienne Francoise de Noailles (Adrienne), the result of an arranged marriage made when the two were younger. Lafayette was sixteen, and his new wife was fourteen. However, they did seem to enjoy one another’s company and were great friends.
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Because of their rank in the French aristocracy, the de Noailles family was close to the King and part of the Royal Court. Although Lafayette was extremely wealthy, he had not been raised at court and his future in-laws saw to it that he was educated in an elite school for the future leaders of France; among his classmates were the royal princes. He was given lessons to teach him the proper way to bow, eat, drink, laugh, and how to engage in witty conversation. His dancing lessons proved him awkward, and his classmates noted his lack of grace and considered him a country bumpkin. Lafayette was unhappy with his artificial life at Versailles, but he found happiness when his future father-in-law secured an appointment for him in the Noailles Dragoons Regiment as a Captain. He was sent to camp where he read manuals on strategy and tactics and drilled with the troops.
Embracing the American Cause
By 1776, Lafayette was a captain of cavalry and enthralled with the Enlightenment ideals of liberty and equality contained in Declaration of Independence. He thought Americans fighting for their rights was a noble cause, and followed the events of the early American Revolution closely. When American lawyer Silas Deane arrived in Paris, Lafayette approached him about a possible commission into the Continental Army. The year 1776 saw delicate negotiations between American agents, including Silas Deane, and Louis XVI and his foreign minister, the Count of Vergennes. The king and his minister hoped that by supplying the Americans with arms and officers, they might restore French influence in North America, and exact revenge against Britain for France's defeat in the Seven Years' War. When Lafayette heard that French officers were being sent to America, he demanded to be among them. He met Deane and gained inclusion despite his youth.
Lafayette learned that the Continental Congress lacked funds for his voyage, so he bought the sailing ship Victoire with his own money for 112,000 pounds. He journeyed to Bordeaux, where Victoire was being prepared for her trip, and he sent word asking for information on his family's reaction. The response threw him into emotional turmoil, including letters from his wife and other relatives. Victoire set sail out of Pauillac on the shores of the Gironde on 25 March 1777. However, Lafayette was not on board in order to avoid being identified by British spies or the French Crown; the vessel moored in Pasaia on the Basque coast and was supplied with 5,000 rifles and ammunition from the factories in Gipuzkoa.
Service in the American Revolutionary War
At age nineteen, Lafayette found himself commissioned as a major general in George Washington’s army on a boat crossing the Atlantic. Upon his arrival, Lafayette met Major Benjamin Huger, a wealthy landowner, and stayed with him for two weeks before departing for the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia. The Second Continental Congress, convened in Philadelphia, had been overwhelmed by French officers recruited by Deane, many of whom could not speak English or lacked military experience. Lafayette had learned some English en route and became fluent within a year of his arrival, and his Masonic membership opened many doors in Philadelphia.
Lafayette offered to serve without pay, endearing him to the Continental Congress. General George Washington, commander in chief of the Continental Army, came to Philadelphia to brief Congress on military affairs. Lafayette met him at a dinner on 5 August 1777; according to Leepson, "the two men bonded almost immediately." Washington was impressed by the young man's enthusiasm and was inclined to think well of a fellow Mason; Lafayette was simply in awe of the commanding general. General Washington took the Frenchman to view his military camp; when Washington expressed embarrassment at its state and that of the troops, Lafayette responded, "I am here to learn, not to teach." He became a member of Washington's staff, although confusion existed regarding his status. First, Lafayette served as an assistant to General Washington.
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Lafayette first saw combat at the Battle of Brandywine near Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, on 11 September 1777. After the British outflanked the Americans, Washington sent Lafayette to join General John Sullivan. Upon his arrival, Lafayette went with the Third Pennsylvania Brigade, under Brigadier Thomas Conway, and attempted to rally the unit to face the attack. British and Hessian troops continued to advance with their superior numbers, and Lafayette was shot in the leg. He showed courage under fire during his first battle at Brandywine on September 11, 1777. He was shot in the leg and was treated by Washington’s personal physician. Lafayette appreciated the situation as soon as it was explained to him, and immediately expressed his desire to serve in the American army upon two conditions - that he should receive no pay and that he should act as a volunteer.
Lafayette stayed at Washington's encampment at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-1778, and shared the hardship of his troops. Though his prestige and rank afforded him the opportunity for comfortable accommodations, Lafayette chose to suffer the harsh winter alongside his men, spending his own money to provide his men with much-needed weaponry, clothing, and provisions. There, the Board of War, led by Horatio Gates, asked Lafayette to prepare an invasion of Quebec from Albany, New York. When Lafayette arrived in Albany, he found too few men to mount an invasion. He wrote to Washington of the situation, and made plans to return to Valley Forge. Before departing, he recruited the Oneida tribe to the American side. The Oneida referred to Lafayette as Kayewla (fearsome horseman).
Faced with the prospect of French intervention, the British sought to concentrate their land and naval forces in New York City, and they began to evacuate Philadelphia in May 1778. Washington dispatched Lafayette with a 2200-man force on 18 May to reconnoiter near Barren Hill, Pennsylvania. The next day, the British heard that he had made camp nearby and sent 5000 men to capture him. General Howe led a further 6000 soldiers on 20 May and ordered an attack on his left flank. The flank scattered, and Lafayette organized a retreat while the British remained indecisive. Of Lafayette’s military career in the United States there is not much to be said. In the first months of 1778 he commanded troops detailed for an expedition against Canada (which was aborted). When the British encircled him and his troops at Barren Hill (28-May-1778) near Philadelphia, his retreat was commended as masterly. The British then marched from Philadelphia toward New York. The Continental Army followed and finally attacked at Monmouth Courthouse in central New Jersey. Washington appointed General Charles Lee to lead the attacking force at the Battle of Monmouth, and Lee moved against the British flank on 28 June 1778. However, he gave conflicting orders soon after fighting began, causing chaos in the American ranks. Lafayette sent a message to Washington to urge him to the front; upon his arrival, he found Lee's men in retreat. Washington relieved Lee, took command, and rallied the American force.
When the United States and France signed their Treaty of Alliance and became allies in February 1778, England followed by declaring war on France. Lafayette asked leave to visit France to consult his king as to the continued direction of his services. In fact he went on a mission rather than a visit. Arriving in Paris in February 1779, he was received with enthusiasm and was made a colonel in the French cavalry. He won the confidence of the comte de Vergennes. Lafayette was absent from America for six months and on his return he was given a complimentary resolution by Congress. The French fleet arrived at Delaware Bay on 8 July 1778 under Admiral Charles Henri Hector, Count of Estaing, with whom Washington planned to attack Newport, Rhode Island, the other major British base in the north. Lafayette and Greene were sent with a 3000-man force to participate in the attack. Lafayette wanted to control a joint Franco-American force but was rebuffed by the admiral. On 9 August, the American land force attacked the British without consulting Estaing. Estaing moved his ships north to Boston for repairs, where it faced an angry demonstration from Bostonians who considered the French departure from Newport to be a desertion. John Hancock and Lafayette were dispatched to calm the situation, and Lafayette then returned to Rhode Island to prepare the retreat made necessary by Estaing's departure. For these actions, he was cited by the Continental Congress for "gallantry, skill, and prudence". He wanted to expand the war to fight the British elsewhere in America and even in Europe under the French flag, but he found little interest in his proposals.
Lafayette returned to America in April 1780 and provided a valuable service as intermediary between Washington and Rochambeau. From April until October 1781 he was charged with the defense of Virginia. Washington sent la Fayette to Virginia when news of Benedict Arnold's raids there raised alarms about the vulnerability of the Chesapeake. In the Virginia campaign of 1781, la Fayette and 1,000 men faced Charles Cornwallis' army of 4,000 troops. la Fayette avoided Cornwallis' efforts to trap him until Anthony Wayne arrived with reinforcements. la Fayette then advanced on Cornwallis, engaging him in a skirmish near Williamsburg on June 26 and attacking what he thought was a rear guard of Cornwallis' forces at Green Spring on July 6. Instead, la Fayette encountered the main body of Cornwallis' reinforced 7,000 man army, and disaster was avoided due to a well-timed charge by Anthony Wayne's troops, la Fayette's own skillful handling of the retreat, and Cornwallis' failure to press his considerable advantage. Lafayette fought for the Americans for the remainder of the war. By August, Cornwallis had moved his exhausted and ill troops to Yorktown, while la Fayette shifted his base of operations to Williamsburg to keep the British army confined on the Peninsula. A month later, the combined Franco-American army of Washington and Rochambeau rendezvoused in Williamsburg on their way to Yorktown and the ultimate engagement of the war. Lafayette commanded Continental Army troops in the decisive siege of Yorktown in 1781, the Revolutionary War's final major battle, which secured American independence. During the subsequent siege, la Fayette was given command of a light division that played a meaningful role in forcing Cornwallis' surrender in October.
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Following the victory at Yorktown by the Continental Army and the French, Lafayette’s military career in the United States came to an end. He immediately obtained leave to return to France, where it was supposed he might be useful in negotiations for a general peace. He was also occupied in the preparations for a combined French and Spanish expedition against some of the British West India Islands, of which he had been appointed chief of staff. Lafayette had been promoted in 1781 to the rank of maréchal de camp (major general) in the French army and he received every token of regard from his sovereign and his countrymen.
Later Life and Legacy
In 1782, la Fayette returned to France to help organize its direct efforts against Britain, but peace was declared before he could act. He visited America briefly in 1784 and then, back in Paris, assisted the United States' Ambassador to France, Thomas Jefferson. La Fayette embraced the burgeoning revolution in France, hoping that the American experiment in liberty could be extended to his country. In 1789 he proposed a French Declaration of Rights, much like that of Britain and many American states, and he advocated for the abolition of the titled aristocracy and slavery.
In 1824, la Fayette accepted James Monroe's invitation to visit America. He arrived in New York City in August and began a tour through the whole country. At one stop after another he was greeted with a level of enthusiasm that contemporaries believed was without precedent in American history. la Fayette returned to France in September 1825 and was again elected to the Chamber of Deputies. He took command of an army in the field once more in 1830 during the July revolution and helped restore the French monarchy. He died in Paris on May 20, 1834. To this day, an American flag flies over his grave.
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