Lafayette, Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves Roch-
Gilbert du Motier, marquis de (1757–1834)
French military officer
Born at the Château of Chavaniac, in Auvergne, France,
on 6 September 1757, Marie-Gilbert du Motier was
the scion of a distinguished French family. His father’s
death at the battle of Minden (1759) when Marie-Gil-
bert was only two, followed by the deaths of his mother
and grandfather, left him in his teens with a consider-
able fortune. Following a family tradition, at an early
age he entered the French army, studying at the military
academy at Versailles near Paris. In 1771, he became a
member of the prestigious King’s Musketeers, and he
rose to become a member of the Noailles Dragoons in
- A protégé of the duc d’Ayen, he married the duc’s
daughter in 1774 and assumed the title of marquis de
Lafayette. In 1775, when he was only 18, he received
word of the attempt by the American colonies to break
away from the English government in London and in-
stantly decided to go to their aid. In December 1776, he
received a commission as a major general in the Conti-
nental Army from Silas Deane, the Americans’ agent in
Paris. In April 1777, he left his native France for Spain
and, from there, sailed for America on his private ship,
La Victoire (the victory).
Lafayette arrived in South Carolina in June 1777,
and the following month he met General George Wash-
ington, who invited him to serve with the American
forces in New Jersey. He first saw action at Brandy-
wine (11 September 1777), when the Americans were
defeated by the British under Lord William Howe. La-
fayette was wounded in the leg, but Washington was so
impressed by his service at this single battle that he was
given command of the Virginia division of the Conti-
nental Army, which he led in a retreat from Barren Hill
(28 May 1778) and to an apparent draw at Monmouth
Court House (28 June 1778). When the French admiral
Jean-Baptiste Charles Henri Hector, comte d’Estaing,
sailed the pro-American French fleet of 12 battleships
and 14 frigates off the coast of Rhode Island and at-
tacked that of the British under Earl hoWe, driving the
British away, Lafayette was the liaison officer between
the two forces. In 1779, after returning to France with
an official message from the Continental Congress, he
convinced his native country to assist the colonies in
their fight, and he was present for the birth of his son,
whom he named George Washington de Lafayette. He
was nominated as the commander of a French army to
invade England, but the invasion never came about, and
in 1780 he returned to the United States. There he saw
action in the campaigns against the British in Virginia,
including at the battle of Green Springs (6 July 1781),
in which forces under Lafayette bore down on the Brit-
ish on the York peninsula. This campaign ended at