Gilbert Mottier de la Fayette
This story will touch your heart! No story is more worthy to remember than the one of Gilbert Mottier de la Fayette.
Gilbert Mottier de La Fayette was born on September 6, 1757, at Chavaniac in Auvergne. Soon after the birth of this son, his father fell at the battle of Minden At the age of seven years, he attended the college of Louis le Grand in Paris. When seventeen, he married Countess Anastasia de Noailles, one of France's most beautiful and amiable ladies. With kindred spirits, they united splendid fortunes sufficient to support them in princely style through a long life.
Contrary to the wishes of his friends and the King of the French, he resolved to fly to the aid of the oppressed Americans and participate in the unfading glory of planting the standard of Freedom in the Western hemisphere. He proposed to the American Commissioners in Paris to enter the Army of Washington. They informed him of the recent adverses of those struggling for Liberty. They could present no bright picture to induce him to hope for laurels or emoluments. It was not necessary. Nobler motives incited him to action. He still resolved to go. Anxious as were Messrs. Franklin, Dean, and Lee to secure his services, they could not convey him to the scene of action.
De La Fayette goes to America
He immediately fitted out a vessel at his own expense-freighted it with munitions of war and clothing-received letters of high commendation from the American Commissioners to the Congress of their bleeding country and embarked secretly for the land of the pilgrim fathers in the winter of 1777.On April 25, 1777, Lafayette and his companions landed in South Carolina near Charleston, where they were welcomed by General Moultrie, Major Huger, and the little band of veterans around them. The destitute condition of the American soldiers excited the sympathy of the Marquis. He distributed clothing to those under General Moultrie and a sword to each of his officers. From Charleston, he hastened to Philadelphia and delivered his letters and despatches from the American Commissioners to Congress, offering himself as a volunteer.
In July, Congress passed a resolution accepting his services and commissioned him a Major-General in the Continental Army under the supervision of General George Washington.
Battles
He was wounded in the Battle of Brandywine and disabled for six weeks. In the battle of Germantown, he proved himself a remarkable, brave, and skillful officer. He soon gained the complete confidence of Washington. He commanded a choice corps of daring young men selected by himself and sent on several expeditions, which he conducted with great prudence and success to the entire satisfaction of Washington and Congress.In the autumn of 1778, he returned to France, exerted his influence in favor of a treaty of alliance, and greatly aided in consummating that desideratum. La Fayette returned in the spring of 1780 with a French Naval force.
La Fayette commanded the expedition against Lord Cornwallis in Virginia. He found his troops in a naked, forlorn condition and Congress without means to furnish them with the common comforts of an army. Upon his credit, he borrowed money from merchants in Baltimore-purchased a portion of the necessary supplies-and appealed to the fair daughters of the monumental city who responded nobly to the call. Their eyes and needles brightened as they made up garments for the brave soldier boys-soon, the Marquis saw his men comfortably clad, fully equipped-eager to drive the minions of tyranny from their blood-stained soil.
La Fayette took the field with a force far inferior to that of Cornwallis, who was the pride of his King in military tactics. In the wary and sagacious "boy," as the veteran British General termed La Fayette, Cornwallis found a leader too formidable to be treated with contempt-too cautious to be easily trapped. He was constantly annoyed without being able to bring his antagonist to a general action. Chagrined and disgusted, he retired to Yorktown and commenced formidable fortifications.
September 28, 1781 to October 19, 1781 - The Battle of Yorktown
The combined forces of the United Colonies and France lost no time concentrating in front of his entrenchments. The American troops commenced a vigorous siege on September 29, 1781. The British General felt that an awful crisis had arrived. On October 14, it was necessary to silence two redoubts pouring a destructive fire into the besiegers' works using the bayonet. The young Marquis led the charge with the fury of a tornado. They bore down all opposition like a mighty avalanche rushing from the mountaintop with Mars's fury. Although the enemy were double in number-so sudden and irresistible was the onset that they were all killed or taken prisoners but six. Cornwallis found the battle useless to contend. The injured Colonists had risen in their might. On October 18, the proud hero of Britain surrendered his whole Army to the illustrious Washington and the brave La Fayette-the champions of liberal principles and human rights. Having accomplished all in his power to establish our country's independence, La Fayette prepared to return to the bosom of his anxious family in France. He had served over six years and expended one hundred and forty-seven thousand dollars in the glorious cause. At his departure, he received the highest tokens of respect from Congress, the officers of the Army, and our nation at large. The success of the United States in shaking off the yoke of bondage had its influence on the nations of Europe as a natural consequence. That the people of France felt it most is not surprising. The French Army had drunk freely at the fountain of Liberty that had gushed out in the United States. The holy flame of Freedom was burning in America.Lafayette resumed the command of his Army to march against the Austrian Netherlands. Learning that he had left France, the National Assembly of France had proscribed him and set a price on his head. Finding the wild disorder of his country beyond his control and his life in jeopardy, he resolved to fly to the United States.
The Dungeon at Olmutz
With an aching heart, he left France with seven companions. In their flight, they fell into the hands of the Prussians and the Austrians. After enduring every indignity and insult, La Fayette became a prisoner in the dungeon at Olmutz, where a bed of rotten straw, a broken chair, and an old table constituted his wretched apartment's furniture. He suffered from privations and disease-neglected and alone that the hair fell from his head, and death seemed sure of an early victim. At the same time, the Jacobins confiscated his estates, and they put his amiable wife in prison. To advocate him in France was a sure passport to the bloody guillotine.England, the United States, and several other governments looked upon the incarceration of La Fayette as a violation of the laws of nations, of common justice and humanity. George Washington and many others made great exertions to obtain his release. But the Emperor of Austria was inevitable. He delighted in human misery. He had caged the European Eagle of Liberty, determined to immolate him slowly but surely on the altar of revenge and crush the embryo buds of liberal principles in the old world. Colonel Huger and Dr. Bollman of South Carolina made a bold but unsuccessful attempt to rescue the prisoner.
Madam La Fayette goes to Olmutz
The amiableness and dignity of Madame La Fayette forced respect from the bloodthirsty Jacobins, who ultimately released her. When she learned of her husband's sad condition, her native tenderness rushed upon her noble soul like a flood. She resolved to go to him and share in all the vicissitudes that awaited him. She left France in disguise with her two daughters and arrived safely at Olmutz.Her application to see her husband was only allowed if she consented never to leave the prison after entering it! With this inhuman decree, she cheerfully complied. The most brilliant imagination can but faintly conceive-the most robust language can never portray to life the thrilling-the melting scene that followed. The sunburnt cheeks of the soldiers who guarded the prison flooded with tears of sympathy and compassion. The prison soldiers vowed their love for Madame La Fayette as he passed through the grating iron doors.
The Family is Reunited in Prison
" My loyal husband, " she uttered as he took her into his arms. The daughters uttered " My dear father " as they clung around his skeletal form.Fresh exertions began to obtain the release of these innocent sufferers. The question was agitated in the United States Congress and the House of Commons in England, but nothing could move the stubborn heart of the tyrant who held them. They seemed doomed to waste away their lives in that loathsome dungeon.
Napoleon Bonaparte to the Rescue!
The conquering Bonaparte humbled the proud and cruel Emperor and compelled him to release these illustrious prisoners. Napoleon's Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797 stipulated the release of all French prisoners at Olmutz. The Emperor of Austria attempted to impose restrictions on the future conduct of the Marquis. Still, La Fayette's unconditional release occurred on August 25, 1797, when he and his family again inhaled the exhilarating atmosphere of Freedom. He had been in prison for five years!When the French nation became more tranquil, La Fayette and his family returned to the land of their birth. He was located at La Grange and soon gained a beneficial influence over those around him. He did all in his power to promote the interests of his country and the cause of human rights. Although he was truly grateful to Bonaparte for his release from a gloomy dungeon, he believed he owed a duty to his nation paramount to all private considerations.
He opposed all of Bonaparte's measures that he considered dangerous to the prosperity and happiness of France.
From the time of his return to that of his last illness, La Fayette took a conspicuous part in his country's civil and military departments. With an Argus eye, he watched her destinies through all her convulsing changes. The smiles of princes and the huzzas of the multitude could not flatter him-the miseries of a dungeon and frowns of tyrants could not depress him. Without those brilliant talents that dazzle and captivate every beholder, like his revered Washington, he possessed an uncommon share of sound common sense, a clear head, a good heart, and a discriminating judgment that gave him more influence than any man then in Europe.
The Three Days' Revolution of 1830
La Fayette's magic power over the enraged populace of Paris during the Three Days' Revolution of 1830 has no parallel when we consider the effervescent nature of the French people. In seventy-two hours, he restored tranquillity-formed a new government, and commenced a new era in the history of that impulsive nation.La Fayette in America in 1824
When he visited our country in 1824, his reception at every point was earnest of the deep feeling of gratitude from the Americans. The presence of no man ever elicited more enthusiastic joy in any country. In every crowd, La Fayette sought his surviving companions in arms who had fought and bled by his side in the glorious cause of American Independence. When he met them, the scene was always interesting-sometimes affecting. In some instances, a simultaneous rush to each other at the moment of recognition and the eloquent tears that rolled down their veteran cheeks told what was passing in their kindred hearts more powerfully than words can express.Congress remunerated La Fayette for his services.