Lafayette in the Somewhat United States

After losing the first few battles of the war, George Washington’s fortune changed. On Christmas night, 1776, he sneaked across the Delaware River and attacked the Hessian prisoners stationed outside Trenton. He took approximately 900 prisoners of war.

Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee were in Paris at that point, trying to gain support for the American cause. The news of the Trenton victory bolstered French excitement for the war, but the country would not yet openly join the war effort. However, many French officers asked Beaumarchais to help them go to America to fight. Beaumarchais had been recruiting more experienced fighters for France’s eventual entry into the war.

Johann de Kalb, a veteran of the Seven Years’ War, introduced Lafayette and Deane to each other. Lafayette’s friends, the Vicomte de Noailles and the Comte de Ségur, also wanted to go and asked their families’ permission. This is how the king, Vergennes, and Lafayette’s father-in-law found out about their plans. They were banned from going, and Louis XVI banned all French soldiers from volunteering in hopes that his actions would preserve peace between the French and the British.

Lafayette did not give up on his dream. He was as desperate to join the military as Theodore Roosevelt would be later: “The two shared a child’s ideal of manly military glory” (64). He pretended to abandon his desires of going to America while plotting in secret. Lafayette would later help open French markets to American goods and procure lucrative whaling contracts for Nantucket whalers, who would sell their whale oil in Paris.

He and Kalb sneaked away to Bordeaux, where Lafayette had a ship called the Victoire—the Victory—and left France. His wife and family found his good-bye letters after his departure, and their own unhappy letters reached him while the Victory was docked in Spain, and Lafayette returned to France, intending to make amends. In Bordeaux again, official letters ordered him to report to Versailles. He pretended to go, then changed his course, disguised himself as a courier, returned to the Victory, and left for America April 20, 1777. He arrived two months later.

In America, Lafayette went to Charleston and fell in love with the city. He described the American people he met on his way to Pennsylvania as being as friendly and forthright as he had imagined. But when Lafayette and his friends reached Congress, they were rebuffed. Washington and other officers and Congressmen worried that, while many of the French came to America in such increased ranks to seek the prospects of future, post-war wealth, their lack of attachment to America could make them less committed soldiers.

Washington was also concerned that American officers would resent being placed under the command of foreign officers. This happened more than once, with the best example being that of Henry Knox. Knox had been a bookseller who joined a New England militia after the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord. He was devoted, brave, and loyal. However, Deane promised Knox’s command to the Frenchman Du Coudray, another veteran of the Seven Years’ War, and guaranteed him the rank of major general and impressive commands. Washington did not approve, and arguments about Du Coudray’s status created a deadlock between Washington and some of his officers. Du Coudray drowned in the Schuylkill River after he and his horse fell into it, ending the arguments and allowing Knox to keep his job.

Congress commissioned Lafayette as a volunteer major general on July 31. He treated George Washington as a father figure. Washington was not sure how to deal with Lafayette at first, but the boy seemed more passionate and committed than the other Frenchmen. He was certainly more tenacious and persistent, as most of Lafayette’s companions eventually gave up on securing commissions for themselves and went home.

In Britain, there was confusion about the stance the government should take towards the war. The most influential members of Parliament wanted the war to end that year, but Washington’s strategy of retreating whenever possible, and outlasting the British, was making that outcome unlikely.

In the present, Vowell visits a monument erected in Lafayette’s honor; when it was dedicated on September 11, 1895, over five thousand people attended. She then visits the Brandywine Battlefield, where 11 thousand Americans fought against 13 thousand British soldiers. During the battle, Washington allowed Lafayette to join the most intense spot of fighting. Lafayette rode back and forth, trying to stop frightened men from deserting the battle. He was shot in the leg but survived. Washington and the Americans eventually had to retreat.

Vowell visits the Birmingham Lafayette Cemetery, where an 18-foot monolith commemorates Lafayette. She joins a Quaker service behind held in the nearby Birmingham Friends Meetinghouse. She talks with a woman named Nancy Webster about war. Other Quakers join the discussion and reveal that they hope their presence will make visitors question their own opinions about war and American history.

Vowell argues it is necessary to continue writing books about war. She discusses the diminishing appetite for reading, the rise of reality TV, and asks the reader to imagine the price of not understanding history.

That evening, she attends a Brandywine battle reenactment, complete with a George Washington impersonator and a biography of Lafayette, performed by puppeteers.

Returning to the war narrative, after being wounded, Lafayette recuperated among a Pennsylvania branch of the religious sect known as the Moravians. The Moravians were strict pacifists who disagreed with Lafayette’s passion for war. He continued to write his wife Adrienne enthusiastic letters about the American cause and his delight in fighting for it.

George Washington’s forces won a major battle at Saratoga, and British General Burgoyne was forced to surrender six thousand troops to the Americans. Word of the victory reached Benjamin Franklin in Paris on December 4. Two days after the British defeat at Saratoga, King Louis XVI told Franklin that he could reapply for French aid. Saratoga became a breakthrough that would make France feel more secure in supporting America’s struggle for independence.