Marquis de Lafayette
1757 to 1834
French volunteer general of the American Revolution
Founders and leaders
Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, was a nineteen year old French aristocrat when he crossed the Atlantic in 1777 to fight for American independence. Congress made him a major general, Washington treated him almost as a son, and he commanded troops at the siege of Yorktown in 1781, the battle that won the war. Back in France he became a leading figure of the Revolution of 1789.
In 1824 and 1825 he made a farewell tour of the United States and the country went wild for him. The square across from the White House was renamed Lafayette Square in 1824. In Boston he laid the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument in 1825, and on the same tour he laid two in Savannah, for the Greene monument in Johnson Square and for the Pulaski monument that now stands in Monterey Square. You pass both on the Savannah walk.
This story has not been written in your language yet, so it is shown in English.
Where to meet them
Boston
- Bunker Hill MonumentStop 16, The Freedom Trail
Philadelphia
- Second Bank of the United StatesStop 6, Philadelphia, Independence Hall to the Art Museum
Savannah
- Johnson SquareStop 4, Savannah, the River, the Squares and Forsyth Park
- Chippewa SquareStop 8, Savannah, the River, the Squares and Forsyth Park
- Monterey Square and the Mercer Williams HouseStop 11, Savannah, the River, the Squares and Forsyth Park
Washington DC
- White House (Lafayette Sq)Destination Book