LA FAYETTE, MARIE JOSEPH PAUL YVES ROCH GILBERT DU MOTIER, MARQUIS DE ( 1 7 5 ) was born at the Château of Chavaniac in Auvergne, France, on Sept. 6, 1757. The family of La Fayette, to the cadet branch of which he belonged, received its name from an estate in Aix, Auvergne, which belonged in the 13th century to the Motier fam ily. His father was killed at Minden in 1759, and at the age of thirteen he was left an orphan with a princely fortune. He married at sixteen Marie Adrienne Francoise de Noailles (d. 1807).
La Fayette entered the Guards, and was a captain of dragoons when the English colonies in America proclaimed their inde pendence. "At the first news of this quarrel," he afterwards wrote in his memoirs, "my heart was enrolled in it." Through Silas Deane, American agent in Paris, an arrangement was con cluded, on Dec. 7, 1776, by which La Fayette was to enter the American service as major-general. At this moment the news arrived of grave disasters to the American arms. La Fayette's friends urged him to abandon his purpose. Even the American envoys, Franklin and Arthur Lee, withheld further encourage ment, and the king himself forbade his leaving. At the instance of the British ambassador at Versailles, orders were issued to seize the ship La Fayette was fitting out at Bordeaux, and La Fayette himself was arrested. But the ship was sent from Bordeaux to a neighbouring port in Spain, La Fayette escaped from custody in disguise, and before a second lettre de cachet could reach him he was afloat. He landed near Georgetown, S.C., and hastened to Philadelphia.
The lad of nineteen, with the command of only what little Eng lish he had been able to pick up on his voyage, presented himself to Congress with Deane's authority to demand a commission of the highest rank after the commander-in-chief. He perceived the difficulty immediately, and offered to serve as a simple volunteer, and Congress passed a resolution, on July 31, 1777, "that his services be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illus trious family and connections, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States." Next day La Fayette
met Washington, whose lifelong friend he became. The question of giving him a command was left entirely to Washington's dis cretion. His first battle was Brandywine (q.v.) on Sept. II, 1777, where he was wounded. Shortly afterwards he secured what he most desired, the command of a division—the immediate result of a communication from Washington to Congress of Nov. 1777. Though the commander of a division, he never had many troops in his charge. In the first months of 1778 he commanded troops detailed for the projected expedition against Canada. His retreat from Barren Hill (May 28, 1778) was commended as masterly ; and he fought at the battle of Monmouth (June 28), and received from Congress a formal recognition of his services.
The treaties of commerce and defensive alliance, signed by the insurgents and France on the 6th of February 1778, were promptly followed by a declaration of war by England against the latter, and La Fayette asked leave to revisit France and to consult his king as to the further direction of his services. This leave was readily granted. He embarked on Jan. II, 1779, was received with enthusiasm, and was made a colonel in the French cavalry.
La Fayette was absent from America about six months, and his return was the occasion of a complimentary resolution of Congress. The battle of Yorktown terminated his military career in the United States. 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, and a formidable fleet assembled at Cadiz, but the armis tice signed on Jan. 20, 1783, between the belligerents put a stop to the expedition. He had been promoted (1781) to the rank of marechal de camp (major-general) in the French army. He visited the United States again in 1784 and was the guest of the nation.