This guy ... this is the guy. Raise a cold one to him today - or a fine glass of vin d'Auvergne...

[Surya Gayatri]

The young Marquis de Lafayette wears the uniform of a major general of the Continental Army. Painting by Charles Willson Peale

Lafayette, was a French aristocrat and military officer who fought for the United States in the American Revolutionary War. A close friend of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson, Lafayette was a key figure in the French Revolution of 1789 and the July Revolution of 1830.
...

Born in Chavaniac, in the province of Auvergne in south central France, Lafayette came from a wealthy landowning family. He followed its martial tradition, and was commissioned an officer at age 13. He became convinced that the American cause in its revolutionary war was noble, and travelled to the New World seeking glory in it.


The birthplace of Lafayette in Chavaniac, Auvergne
...

He served with distinction in the Battle of Rhode Island. In the middle of the war, he returned home to lobby for an increase in French support. He again sailed to America in 1780, and was given senior positions in the Continental Army. In 1781, troops in Virginia under his command blocked forces led by Cornwallis until other American and French forces could position themselves for the decisive Siege of Yorktown.


Lafayette wounded at the battle of Brandywine


John Ward Dunsmore's depiction of Lafayette (right) and Washington at Valley Forge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_du_Motier,_Marquis_de_Lafayette

[Omaha Steve]

1. K&R!

[Surya Gayatri]

2. Hey Steve!

[longship]

3. Happy to R&K this one.

Happy Independence Day, DUers!

[Surya Gayatri]

5. Back at cha!

[roguevalley]

21. My great (several) grandpa, Colonel Tom Paxton who was considered the best rifle

shot in his time by everyone who knew him (they had to eat and couldn't waste bullets) raised a militia from Pennsylvania and came to the army to help. He was at Valley Forge the winter that everyone including Lafayette was there and during a famous Christmas dinner there, was one of the 16 invited guests.

As the intertubes describe:

"Although Loveland Ohio was named after the first Postmaster and early shopkeeper James Loveland, the area’s first settler was Colonel Thomas Paxton. Born in Pennsylvania in 1739, Paxton moved to Kentucky in 1790. After having the opportunity to observe the beauty of the Little Miami River landscape, Paxton travelled North and in 1795 settled in the area now known as Loveland.

During the Revolutionary War, Thomas Paxton served as Lieutenant Colonel of the Second Battalion of the Bedford County Militia. In 1777, Thomas Paxton ate Christmas dinner at Valley Forge with General George Washington and other illustrious military personnel, such as the Marquis de Lafayette, General von Steuben and Alexander Hamilton."

GO, GRANDPA!

Happy 4th to all. From an accidental participant to someone else's glory, RV

[awoke_in_2003]

41. I was born in Steubenville

though I don't often admit it.

[tavernier]

4. I've shopped at his store in Paris many times

Lovely place!
😄

[Surya Gayatri]

7. Oh, you mean this place? Yeah, good lookin' joint he's got there!

[Surya Gayatri]

12. Also, great eaterie on the top floor - cheap, fast and French.

[tavernier]

9. Best view in town from the roof of Galleria L

Sadly, I believe it was named after a distant relative of his, though.

Happy 4th., anyway!

[sarge43]

6. Some others who have our thanks.

http://allthingsliberty.com/2014/11/top-5-foreign-continental-army-officers

[Surya Gayatri]

8. Not to mention the anonymous 6,000 who followed the Marquis...

[Surya Gayatri]

10. Here's more about our main man, the Marquis, and the guy who bankrolled him...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026938292#top

July 4th - It's Louis XVI we're celebrating with the tall-ship HERMIONE...

The original HERMIONE, Lafayette's famous frigate, would never have set sail from France if Louis XVI had not decided to support the Yankee rebels. His decision to back them led directly to the eventual collapse of his own kingdom.
...

And today, the cheers going up in the Bay of New York in praise of Hermione, might also be intended for the French king, beheaded by a Revolution which in time helped the Republicans to build their ideal.

More here in an interesting piece (but in French):

http://www.lepoint.fr/monde/4-juillet-avec-l-hermione-c-est-louis-xvi-que-l-on-celebr

[treestar]

11. A toast to him!

I didn't know he was at the Battle of the Brandywine. I should have, since I live near there.

[Surya Gayatri]

13. The young Marquis got around...LOL! And, travelled in the right circles!

[JDPriestly]

14. Thanks to the French for helping fund and fight our Revolution.

Thanks to the French for fighting their own Revolution against their King and nobility and for the Statue of Liberty.

Hand in hand, we changed the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty

Thanks most of all to our ancestors who fought in that war and stuck with the fight until they finally really won after the War of 1812.

A lot of people like to say that those who lead the Revolution were actually oligarchs. They were well educated in many cases, but within the system of the time, they were not the nobility. Lafayette was a nobleman, but Jefferson, Adams and other leaders of our rebellion were not a part of the British nobility by any means at the time. They were upper middle class at best. They owned land, and Jefferson, for example, owned slaves, but they were not part of the ruling nobility of England at that time. Had they been, we would not have had our Revolution.

Many of us have ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War. We owe a huge debt to them. Some went as teenagers. Let's don't forget the service of all who fought in that tumultuous time.

[Surya Gayatri]

20. "Hand in hand, we changed the world..."

We inspired each other - couldn't have one without the other.

The American Revolution could never have happened without the French Enlightenment, and the French Revolution took the American one for their muse.

[roguevalley]

23. it is believed that the revolution that unseated the king was because he almost bankrupted

France supporting our efforts. VIVA LA FRANCE!

[Surya Gayatri]

30. Yes, indeedy...

See this piece about Louis XVI bankrolling the Yankee rebels:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026938292

[JDPriestly]

37. Precisely! Thanks.

[awoke_in_2003]

42. Don't forget the Dutch

they were bankrolling us, too

[Surya Gayatri]

50. For trading advantage and financial gain mostly. No skin in the game, and little or no

philosophical underpinning.

[SCantiGOP]

15. If it weren't for him

We'd all be speaking English, instead of American

[Surya Gayatri]

22. Like they do in Canada, you mean? The Colonial

language had already diverged from its British roots over 150 years in a new land, with new surroundings, new experiences and new necessities.

[SCantiGOP]

34. Correction to your title

"Like they do in Canada, eh?"

[Surya Gayatri]

35. LOL! I was going to do that, but then forgot!

[mrmpa]

16. I love LaFayette........I've stood on 2 pieces of land.

in the US, where he stood. 1. In Savannah on the terrace where he stood and spoke to the people upon his return to the US, and at the Neville House in Pittsburgh where he met with General Neville.

Also I would like to thank:

Tadeusz Kościuszko

Portrait by Karl Gottlieb Schweikart. Kościuszko is shown wearing the Eagle of the Society of the Cincinnati, awarded to him by Gen. Washington



A Pole who helped the Continental Army attain discipline and strategy.

[Surya Gayatri]

24. A Prussian as well, I believe. They knew their military discipline!

Whipped that Colonial rabble into shape! LOL!

[roguevalley]

25. If I remember correctly, he married an American, was held to be guillotined and saved by his friends

I love this man.

[Surya Gayatri]

33. He almost lost his head, yes...

"Flight to Varennes"

On 20 June 1791, a plot, dubbed the Flight to Varennes, almost allowed the king to escape from France. As leader of the National Guard, Lafayette had been responsible for the royal family's custody. He was thus blamed by extremists like Danton for the near-escape and called a traitor to the people by Robespierre.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_du_Motier,_Marquis_de_Lafayette#Conflict_and_

[JustAnotherGen]

32. He was in my town in 1791

The letter to Washington in 1791 where he writes of being pelted with both rain and snow came from Flemington.

[SCantiGOP]

36. Also a plaque in Columbia SC

Small stone marker that I had probably passed hundreds of times in a parking lot at the corner of Gervais and Marion downtown. Said LaFayette stayed several weeks in a house that used to be there. Don't remember the date but it was after the war, 1790's I believe.

[JDPriestly]

38. Thanks for mentioning Kościuszko.

He would be remembered more often if his name were easier for us to spell.

Thanks.

[mrmpa]

43. There's a small street.......

named for him (actually an alley). I drive for Uber & many a time I've had a pick up or drop off there. Most of the residents of the alley are Duquesne University students. They have a hard time pronouncing the name of the street they live on. i've given them a lesson on pronunciation and the importance of the General. I tell them that there is a statue honoring him at West Point.

[Paka]

17. Without the French we wouldn't be celebrating the 4th.

Thank you for this reminder.

[MisterP]

19. yeah, we'd be celebrating the First ...

[Surya Gayatri]

26. My pleasure. Be sure to have a look at the article on Lafayette's famous frigate, too.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026938292

[JEB]

18. Cheese eating surrender monkey.....oh wait.

[Surya Gayatri]

27. What an unfair and unwarranted label they got somehow!

Makes the French part of me see red!

[JEB]

44. Oh yeah the delirious Bush days

of Freedom Fries and pouring French wine in the gutter. Ignorant phucks.

[Surya Gayatri]

46. May W choke on his champagne cocktail.

[calimary]

53. Meh - that's "OLD Europe"... oh wait.

And don't forget the "freedom fries."

GOD that phase in our recent history made me GAG!!!! Made me feel embarrassed to be an American. "Freedom fries" forcryingoutloud. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph...

[Uncle Joe]

28. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Surya Gayatri.

[Surya Gayatri]

29. Glad you liked it, UJ...

[Uncle Joe]

31. I love history, SG and that was a nice piece of it.

Peace to you.

[Little_Wing]

39. Was afraid this would be a Tour de France spoiler LOL

Great post! Carry on

[Surya Gayatri]

47. Glad you liked it!

[hifiguy]

40. I am definitely a Francophile.

Loved everything there when I visited Paris and Lyon back in '03.

Lafayette played a major role in the success of the American Revolution.

[Surya Gayatri]

48. Let's face it. But for the timely French intervention,

the Colonials' goose was nearly cooked. Running out of money and materiel, morale in the ranks sinking day by day.

The war would have dragged on for several more disastrous years, with more and more 'rebels' gradually filtering back to the English camp.

A truce would ultimately have been signed, with the Colonies remaining as a British 'protectorate'.

It's not for nothing that the nascent Colonial government spent so much of its limited resources to send its emissaries to the French court.

[hifiguy]

51. Ben Franklin was worth his weight

in gold. The French didn't think much of the smart but stiff-necked John Adams but Franklin charmed the French court on a grand scale. One of the many reasons he is my favorite Founding Father. Incredibly smart, shrewd and practical.

[Surya Gayatri]

52. Ah, the inimitable, inestimable Ben. A true legend.

[kwassa]

45. The French military that saved our colonial ass. De Grasse and Rochambeau.

Battle of Yorktown.

Admiral De Grasse and the French fleet defeated the British navy at the Battle of the Cheasapeake, which meant British commander General Cornwallis could neither be reinforced, nor evacuated.

General Rochambeau commanded 7,800 French troops in the battle of Yorktown, under the higher command of General George Washington. There were 8000 Continental army troops and 3100 militia in addition.

[Surya Gayatri]

49. Saved our ass majorly...and yet we disgracefully

denigrate them as 'surrender' monkeys.