A "forgotten" hero?

I don't know anyone who doesn't know who this man is!
Here's a nice write up about the exhibit honoring this great soldier and patriot for the Revolutionary cause:


NEW YORK - "Lafayette, we are here." So said an aide to "Black Jack" Pershing when the American general and his troops reached France in 1917, joining the Allies' war against Germany. It was payback for the service rendered by the Marquis de Lafayette to the fledgling United States in its war for independence 140 years earlier.



But "le temps marche," as the French say — time marches on. Memories fade. And while hundreds of American counties, cities, squares, streets and schools bear the name Lafayette, how many people today could identify the Revolutionary War hero?

"Not many," says Richard Rabinowitz, curator of a new exhibit on the Frenchman at the New-York Historical Society. "The American Revolution has ceased to be a story that we tell in our popular culture."

The Historical Society — founded in 1804 when the name of the city was sometimes hyphenated — had student volunteers visit locations bearing the name Lafayette, including a city park with a statue of him, and asked passers-by who he was.

"Almost nobody knew," said Louise Mirrer, the society's president and CEO. "One person said, `Sounds French.'"

Lafayette's pivotal role in history is more compelling than most fiction: The young nobleman volunteered to fight in the American Revolution, became George Washington's surrogate son and a general at age 19, and survived a battlefield wound to play a key role in the final victory over the British at Yorktown.

His current anonymity is quite a comedown for Marie Jean Paul Joseph Roche Yves Gilbert du Motier Lafayette, who was widely described as "the greatest man in the world" during a triumphant return 40 years later to the country he had helped create.

On that 1824-25 trip, "he confirmed the deepest beliefs that Americans had about themselves, a national identity of America as an exceptional nation," said Lloyd Kramer, a historian and author of the biography "Lafayette in Two Worlds." "It was a great national ritual of celebration."

The Historical Society exhibit, marking Lafayette's 250th birthday and based on an earlier one at George Washington's Mount Vernon home, opened Friday and runs through Aug. 10, 2008. It focuses on the 13-month victory lap that took Lafayette, then 67 and the last surviving general of the American Revolution, to all 24 states and as far west as St. Louis.

A great-great-great grandson of Lafayette, Arnaud Meunier Du Houssoy, plans to visit the display Nov. 27. "I hope this exhibit will cause people to rethink the relationship between the United States and France," Mirren said.

The exhibit includes a huge punch bowl, scores of badges, plates and other items decorated with Lafayette's picture, plus clothing, hats, shoes, embroidery, instant biographies and sheet music, all produced in celebration of — and to profit from — Lafayette's visit.

The exhibit's tours de force are an original wicker-basket carriage that Lafayette rode between stops in Vermont. There is also a chilling replica of the French Revolution guillotine that Lafayette, as a member of French nobility, escaped by attempting to flee back to America; before reaching his goal he was arrested by Prussia in 1792 and imprisoned in Austria until 1797.

When he arrived in New York in July 1824, Lafayette was cheered by 50,000 people on a parade up Broadway to City Hall. That began his 13 months of travel by steamboat, stagecoach, carriage, horseback and sailing ship, covering 6,000 miles of rugged country, primitive conditions and often ghastly food.

Lafayette visited Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, sat for portraits by Rembrandt Peale and Samuel F.B. Morse (who later invented the telegraph), and saw American democracy at work — the bitterly contested 1824 election in which John Quincy Adams' victory over Andrew Jackson was decided in the House of Representatives.

Ten thousand people turned out at Yorktown as he walked the field where the British had surrendered in 1781 and sat in Washington's original command tent, brought out of storage for the occasion.

But Lafayette did not find the United States he helped to create entirely to his liking, according to Rabinowitz and Kramer.

Although deeply offended by slavery, he diplomatically avoided getting into American politics and shied away from abolitionists. However, he went out of his way to greet blacks, making the point that many had served heroically in the Revolution. By tipping his hat to Lewis Hayden in Lexington, Ky., he inspired the 13-year-old slave to become an anti-slavery firebrand in adult life.

Poet Walt Whitman claimed that at age 5, he was scooped up and kissed on the cheek by Lafayette during a stop in Brooklyn.

After an emotional farewell speech by Adams, Lafayette returned home aboard an American warship, the USS Brandywine, built for his trip and named for the Revolutionary battle where he was wounded.

Having expressed a desire to be buried in American soil, he took with him some dirt from Boston's Bunker Hill, which was put into his grave when he died of pneumonia in Paris in 1834.

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Great post Ren. Why do you think historical figures like Layfayette are not studied much in school anymore? I have my opinions but i would love to hear yours.

Well, Havok, I think some of it has to do with time constraints. There's a lot of ground to be covered and only so much time to cover it in.

Also there's been a bit of a backlash against some of the Founding Fathers, of whom Lafayette was a genuine member, NOT Paine, but I digress, because it's considered politically correct to show the young uns these men in all their glaring faults (like they were slaveowners, like Washington or Jefferson, murderers like John Paul Jones, or spendthrifts and wastrels like Arnold.

IMO, there's no problem with showing the men as human with faults like all of us, but to dwell on these things exclusively and not see them as part of the bigger picture and what they accomplished, warts and all, does a disservice to our kids.


PS My son LOVES Lafayette. He could not believe that few Americans had heard of him. They must be newly-arrived immigrants--in that case, it's understandable.

What's your take on this topic?

Well, Havok, I think some of it has to do with time constraints. There's a lot of ground to be covered and only so much time to cover it in.

Also there's been a bit of a backlash against some of the Founding Fathers, of whom Lafayette was a genuine member, NOT Paine, but I digress, because it's considered politically correct to show the young uns these men in all their glaring faults (like they were slaveowners, like Washington or Jefferson, murderers like John Paul Jones, or spendthrifts and wastrels like Arnold.

IMO, there's no problem with showing the men as human with faults like all of us, but to dwell on these things exclusively and not see them as part of the bigger picture and what they accomplished, warts and all, does a disservice to our kids.


PS My son LOVES Lafayette. He could not believe that few Americans had heard of him. They must be newly-arrived immigrants--in that case, it's understandable.

What's your take on this topic?It's kind of eerie how much you and i think alike on this subject. I was going to say almost exactly what you said.

The only thing i would have added is that i think people these days teachings are more likely to dwell on these faults because of the color of a historical character's skin. Anything "caucasion" is reviled, and has to come with a disclaimer.

Yes, if you were caucasian, not poor, or even somewhat religious, you automatically suck.

Let me play the Devil's Advocate.
Exactly what did this man accomplish? He fought in a few battles; Brandywine (loss), Barren Hill (loss), Monmouth (loss), Rhode Island Expedition (loss), Yorktown (insignificant role).
I do not deny that he was an Honorable man and stood by his great principles. However, I do not see anything in his history that made him particularly significant to the US.
Perhaps you can convince me otherwise.

Perhaps he merely symbolizes the idea that other nations, namely France, were prepared to be our friend. He was the first Frenchman who offered aid to our struggling, poor, and all but friendless country.

(Side note--when he landed here and came to Congress, the door was literally slammed in his face, the men there thinking he was yet another penniless foreign born adventurer of dubious background. Quite a welcome for the Marquis--many men would have turned tail and gone right back home. He did not.) And not the first dumb move by Congress and certainly not the last.

He equipped his own men, bought his own ship, served with no pay. And I disagree that he played a minor role at Yorktown. He sent word to Washington about Cornwallis' position there and was beforehand very well thought of by his men. He was also wounded at Brandywine, true a battle we lost, but then again, we lost many battles but the thing is, we kept on fighting.

When he showed up at Valley Forge during the terrible winter of 1778, the raggedy cold men cheered, among them being my own 5x grandpa, Ephraim Kibbe. Here was a French nobleman come to help and of course, Washington himself considered him as an own son. Lafayette repaid the favor by naming a son for George.

True, he never showed the brilliance of Benedict Arnold or Nathanael Greene ( my own personal favorite Revolutionary guy) on the battlefield, but he didn't have to.

His gracious presence was enough.

A true patriot, in every sense of the word.

We agree he was a good, honorable, principled man with apparently some charisma. So were many others. You still haven't explained why he was so extraordinarily thought of at the time.
A more cynical person may think it was because of his relationship with Washington.
Please remember I am playing the "Devil", not trying to denigrate anyone, just ensuring his praise is justified.

We agree he was a good, honorable, principled man with apparently some charisma. .....
A more cynical person may think it was because of his relationship with Washington.
.


Then why wasn't Hamilton held in the same consideration?
Or Tench Tilghman or John Laurens? who were a few of the 30 odd military aide de camps and part of Washington's inner circle? Or a few of his lower ranking Generals, like Lee?

OK, in the case of Lee, We KNOW why, lol.

As for Hamilton, he was considered a toady by all except, apparently, Washington.

Why are some people held in high regard, while others, apparently equally good, are not? A puzzle that has no good answer; and also applies to the present day.

they need to study the revolution more in school. and get into the finer points of it, and the dirt of it all. like how the "founding fathers" were just a bunch of rich men who didn't want to pay their taxes. but since the "invention" of civilization, "freedom" is a constant evolving thing.

i always liked Lafayette.