Lafayette is located on 15 square miles
in Contra Costa County, one of nine counties of the San Francisco Bay
Area. The City was incorporated in 1968, although settlement of the
area began in 1848.
Lafayette is noted for its high quality of life with top rated schools,
low crime rate, small town downtown, clean air, mild climate and oak
tree-studded hills. Located between Berkeley and Walnut Creek, Lafayette
has its own Bay Area Rapid Transit station (BART) and is only a 25 minute
BART ride from San Francisco.
General
Lafayette
The eventual “hero of two worlds,” Gilbert du Motier de
La Fayette, was born of nobility in France in 1757.
Lafayette’s father was killed by the British in the battle
of Minden in 1759, and the young Lafayette inherited a castle, a fortune,
and the title of Marquis. As he reached his adolescence, Lafayette
was one of the richest men in France and its most eligible bachelor.
In 1774, through an arrangement, Lafayette married Adrienne de Noailles,
daughter of a most powerful and well-connected French family. She
was twelve and he fourteen when the marriage was arranged.
More than anything else,
Lafayette wished to be a soldier and avenge his father’s death.
Unfortunately, when he came of age, France wasn’t at war with England.
So, in 1777, Lafayette—disobeying the King’s orders—bought
his own boat and sailed for America to fight against England and finally
fulfill his dream.
Upon his arrival, the twenty-year old summarily informed George Washington
that he was ready to command troops. Since, however, the young man
had no combat or leadership experience, Washington rejected the plea.
Washington, however, liked the earnest young man and agreed to take
him under his wing. Also, it probably didn’t hurt that Lafayette
was enormously wealthy and influential in France—and could therefore
be in a position to help the colonial cause.
In September, 1777, Lafayette’s lucky star shone down on him.
The British had disembarked a large body of troops in New Jersey with
an intent to capture Philadelphia. The colonial army attempted to
stop them with a full frontal attack. Washington, however, noticed
a flanking movement by the British and dispatched a small company
to deflect it. Lafayette joined this company and, after doing so,
rushed to the head of the troops, urging them to charge. In the middle
of the action, Lafayette was hit in the lower calf by a bullet. The
wound was not so severe to endanger Lafayette’s life or even
his limb, but it was enough to make a hero of the bold (some say foolhardy)
Frenchman who, under fire, had shed blood for the American cause.
Lafayette was perfectly poised to do what he did best—to serve
as the essential Franco-American go-between, and he was most effective
in his role. Throughout the remainder of the revolutionary war, Lafayette
time and again badgered France into providing supplies, money, and
troops to the revolutionary army.
His valor also won him the respect of American generals who gave
him increasing responsibility and eventually allowed him to formally
lead American troops. One evening in May, 1778, Lafayette’s
company was surprised by the British shortly after nightfall. Trapped,
Lafayette coolly dispatched decoys to fool the English troops while
evacuating the bulk of his men to safety. This cunning move further
burnished Lafayette’s reputation both stateside and in France.
As his reputation grew, so did his relationship
with George Washington. In fact, Washington became the spiritual father
that Lafayette never had, and Lafayette became the son that the impotent
Washington never sired.
As a commander, Lafayette came to realize how poorly supplied the American
troops were, and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own fortune
to fortify the colonials. His military success and generosity put Lafayette
in a unique position to appeal to recalcitrant state governments. The
states had varying levels of enthusiasm for the revolutionary war, and
there was little central coordination. As a “disinterested observer”
without a native state or regional affinity, Lafayette could cajole
the states in a way that no one else could. If Lafayette hadn’t
served this “middleman” role, there is little doubt that
the colonies would have failed in their revolutionary effort.
By 1780, the Major General Lafayette was commanding nearly
2,200 American troops and was viewed as the official representative
of France to the U.S. He eventually negotiated for France to deliver
substantial numbers of troops, and in 1781 eighteen hundred French sailors
arrived. Lafayette marched his troops to Yorktown, where the British
had decamped a large portion of its army. On October 6, the allies attacked
and by noon on October 19th, the British surrendered in what was to
be their largest defeat. It was a resounding victory, led by Washington,
but impossible without Lafayette.
Returning to France, Lafayette’s love for liberty led him to
join the noblemen who favored a revolution of their own. After the revolutionaries
stormed the Bastille in 1789, Lafayette was made commander in chief
of the new national guard, organized to safeguard the Revolution’s
secure place in France.
In the following months, however, Lafayette became dismayed at the
growing and violent excesses of the revolutionaries and came to believe
that France was not ready for a pure democratic revolution. He thus
championed a limited monarchy with a democratically elected senate.
Such a monarchy, however, was overthrown in 1792 and Lafayette’s
now-compromised position left him branded as a traitor. To escape arrest
and Robespierre’s guillotine, Lafayette fled to Belgium where
he was imprisoned by the Austrians.
For five years, from 1792 to 1797, Lafayette remained captive in a
damp, moldy Prussian prison cell without heat, light, or decent food.
The harsh treatment scandalized a substantial portion of the civilized
world, including his wife Adrienne. So troubled was she that Adrienne
successfully pleaded with the King of Prussia to allow her—and
the two Lafayette daughters—to be jailed alongside the Marquis.
The reunited Lafayettes were treated like animals and it was a wonder
that the two girls remained relatively healthy.
Finally, in 1797, after a letter writing campaign that included contributions
from James Monroe and now-President George Washington, Napoleon released
Lafayette. Despite the favor of Clemency, Lafayette disapproved of Napoleon’s
rule and therefore assumed a low political profile. After Napoleon was
overthrown and the monarchy restored, Lafayette remained generally inactive
until the people were again seriously oppressed. He then rose to lead
the opposition and, in 1830, he took part in his third national revolution.
Now seventy three years of age, Lafayette commanded the Army of the
National Guard that drove Charles X from France and placed on the throne
Louis Philippe, the so-called “citizen king”.
In 1824—nearly 50 years after his first victory in America, Lafayette
toured the United States on a farewell tour. During this visit, the
U.S. Congress voted to give him $200,000 (worth the equivalent of $3
million 1983 dollars) and twenty-five thousand acres of Federal lands.
This was a welcome gift, for his own property had been taken during
the French Revolution. During his tour, Lafayette visited Fayetteville,
North Carolina and noted that many other towns and cities in the fast-growing
United States had chosen to name themselves after the famous French
hero who had played an essential role in defeating the British (Note:
it wasn’t until 1857, however, that Benjamin Shreve, postmaster
of a small, oak-studded farming town in Northern California learned
that his first choice for a town name, Centerville, was already taken
and settled on Lafayette, instead).
Finally, on May 20, 1834, at the age of seventy-six, Lafayette pressed
a medallion bearing a portrait of his beloved Adrienne to his lips and
succumbed to a months-long bout with pneumonia.
