How did Lafayette end up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania?
On April 26, 1777, the nineteen-year-old Marquis de Lafayette set sail from France to join the American Revolution. He’s been quoted as saying, “I gave my heart to America. I became obsessed with the rebels and thought of nothing else but raising my banner and adding my colors to theirs.”
Certainly, he believed in the cause and had been inspired by stories of the colonists' struggles against British oppression. But he also hoped to realize his dreams of glory, and perhaps to avenge the death of his father who had died fighting the British during the Seven Years’ War.
Departure from France
A sculpture of Lafayette’s ship La Victoire from the Port of Paulliac in France
Attribution: By Anthony Baratier - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=78996274
Lafayette was so determined to join the American cause that he left behind his pregnant wife, Adrienne, and defied both his domineering father-in-law and his king. Lafayette’s father-in-law, the Duc D'Ayen, was so incensed when he learned of Lafayette’s plans to ship off for America that he called in all his markers and went straight to the top. The persuasive Duc talked Louis XVI into issuing an explicit order that not only banned all French soldiers from volunteering to fight in America but also decreed that any French soldier caught trying to leave the country for America would be arrested.
However, none of that deterred Lafayette. He snuck out of Paris, bought a ship, which he renamed La Victoire, and set sail for South Carolina. He had such high expectations that he told Adrienne, “The happiness of America is intimately connected with the happiness of all mankind; she is destined to become the safe and venerable asylum of virtue, of honesty, of tolerance, and quality and of peaceful liberty.”
The Battle of Brandywine
The wounding of Lafayette at Brandywine
Attribution: Charles Henry Jeans (d. 1879), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
From South Carolina, Lafayette made his way to Philadelphia where he met his idol, General George Washington, and on September 11, 1777, Lafayette finally got his chance to go to war. Unfortunately, his very first battle, known then as the Battle of Brandywine Creek, did not go as planned. With a birthday just five days before the battle, the twenty-year-old Lafayette must have hoped to celebrate with a glorious victory. However, Washington initially held him back, preferring to keep the Frenchman by his side as an observer.
Lafayette’s ceaseless begging finally wore Washington down, and Lafayette was allowed to join the fight. The Bookmark describes Lafayette’s first foray into battle like this: “That day, he had charged into his first battle astride his white horse, suppressing an inappropriate grin as the ground rumbled beneath him and cannonballs created great furrows in the earth. Racing toward his destiny, he had been certain a glorious future awaited him.”
By all accounts, Lafayette acquitted himself quite well. He rode his horse back and forth across the line, shouting encouragement and preventing the panicked men from fleeing. However, the ragtag militia was outmatched, and in fact, the British General Howe was later criticized for not pursuing the patriots and ending the resurrection right then and there.
Lafayette was forced to give the order to retreat, but that was not his only disappointment. He was shot through the calf by a musket ball, and his glorious plans were put on hold. Washington had him transported to a hospital in Philadelphia, but when that city was threatened by the British, Lafayette was forced to travel north to the small Moravian community of Bethlehem.
Arrival in Bethlehem
Lafayette spent his first night in Bethlehem at the Sun Inn, a well-known establishment favored by America’s finest statesmen including George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin.
Historical marker in front of what is now McCarthy’s Pub
Perhaps because Washington had instructed that he be treated “as if he were my son,” Lafayette was permitted to spend his convalescence in a private home. After just one night at the inn, Lafayette was ignominiously carried to the home of Frederick Boeckel. A journey The Bookmark describes as being transported like a sack of potatoes by men who stank of manure, making Lafayette immediately wish he could retrieve a handkerchief to place over his nose.
That is how the legendary Frenchman ended up in the home of the Boeckel family. And that is where the story of The Bookmark begins.
Discover More
For more information, see this article on Lafayette at Brandywine:
References
Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell
