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Memoirs, Correspondence and Manuscripts of General Lafayette by Lafayette

L >> Lafayette >> Memoirs, Correspondence and Manuscripts of General Lafayette





(1780.) The arrival of Lafayette at Boston produced the liveliest
sensation, which was entirely owing to his own popularity, for no one
yet knew what he had obtained for the United States. Every person ran
to the shore; he was received with the loudest acclamations, and
carried in triumph to the house of Governor Hancock, from whence he set
out for head-quarters. Washington learnt, with great emotion, of the
arrival of his young friend. It was observed that on receiving the
despatch which announced to him this event, his eyes filled with tears
of joy, and those who are acquainted with the disposition of
Washington, will consider this as a certain proof of a truly paternal
love. Lafayette was welcomed with the greatest joy by the army; he was
beloved both by officers and soldiers, and felt the sincerest affection
for them in return. After the first pleasure of their meeting was over,
General Washington and he retired into a private room to talk over the
present state of affairs. The situation of the army was a very bad one;
it was in want of money, and it was become almost impossible to raise
recruits; in short, some event was necessary to restore the energy of
the different states, and give the army an opportunity of displaying
its vigour. It was then that Lafayette announced to the commander-in-
chief what had been done, and the succours which might soon be expected
to arrive. General Washington felt the importance of this good news,
and considered it as deciding the successful issue of their affairs.
All the necessary preparations were made: the secret was well kept,
although steps were obliged to be taken for the arrival of the troops,
who landed safely at Rhode Island, and who, in spite of their long
inaction, formed a necessary and powerful force to oppose to the
English army.

During the campaign of 1780, the French corps remained at Rhode Island.
After the defeat of Gates, Greene went to command in Carolina; Arnold
was placed at West Point; the principal army, under the immediate
orders of Washington, had for its front guard the light infantry of
Lafayette, to which was joined the corps of the excellent partisan,
Colonel Lee. This is the proper time to speak of that light infantry.
The American troops had no grenadiers; their _chasseurs_, or riflemen,
formed a distinct regiment, under the orders of the colonel, since
Brigadier-General Morgan, and had been taken, not from different corps,
but from parts of the country on the frontiers of the savage tribes,
and from amongst men whose mode of life, and skill in firing their long
carabines, rendered them peculiarly useful in that service. But the
regiments of the line supplied some chosen men, whose officers were
also all picked men, and who formed a select band of about two
thousand, under the orders of Lafayette. The mutual attachment of that
corps and its head had become even a proverb in America. As a traveller
brings from distant countries presents to his family and friends, he
had brought from France the value of a large sum of money in ornaments
for the soldiers, swords for the officers and under officers, and
banners~[3] for the battalions. This troop of chosen men, well
exercised and disciplined, although badly clothed, were easily
recognised by their red and black plumes, and had an excellent and a
very pleasing appearance. But, except the few things which M. de
Lafayette himself supplied, none of the things France had promised to
send arrived: the money she lent proved, however, of essential service
to the army.

During that year, a conference took place at Hartford, in Connecticut,
between the French generals and General Washington, accompanied by
General Lafayette and General Knox; they resolved to send the American
Colonel Laurens, charged to solicit new succours, and above all, a
superiority of force in the navy. On their return from this conference,
the conspiracy of Arnold was discovered. General Washington would still
have found that general in his quarters; if chance, or rather the
desire of showing Lafayette the fort of West Point, constructed during
his absence, had not induced him to repair thither before proceeding to
Robinson's house, in which General Arnold then resided.~[4]

It is impossible to express too much respect or too deep regret for
Major Andre. The fourteen general officers who had the painful task of
Historians have rendered a detailed account of the treachery of Arnold.
When, at his own request, the command of West Point was confided to
him, he urged General Washington to inform him what means of
information he possessed at New York. He made the same request to
Lafayette, who accidentally had several upon his own account, and to
the other officers who commanded near the enemy's lines. All these
generals fortunately considered themselves bound by the promise of
secrecy they had made, especially as several of the correspondents
acted from a feeling of patriotism only. If Arnold had succeeded in
discovering them, those unfortunate persons would have been ruined, and
all means of communication cut off.

Arnold was very near receiving the letter of Lieutenant-Colonel Jameson
in the presence of the commander-in-chief: he had turned aside, with
Lafayette and Knox, to look at a redoubt; Hamilton pronouncing his
sentence, the commander-in-chief, and the whole American army; were
filled with sentiments of admiration and compassion for him. The
conduct of the English in a preceding circumstance had been far from,
being similar. Captain Hale, of Connecticut, a distinguished young man,
beloved by his family and friends, had been taken on Long Island, under
circumstances of the same kind as those that occasioned the death of
Major Andre; but, instead of being treated with the like respect, to
which Major Andre himself bore testimony, Captain Hale was insulted to
the last moment of his life. "This is a fine death for a soldier!" said
one of the English officers who were surrounding the cart of execution.
"Sir," replied Hale lifting up his cap, "there is no death which would
not be rendered noble in such a glorious cause." He calmly replaced his
cap, and the fatal cart moving on, he died with the most perfect
composure.

During the winter, there was a revolt in the Pennsylvanian line.
Lafayette was at Philadelphia; the congress, and the executive power of
the state, knowing his influence over the troops, induced him to
proceed thither with General Saint Clair. They were received by the
troops with marked respect, and they listened to their complaints,
which were but too well grounded. General Wayne was in the midst of
them, and had undertaken a negotiation in concert with the state of
Pennsylvania. Lafayette had only, therefore, to repair to head
quarters. The discontent of the Pennsylvanians was appeased by the
measures of conciliation which had been already begun; but the same
kind of revolt in a Jersey brigade was suppressed with more vigour by
the general-in-chief, who, setting out with some battalions of
Lafayette's light infantry, brought the mutineers to reason, and the
generals, no longer restrained by the interference of the civil
authority, re-established immediately that military discipline which
was on the point of being lost.~[6]


(1781.) General Arnold was at Portsmouth in Virginia; Washington formed
the project of combining with the French to attack him, and take the
garrison. Lafayette set out from the head quarters with twelve hundred
of the light infantry; he pretended to make an attack on Staten Island,
and marching rapidly by Philadelphia to Head-of-Elk, he embarked with
his men in some small boats, and arrived safely at Annapolis. He set
out from thence in a canoe, with some officers, and, in spite of the
English frigates that were stationed in the bay, he repaired to
Williamsburg, to assemble the militia, whilst his detachment was still
waiting for the escort which the French were to send him. Lafayette had
already blockaded Portsmouth, and driven back the enemy's picquets,
when the issue of the combat between Admiral Arbuthnot and M.
Destouches, the commander of the French squadron, left the English
complete masters of the Chesapeake. Lafayette could only then return to
Annapolis, to re-conduct his detachment to the camp. He found himself
blockaded by small English frigates, which were much too considerable
in point of force for his boats; but having placed cannon on some
merchant ships, and embarked troops in them, he, by that manoeuvre,
made the English frigates retreat, and taking advantage of a favourable
wind, he reached with his men the Head-of-Elk, where he received some
very important despatches from General Washington: The enemy's plan of
campaign was just at that time become known: Virginia was to be its
object. General Phillips had left New York with a corps of troops to
reinforce Arnold. The general wrote to Lafayette to go to the succour
of Virginia. The task was not an easy one; the men whom he commanded
had engaged themselves for a short expedition: they belonged to the
northern states, which still retained strong prejudices as to the
unhealthiness of the southern states; they had neither shirts nor
shoes. Some Baltimore merchants lent Lafayette, on his bill, two
thousand guineas, which sufficed to buy some linen. The ladies of
Baltimore, whom he met with at a ball given in his honour when he
passed through the town, undertook to make the shirts themselves. The
young men of the same city formed themselves into a company of
volunteer dragoons. His corps were beginning to desert. Lafayette
issued an order, declaring that he was setting out for a difficult and
dangerous expedition; that he hoped that the soldiers would not abandon
him, but that whoever wished to go away might do so instantly; and he
sent away two soldiers who had just been punished for some serious
offences. From that hour all desertions ceased, and not one man would
leave him: this feeling was so strong, that an under officer, who was
prevented by a diseased leg from following the detachment, hired, at
his own expense, a cart, rather than separate from it. This anecdote is
honourable to the American troops, and deserves to become publicly
known.

Lafayette had conceived that the capital of Virginia would be the
principal object of the enemy's attack. Richmond was filled with
magazines; its pillage would have proved fatal to the cause. Lafayette
marched thither with such rapidity, that when General Phillips,
arriving before Richmond, learnt that Lafayette had arrived there the
night before, he would not believe it. Having ascertained, however, the
truth of the report, he dared not attack the heights of Richmond.
Lafayette had a convoy to send to the southern states; he reconnoitred
Petersburg carefully. This threatened attack assembled the English, and
whilst the removing of cannon, and other preparations for an assault,
amused them, the convoy was sent off rapidly with the munition and
clothes which General Greene required. After the death of General
Phillips, who died that same day, Arnold wrote, by a flag of truce, to
Lafayette, who refused to receive his letter. He sent for the English
officer, and, with many expressions of respect for the British army,
told him that he could not consent to hold any correspondence with its
present general. This refusal gave great pleasure to General Washington
and the public, and placed Arnold in an awkward situation with his own
army.

Lord Cornwallis, on entering Virginia by Carolina, got rid of all his
equipage, and did the same also respecting the heavy baggage of the
army under his orders. Lafayette placed himself under the same regimen,
and, during the whole of that campaign, the two armies slept without
any shelter, and only carried absolute necessaries with them. Upon that
active and decisive conflict the issue of the war was to depend; for if
the English, who bore all the force of the campaign on that point,
became masters of Virginia, not only the army of Lafayette, but also
that of Greene, who drew from thence all his resources,--and not only
Virginia, but all the states south of the Chesapeake, would inevitably
be lost. Thus the letters of the commander-in-chief, whilst telling
Lafayette that he did not deceive himself as to the difficulties of the
undertaking, merely requested him to prolong as much as possible the
defence of the state. The result was far more successful than any
person had dared to hope, at a period when all eyes and all thoughts
were directed towards that one decisive point.

The military scene in Virginia was soon to become more interesting.
General Greene had marched to the right, to attack the posts of South
Carolina, whilst Lord Cornwallis was in North Carolina. Cornwallis
allowed him to depart, and, marching also to the right, burnt his own
equipage and tents, to be enabled to remove more easily; he then
advanced rapidly towards Petersburg, and made Virginia the principal
seat of war. General Washington wrote to Lafayette that he could send
him no other reinforcement than eight hundred of the mutinous
Pennsylvanians, who had been formed again into a corps on the side of
Lancaster. Lord Cornwallis had obtained, and generally by the aid of
negroes, the best horses in Virginia. His Tarleton front guard, mounted
on race horses, stopped, like birds of prey, all they met with. The
active corps of Cornwallis was composed of more than four thousand men,
of which eight hundred were supplied with horses. The command was
divided in the following manner: General Rochambeau remained at Rhode
Island with his French corps; Washington commanded in person the
American troops before New York; he summoned, some time after, the
corps of Rochambeau to join him. That French lieutenant-general was
under his orders the same as the American major-generals, for when
Lafayette asked for the succour of troops, he took care to stipulate,
in the most positive manner, that it was to be placed entirely under
Washington's orders. The Americans were to have the right side; the
American officer, when rank and age were equal, was to command the
French officer. Lafayette had wished to give the rising republic all
the advantages and all the consequence of the greatest and longest
established powers. Washington had sent, the preceding year, General
Greene to command in the southern states; Virginia was nominally
comprised in that command, and had not yet become the theatre of war,
but the distance between the operations of Carolina and those of
Virginia was so great, and the communications were so difficult, that
it was impossible for Greene to direct what was passing in Virginia.
Lafayette took, therefore, the chief command, corresponding in a direct
manner with General Washington, and occasionally with the congress. But
he wished that Greene should retain his title of supremacy, and he only
sent to the head quarters copies of General Greene's letters, who was
his intimate friend, in the same way that both he and Greene had always
been on the most intimate footing with General Washington. During the
whole of this campaign the most perfect harmony always subsisted
between the generals, and contributed much to the success of the
enterprise.

Lafayette, after having saved the magazines of Richmond, hastened to
have them evacuated; he had taken his station at Osborn, and wrote to
General Washington that he would remain there, as long as his weakest
point, which was the left, should not be threatened with an attack.
Lord Cornwallis did not fail soon to perceive the weakness of that
point, and Lafayette retreated with his little corps, which, including
recruits and the militia, did not exceed two thousand five hundred men.
The richest young men of Virginia and Maryland had come to join him as
volunteer dragoons, and from their intelligence, as well as from the
superiority of their horses, they had been of essential service to him.
The Americans retreated in such a manner that the front guard of the
enemy arrived on the spot just as they had quitted it, and, without
running any risk themselves, they retarded as much as possible its
progress. Wayne was advancing with the reinforcement of Pennsylvanians.
Lafayette made all his calculations so as to be able to effect a
junction with that corps, without being prevented from covering the
military magazines of the southern states, which were at the foot of
the mountains on the height of Fluvana. But the Pennsylvanians had
delayed their movements, and Lafayette was thus obliged to make a
choice. He went to rejoin his reinforcement at Raccoon-Ford, and
hastened, by forced marches, to come into contact with Lord Cornwallis,
who had had time to make one detachment at Charlottesville, and another
at the James River Fork. The first had dispersed the Virginian
assembly; the second had done no material injury; but the principal
blow was to be struck: Lord Cornwallis was established in a good
position, within one march of the magazines, when Lafayette arrived
close to him on a road leading towards those magazines. It was
necessary for him to pass before the English army, presenting them his
flank, and exposing himself to a certain defeat: he fortunately found
out a shorter road which had remained for a long time undiscovered,
which he repaired during the night; and the next day, to the great
surprise of the English general, he was established in an impregnable
station, between the English and the magazines, whose loss must have
occasioned that of the whole southern army, of whom they were the sole
resource; for there was a road behind the mountains that the English
never intercepted, and by which the wants of General Greene's army were
supplied. Lord Cornwallis, when he commenced the pursuit of Lafayette,
had written a letter, which was intercepted, in which he made use of
this expression: _The boy cannot escape me_. He flattered himself with
terminating, by that one blow, the war in the whole southern part of
the United States, for it would have been easy for him afterwards to
take possession of Baltimore, and march towards Philadelphia. He beheld
in this manner the failure of the principal part of his plan, and
retreated towards Richmond, whilst Lafayette, who had been joined in
his new station by a corps of riflemen, as well as by some militia,
received notice beforehand to proceed forward on a certain day, and
followed, step by step, the English general, without, however, risking
an engagement with a force so superior to his own. His corps gradually
increased. Lord Cornwallis thought proper to evacuate Richmond;
Lafayette followed him, and ordered Colonel Butler to attack his rear
guard near Williamsburg. Some manoeuvre took place on that side, of
which the principal object on Lafayette's part was, to convince Lord
Cornwallis that his force was more considerable than it was in reality.
The English evacuated Williamsburg, and passed over James River to
James Island. A warm action took place between the English army and the
advance guard, whom Lafayette had ordered to the attack whilst they
were crossing the river. Lord Cornwallis had stationed the first troops
on the other side, to give the appearance as if the greatest number of
the troops had already passed over the river. Although all were
unanimous in asserting that this was the case, Lafayette himself
suspected the deception, and quitted his detachment to make
observations upon a tongue of land, from whence he could more easily
view the passage of the enemy. During that time, a piece of cannon,
exposed, doubtless, intentionally, tempted General Wayne, a brave and
very enterprising officer.

Lafayette found, on his return, the advance guard engaged in action
with a very superior force; he withdrew it, however (after a short but
extremely warm conflict), in good order, and without receiving a check.
The report was spread that he had had a horse killed under him, but it
was merely the one that was led by his side.~[7]

The English army pursued its route to Portsmouth; it then returned by
water to take its station at Yorktown and Gloucester, upon the York
River. A garrison still remained at Portsmouth. Lafayette made some
demonstrations of attack, and that garrison united itself to the body
of the army at Yorktown.

Lafayette was extremely desirous that the English army should unite at
that very spot. Such had been the aim of all his movements, ever since
a slight increase of force had permitted him to think of any other
thing than of retiring without being destroyed and of saving the
magazines. He knew that a French fleet was to arrive from the islands
upon the American coast. His principal object had been to force Lord
Cornwallis to withdraw towards the sea-shore, and then entangle him in
such a manner in the rivers, that there should remain no possibility of
a retreat. The English, on the contrary, fancied themselves in a very
good position, as they were possessors of a sea-port by which they
could receive succours from New York, and communicate with the
different parts of the coast. An accidental, but a very fortunate
circumstance, increased their security. Whilst Lafayette, full of hope,
was writing to General Washington that he foresaw he could push Lord
Cornwallis into a situation in which it would be easy for him, with
some assistance from the navy, to cut off his retreat, the general, who
had always thought that Lafayette would be very fortunate if he could
save Virginia without being cut up himself, spoke to him of his project
of attack against New York, granting him permission to come and take
part in it, if he wished it, but representing how useful it was to the
Virginian army that he should remain at its head. The two letters
passed each other; the one written by Lafayette arrived safely, and
Washington prepared beforehand to take advantage of the situation of
Lord Cornwallis. Gen. Washington's letter was intercepted, and the
English, upon seeing that confidential communication, never doubted for
a moment but the real intention of the Americans was to attack New
York: their own security at Yorktown was therefore complete.~[8]

The Count de Grasse, however, arrived with a naval force, and three
thousand troops~[9] for the land service. He was met at the landing
place of Cape Henry by Colonel Gimat, a Frenchman by birth, commander
of the American battalion, who was charged with despatches from
Lafayette; which explained fully to the admiral his own military
position, and that of the enemy, and conjured him to sail immediately
into the Chesapeake; to drive the frigates into the James River, that
the passage might be kept clear; to blockade the York River; to send
two vessels above the position of Lord Cornwallis, before the batteries
on the water-side, at Yorktown and Gloucester could be put in a proper
state. The Count de Grasse adhered to these proposals, with the
exception of not forcing the batteries with two vessels, which
manoeuvre would have made the blockade of Cornwallis by the land troops
still more easy of achievement. The Marquis de St. Simon landed with
three thousand men at James Island. Lafayette assembled a small corps
in the county of Gloucester, led, himself, the American forces on
Williamsburg, where he was met by the corps of the Marquis de St.
Simon, who came to range themselves under his orders, so that Lord
Cornwallis found himself suddenly, as if by enchantment, blockaded both
by sea and land. The combined army, under the orders of Lafayette, was
placed in an excellent situation at Williamsburg. It was impossible to
arrive there except by two difficult and well-defended passages. Lord
Cornwallis presented himself before them in the hope of escaping, by
making a forcible attack; but having ascertained the impossibility of
forcing them, he only occupied himself with finishing speedily the
fortifications of Yorktown; his hopes, however, declined, when the
Count de Grasse, having only left the ships necessary for the blockade,
and having gone out of the harbour to attack Admiral Graves, forced the
English to retire, and returned to his former station in the bay. The
French admiral was, however, impatient to return to the islands; he
wished that Yorktown should be taken by force of arms. The Marquis de
St. Simon was of the same opinion; they both represented strongly to
Lafayette that it was just, after such a long, fatiguing, and fortunate
campaign, that the glory of making Cornwallis lay down his arms should
belong to him who had reduced him to that situation. The admiral
offered to send to the attack not only the garrisons from the ships,
but all the sailors he should ask for. Lafayette was deaf to this
proposal, and answered, that General Washington and the corps of
General Rochambeau would soon arrive, and that it was far better to
hasten their movements than act without them; and, by making a
murderous attack, shed a great deal of blood from a feeling of vanity
and a selfish love of glory; that they were certain, after the arrival
of the succours, of taking the hostile army by a regular attack, and
thus spare the lives of the soldiers; which a good general ought always
to respect as much as possible, especially in a country where it was so
difficult to obtain others to replace those who fell. General
Washington and Count Rochambeau were the first to arrive; they were
soon followed by their troops; but, at the same moment, the Admiral de
Grasse wrote word that he was obliged to return to the islands. The
whole expedition seemed on the point of failing, and General Washington
begged Lafayette to go on board the admiral's ship in the bay, and
endeavour to persuade him to change his mind: he succeeded, and the
siege of Yorktown was begun. The Count de Rochambeau commanded the
French, including the corps of St. Simon; the Americans were divided in
two parts; one, under Major-general Lincoln, who had come from the
north with some troops; the other, under General Lafayette, who had
been joined by two more battalions of light infantry, under the orders
of Colonel Hamilton. It became necessary to attack two redoubts. One of
these attacks was confided to the Baron de Viomenil, the other to
General Lafayette. The former had expressed, in a somewhat boasting
manner, the idea he had of the superiority of the French in an attack
of that kind; Lafayette, a little offended, answered, "We are but young
soldiers, and we have but one sort of tactic on such occasions, which
is, to discharge our muskets, and push on straight with our bayonets."
He led on the American troops, of whom he gave the command to Colonel
Hamilton, with the Colonels Laurens and Gimat under him. The American
troops took the redoubt with the bayonet. As the firing was still
continued on the French side, Lafayette sent an aide-de-camp to the
Baron de Viomenil, to ask whether he did not require some succour from
the Americans;~[10] but the French were not long in taking possession
also of the other redoubt, and that success decided soon after the
capitulation of Lord Cornwallis, (19th October, 1781.) Nor must the
mention of an action be omitted here which was honourable to the
humanity of the Americans. The English had disgraced themselves
several times, and again recently at New London, by the murder of
some imprisoned garrisons. The detachment of Colonel Hamilton did not
for an instant make an ill use of their victory; as soon as the enemy
deposed their arms, they no longer received the slightest injury.
Colonel Hamilton distinguished himself very much in that attack.~[11]

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Turkey is restoring the citizenship of its most famous 20th century poet Nazim Hikmet over 50 years after it branded him a traitor.

Hikmet, a communist who died in exile in Moscow in 1963, was imprisoned in Turkey for more than a decade. He was stripped of his Turkish nationality in 1951 because of his communist views, but despite a ban on his poetry which remained in place until 1965, has remained one of Turkey's best-loved poets. His work, much of which was written in prison, including his masterpiece Human Landscapes, has been translated into more than 50 languages.

"This is very good news," said Richard McKane, Hikmet's English translator. "The restoration of his Turkish citizenship is long overdue: the people of Turkey and his readers are owed that."

Immortalised by Pablo Neruda, with whom he shared the Soviet Union's International Peace Prize in 1950, with the lines "Thanks for what you were and for the fire / which your song left forever burning", Hikmet was also supported by Jean-Paul Sartre and Pablo Picasso. Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, when given the editorship for a day of Turkish newspaper Radikal two years ago, used the example of Hikmet in his cover story to criticise the lack of freedom of expression in Turkey. In 2000, 500,000 Turks petitioned the government to restore Hikmet's citizenship rights and repatriate his remains.

Deputy prime minister Cemil Cicek told the Associated Press that it was time for the government to change its mind about Hikmet. "The crimes which forced the government to strip him of his citizenship at that time are no longer considered a crime," the BBC quoted him as saying.

Hikmet, whose remains are currently in Russia, had said that he wished to be buried in Turkey in his 1953 poem Testament, translated by Ruth Christie. "Friends if it's not my lot to see the day / of independence... / if I die before that day / - and it seems I will - / bury me in a village graveyard in Anatolia / and if it's fitting / and a plane tree grows at my head, / then there's no need for a gravestone or anything else."

Cicek said that Hikmet's family would now decide whether to ship his remains back to his homeland.

Hikmet introduced free verse to Turkey in the 1930s, with his themes ranging from war to love. Despite his imprisonment he retained a deep passion for Turkey. "I love my country", he wrote in one of his poems. "I swung in its lofty trees, I lay in its prisons. Nothing relieves my depression like the songs and tobacco of my country."

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