Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Bulletin of the Fluvanna County, Vol. 1: Historical Society, September 1965
General Lafayette arrived in New York in August 1824 to begin his visit as a guest of the nation. He was then 67 years old. He had been just twenty when he first came to this country, the Marquis de la Fayette, a young French nobleman, offering his services to General Washington to help secure the independence of the new country. His youth and charm attracted General Washington to him, and his valor and leadership as a soldier won the General's admira tion. The young man whom the British contemptuously called the boy dared to defy Cornwallis, Tarleton and other British veterans. While his compatriots, under the leader ship of De Grasse, were successfully blocking the harbor at Yorktown, he was in the battle on land that resulted in the defeat of the British, and the end of the Revolution. He was completely devoted to Washington, who loved him as a son. Now, with his own son George Washington Lafayette, he had returned to visit the country whose independence he had helped to secure. After a visit in New York and through the New England states, Lafayette arrived in Washington and was received in the Oval Room of the White House by President Monroe on October 12, 1824. A few days later he embarked on a steamboat in Alexandria to go to Mount Vernon to pay his respects at the grave of George Washington. He was ao companied on this trip by George Washington Parke Custis, Washington's step-grandson, who was the father of Mrs. R. E. Lee. At the grave of Washington, G. W. P. Custis presented General Lafayette with a ring containing a lock of Washington's hair. The general said, upon receiving the gift: The feelings which at this awful moment oppress my heart do not leave me the power of utterance. I can only thank you, my dear Custis, for your precious gift, and pay a silent homage to the tomb of the greatest and best of men, my paternal friend. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
