nineteen and twenty
years of age, has at his own expense hired a vessel and provided
everything necessary for a voyage to America, with two officers of
his acquaintance. He set out last week, having told his lady and
family that he was going to Italy. He is to serve as Major-General
in the American army.

III

Lafayette arrived in America in June, 1777, and at once plunged into the
struggle. He refused an active command at first, preferring to serve in
a more humble capacity until accustomed to American troops. In the
Battle of Brandywine, only some forty days after his arrival, he
received a wound from a musket ball--a wound sufficient to keep him in
bed for six weeks. This battle was a defeat for the American forces and
was followed by the fall of the City of Philadelphia. Wounds and defeat
seem, however, to have acted only as a stimulus, and in December, 1777,
as a reward for intrepid and brilliant service, he was given the command
of a division of the American army. He was then twenty years of age.

Then followed four years of active service under General Washington,
broken only by a temporary return to France in 1779 on a diplomatic
mission. Gentle and courteous, yet apparently insensible to fear, his
spirit was an inspiration. At the Battle of Monmouth the enemy, during a
lull, observed a general officer in the service of the Americans
advancing into the danger zone, with some other officers and men, to
reconnoitre the enemy's position. An aide-de-camp fell, struck by a
ball, and all but the general fled precipitately. They saw the latter,
although under the fire of a battery, lean to assist the stricken aide,
and finding that all was ended turn and slowly rejoin the others. The
British commander, General Clinton, ordered his men not to fire; and
the chivalry of this Englishman probably saved the American officer's
life. It was Lafayette.

In 1780 he asked leave to take a position in the Southern Department
where the situation of the American army is described in a letter to
Lafayette by General Greene, then commanding the division.

"It is now within a few days of the time when you shall be with me. Were
you to arrive you would find a few ragged, half-starved troops in the
wilderness, destitute of everything necessary for either the comfort or
convenience of soldiers.... The country is almost laid waste and the
inhabitants plunder one another with little less than savage fury. We