Lafayette Square Named For General Marquis Gilbert de Lafayette
by Cora Wandel
Title
Lafayette Square Named For General Marquis Gilbert de Lafayette
Artist
Cora Wandel
Medium
Photograph
Description
Lafayette Square is a park across the street from the White House in Washington, DC. It is named for Major General Marquis Gilbert de Lafayette, a French military leader who played a crucial role in helping America win the Revolutionary War. The monument in this photograph is for General Lafayette and is on the southeast corner of the park. It looks directly across the street at the White House. Lafayette was a French-born aristocrat and military officer born in 1757, and came to America to serve in the Revolutionary War. He became a major-general under George Washington in the Continental Army. Among his Revolutionary War accomplishments, he served and was wounded in the Battle of Brandywine, but despite his wounds he led the Continental Army to victor in that battle. Lafayette also led his men to an impressive victory in the Battle of Rhode Island. Even though Lafayette would become an American citizen, when he died in 1834 he was buried in his native homeland of France, under soil from Washington's grave at Mount Vernon.
The bronze statues of the Lafayette Memorial were made by sculptor Jean Alexandre Joseph Falguiere in 1890, and has been on the southeast corner of Lafayette Square since 1891.
There is an inscription on the base of the memorial that reads: "To General Lafayette and his Compatriots, 1777 - 1783."
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March 20th, 2016
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