Digital Facsimiles

The American Revolution

Letter from Lafayette to his father-in-law, the Duc d'Ayen, breaking the news to him that he is now a general in the United States army. [London. March 9, 1777]

Lafayette's first American letter to his wife, Adrienne. [Begun on board La Victoire on May 30, 1777 and completed at the house of a M. Huger in South Carolina on June 15, 1777] Lafayette reassures his wife that the rank of major-general is a guarantee of immortality, and reflects on his motives for undertaking this mission.

The battle plan for the American forces deployed at Brandywine on September 11, 1777. Lafayette was wounded in this battle, his first experience in the field.

Excerpt of a letter from Lafayette to his wife in which he describes his relationship with George Washington. [Near Valley Forge, January, 1778]

Page from a letter from Lafayette to his father-in-law, the Duc d'Ayen, describing the distribution of American troops. [September 11, 1778]

Letter to George Washington from Anastasie, Lafayette's six-year-old daughter, on the occasion of her father's third voyage to America. [1784]

Pages from an early draft of Lafayette's Mémoires giving an account of Lafayette's role in an Indian peace conference at Fort Schuyler, New York in 1784.

Letter from a veteran of the Revolutionary War. [Germantown. July 20, 1825]

Pages from a booklet of notes on French officers who served in the American War. [Undated]