Adopted Son Read online

  In a fit of panic, Congress authorized a fantastic army of eighty-eight regiments, over 60,000 men. Washington was optimistic enough to detach officers and men to oversee recruitment, but after he had consolidated his forces between Philadelphia and Trenton, he faced more expiring enlistments along with desertions. Unless something happened, he would be down to about 1,500 men on January 1, 1777.32

  Washington solved his problem with his most dramatic action of the war. On Christmas night he led the troops across the ice-choked Delaware River north of Trenton, then down the east bank to attack the Hessian garrison there at dawn. His plan of attack was too complicated, with too many elements supposed to separate and come together on schedule. But he was still learning—and demonstrating that he could learn. The men performed splendidly, and surprise was complete. There was a sharp fight in the streets, shortened by Knox’s gunnery. The Americans bagged hundreds of prisoners, along with small arms, ammunition, cannons, and supplies, which they ferried back across the river.33

  Washington’s success at Trenton was electric. The German troops withdrew from all their posts on the Delaware, while Cornwallis left New York to set things right. He had no chance, because a general uprising began across the state, provoked by the savage occupation. The American cause was reinspired, and volunteers flocked to Washington’s camp. He received authority to appoint and dismiss all officers below brigadier, to impress supplies, and to offer incentives for men to reenlist for the duration. About half of them did, and with them and partisan support he shot up a British detachment at Princeton on February 3, 1777. Cornwallis gave up most of New Jersey and returned to New York.34

  The Continental Army went into winter quarters at Morristown. From the New Jersey hills, Washington watched the redcoats and Hessians huddled around New York. Near the end of May 1777, his spies brought him word that the enemy was up to something, possibly an attack on Philadelphia, so he marched his troops toward the capital. In midsummer, it appeared that the redcoats would move into southeastern Pennsylvania, so Washington rode into the city to confer with members of Congress. One of the subjects he wanted to talk about was something he had complained about before. American agents had been sending too many European, mostly French, officers to join his army. Except for some of the younger ones, and technical experts such as engineers, most of them had been nothing but trouble.

  I HAVE FOUND A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO DISTINGUISH MYSELF

  News of the American uprising swept through France in 1775. The newspapers exaggerated American strength, raved about the superior fighting abilities of American militia, and painted all Americans as hardy frontiersmen. Frenchmen believed in the “noble savage” as the ideal human in original form. These Americans were most certainly sauvage, and definitely noble, with the added attraction of being white.35

  American attitudes toward the French also had changed since 1763. France had been a traditional enemy, and it was a Catholic country with an absolutist government. Once the shooting started, however, Americans looked to France for support. At first they wanted commercial relations, and soon they desired military help as well. But they did not want to trade one colonial master for another.36

  Americans did not appreciate how great was French interest in their situation, nor how far back it went. In 1761 Etienne-François Choiseul, comte de Stainville and foreign minister of France, looked for ways to strip Britain of its colonial trade, reduce its weight in the balance of power, and restore France to primacy in Europe. He needed time to rebuild his country’s army and navy and to seal up the “Family Compact” with Spain. In 1763 he started to send secret agents to all thirteen colonies. He enlarged his spy service in London, developed colonies in the West Indies, and added Corsica and Lorraine to the kingdom.37

  In 1768, Stainville sent de Broglie’s aide Johann de Kalb to America. De Kalb was a French army officer, born a Prussian commoner, who had dubbed himself a “baron” in order to rise in rank. A big bear of a man, he had a lantern jaw, a prominent nose, and a talent for languages and mathematics to cap his splendid combat record. He spent several months in America and picked up a great deal of information about the people and their politics. What he learned persuaded high officials of the French government that Americans were growing restless under British rule and that there might arise an opportunity for France to take advantage of the situation to strike a blow at the hated enemy.

  Stainville lost his position in 1770 and was succeeded by Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, who became foreign minister in 1774. Then fifty-seven years old, he had been a diplomat all his life. He looked the part, a tall, dignified man with a comfortably lined face. A noble nose separated thoughtful, deep-set eyes, while a straight mouth sat quietly above a strong jaw. His expression was of someone wise and kind, like a favorite uncle.

  That benign face masked a fierce hatred of the Anglais. When the American uprising broke out, he saw possibilities for renewing the war with Britain and restoring French prestige. Until things became clear, however, he wanted any aid to the rebels to be secret. Over the next two years he pushed his government toward the brink of war and found ways to get supplies and French officers to America. By 1777 he was ready to go all the way, but the Americans had suffered reverses, and it seemed possible that they might make peace with their mother country. Vergennes waited for an American triumph, after which he would lead his country into war.38

  The foreign minister found a channel into the American rebellion in the spring of 1776, when a forty-year-old Connecticut lawyer named Silas Deane arrived in Paris as Congress’ agent. His instructions were to sound out French attitudes toward the Revolution and try to round up material assistance. While he was at it, Congress also wanted him to find some French officers willing to serve in America. Deane was too gullible to be a diplomat. Vergennes took him under his wing, and other Frenchmen found him easily impressed. He created a mess that Benjamin Franklin had to straighten out when he took over the Paris mission the following year. Deane also exceeded his authority in various ways, among them hiring a known pyromaniac to burn English dockyards.

  Less loony but still annoying was Deane’s granting of high commissions in the Continental Army to French officers and his involvement in a plot to supersede Washington as commander in chief. More positively, although it was more Vergennes’ doing than Deane’s, the king granted 1 million livres to buy goods for the Americans, funneled through a sham trading company. Cannons, muskets, tents, ammunition, and clothing poured into America in 1777, including 90 percent of the powder used by the Continental Army that year.39

  The plot to replace Washington began with de Broglie, who thought that an expanded war in America might give him a chance to rise to higher rank. After de Kalb briefed him on the American situation, he went to Vergennes. Washington’s reverses around New York suggested that the rebel cause could use some professional guidance. He wanted to be appointed a generalissimo, or supreme general, to exercise political as well as military control over the Americans. His model was the “state-holders” ruling the Netherlands. They were military dictators on behalf of their kings without the formality of annexing the subject provinces. Vergennes liked the idea.

  King Louis XVI, never a bold man, resisted open involvement in Britain’s struggles with her colonies. At twenty years old, however, he could not stand up to the determined Vergennes. France, the minister declared, had the right to influence “all great affairs.” Since England was the blood enemy, “all means to reduce the power and greatness of England…are just, legitimate, and even necessary, provided they are efficient.” Louis caved in.40

  De Broglie and de Kalb became Deane’s principal recruiters in 1776. Because of a reorganization of the French army, there were many officers looking for work. Among them was Lafayette, reduced to the reserve list on June 11, because the new war minister was disbanding or reorganizing the old family regiments. The marquis was out on the street, crushed. Already a social misfit in Versailles, he was adrift. His fathe
r-in-law, d’Ayen, made no secret of his disappointment.41

  When word got out that de Broglie and de Kalb were looking for officers to join the American army, Lafayette and his friends Noailles and Ségur applied to de Kalb. De Broglie, his plans at risk if too many talkative young nobles came aboard, stepped in. Before they could go to America, he said, they needed permission from their families, because they were underage. De Broglie told Lafayette that he had witnessed his father’s death at Minden, and he would not “be accessory to the ruin of the remaining branch of your family.”

  The boys asked permission. D’Ayen flatly rejected any such nonsense for Noailles and Lafayette, and Ségur’s father also put his foot down. Ségur gave up trying, and soon Noailles backed out. Lafayette, as an orphan, thought himself independent of family restraints—besides, he was rich and could do as he pleased. He pressed de Broglie, who finally relented in order to shut him up. He sent him back to de Kalb, who introduced him to Deane.42

  Baron de Kalb Introducing Lafayette to Silas Deane, an engraving (1856) based on an earlier painting by Alonzo Chappell. (LILLY LIBRARY, INDIANA UNIVERSITY)

  De Broglie had already made his own move with the American agent. In November 1776, Vergennes formally proposed that the French general become supreme commander of the American army. He summoned de Broglie to Paris to meet Deane, and de Kalb went along as translator. “A military and political leader is wanted,” the general said. Such a man would carry the weight of authority in the colonies, unite their parties, and, most important, attract a large following of “brave, efficient, and well educated officers, who confide in their superior, and repose implicit faith in him.” He suggested sending de Kalb to America to explain it all to Congress.43

  Deane was struck by the idea and told Congress it should not pass up the chance to recruit de Broglie, “a person of so much experience, and who is by every one recommended as one of the bravest and most skilled officers in the kingdom.” He thought such a proven European general “would give a character and credit to your military, and strike perhaps a greater panic in our enemies.”44

  Blithely unaware that his proposal insulted Washington in particular and the very idea of an American rebellion in general, Deane again exceeded his instructions. De Kalb had given him a list of sixteen officers, and Deane enrolled them at fat salaries and high ranks, appointing de Kalb a major general.45

  De Broglie commandeered two frigates to carry de Kalb and his gang to America, telling de Kalb that his first order of business would be to visit Congress. The main point of his mission was to explain “the absolute necessity of the choice of…a generalissimo.”46

  Then Lafayette, who knew nothing about any of this, showed up on Deane’s doorstep, and the scheme began to unravel. Deane and his assistant William Carmichael were impressed with his enthusiasm and his pedigree. Lafayette turned on the charm and on December 7, 1776, reached an agreement with the Americans. Deane prepared a contract, probably drafted by de Kalb, making the teenager a major general in the American army. “His high birth,” the document said, “his alliances, the great dignities which his family holds at this court, his considerable estates in this realm, his personal merit, his reputation, his disinterestedness, and above all his zeal for the liberty of our provinces” justified the rank.47

  Of all the officers Deane sent over the ocean, only in Lafayette’s case did he mention nonmilitary assets, such as noble birth and connections. Lafayette himself sweetened the offer in his addendum to the contract, promising “to depart when and how Mr. Deane shall judge proper, to serve the United States with all possible zeal, without any pension or particular allowance, reserving to myself the liberty of returning to Europe when my family or my king shall recall me.” None of Deane’s other recruits traveled with conditions governing their departure or return, and no other officer agreed to serve without pay. But then, none of the others was as rich as Lafayette.48

  Appended to the agreement was a list of twelve officers—all but one part of de Broglie’s advance party—with the ranks they should expect on arrival in the United States. They ranged from major general (“le Baron de Kalb”) to two lieutenants. Entirely without knowing it, Lafayette had just hijacked the best-laid plans of the would-be generalissimo, de Broglie.49

  Lafayette’s “zeal” was not so much for American liberty as his boyish hunger for glory and for a chance to fight the Anglais. He was smugly proud of himself. “When I presented myself to Mr. Deane I was just nineteen years old,” he wrote a couple of years later. “The secrecy of those negotiations and of my preparations was truly miraculous. Family, friends, ministers, French spies, English spies, all were blind to them.”50

  The marquis conveniently forgot the ensuing uproar. Like most triumphant youngsters, he could not keep his mouth shut. He told Noailles and Ségur about his plans, and they again asked their families for permission to join him. As de Kalb and the other officers prepared to board ship at Le Havre, news of this juvenile escapade spread. The British ambassador heard about it, lodged a formal protest, and threatened to break diplomatic relations and blockade French ports.

  It was one thing for Deane to send individual adventurers to join the American army. Three noble sons of prominent families were another matter. Vergennes was furious, telling the prime minister that what Lafayette had done was “a hostile act” and an insult to the king. To appease the British he closed French ports to American ships, banned the sale of goods to America, stopped the departure of de Broglie’s ships, and ordered the arrest “with plenty of publicity and severity” of any French soldiers claiming that the French government had ordered them to go to America. The British fleet blockaded the French ports anyway. The disgusted de Broglie recalled de Kalb and the others to Paris, and Vergennes ended French aid to America. Deane worried that he would be ordered home in disgrace.51

  The duc d’Ayen stormed at his sons-in-law for embarrassing the family, outraged that Lafayette would even think of abandoning his duties as husband and father. To cool him off, Lafayette agreed to go to London to visit the marquis de Noailles, the duc’s uncle, just appointed ambassador to Great Britain. He was still determined to cross the ocean but now realized that he would have to be sneaky about it.

  The marquis visited de Broglie, proposing to buy his own ship and finance the expedition himself. De Broglie, seeing another chance to take Washington’s job, agreed and sent his procurement officer to purchase a cargo ship in Bordeaux. “Our young marquis does not despair,” his secretary told de Kalb. “He still has the greatest desire to go.” Lafayette told Deane, “Until now, sir, you have only seen my zeal for your cause,” but now that he was buying a ship, “we must feel confidence in the future, and it is especially in the hour of danger that I wish to share your fortune.” Deane was reassured.52

  Lafayette kept his head down, playing the dutiful husband to Adrienne, who was pregnant again. On February 11, 1777, he learned that the agent in Bordeaux had bought the cargo ship Victoire (Victory), with two guns and a crew of thirty. He wrote a note to cover the deposit on the vessel, and told Carmichael that, in a month at the latest, he would “take to your country the zeal that animates me for their happiness, their glory, and their liberty.”53

  The young warrior left Paris for London on February 17 without bothering to say goodbye to Adrienne. After he got to the big city he sent her a series of letters that ended with empty expressions of love, full of self-pity because he had received no letters from her. He thoughtlessly wrote things that must have hurt her. “At the ball tonight we shall see all the ladies…. I am very impatient to see all the young women, and the famous Duchess of Devonshire,” he said on the twenty-fifth. Early in March he complained, “I was quite distressed, dear heart, not to receive any news from you for two posts. Fortunately, I know that you are not sick but only lazy.” He was enjoying himself with “some truly charming women.” He ended with, “If I needed new proof to convince myself how tenderly I love you, it would be the pain I have felt in
not receiving any letters from you when I have had them from all of my friends. Good day.”54

  Lafayette was having a high time in the British capital, where he was a celebrity, owing to the uproar over his earlier attempt to leave for America. He was presented to King George, his nights were filled with dinners, balls, and receptions, and he had the company of willing young ladies. At the opera he met General Sir Henry Clinton, who was in England consulting with the government. He later claimed, “I often defended the Americans; I rejoiced at their success at Trenton.”

  In the second week of March, the teenager skipped a ball in his honor and returned to France. He hid out in de Kalb’s house so his father-in-law could not order him to rejoin his regiment, which would make him a deserter if he left the country. He lied to de Kalb and de Broglie, telling them that he had received the blessings of his family. In fact, his suspicious father-in-law and his pregnant wife had no idea where he was or what he was doing.55

  De Kalb went ahead with plans for the voyage, and Deane and Carmichael gave him letters of introduction to Congress. He ordered the officers from the Le Havre group to leave for Bordeaux by night, and on the night of March 16 he and Lafayette rode out to join them.56

  Lafayette had written Adrienne a letter, which he sent after he left town. The adolescent wallowed in his own situation, indifferent to its effects on his wife. “I am too guilty to vindicate myself,” he said, “but I have been too cruelly punished not to deserve a pardon. If I had expected to feel my sacrifices in such a frightful manner, I would not be at present the unhappiest of men. But I have given my word, and I would die rather than go back on it…. If you knew how painful this is, you would surely be more sorry for me than you will ever be.”57