17771776 Club
A 19-year-old French nobleman steps ashore in South Carolina to join the Continental Army
Lafayette crossed the Atlantic on his own money and against the French crown's orders, bringing his sword to a force short on officers and supplies.
The Continental Army in the summer of 1777 was short on experienced officers, short on supplies, and fighting the most powerful military force in the Western world. On June 13, 1777, a 19-year-old French nobleman named Gilbert du Motier — the Marquis de Lafayette — stepped ashore near Georgetown, South Carolina, having crossed the Atlantic on his own dime and against the explicit wishes of the French crown. The Continental Congress commissioned him a major general on July 31, and within weeks he had joined George Washington's staff in Philadelphia. At Brandywine that September, he took a musket ball in the leg and kept rallying troops…
