[LAFAYETTE, Gilbert du Motier, marquis de] Document manuscrit signé par Andrew J. McConnico et Joseph Marks (2) Norfolk, 19 juillet 1824 2 pp. in-4, encre brune, chiffré “30" dans le coin gauche du document
Estimation :
500 / 800
Adjudication :
Invendu
Description
LAFAYETTE INVITÉ À L’ANNIVERSAIRE DE LA CHUTE DE YORKTOWN PAR DES VOLONTAIRES DU COMTÉ DE NORFOLK Promulgation officielle transmise à Lafayette de la résolution prise par les “Junior and Independent Volunteers of the Borough of Norfolk (...) the Volunteer Corps of Virginia be requested to assemble on the plains of York on the 19th of October, the Anniversary of the surrender of the British forces under Cornwallis, and that the same be celebrated as a national festival, in honor of General Lafayette who so signally and heroically contributed to the glory of that event", signé par le “Chairman", et le “Secretary". Cet exemplaire doit être transmis au “Governor of Virginia with a request that he will forward the same to General Lafayette, on his arrival in the United States", avec une invitation “to honor the contemplated festival at York Town with his company" [JOINT :] la version imprimée de ce manuscrit Lafayette visited the site of the battle on 19 October as the stop after his visit to Washington’s grave at Mount Vernon. Lafayette’s participation in the anniversary celebrations at Yorktown marked one of the highpoints of his visit - for, of course, not only was he the only surviving general from the Revolution, but he had played a distinguished part in the battle that secured final American victory. Although the battle had taken place forty-three years earlier, the town had not been rebuilt since then : “Lafayette was conducted amid the acclamations of the people, to the head quarters prepared for him. It was in the very house that Cornwallis inhabited during the siege of Yorktown, forty-three years previous. Yorktown, which has never recovered from the disasters of the Revolutionary war (...) appeared from its actual condition very properly adapted to the celebration which was to take place the following day : houses in ruins, blackened by fire, or pierced by bullets ; the ground covered with fragments of arms, the broken shells, and overturned gun-carriages (... ) The manner in which we were lodged, tended to keep up the illusion ; a single bed for General Lafayette ; all who accompanied him, officers, generals, and the governor, placed themselves at random on mattresses or straw, in the half open and unfurnished apartments (...) We were awakened at day-break on the 19th, by the cannon thundering from the plain, calling all the surrounding troops to arms. General Lafayette, accompanied by the committee of arrangement, went to Washington’s marquee, which had travelled with us, and was erected at some distance from the head quarters : there he received the different corps of officers from the surrounding regiments. During this presentation we were witness to the most affecting scenes : two old Revolutionary soldiers fainting away in shaking hands with the general (...) At eleven o’clock the troops approached the head quarters near which they formed two columns, and some moments after they marched to conduct General Lafayette under a triumphal arch erected over the situation of the English redoubt which he formerly carried, at the head of the American troops he commanded during the siege of Yorktown. His march now took place through a double row of ladies whose vivid joy and elegant costume singularly contrasted with the warlike arrangements around us’. After speeches, at which Lafayette was 'profoundly moved’, general festivities took place, lit by a cache of candles found that same day in a chest in Cornwallis’s house : 'A ball in York-town in 1824 by the light of Cornwallis’s candles, appeared so pleasant an occurrence to our old Revolutionary soldiers, that notwithstanding their great age, and the fatigue of the day, most of them were unwilling to retire until the candles were entirely consumed (Levasseur, Lafayette in America, I, pp. 183-185).
