[LAFAYETTE, Gilbert du Motier, marquis de]. Lettre signée par J. E. Howard, Président [Fort McHenry], 7 octobre 1824 2 pp. in-4
Estimation :
1500 / 2000
Adjudication :
Invendu
Description
EXEMPLAIRE DE LAFAYETTE : “ADDRESS OF THE SOCIETY OF CINCINNATI OF MARYLAND TO MAJOR GENERAL LAFAYETTE" Discours devant les Cincinnati du Maryland assemblés à Fort McHenry : “General, A few of your Brother Soldiers of Maryland who remain after a lapse of Forty Years and the Sons of some of those who are now no more, are assembled in the tent of Washington to greet you on your visit to the United States and to assure you of their affectionate and sincere regard"... évocation de la célèbre défense du Fort de Baltimore Harbour sous le commandement d’Armistead pendant “the War of 1812", et assurant Lafayette que ses services “will never be forgotten by the free and happy people of the United States" A particularly significant document that links Lafayette’s visit to another defining event in the American national consciousness, the defence of Fort McHenry upon which flew the original “Star Spangled Banner" of America’s National Anthem ; Howard telling Lafayette that “This Fort not distinguished in your day, garrisoned principally by Citizen Soldiers, many of whom are now present, has recently and successfully sustained a formidable bombardment. If its Commander had been permitted to have sojourned longer with us, he would have been fully rewarded for every toil and danger by an interview with you" (George Armistead having died in 1818, aged only thirty-eight). The flag described in Francis Scott Key’s poem was made by Mary Young Pickersgill and was to be bequeathed by the family to the Smithsonian in 1907, where it has been on display since 1964. However the last time it is known to have been flown from Fort McHenry itself is on the occasion of Lafayette’s visit in 1824 (cf. Maryland State Archives website). In Levasseur’s account of the visit : “We went on shore in the other boats, and were landed at the wharf of Fort McHenry. The National flag which had floted over it during the last war was hoisted : its ample field pierced by a bomb-shell, attests the vain efforts of the British engineers. At the gate of the Fort General Lafayette was surrounded by a number of persons in citizen’s dress, for the most part individuals who in the year 1814, proved so energetically to the English, how much superior are men who combat for their liberty, country and families, to vile mercenaries hired by kings to gratify their passions" (Lafayette in America, I, p.163).
