Program

Lafayette Trail

Subject

Event, People

Location

4580 Rachels Ln, Hermitage, TN 37076, USA

Lat/Long

36.214167, -86.615833

Grant Recipient

The Lafayette Trail, Inc.

When America declared its independence on July 4, 1776, the thirteen colonies were pulled into a conflict with one of the world’s most formidable powers, Great Britain. The colonies’ actions against Great Britain inspired a young French aristocrat and military officer, Marquis de Lafayette, to depart his native France to fight in the American Revolution. Lafayette served as a commander with the Continental Army throughout the war and helped secure French support for the American cause. This support played an integral part in securing American victory during the war.

Celebrated as a hero in the U.S and France, Lafayette eventually returned to his home country. In 1824 Marquis de Lafayette was invited to visit the United States for the first time in 41 years. As an American hero and one of the only surviving commanders from the Revolution, Lafayette’s visit to the U.S. was highly anticipated and met with a great deal of enthusiasm and excitement. Lafayette’s Tour extended from 1824 to 1825. During this time he visited Washington D.C., as well as major cities and small communities across 24 states.

On May 5, 1825, General Lafayette visited The Hermitage, in Nashville, Tennessee. During his visit, <then> General Andrew Jackson displayed two pistols from his collection which were originally gifted by General Lafayette to George Washington in 1778. A May 25, 1825 article from the Knoxville Register further describes the event:

While at the hermitage on Thursday a friend privately requested Gen. Jackson to show Lafayette the pistols presented to him by Mr. Robinson. The request was complyed with: Gen. Jackson, in silence exhibited them to his guest. Lafayette instantly recognized them, and the sight of them seemed to call forth the old feelings of 77….81. -The tears started in his eyes, on taking one of the pistols in his right and raising both his hands he exclaimed, “Oh my Pistols; the pistols I presented to General Washington,” then turning to the Hero of New-Orleans, he placed the weapons in his hands, and grasping them and the pistols together with both his own, he added, ‘how happy I am to see them in the hands of Gen. Jackson.’ Our narrator of this incident, closed its recital by observing, ‘this exhibition was to me truly novel, and affecting to a degree inexpressible.’