Bicentennial of Marquis de Lafayette's Tour of United States

The years 2024 - 2025 will mark the 200th anniversary of the Marquis de Lafayette's Grand Tour of the United States.

Bicentennial celebrations are in the planning stages in all of the 24 states that he visited, including New York State. The event organizers are scheduling ceremonies in each of the cities and towns that this American Revolutionary War hero visited. Although Lafayette spent time in Rockland County during the war (he was one of the presiding judges at Major Andre's trial for espionage in Tappan), there is no documented evidence that he stopped anywhere in Rockland County during 1824 - 1825. As a consequence, our county, so rich in colonial period history,
is not scheduled to take part in the celebrations, while our neighboring counties of Orange and Westchester will.

Local historical societies are searching their archives to see if there is a reference in them of a visit by the Marquis during the Grand Tour years. Even an oral tradition reference,

if verifiable, might be enough to have Rockland County included in scheduled events.

Should no verifiable accounts of a visit be uncovered, there is no reason why local communities cannot schedule their own bicentennial celebrations for the Marquis de Lafayette. After all, he was a courageous general in the American army during the Revolutionary War. He was instrumental in obtaining France's military support in the fight for independence. There are documented accounts of his presence in Tappan during the war years. Lastly, our residents should have an opportunity to take part in this once-every-hundred years celebration of the "Hero of Two Worlds."

Below you will find additional information regarding this extraordinary figure from history.

• He was only 19 when he left France to join the American Revolution.
• He was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine, but still managed to lead his command in an orderly retreat.
• George Washington treated him like a son.
• Lafayette returned to France in the middle of the War to lobby for French support in the fight for independence.
• He and his troops played a decisive role at the Battle of Yorktown, after which the British formally surrendered.
• The Marquis proposed plans to abolish slavery as early as 1783.
• President James Monroe invited him to tour the United States in 1824 as "The Nation's Guest" to instill the "spirit of 1776" in the next generation of Americans and to celebrate the nation's 50th anniversary.
• He was received by the populace with a hero's welcome at many stops, and many honors and monuments were presented to commemorate and memorialize the visit.
• The Marquis asked that both American and French soil be placed over his grave upon his death. He is buried in soil collected from Bunker Hill during the 1825 Tour.
• An American flag flies over Lafayette's tomb in Paris.
• Each year, a delegation of American dignitaries and members of the American Friends of Lafayette change the American flag over the General's grave.

The Lafayette Trail is a computer mapping project that offers a virtual tour of Lafayette’s journey across America.