Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834), was a French nobleman and passionate champion of liberty who served with distinction in both the American and French Revolutions. Inspired by the American struggle for independence, the nineteen-year-old Lafayette purchased a ship at his own expense and crossed the Atlantic in 1777, joining George Washington's staff as a volunteer major general.

Wounded at the Battle of Brandywine, Lafayette became Washington's surrogate son and most trusted field commander. In 1781, commanding Continental forces in Virginia, Lafayette outmaneuvered British General Lord Cornwallis in a cat-and-mouse campaign, trapping the British army on the Yorktown peninsula until the arrival of Washington, Rochambeau, and De Grasse's fleet forced Cornwallis's surrender. Returning to France, he drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and commanded the National Guard.