Which French military officer became a major general in the Continental Army and later fought at Yorktown?

The Marquis de Lafayette became a major general in the Continental Army and later fought at Yorktown.

Born Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Lafayette was a young French aristocrat who volunteered for the American cause. Congress commissioned him a major general on July 31, 1777, when he was 19 years old. He served without pay and developed a close relationship with George Washington.

Lafayette was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777 but helped organize an orderly American retreat. He later commanded troops in Virginia during the 1781 campaign. His forces contained British troops under Lord Cornwallis while Washington and French commander Rochambeau assembled the larger force that surrounded Yorktown.

At Yorktown, Lafayette’s American troops helped block Cornwallis’s escape until the siege concluded with the British surrender on October 19, 1781. Lafayette is often called the “Hero of the Two Worlds” because of his roles in both the American and French revolutionary eras. He was French, not an American colonial-born general.