Marquis de Lafayette (1757 – 1834) Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette, known in the United States as LaFayette, was a French nobleman and military officer born in Auvergne Province, Kingdom of France, who volunteered to join the Continental Army, led by General George Washington, in the American Revolutionary War. Awarded the rank of major general at the age of 19, LaFayette fought with the Continental Army at the Battle of Brandywine near Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, where he was wounded but managed to organize an orderly retreat, and served with distinction in the Battle of Rhode Island. In 1781, troops under his command in Virginia blocked the British Army led by Lord Cornwallis until other American and French forces could position themselves for the decisive siege of Yorktown. Following the American Revolutionary War, LaFayette returned to France and played a significant role in the French Revolution, from writing the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen”, with Thomas Jefferson's assistance, to being appointed commander-in-chief of France's National Guard. Lafayette died on May 20, 1834, and is buried in Picpus Cemetery in Paris, under soil from Bunker Hill.