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Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Lafayette Prepares To Enter The Greater Western New York Region

By Chris Carosa on March 19, 2024

Previous: Overview Of His 1824-1825 American Visit (Part II)

The sun rose the morning of Friday, June 3, 1825, at 4:05am local time in Waterford, Pennsylvania.¹ Lafayette had two weeks—14 days—to travel 550 miles and visit almost two dozen towns and villages before the June 17^th dedication of the Bunker Hill Monument in Boston. He was determined to meet every community he promised to visit. Speed was of the essence.

But he couldn’t show it. At least not in a too obvious way.

Roughly three hours after the break of dawn, at about 7 o’clock, Lafayette’s party left Waterford for the seat of the County, Erie, Pennsylvania.² Though technically still in the Continue Reading “Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Lafayette Prepares To Enter The Greater Western New York Region”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Andrew Ellicott, Battle of Lake Erie, Boston, Bunker Hill Monument, Captain Budd, cessation, cessions, Daniel Dobbins, Erie, Erie Triangle, French, General B. Wallace, Genesee Country, George Washington, Joseph Ellicott, Judah Colt, Lafayette, Lake Erie, Levasseur, Massachusetts, New York, Oliver Hazard Perry, Pennsyvalnia, Presqu' Isle, Revolutionary War, Rochester, War of 1812, Waterford

Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Overview Of His 1824-1825 American Visit (Part II)

By Chris Carosa on March 12, 2024

Previous: Overview Of His 1824-1825 American Visit (Part I)

Marquis de Lafayette commemerative announcing, “The Nation’s Guest. In Commemoration of the Magnanimous and Illustrious Lafayette’s Visit to the United States of North America in the Forty-Ninth Year of Her Independence,” Perkins and Scheffer (1825). Source: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Once again, only this time with greater speed, Lafayette marched through Virginia. That did not mean Lafayette didn’t have spare time for the local folk. Levasseur provides the following anecdote from a few miles outside of Norfolk, Virginia. It expresses the feelings for the General shared by almost every American during his tour:

“We were sitting in our carriage when the landlord presented himself, asked to see the general, and eagerly pressed him to alight for a moment and come into his house. ‘If,’ said he, ‘you have only five minutes to stay, do not refuse them, since to me they will be so many minutes of happiness.’ The general yielded to his entreaty, and we followed him into a lower room, where we observed a plainness bordering on poverty, but a remarkable degree of cleanliness. Welcome Lafayette, was inscribed with charcoal upon the white wall, enwreathed with boughs from the fir trees of the neighbouring wood. Near the fire-place, where pine wood was crackling, stood a small table covered with a very clean Continue Reading “Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Overview Of His 1824-1825 American Visit (Part II)”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Andrew Jackson, Baron de Kalb, Battle of Camden, boat sinking, Brandywine, George Washington, Grand Lodge of South Carolina, James Madison, Lafayette, mason, New Orleans, Pulaski, Revolutionary War, veterans, William Clark

Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Why Lafayette?

By Chris Carosa on February 27, 2024

Previous: America Welcomes The Nation’s Guest

Lafayette (right) and Washington at Valley Forge. By John Ward Dunsmore (1907)

America stood poised on the cusp of celebrating the golden anniversary of its birth as a nation. With all the rising patriotism came a burst of nostalgia. America’s first and greatest generation—the heroes of the Revolutionary War—were fast leaving their mortal coil. The heirs of that founding cohort desperately wanted one last chance to hear the tales of that victory from those that were there.

Of all the people they might select to focus on, why choose a Frenchman born to the aristocracy?

Well, for one thing, his life story shows he had long ago shorn off the mantle of gentry. Indeed, he not only had the physical scars of Brandywine to prove it, he also had the Continue Reading “Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Why Lafayette?”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Brandywine, Colonel Marinus Willet, Continental Army, Cornwallis, French Revolution, George Washington, Lafayette, Monmouth, Olmutz, Revolutionary War, Virginia, von Steuben, Yorktown

Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: America In 1824

By Chris Carosa on February 6, 2024

Previous: A Message From An Old Friend

The year is 2024. Do you remember 2018? If you’re a political junkie, you may recall it was the year Brett Kavanaugh won confirmation to the Supreme Court. If you enjoy reading People Magazine, then you’ll note it was the year Meghan Markle married into the British royal family. If you prefer business, it was the year both Sears and Toys ‘R’ Us declared bankruptcy.

If you’re an adult, each of those stories endure vividly in your memory. They don’t seem that far distant. And if any of those subject areas carry emotional weight with you, those scars remain to this day.

Now imagine the year 1824. What major event happened in the year 1818 that sticks in Continue Reading “Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: America In 1824”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged 1812 Overture, 1819 Panic, American Dictionary, Canada, Daniel Webster, Era of Good Feelings, Federalist party, General Washington Resigning His Commission, George Washington, James Fenimore Cooper, James Monroe, John Trumbull, Lafayette, Leatherstocking Takes, Maine, Missouri Compromise, Monroe County, Napoleonic Wars, Perry's Victory on Lake Erie, Revolutionary War, Rip Van Winkle, Sixty Years' War, Surrender of General Burgoyne, Surrender of Lord Cornwallis, Tariff Act of 1816, Tchaikovsky, The Declaration of Independence, The Last of the Mohicans, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Pioneers, The Star-Spangled Banner, Thomas Birch, Treaty of 1818, United States, United States Capitol rotunda, War of 1812, Washington Irving

Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: The Duty That Held Him Back

By Chris Carosa on January 23, 2024

Previous: What Took Congress So Long?

Take a look at his name: Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette. It exudes aristocracy. With Lafayette, that was a mixed blessing.

On one hand, it meant he benefited from an elite schooling in proper behavior. On the other hand, it meant proper behavior shackled him. It would make him a hero to some. It would also earn him real shackles.

Born in south central France on September 6, 1757, he followed in the military tradition footsteps of both sides of his family. On his father’s side, one of his ancestors served as a Marshal of France and accompanied Joan of Arc’s army during the Siege of Orléans in 1429. His maternal great-grandfather commanded the Second Company of Musketeers (a.k.a., the “Black Musketeers”) until his retirement in 1770.¹

For the curious, the “Black Musketeers” had black horses while the First Company “Grey Musketeers” mounted gray horses. The Musketeers were a special forces unit that Continue Reading “Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: The Duty That Held Him Back”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Brandywine, Chamber of Deputies, Cornwallis, France, George Washington, James Monroe, Lafayette, Musketeers, Napoleon, Olmutz, Revolutionary War, Valley Forge, Yorktown

Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: What Took Congress So Long?

By Chris Carosa on January 16, 2024

Previous: It Was Twenty Decades Ago…

Senator Robert Y. Hayne, South Carolina, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

James Monroe entered the final year of his second term feeling good. It was, after all, the “Era of Good Feelings.” In eight years, the nation’s fifth President had accomplished much. His country had many things to feel good about.

And there was more coming.

Monroe’s decision to not seek reelection confirmed the tradition of the self-imposed limit of two terms as president. Before this, however, people had a legitimate thought that Monroe would run for an unprecedented third term. He had other thoughts. In a way, they were bigger thoughts.

But he had to wait for a slow-moving Congress to give the thumbs-up.

It seems several citizens took it upon themselves to invite Lafayette to return to the nation where he first made his mark in history. While they weren’t necessarily serving in Continue Reading “Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: What Took Congress So Long?”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Charles Rich, Dr. James Thatcher, Farewell Tour, George E. Mitchell, James Brown, James Monroe, Joseph Wheaton, Lafayette, Lewis Condict, Lewis Williams, Revolutionary War, William Leigh Brent

Lafayette’s Tour: It Was Twenty Decades Ago…

By Chris Carosa on January 2, 2024

Two hundred years ago, in January 1824, a struggling Congress asked President James Monroe to dispatch an invitation across the ocean to the only surviving general of the American Revolutionary War. The fifth President of the United States and the last Founding Father to fill that role, Monroe wanted to send a message—on both sides of the Pond.

It was a time of transition. It was a time of hope. It was a time to remember.

Domestically, America had just won its second war of independence from Great Britain. This one-time adversary had now fast become a firm ally. Concurrently, the old monarchies of Europe reappeared, threatening to undo the republican movement in the western hemisphere.

On the verge of his sixty-seventh birthday, Monroe accomplished much by the end of his second term despite a series of controversies and setbacks that marred his first four years as President. Initially elected to the nation’s highest office in 1816, Monroe set his focus on Continue Reading “Lafayette’s Tour: It Was Twenty Decades Ago…”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Adams-Ortis Treaty, Aquirre Mission, Benjamin Russell, Civil War, Democratic-Republican, Era of Good Feelings, Federalist, George Washington, Great Britain, James Monroe, Lafayette, Missouri Compromise, Monroe Doctrine, Our Nation's Guest, Revolutionary War, Rush-Bagot Treaty, Seminole Wars, slavery, Treaty of 1818, War of 1812

Brighton’s Council Rock Primary School Must Change Its Name Immediately!

By Chris Carosa on January 4, 2022

This is not the kind of column I like to write. Still, there’s an obligation as a journalist to sometimes cross a line your mother would not like to see you cross. Alas, this is one of those times.

Our story begins where most stories begin: at the confluence of two well-worn travel routes. No one knows the origin of these two intersecting paths. Most likely, they began as something equivalent to a deer run, a track blazed by animals as they wandered from one watering hole to another in search of food.

It was only a matter of time before man followed those beasts, hunting them down for Continue Reading “Brighton’s Council Rock Primary School Must Change Its Name Immediately!”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged A. Emerson Babcock, Avon, Ban, Brighton, Canandaigua, Council Rock, East Avenue, Evelyn Sharp, Genesee Falls, Indian Landing, Indian Trail, Irondequoit Creek, Iroquois, Jingle Bells, Orringh Stone, Politically Correct, Revolutionary War, Seneca, Stone Tolan House, Tryon, William Billinghurst, Woke

What (And Why) Is Greater Western New York?

By Chris Carosa on July 13, 2021

1779 map of Sullivan Campaign

Believe it or not, we’re fast approaching a seminal anniversary in the history of Greater Western New York. At some point in the final days of August 1779, the first scouts of the Sullivan Expedition represented the first citizens of the new nation to step foot into what would become Greater Western New York.

They weren’t the first people in Greater Western New York. They weren’t even the first of European descent to enter the region.

They were, however, the first Americans to do so. And that is why Greater Western New York is often referred to as “America’s First Frontier.”

For those who were absent from school when they taught this, the Sullivan Expedition, Continue Reading “What (And Why) Is Greater Western New York?”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Adam Hubley, Butler's Rangers, Chemung County, Cherry Hill, Conesus, Elmira, George Washington, German Flatts, Groveland, John Burrowes, John Sullivan, Michael Parker, Niagara River, Preemption Line, Revolutionary War, Saratoga, Sullivan Campaign, Sullivan Expedition, Thomas Boyd, War of 1812, Wyoming Massacre

Ode to a Once Mighty Oak

By Chris Carosa on October 13, 2020

And in that brief moment, its reign ended.

We don’t know how old it really was, but the centuries had exacted their toll. Despite the efforts of the valiant few, the rot that builds with age had eaten its way through the internal fabric that once supported its mighty infrastructure.

When that final gust rushed through, the great citadel had fallen. It had stood for so long that those closest to it, stunned by the fatal reality before their own eyes, could only muster an anemic disbelief.

All that incredulity could not suspend the finality that was. It was gone. Not really. But really.

* * *

The Seneca tribe was a fierce warrior tribe. They had to be. They guarded the “west gate” of the Iroquois Confederacy. From that position, they both protected one flank of their Continue Reading “Ode to a Once Mighty Oak”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Algonquin, Boughton Hill, British, Champlain, Denonville, Department of Transportation, Dutch, Erie, French, Ganondagan, General Sullivan, Genesee River, George Washington, Huron, Iroquois, Mendon, Mendon Foundation, Neutral, New York State, Plains Road, Revolutionary War, Route 15A, Saguenay River, Seneca, St. Lawrence River, Tabacco, Tadoussac, Totiakton, Victor, Wenro