An imagined gathering
1781 · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Lafayette hosts Washington and Hamilton as the French alliance turns the war and the army prepares for Yorktown.
The French fleet and troops are on their way, and Lafayette, who has spent the winter pleading for a decisive campaign, is full of plans. He has invited Washington and Hamilton to a late supper, and the talk is all of the coming campaign in Virginia.
Washington is cautious and methodical, weighing the reports from the south; Hamilton, who will command a battalion at Yorktown, is eager for the assault. Lafayette, half their age and twice as animated, speaks of the debt the two nations owe each other. They eat roast turkey and glazed ham with succotash, finish with mince pie, and drink sangaree, and before long Washington is drawing the campaign on the cloth.
Host: Marquis de Lafayette
George Washington — Planning the campaign that will trap Cornwallis at Yorktown.
Alexander Hamilton — A young aide to Washington, hungry for a field command.
a period dish
Drink
a period dish
Marquis de Lafayette
Lafayette's work as a bridge between the American cause and the French court that supplied the decisive help.
Marquis de Lafayette
The 1789 French declaration, drafted with Jefferson's advice, that proclaimed liberty, equality, and popular sovereignty.
George Washington
Washington's leadership of the Continental Army, and the example of a general who gave up power when the war ended.
This gathering is an editorial recreation grounded in the biographies of those present; it did not necessarily take place as described.