Studied at the Collge Louis Legrand in Paris. From 1771 to 1776, he served in the French army and obtained the rank of general. In 1777, he went to America and was appointed Major General and a member of George Washington's General Staff. In 1779, he returned to France and ten years later was elected deputy to the Estates General and appointed commander-in-chief of the Parisian militia, to whom he gave the name garde nationale and the tricolour cockade, of which he was the inventor.Autograph letter signed in english, not dated. La Fayette has been asked to send a letter to Colonel Pira, who has not yet left for Greece, and whose destination Mr Thomas Dyer must know. He asks his correspondent To: " Éto send some letters which it has been impossible for me to write to dayÉÓ.