Lafayette returns to Norwich 200 years after tour of Revolutionary War sites

Norwich ― Sporting a top hat, leaning on a walking cane and speaking with a thick French accent, the Marquis de Lafayette recalled famous and obscure exploits in the American Revolutionary War in a return visit to Norwich Thursday.

Lafayette, portrayed Thursday by professional Lafayette reenactor Michael Halbert, toured the historic Norwichtown green area. The general had commanded 2,000 American Irish troops camped there in 1778 on their way to Newport and Providence. Halbert stressed Thursday that he commanded no French troops during the American Revolution.

He noted that Norwichtown had many more taverns at that time.

Thursday’s visit marked the exact 200th anniversary of Lafayette’s visit to Norwich in 1824 as part of his famous 13-month “farewell tour” of the United States, when he was greeted by raucous crowds and met with surviving associates of the Revolution.

As Lafayette had done on Aug. 22, 1824, Halbert started his day Thursday with breakfast in Old Lyme, where he met with the Old Lyme Historical Society. The bicentennial tour is sponsored by American Friends of Lafayette, which is funding re-enactors’ appearances in various locations.

As Norwich Historical Society secretary Sandra Soucy pointed out landmarks and the homes of prominent Norwich Revolutionary War figures, Halbert regaled a tour audience of more than 50 people with stories of the Revolution and his time in Norwich.

First came a scandalous tale told for decades after the general’s 1778 visit. Norwich 19th century historian Mary Perkins wrote how Lafayette made a hurried ride through Norwich on an urgent visit to see Gen. Jedediah Huntington’s home near the green. It being a very hot day, the general was clad in very light attire.

“The good people of Norwich were rather scandalized to see him ride up to General Huntington’s door dressed in a blue military coat without vest or stockings,” Perkins wrote. “And with boots being short, his legs were bare.”

Halbert recalled the ride vividly.

“I was much younger then,” Halbert said. “And it was very hot as I recall. And haste was of the essence at the time.”

Halbert recalled his service with both Gen. Jedediah and his brother Ebenezer Huntington. Lafayette stayed in Jedediah Huntington’s home while his troops camped on the green.

Lafayette and Jedediah Huntington were well known to each other, having served in several battles together and in war counsels with Gen. George Washington. Halbert recalled many winter war meetings “in the cold.”

As the tour turned into the historic Norwichtown burying ground, Soucy and Norwich Historical Society board member Janine Guillet stopped at the grave of Boston Trowtrow, an enslaved Black man who became a celebrated member of the community as the Black governor of Norwich . Many Black people buried in the rear portion of the cemetery had unmarked graves.

Lafayette was a devout abolitionist, having advocated strongly for the end of slavery in the United States and in French and British colonies in the Caribbean. Halbert called it “beyond my comprehension that one human being could possess another human being in chattel slavery.”

In 1786, Lafayette had purchased land in South America and populated it with freed former slaves who worked the land and supported their families. But in 1792, as he fled France amid the turmoil of that revolution, his lands were confiscated and its inhabitants sold back into slavery.

“I often had pointed, sometimes very uncomfortable conversations with my adopted father, his Excellency George Washington, with Thomas Jefferson, with James Madison on this subject,” Halbert said, “all of whom I believe in theory understood and accepted the fact that what I was saying was true, but they were not able to make that final decision to do what would be necessary.”

At the grave of Hannah Arnold, mother of traitorous Gen. Benedict Arnold, Halbert recalled how Washington was hurt deeply by Arnold’s treason and that it touched him personally as well. Lafayette was in the area of West Point as Arnold conspired with British spy John Andre to turn over the fort there to the British.

Andre was executed, but Arnold escaped to join the British and was commissioned to attack American commerce in Virginia ― where he burned farms, shops and ships ― and New London. Lafayette pursued him in Virginia, with orders from Washington that Arnold be summarily hanged without trial if captured, Halbert said.

Lafayette famously used the phrase, “Remember New London” to rally American troops on the eve of the climactic Battle of Yorktown.

“No, I have no fond memories of Benedict Arnold,” Halbert said.

c.bessette@theday.com