On June 13, 1825, the last surviving Major General of the Revolutionary Continental Army, the Frenchman Marquis de Lafayette, processed through Pittsfield, Massachusetts to great fanfare. He was almost a year into a memorial tour of the United States that served to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
In the family papers of Samual Chapman Armstrong (himself a general in the American Civil War), researchers can read a brief memoir of Armstrong’s father in law George Walker. Walker recalled witnessing Lafayette’s visit as a child, hoisted onto the shoulders of his grandfather, Revolutionary War veteran William Walker.
The glimpse of Lafayette in a crowded procession left a lasting impression on young George, who wrote this memoir thirty years later, when very few veterans of the Revolutionary War would have still been alive. He exhorted younger generations to seek these elderly veterans out, to treat them with kindness, and to hear their stories of the ideals they fought for.
Researchers who wish to consult this and other letters in the Samuel Chapman Armstrong papers can visit the Weber Reading Room during Special Collections open hours.
The Berkshire County Historical Society will host a series of events in the month of June 2025 commemorating the 1825 visit of Lafayette to Pittsfield, as part of the nationwide Revolution 250 initiative. For more information, visit https://berkshirehistory.org/.