Noailles, Louis Marie

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Noailles, Louis Marie

NOAILLES, LOUIS MARIE. (1756–1804). French officer. Born in Paris on 17 April 1756, the vicomte de Noailles was the son of Marshal Philippe duc de Mouchy. Becoming a captain at the age of seventeen, Noailles sought to go to America with his brother-in-law, the marquis de Lafayette, but was discouraged by his family. Instead he was appointed aide to the quartermaster in 1778 and made second in command of the Hussards regiment in 1779. Gaining a reputation for his cool head at the siege of Grenada in July 1779, Noailles took part in the unsuccessful attempt to capture Savannah, where he again distinguished himself. Awarded the chevalier de Saint-Louis on 20 January 1780, Noailles joined Rochambeau's army in Rhode Island in July 1780. Active in the Battle of Yorktown in October 1781, he was given the honor of serving as the official French representative at Cornwallis's surrender. Returning to France with Lafayette, Noailles was made commandant of the King's Dragoons on 27 January 1782. In the early phase of the French Revolution, Noailles was a prominent liberal, serving in the Estates-General, where he and Lafayette led the contingent of aristocrats who joined with the other orders in creating the National Assembly on 25 June 1789 and proposing an end to all privileges of the nobility on 4 August. In 1791 he was elected president of the Constituent Assembly. Noailles fled France for England in 1792 as the Revolution spun out of control, moving on the following year to Philadelphia, where he became a successful businessman. In 1802 he went to the West Indies, again taking command of French troops. He was wounded in a sea battle and died in Havana on 7 January 1804.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Balch, Thomas W. The French in America during the War of Independence of the United States, 1777–1783. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, 1891–1895.