Scope and Contents French aristocrat who served as a general under George Washington in the American Revolutionary War. On his return to France at the National Assembly he was appointed Commander-in-chief of the Paris militia of Garde nationale. The Garde national, a reaction to the violence leading up to the French Revolution, was militia set up in many French towns whose members came from the middle class and was separate from the French Army. As the French revolution spun out of control, Lafayette, who...