Courage Under Fire

In January of this year, the AFL Loudoun Branch was lucky to connect with a Loudoun County Public Schools student internship program. We selected three outstanding students as contributing interns to our blog posts.

Shyam Vijakumar, a student at Lightridge, proved extraordinary. Shyam was presented with three topics and a series of sources from which to begin his research. The timeline was short, and he went through several edits. But really, we learned as much from Shyam as he did about Lafayette, and he was a joy to work with.

Please meet Shyam Vijaykumar!

My name is Shyam Vijaykumar and I am a Junior at Lightridge High School. I like History, Science, Scouting and playing video games. I am a Life Scout and will soon be working on my Eagle Scout project. I love to volunteer and I have received the President's Volunteer Service Award once. 

Courage Under Fire

Can you imagine a time in American History when Colonial America was fighting against British invasion and support arrived from France? A long, long time ago, Britain was colonizing parts of Europe and Colonial America. Leaders like General George Washington were determined to stop the British influence and prevent the British from capturing the American seat of government in Philadelphia. This was in the year 1777. 

A major clash between American forces vs British troops happened at Brandywine, Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia. Now you may ask what is so special about the battle of Brandywine? It is significant, because more troops fought at Brandywine than at any other battle of the American Revolution. It was also the second longest single-day battle of the war after the Battle of Monmouth, with continuous fighting for 11 hours. 

Now, you ask what is the connection between Colonial America and France? Lafayette was a young, French nobleman from a family with long-standing military traditions. He was very upset about Britain unfairly colonizing many parts of the world. He thought the American Revolution was a noble cause to support, therefore he came to fight the British alongside General George Washington. Even though Lafayette was only nineteen and had no experience in war he was very determined to contribute to the American Revolution. Lafayette showed immense courage under fire.The Battle of Brandywine did not go in favor of the colonial troops but they managed to slow down the British advancement. Lafayette was shot in the leg but he was known for using tactics and being fearless, but still managed to lead the American troops in an orderly retreat from British and Hessian (German troops for hire) troops. 

Lafayette returned to France as the hero of Brandywine and gathered more support from the French government to assist Colonial America’s fight for independence.