"You ask me, my Dear Father what bounds I have set to my desire of serving my Country in the Military Line . . . I answer glorious Death, or the Triumph of the Cause in which I am engaged." |
"John Laurens's extraordinary zeal as a defender of America arose not only from instinctive patriotism . . . but from motives more powerful than when they took their hold upon enthusiastic souls . . . it was this reasoned and lofty principle that sent him with mad impetuosity and reckless daring into the most perilous posts on so many battle fields." |
Due to Laurens's reputable background and education, George Washington quickly recruited him as his aide-de-camp.
"On 4 August [1777], [Laurens] applied to join General Washington’s staff as an aide-de-camp . . . [Washington] did not refuse the young Carolinian who, in addition to being polished, well-educated, and fluent in French, was the son of a member of Congress. He asked John to 'become a Member of [his] Family' and serve as a volunteer extra aid.” |
As an aide-de-camp, Laurens was privy to Washington's plans and was treated like family. Washington trusted Laurens to be a loyal soldier and to help him with all matters, including tasks like answering his letters.
"Aid de Camps [sic] are persons in whom entire confidence must be placed. It requires men of Abilities to execute the duties with propriety and dispatch . . . [They] are confined from Morn’ ‘till Eve hearing, and answering the applications and Letters of one and another.” |
"Despite [Laurens and Hamilton's] almost immediate and deep friendship, they made a strange pair . . . Laurens was everything Hamilton was not . . . Yet the inexplicable fact that opposite personalities often are drawn to each other was never more apparent than in Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens, and it was after they became friends, not because of it, that they discovered a common purpose in their feelings about slavery.” |
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"Washington . . . knew of the passionate antislavery ideas of his young aides [Laurens and Hamilton], but he refused to go along with the proposal. As a slave owner, he knew how much his fellow southerners would oppose the idea . . . [Washington] responded that the scheme might stir up trouble among slaves and generate a widespread discontent with slavery that would arouse the great antipathy of slave owners, some of whom were already lukewarm about the American cause.”
--Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance that Forged America by Stephen F. Knott and Tony Williams.
Laurens first fought in the 1777 Battle of Brandywine. Acting recklessly, he unnecessarily put himself in harm's way. He was fixated on gaining honor through military service in any way possible. Although this was his first battle, he demonstrated extreme boldness and courage.
"It was not [Laurens’s] fault that he was not killed or wounded; he did every thing that was necessary to procure one or t’other.” |
Another notable battle that Laurens fought in was the Battle of Yorktown, the last major campaign of the war. Alongside a representative from France, Laurens proudly helped negotiate the surrender of Lord Cornwallis and his British forces.
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