This Deceased Army Profile is not currently maintained by any Member.
If you would like to take responsibility for researching and maintaining this Deceased profile please click
HERE
Contact Info
Home Town Paris, France
Last Address Prince George's County, Maryland
Date of Passing Jun 14, 1825
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Wall/Plot Coordinates Plot: Section 2, Lot S-3 Grid S-34
Pierre Charles L'Enfant was a captain, U.S. Engineers, and a brevet major, U.S. Army, Revolutionary War. Under the direction of President George Washington, he planned the Federal City of Washington, D.C. Pierre Charles L'Enfant was born in Paris, France, Aug. 2, 1754. He died June 14, 1825, and was interred on the Digges Farm, also known as Green Hill, Prince Georges County, Md.
In 1908 the Board of Commissioners of the City of Washington requested the Secretary of War to make available a suitable burial site in Arlington Cemetery. On Dec. 17, 1908, Secretary of War Luke E. Wright advised the Board of Commissioners of his approval for a site in Arlington Cemetery for the reinterment of the remains of Pierre Charles L'Enfant. The site was selected by the Board of Commissioners with the assistance of Army Capt. A. B. Shattuck, who was in charge of National Cemeteries.
The final site approved by the depot quartermaster, Washington, D.C., was between the Gen. Sheridan Monument and the flagstaff fronting the mansion at Arlington, approximately 6 feet from the north line of Gen. Sheridan's lot and on line with the flagstaff and the Sheridan Monument. On April 19, 1909, the adjutant general of the War Department directed the quartermaster general to arrange for the disinterment of the remains of Pierre Charles L'Enfant buried at Green Hill, Md., on 24 hours notice by the commissioners of the District of Columbia. The remains were moved in a hearse to a vault at Mount Olivet Cemetery, a location designated by the commissioners.
On April 22, 1909, the remains of Pierre Charles L'Enfant were disinterred from the Digges Farm by Depot Quartermaster D.H. Rhodes, with the commissioners of the District of Columbia present. The remains were placed in a metal-lined casket, covered with the American flag and moved to Mount Olivet Cemetery on Bladensburg Road, Washington D.C. They remained there until the morning of April 28, 1909. On that date a military escort conveyed the remains to the U.S. Capitol where they lay in state from 9 a.m. until noon. They were then taken by military escort to Arlington National Cemetery. There they were reinterred at 4 p.m. in the site on the slope in front of the Mansion.
The removal of the remains from the Digges Farm and their subsequent reinterment was pursuant to a special act of Congress which was approved May 27, 1908. The act also provided for the erection of a monument at the grave. A sum of $1,000 was appropriated to accomplish the tasks.
At 4 p.m. May 22, 1911, the monument marking the grave of Pierre Charles L'Enfant was dedicated. The service was conducted on the portico of the Arlington House, where chairs had been arranged to make a miniature open-air theater facing the city. The monument was draped with the American flag.
The dedication ceremony was opened by the Reverend Father Russell, pastor of Saint Patrick's Catholic Church, offering the invocation. At its conclusion Elanora Carroll Morgan, great granddaughter of William Dudley Digges, L'Enfant's closest friend and benefactor in life and on whose farm he died, left her place among the guests of honor and approached the monument. She was escorted by Glenn Brown, of the National Arts Commission; Commissioner Judson and Dr. James D. Morgan who composed the executive committee for the dedication. Miss Morgan untied the silken ribbons that held the flag in place. Then as the band played the national anthem, two soldiers from the Engineer Corps drew the flag aloft.
President William Howard Taft made the dedication address. He was followed by Ambassador Jusserand of France. The concluding address was made by Senator Elihu Root.
More than 350 people attended the ceremony. Many notables attended including the chief justice and justices of the Supreme Court, many senators and members of Congress, high-ranking military, city officials, diplomatic corps and Washington socialites.
The L'Enfant Monument
The monument marking the grave of Pierre Charles L'Enfant was erected under the direction of the commissioners of the District of Columbia who chose the design in addition to selecting the site in Arlington National Cemetery. It is made of white marble (very rough due to weather erosion) consisting of four slabs, the top slab is supported on six marble posts. The base is 10 feet 10 inches by 6 feet 11 1/2 inches by 11 inches deep.
On top of the base is a slab 8 feet 4 inches by 4 feet 4 1/2 inches by 7 inches deep. The upper three inches of this slab are beveled for five inches to form a top 7 feet 6 inches by 3 feet 7 inches. On each corner is an oak leaf. Resting on this is the third slab 7 feet 4 inches by 3 feet 5 inches by 5 inches deep. This slab is offset 2 1/2 inches from the bottom by 6 inches along each side.
On the corners of the recessed area and in the center along the long axis rest six marble posts which support, horizontally, the top slab. The posts are 1 foot 8 1/2 inches tall and are 6 inches in diameter at the widest point. From the recessed area the third slab has a 1 1/2-inch bevel in 4 inches to form a 6 feet 2 inch by 1 foot 2 1/2 inch top. In bold relief on this top is a 4-foot-long broadsword with a floral piece entwined at the hilt. The top slab, overall, is 7 feet 6 1/4 inches by 3 feet 7 1/4 inches by 6 inches deep. There is an oak leaf at each corner and a 4-inch scalloped design around the edge.
On the east end (the design facing the Arlington House) is a circle, 2 feet 7 inches in diameter, inclosing the plan of the City of Washington laid out by L'Enfant.
Below the circle is the inscription:
PIERRE CHARLES L'ENFANT ENGINEER - ARTIST - SOLDIER UNDER THE DIRECTION OF GEORGE WASHINGTON DESIGNED THE PLAN FOR THE FEDERAL CITY * MAJOR U.S. ENGINEER CORPS 1789 CHARTER MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI DESIGNED ITS CERTIFICATE & INSIGNIA * BORN IN PARIS, FRANCE AUGUST 2, 1755 DIED JUNE 14, 1825 WHILE RESIDING AT CHILHAM CASTLE MANOR PRINCE GEORGE'S CO MARYLAND AND WAS INTERRED THERE REINTERRED AT ARLINGTON APRIL 28, 1909
On April 23, 1931, a bronze marker was placed on the top of the base (east end) by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The inscription on the marker reads:
REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER 1775 (DAR INSIGNIA) 1783 PLACED BY THE NATIONAL SOCIETY DAUGHTERS AMERICAN REVOLUTION
* Note--the inscription on the monument shows the rank of major, U.S. Engineer Corps. The records show he was a captain in the U.S. Engineers, and held the temporary rank of brevet major, U.S. Army Revolutionary War. Discrepancies were not noted until the completion of the monument. They were not changed for fear of disfiguring the monument. L'Enfant was born in 1754, not 1755.
Description The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also referred to as the American War of Independence and the Revolutionary War in the United States, was an armed conflict between Great Britain and thirteen of its North American colonies that after onset of the war declared independence as the United States of America.
The American Revolution had led to increasing philosophical and political differences between Great Britain and its American colonies. The war represented the culmination of these differences in armed conflict between Patriots and the royal authority against which they increasingly resisted. This resistance became particularly widespread in the New England Colonies, especially the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Patriot protests escalated into boycotts, and, on December 16, 1773, Massachusetts members of the Patriot group Sons of Liberty destroyed a shipment of tea in Boston Harbor in an event that became known as the Boston Tea Party. The British government retaliated by closing the port of Boston and enacting punitive measures against Massachusetts, including the dissolution of its charter and the prohibition of its traditional, democratic town meetings. Named the Coercive Acts by Parliament, they were known as the Intolerable Acts in America. The Massachusetts colonists responded with the Suffolk Resolves, establishing a shadow government that removed control of the province from the Crown outside of Boston. Twelve colonies formed a Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance, and established committees and conventions that effectively seized power.
British attempts to seize the munitions of Massachusetts colonists in April 1775 led to the first open combat between Crown forces and Massachusetts militia, the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Militia forces proceeded to besiege the British forces in Boston, forcing them to evacuate the city in March 1776. The Continental Congress appointed George Washington to take command of the militia. Later, he was appointed as commander-in-chief of the newly formed Continental Army, as well as coordinating state militia units. Concurrent to the Boston campaign, an American attempt to invade Quebec and raise rebellion against the British Crown decisively failed. On July 2, 1776, Congress formally voted for independence, issuing its Declaration on July 4.
Sir William Howe began his counterattack focused on recapturing New York City. Howe outmaneuvered and defeated Washington, leaving American confidence at a low ebb. Washington was able to capture a Hessian force at Trenton, and drive the British out of New Jersey, restoring American confidence. In 1777, the British sent a new army under John Burgoyne, to move south from Canada and isolate the New England colonies. However, instead of assisting Burgoyne, Howe took his army on a separate campaign against the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia. Burgoyne outran his supplies, was surrounded and surrendered in October 1777.
The British defeat at Saratoga had drastic consequences. France and Spain had been covertly providing the colonists with weapons, ammunition, and other supplies since April 1776, and now France formally entered the war in 1778, signing a military alliance that recognized the independence of the United States. Giving up on the North, the British decided to salvage its former colonies in the South. British forces under Charles Cornwallis seized Georgia and South Carolina, capturing an American army at Charleston, South Carolina. The strategy depended upon an uprising of large numbers of armed Loyalists, but too few came forward. In 1779, Spain joined the war as an ally of France under the Pacte de Famille, intending to capture Gibraltar and British colonies in the Caribbean. Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic in 1780.
In 1781, after suffering two decisive defeats at King's Mountain and Cowpens, Cornwallis retreated to Virginia, intending on evacuation. A decisive French naval victory in September deprived the British of an escape route. A joint Franco-American army led by Count Rochambeau and Washington, laid siege to the British forces at Yorktown. With no sign of relief and the situation untenable, Cornwallis surrendered in October, and some 8,000 soldiers were taken prisoner.
Whigs in Britain had long opposed the pro-war Tory majority in Parliament, however, the defeat at Yorktown gave the Whigs the upper hand. In early 1782, they voted to end all offensive operations in North America, but the war against France and Spain continued, with the British decisively defeating both during the Great Siege of Gibraltar. In addition they inflicted several naval defeats upon the French, the most decisive being the Battle of the Saintes in the Caribbean the same year. On September 3, 1783, the combatants signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the war. Britain agreed to recognize the sovereignty of the United States over the territory bounded roughly by what is now Canada to the north, Florida to the south, and the Mississippi River to the west. While French involvement proved decisive for the cause of American independence, they made only minor territorial gains, and were beset with massive financial debts. Spain acquired Britain's Florida colonies and the island of Minorca, but failed in its primary aim of recovering Gibraltar. The Dutch lost on all counts, and were compelled to cede some territory to the British.
