In the summer of 2021, this sign was presented to the City of Portsmouth by a member of the Lafayette Trail Society to commemorate General Lafayette’s visit to the city in 1824. The sign’s location is at the Vaughn Mall. As the last surviving Major General of the American Revolution, Lafayette was celebrated everywhere he went with parades, dinners and expressions of deep appreciation for his role in the revolution.
At the banquet held in his honor at the Franklin Hall during that visit, a local soldier of the American Revolution approached Lafayette and asked him if he remembered the name of the man who had rescued him from the battlefield during the battle of Brandywine in 1777 after he was wounded in the leg. Lafayette quickly responded, “It was Thomas Harvey who did me that gallant service.” The old soldier replied, “Sir, it is he who is standing before you…” Both men then embraced and Thomas Harvey became a local hero and not just an old soldier telling tall stories about the war.
It was during this visit that Lafayette was invited to Boston lay the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill monument, followed by a speech offered by Daniel Webster on that occasion.
Thomas Harvey is one of many Revolutionary War veterans buried at the North Cemetery in Portsmouth. His headstone reads “a worthy soldier of the American Revolution. “
A worthy soldier of the American Revolution
Thomas Harvey Headstone, North Cemetary
