Louis-Marie, vicomte de Noailles

Louis-Marie, vicomte de Noailles (April 17, 1756 – January 9, 1804) was the second son of Philippe, duc de Mouchy, and a member of Mouchy branch of the famous Noailles family of the French aristocracy.

He served brilliantly under Lafayette in America, and was the officer who concluded the capitulation of Yorktown in 1781.

He was elected to the Estates-General in 1789. On 4 August 1789, during the French Revolution, he began the famous "orgy", as Mirabeau called it, when all privileges were abolished, and with the duc d'Aiguilion proposed the abolition of titles and liveries in June 1790.

When the Revolution became more pronounced he emigrated to the United States and became a partner in Bingham's bank at Philadelphia. He was very successful and might have lived happily had he not accepted a command against the English in San Domingo, under Rochambeau. He made a brilliant defence of the Môle St Nicholas and escaped with the garrison to Cuba, but "en route" there his ship was attacked by the English frigate "Hazard," and after a long engagement he was severely wounded, dying of his wounds in Havana on 9 January 1804.

References

*1911|article=Noailles|url=http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Noailles