NOAILLES, LOUIS-MARIE, VICOMTE DE (VISCOUNT OF)

born April 17, 1756, Paris died Jan. 9, 1804, at sea near Cuba second son of the Marshal of Mouchy and one of the most distinguished members of the Noailles family. He served brilliantly under Lafayette in the U.S. War of Independence and was the officer who concluded the capitulation of Yorktown. He was elected to the States General in 1789. He began the orgie, as Mirabeau called it, on August 4, when all privileges were abolished, and with d'Aiguillon he proposed the abolition of titles and liveries in June 1790. When the French Revolution became more pronounced, he emigrated to the United States and became a partner in Bingham's Bank at Philadelphia. He was very successful but left the bank to accept a command against the English in San Domingo, under Rochambeau. He made a brilliant defense of the Mle Saint-Nicolas and escaped with the garrison to Cuba; but in making for Havana his ship was attacked by an English frigate, and after a long engagement he was severely wounded and died of his injuries.