Festivities highlighted by Colonial Ball, reenactment of French aristocrat’s arrival, procession through City
Staff reports
Beaufort is getting all worked up about the return of the Marquis de Lafayette.
Historic Beaufort Foundation, the City of Beaufort and other partners are gearing up for the March 2025 200th anniversary of Lafayette’s visit to Beaufort.
Official planning has been underway since August and includes lectures, a First Friday contest and parade for children, and informative display boards for City Hall, the John Mark Verdier House Museum and other locations, living history interpretations, program activities with the Beaufort Country Library, school events and more.
An expected highlight will be a re-enactment on March 18 of Lafayette’s arrival and procession through downtown Beaufort. The events on March 18 will culminate with a Colonial Ball in the Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park reminiscent of the ball held for Lafayette when he arrived in Beaufort in 1825.
“The 200-year anniversary of Lafayette’s visit to Beaufort reminds us of how long Beaufort and the Lowcountry have been an important feature in the history of the United States,” Beaufort Mayor Phil Cromer said in a news release
“It is exciting to see all the activities being planned to celebrate this important period in our history, and to better understand how Lafayette helped bring this country together,” he said.
The Historic Beaufort Foundation, the City of Beaufort, the Beaufort Convention & Visitor Bureau, American Friends of Lafayette and The Lafayette Trail, Inc., are collaborating along with some 50 local, state, regional and national groups and individuals to make March 2025 a very special month.
Joining the effort is the Beaufort County School District, and organizers hope to encourage private, charter, home, and virtual schools to participate as a way to increase knowledge and appreciation of our state and national history.
“This promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see history come alive in the form of Lafayette’s ‘return’ to historic Beaufort,” HBF Executive Director Cynthia Jenkins said.
“Lafayette’s visit 200 years ago has always been revered by Beaufortonians as one of the most important events in the city’s history. We are working on a multi-day celebration culminating in recreating Lafayette’s visit in Beaufort on March 18, 1825,” Jenkins said.
Included in the planning is a visit by Lafayette interpreter and U.S. Army veteran Mark Schneider, recently profiled in The New York Times and other publications. For more than 25 years he has worked at Colonial Williamsburg portraying the French aristocrat who arrived in America at age 19 to help lead the battle for independence.
“Mark is the biggest deal we have. We count on him as an historian and an interpreter, and he is an expert on Lafayette. He has been studying this for more than 20 years,” said Charles Schwam, executive director of the American Friends of Lafayette national organization.
Though little documentation exists, historic anecdotes persist that Lafayette greeted Beaufort townspeople from the steps of the Verdier House on Bay Street. In recognition of his stop in Beaufort, HBF will erect a marker in front of the Verdier House.
The Marquis de Lafayette was a French Nobleman and military officer who volunteered to join the Continental Army, led by Gen. George Washington, in the American Revolutionary War.
He commanded the troops in the decisive siege of Yorktown in 1781, the final major battle that secured American Independence, and he is remembered as a “Hero of the Nation,” noted Lise Sundrla, assistant HBF director.
In August 1824, Lafayette began his “Farewell Tour of the Nation” in Staten Island, N.Y. He was the last surviving major general of the American Revolutionary War. His tour included 24 states, ending September 6, 1825, in Washington, D.C., where he celebrated his 68th birthday at a White House banquet with President John Adams.
His 1824-25 visit to South Carolina included stops in Cheraw, Camden, Columbia, Izzard’s Plantation north of Charleston, Charleston, Edisto and ended in Beaufort.
In his 1825 visit to Beaufort, Lafayette arrived to a 13-gun salute by the Beaufort Volunteer Artillery and mounted officers from the St. Luke’s Guard. Carriages then carried Lafayette and his family through a triumphal arch for a welcome address by the Beaufort mayor. Shortly after, a reception and ball ran into the early morning hours.
“We started our research and preparations almost two years ago, knowing it would take our full community to pull together a commemoration worthy of Lafayette’s return 200 years later,” Sundrla said.
People and groups interested in helping with the planning and execution of the bicentennial activities should contact Historic Beaufort Foundation at info@historicbeaufort.org
HBF is also seeking donations and sponsorships for the event. Partners and contributing organizations to date include City of Beaufort, Historic Beaufort Foundation, American Friends of Lafayette, Lafayette Trail, Inc., Beaufort Convention & Visitor Bureau, Beaufort History Museum, Beaufort County 250th Committee and Sea Island Carriage Tours.
Also, Thomas Heyward Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution; Sons of the American Revolution, Lodge No. 36; Beaufort County Library — Beaufort District Collection; Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort; Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island; Society of the Cincinnati; S.C. Rep. Shannon Erickson; and the Beaufort County School District.
Also contributing are USCB-CFA, Liberty Live, Coastal Heritage Society – Savannah,
Williams Group PR LLC, Best Western Sea Island Inn and the Davenport House – Savannah.
Historic Beaufort Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit education foundation created to preserve, protect, and present sites and artifacts of historic, architectural, and cultural interest throughout Beaufort County, South Carolina. For more information on the entity’s mission and history, please visit historicbeaufort.org and follow them on social media, including Facebook and Instagram.
