Page:Statement of the attempted rescue of General Lafayette from Olmutz.djvu/48

 burg, always declining all offers of public position. although he twice served in the Legislature of the State.

At the commencement of hostilities with Great Britain, in 1812. he offered his services to the United States, received the commission of a Colonel, and was placed on the staff of General Thomas Pinckney, who was in command of the Carolinas and Georgia, and served until the cessation of hostilities in 1815, when he gladly returned to his home.

On General Lafayette’s last visit to this country in 1824, Col. Huger met him in New York; it seems to have afforded great pleasure to both to meet, and renew the personal intercourse that had been so brief between them. Of course neither could have recognized the other, as they had never met, but for those few moments on the plains of Olmutz, and although they had frequently corresponded, there were many interesting details they were glad to discuss together. Col. Huger said he had never learnt till then, what a very narrow escape they had, by leaving Olmutz as soon as liberated. They had hardly crossed the frontier before an order was received from Vienna, to quash the proceedings of the Court, and hold the prisoners for a new trial, the result of which would