Colonel Bernard Magnien was a French officer who accompanied the Marquis de Lafayette upon his arrival in America. 

Serving as Lafayette’s aides-de-camp, he supported the Continental Army in its struggle against British forces and remained devoted to the new nation after the war. 

Rather than returning to France, Magnien settled in Portsmouth, where he became a respected leader in his new community. He served as one of the borough’s first magistrates and later commanded the militia of Norfolk and Portsmouth as a colonel. 

Magnien died on November 1, 1819, and is buried in Trinity’s cemetery, in the city he loved.