Poirey served as Lafayette’s military secretary during the American Revolution. He participated in battles at Petersburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. Poirey then returned with Lafayette to France, where he served as captain secretary general in the French National Guard and later as secretary general of the Paris troops. In 1790 the United States Senate confirmed President George Washington’s nomination of Poirey to the brevet rank of captain, and the following year he was admitted into the Society of the Cincinnati. His requests for compensation were finally honored via federal statute in 1819 (PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 31 vols. description ends , 12:529; Washington, Papers description begins W. W. Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, Philander D. Chase, Theodore J. Crackel, and others, eds., The Papers of George Washington, 1983– , 48 vols.: Colonial Ser., 10 vols.; Confederation Ser., 6 vols.; Pres. Ser., 12 vols.; Retirement Ser., 4 vols. ; Rev. War Ser., 16 vols. description ends , Pres. Ser., 4:571–2; Linda Grant De Pauw and others, eds., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress [1972– ], 2:71; Ludovic Guy Marie du Bessey de Contenson, La Societe des Cincinnati De France et La Guerre D’Amerique 1778–1783 [1934], 245; TJ to Poirey, 8 Mar. 1819).