Anne Louis Toussard-- Part 2: Back to France and Then to Haiti

Considering that I had never heard of this person before I came across his name in regards to the Hurricane of 1812.  He obviously had quite a varied and impactful life in both France and the United States.

Back in France, he received the Royal Order of St. Louis on 3 July 1779 and was made a major in the artillery on  5 April 1780.

In 1784, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Fernch Army and stationed on Saint-Domingue (Haiti).  In the slave revolt  led by Toussaint  L'Ouverture, he commanded troops battling the slaves and tried to persuade the local government to arm free Blacks but was ignored.

Nonetheless, Tousard was blamed for the failure of the colonial officials to obey orders from France in this regard and was arrested and imprisoned.  U.S. pressure caused his release  in February 1793 and he went to the United States and settled on a farm outside of Wilmington, Delaware.

And, his story still isn't over.

--Brock-Perry

Anne-Louis de Toussard-- Part 1

I've seen his last name spelled both Toussard and Tousard.  This source spells it with one "s."

Encyclopedia.com

French and U.S. officer. In America he was a captain attached to the Marquis de Lafayette's staff.  Took part in the Battles of Germantown and Brandywine and spent the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge.  In March 1778, he was appointed military advisor to the allied Oneida Indians and was present with them when they covered Lafayette's retreat at the Battle of Barren Hill in 21 May 1778.

Then transferred to the staff of  General John Sullivan in his unsuccessful French-American  campaign against Newport, Rhode Island.  Lost his right arm at the Battle of  Quaker Hill on 28  August 1778.

Because of this service, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army on 29 October 1778.

After this, he returned to France.

I probably should have put these entries about hinm in my Cooter's History Thing blog as they pertain more to the American Revolution.  But, I came across his name first in relation to his description of the Hurricane of 1812.  And that, of course, would be the War of 1812.

Had Quite a Bit to Do with the American Effort to Achieve Independence.  --Brock-Perry

Lt. Col. Anne-Louis de Toussard-- Part 3: A Major Force in Creation of the USMA

In 1798 he proposed the idea of a national military school, with a comprehensive curriculum, to  Secretary of War James McHenry.  He helped convert the West Point garrison into that academy in 1800.  He then began instruction to the first twelve cadets in the first Class at the academy on 1800.

His regiment was disbanded in 1802 and he returned to France via Santo Domingo in 1802.  French Vice-Consul in Philadelphia in 1805.  Served as the French Consul ad interim in New Orleans  1811-1816 (when he wrote the letter about the Hurricane of 1812).  Supported the work of General Jackson during the War of 1812.

Returned to Paris in 1816.  Made a Knight of the Royal Military Order of St. Louis in 1799  Wrote "American Artillerists Companion" in 1809.  Married  Maria Francisca Joubert in 1788 and then Anna Maria Geddes in 1795.

A grandson of his, Lt. -Col.  Anthony Eugene Stocker MD (1819-1897), a grandson, succeeded him in the Society of the Cincinnati, being admitted as a Heriditary Member in 1888.  He was a medical doctor during the Civil War, most of the time in a position of leadership in the medical corps.

--Brock-Perry

Lieutenant Colonel Anne-Louis de Toussard-- Part 2: A Man of Much History

Lt. Colonel in the Continental Army in the American Revolution.

Born 13 March 1749 in Saint Eustache, Paris, France, and died  4 or 8 May 1817, in Paris, France.

Studied at the artillery school of La Pere.  Graduate of the Artillery School in Strasbourg, France, in 1769.  Commissioned a second lieutenant in the French Royal Artillery  Corps in 1769.  Resigned to join the American Revolution.

After that, he returned to France in 1784.  Imprisoned as a Royalist 1792-1793.  Lt. Colonel in the Regiment  du Cap in Santo Domingo in 1794 where he led his regiment to suppress the slave  uprising that became the Haitian Revolution. Imprisoned by Haitian forces in 1794.

Escaped to America and emigrated to Philadelphia.  Commissioned a Major of the 2nd Artillery in the U.S. Army and then promoted to Lt. Colonel.

Helped plan and supervise the construction of Fort Mifflin,  Pennsylvania.

This Guy Sure Saw a Lot of History.  --Brock-Perry

Lieutenant Colonel Anne-Louis De Toussard, Society of Cincinnati

From the Society of Cincinnati in the State of New Jersey.

Lt.Col. Anne-Louis Toussard was the French consul in New Orleans who wrote about that horrific 1812 hurricane.

Original member of  the French Society and Represented Propositus in New Jersey.

Began his service in the American Revolution when he arrived in Portsmouth,  New Hampshire in 1777.  Joined the Continental Army and served on the staff of  General Washington in June 1777.  Fought in the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown.

Served at Valley Forge.  Aide de camp to Major General Lafayette.  Lost his arm in the retreat from Rhode Island.  His arm was shattered when he attempted to capture some British artillery.

--Brock-Perry

The Hurricane of 1812 Hits New Orleans-- Part 2: A Category 4 Storm?

French consul in New Orleans, Louis Tousard wrote a letter to a friend describing it.

He said "the waters of the lake and the waters of the river married and churned.  There were over ten feet of water that killed animals and men.  It destroyed houses."

The final words of his letter said that if it went on for another few hours, there would be no one to tell what happened.

It is believed that the Hurricane of 1812 was a Category Four level storm.  Oer a hundred people perished.

The American Meteorological Society believes the hurricane moved nto land somewhere southeast of New Orleans with winds over one hundred miles an hour.

--Brock-Perry

That Horrendous Hurricane of 1812 Hits New Orleans-- Part 1

From the June 5, 2022, WGNO News "The Hurricane of 1812" by Christopher  Leach.

This mega storm happened during a time of war.  A very unique letter at the Historic New Orleans Collection gives an account of this hurricane.  It was written in French by  French consul Louis Tousard to a friend.  (I've also seen his named spelled Toussard.)

Cecilia  Hock is an interpreter at the place and says that the year 1812 was a particularly trying one in New Orleans  There were three slave uprisings, a number of earthquakes along the  New Madrid Faultline that began the  previous December that caused levee breeches in New Orleans.  The war with Britain had just started.  

And then came the hurricane.

The hurricane hit at nightfall.

More to Come.  --Brock-Perry

War of 1812 Soldiers Reburied in Vermont-- Part 2

Some more information on the story.

From the June 4, 2022, U.S. News & World Report "Vermont officials to rebury remains of War of 1812 veterans" by AP.

Thirty sets of remains were reburied Saturday, June 4, at a ceremony  in Vermont's largest city, Burlington.  They had been buried at different locations.  State and city officials will be attending the  ceremony which will take place at Lakeview Cemetery.

An estimated 500 American soldiers died in the Burlington area during the war between 1812 and 1815.  The area around Burlington's Battery Park was a military encampment overlooking Lake Champlain.  And, it was also the location of a major Army hospital.

No battles occurred in Burlington.

Military records indicate that more than 550 soldiers along with state militiamen, prisoners of war and civilian camp followers died in the Queen City.  All the burials were done on the then-undeveloped sandy plain to the north of the camp.

Over the last twenty years, the thirty that were found were located in the area known locally as the the Old North End.

Between 2002 and 2005, the remains of 23 were excavated in advance of a street improvement project.  In 2020, a housing construction project in the area recovered additional remains.

--Brock-Perry

War of 1812 Soldiers Exhumed and Reburied in Lakeview Cemetery in Burlington, Vt.

From June 4, 2022, WCAX 3 News.

The remains of 30 War of 1812 soldiers were given a new resting place at  Burlington's Lakeview Cemetery.

Vermont's state records say that some  550 U.S. regulars died during the war.  "Because of its strategic location along Lake Champlain, which faciltated the movement of supplies and troops," said Laura Trieschmann, the State Historic Preservation Officer.

The veterans were unknown even back when they were originally buried, because they were moved from private properties in the Old North End.

In the past two decades,  30 became unearthed during various construction projects.

Now, a new columbarium and headstone added to the cemetery to mark the final resting place for them.  Some are from states all along the eastern seaboard.

--Brock-Perry

So Where Is Sodus, New York?--Part 2: And, a Civil War Connection

From Wikipedia.

I must admit some confusion while writing the recent posts between the area sometimes being called Sodus Point and sometmes Sodus.  Evidently, Sodus Point is a section of the town of Sodus, which had a population in 2010 of 8,384.

It is halfway between  Rochester and Syracuse, New York.

Members of the Shakers settled in the early town, but moved away when the began to feel that  Sodus was becoming too worldly.

Sodus claims to be  the birthplace of Arbor Day, established by Sodus native Edward C. Delano.

Among people listed as notable from there is Union Civil War General Gordon Granger.  He achieved fame during the war and when it ended, he was given command of the Department of Texas.  On June 19, 1865, in the city of Galveston, he read to the people his General Order No. 3 which proclaimed that all slaves were free.

This is where all this Juneteenth stuff comes from.

Perhaps we need a new federal holiday to honor Gen. Granger for bringing the freedom message to Texas.

--Brock-Perry

So, Where Is Sodus Point, New York?-- Part 1

I have to admit, I'd never heard of this place before coming across it preparing for this blog.

It is about 1/3 of the way in eastern New York's Lake Ontario.  Looking at a map you will see a fairly big indentation of a body of water which is Sodus Bay from whence the village takes its name.  It is in the northeastern part of the Town of Sodus.

During the War of 1812, it was burned (except for one building) by a British raiding party (which I have been writing a real lot about lately).

In the 19th century, the area became an important port on Lake Ontario, but the locating of the Erie Canal to the south shifted transportation patterns.  By the late 19th century it became a popular vacation resort.

Population in the 2010 census was 900.

--Brock-Perry

Battle of Sodus Point: Bryam Green

U.S. Congressman.  Graduated from Williams College, Massachusetts, in 1808.  While a student there in 1806, he was one of five participants in the Haystack Prayer Meeting which is regarded as the launching point of the American Church Missionary service.

He was a professor at a college in South Carolina in 1810.  He studied law, was admitted to the bar and  practiced it in Sodus, New York.

During  the War of 1812, he  served in the military and fought  in the Battle of Sodus Point.

After the war, he was  a member of the New York State Assembly (1816-1822) and served in the New York State Senate (1823-1824).  In 1843, he was elected Democrat to the Twenty-eighth  U.S. Congress, serving  until 1845.

After leaving Congress, he lived in retirement until his death at age 79.

--Brock-Perry

Battle of Sodus Point: Three Americans Taken Prisoner (the Free Mason, the Idiot and the Black Man)

Three Americans were taken prisoner by the British during the confusion of the battle (well, more of a skirmish than battle).

They were Christopher Britton, Harry Skinner and Gilbert Saulter.

Of interest, Gilbert Saulter was a black man who had shouldered his musket to fight side by side with his white brothers.

The enemy put these men ashore before departing.  Tradition has it that Britton was released because he was a Free Mason and that Skinner convinced them that he was a drink or idiotic and carried on in such a manner that the British commander lost his patience and ordered his men to "put the damned fool on shore."

No one knows why Saulter was put ashore, but possibly because of his race.

--Brock-Perry

This Month in the War of 1812, July

From the American Battlefield Trust.

JULY 3, 1814

**  American troops under  Major General Jacob Brown cross Niagara River and capture Fort Erie.

JULY 12, 1812

**  General William Hull invades Canada from Detroit.

JULY 17, 1812

**  Fort Michilimakinac surrenders to British-Canadian forces.

JULY 22, 1814

**  Treaty of Greenville

JULY 25, 1814

**  Battle of Lundy's Lane, one of the fiercest battles of the war.

--Brock-Perry

The Battle of Sodus Point, Asher Warner's Grave

Asher Warner is buried in the  Brick Church Cemetery, his grave marked by a  monument erected years later  by the younger son, Jonathan.  While the date of death on the tombstone is given as  June 12, 1813, and this date is sometimes given in newspaper accounts of the period, affidavits filed in attempts to get compensation, and other credible evidence, establish the 19th as the correct date.

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The marker reads:

In memory of  ASHER WARNER who fell in the Battle of Sodus  June 12, 1813 while fighting in the defence of his country.

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In 1927, the General Swift Chapter, Daughters of 1812, placed two boulders with bronze plaques at Sodus Point, one at the site of the engagement, and the other at the site of the Mansion House where Mr. Warner died.

--Brock-Perry

Battle of Sodus Point, Some More on the Death of Asher Warner: The Pathetic Story

The story of the return of Asher Warner's remains to his home is a pathetic  one.  The Warner family -- Asher, Mrs. Warner and two boys (children of Mr. Warner by a former wife) -- lived about one-half mile from the Brick Church (near Wallington).

Word reached the family that Mr. Warner had been killed.  Twelve year old Daniel harnessed a horse to the lumber wagon and drove his lonely way through the many miles of woods to Sodus Point, reaching there between sundown and dark.

Isaac Davidson and another man helped take his father's blood-soaked body from the tavern and place it in the wagon.  In utter darkness and with his gruesome burden, the boy wended his way back, counting every hoof beat that brought him nearer home.  But he arrived to find the log house dark and deserted,  His stepmother, displaying  shameful callousness, had taken five-year-old Jonathan with her and departed fo a neighbor's house two or three miles away.

Daniel had to go nearly a mile for help.  He got John Peeler, a boy about his own age,  and the two children alone and at midnight carried the body from the wagon to the house, keeping watch over it until nine or ten o'clock the next morning when neighbors came and prepared the remains for burial.

--Brock-Perry

Battle of Sodus Point: The Story of Asher Warner and Charles Terry

Two Americans were mortally wounded and several others were struck in the initial British volley.  The next morning, the British opened a slight cannonade, landed a small force, seized te few supplies in the warehouses and then  set all the buildings except one on fire.

The building saved was the Mansion House.  This building was spared because Asher Warner, one of the two Americans wounded in the initial volley, had been picked up by the British and carried to the tavern where he died a few hours later.

It is said that   the man who had been locked in the  Lummis Mill (Isaac Davidson), found the dead man in the tavern.  Clutched in his hand still was the pitcher of water the British had given him.]

Charles Terry, also wounded in the fray, lived about seven miles south of the point.  He returned home by wagon soon after  receiving his wound.  It is said that when his wife heard he was on his way home, injured,  she started on foot through the mud and rain to meet the wagon.

He was in bed  for about two weeks and it was thought that he would recover.  Feeling better, he got up and walked to the door, caught cold and died some days later, aged about 48 years.

--Brock-Perry

Some Sodus Point Stories-- Part 3: 'Hide and Seek' in the Woods

The British did not get as much of the American supplies as they had hoped for.

Of course, a big part of the reason was that the Americans had moved the supplies of flour, pork and whiskey farther inland.  This was a result of a sugestion by Daniel Arms.  The town of Sodus was organized  in his home and he had seen to it that the supplies were removed.

The other reason is that the British were careless with what they did find.  They rolled barrels out of second floor windows which caused them to crash and break open.

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Other Incidents

**  Charles Eldridge was heard to yell from the bushes early in the fighting:  "I am killed.  I am killed."  Examination showed that he had only a slight flesh wound in his neck.

**  George Palmer said that while making a good run for the rear, he passed Elder Norton, then not a young man but a gruff one.  Norton said, "Go on, don't wait for me, I won't run."

**  Major Farr and Lieutenant Nathaniel Merrill played some kind of "Hide and Seek" with each other in the woods, each thnking the other was an enemy.  Farr got so tangledd up in the woods that he did not find his way out until the morning.

--Brock-Perry

Some Sodus Point Stories: Leadership and Tactics Changes

Eventually, some sixty Americans gathered in town to defend it.  Leadership of the group passed around.

When they first gathered they chose as leader the Rev. Seba Norton, called "Elder" Norton, the builder and pastpr of  the Brick Church near Sodus Center (the oldest church in Sodus).  He had been a soldier in the American Revolution and was known as a man of courage.

Later, however, Captain Elias  Hull of Lyons, a regular member of the militia, arrived and took command.

"When the British were about to land at Sodus Point, Captain Norton was there with some 50 to 60 men.  He divided them intosquads of about 10,  placed them in different ambuscades, pointing out the way to retreat if assailed, and told them to pop away as fast as they could.

"Before the British landed, however, a Colonel from Seneca Fall arrived with reinforcements.  Captain Norton told what he had done, and the colonel said he must recall the men and make what show they could in front.....  The British advanced from the water with lanterns or torches at their head.  Amasa Johnson shot down several of their lights, producing some delay and confusion."

--Brock-Perry

Some Stories from the Battle of Sodus Point: Ammi Ellsworth and Isaac Davidson 'Who in Hell Am I?'

Frim the Historic Sodus Point site.

One of the men who was at the battle on the American side was Ammi Ellsworth who lived between the point and the village of Sodus  It is said that he was one of a pair of identical twins with his brother Levi.

"Ammi, on occasion,  partook of the cup that cheers and does inebriate, and when he reached a certain stage of exhuberance, was wont to turn to a bystander and say, 'Am I Ammi, or am I not Ammi?  If I am not Ammi, then who in hell am I?' "

Another was Isaac Davidson, who was the miller at Dr. William Lummis' grist mill some  two miles west of Sodus Point near the mouth of Salmon Creek.  That evening, Davidson had been locked in the mill by mistake.  We do not know how he got out, but got to the Point in time for the battle.

The great wrought iron  hinges and superb handle of the mill is now on a resident of Sodus' home and the author wonders what it was like for Ike to get out that night.

To Get Out and Then Go Get Shot At.  Oh Boy.  --Brock-Perry