Question

3. How did Jean Lafitte contribute to the revolutionary cause?




4. What was the main accomplishment of Charles François Lallemand?




5. Why did James Long invade Texas?



6. What happened as a result of Long’s invasion?

Answer 1

LAFFITE, JEAN (1780?–1825?). Jean Laffite (Lafitte), pirate, was born in Bayonne, France, probably in 1780 or 1781, the son of a French father and a Spanish mother. He was four years younger than his more capable brother, Pierre. The family migrated to the island of Hispaniola, then fled during the turmoil of rebellion, and the brothers may have reached New Orleans by 1804. By 1808 they were involved in smuggling from Barataria to New Orleans. The brothers held shares in many privateers that sailed the Gulf and the Caribbean and brought their prizes to Barataria. While defying Governor William C. C. Claiborne's weak efforts to dislodge them, the Laffites became involved in a far-flung plot to attack Texas and Tampico; but the approach of a British fleet to attack New Orleans finally enabled Claiborne to break up Barataria in September 1814, and the plot against Mexico and Texas was suspended for a while. During the War of 1812, in September 1814, the British, attempting to gain a foothold in the lower Mississippi valley by seizing New Orleans, asked Laffite for help. Laffite, however, hoping to gain a pardon for his illegal activities and the restoration of his confiscated goods, opted instead to fight on the side of the United States. He supplied men, weapons, and his knowledge of the region, and during the battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815, his followers helped the forces led by Andrew Jackson to secure an overwhelming victory. After the battle, Laffite and his brother attempted to regain the property they had lost at Barataria. Jean Laffite went to Washington and Philadelphia in the winter of 1815–16 to lay their case before President James Madison, but in March 1816 he returned to New Orleans without success. His brother in the meantime had pledged their services to the Spanish government. Jean Laffite's first assignment was to accompany Arsène Lacarrière Latour on a mapping expedition west of Arkansas Post. He returned from this trip in November 1816. During his absence the New Orleans plotters had broadened their plan to open a port on the Texas coast that would serve as a haven for privateers and as a base for an attack against Texas.

Answer 2

LALLEMAND, CHARLES FRANÇOIS ANTOINE (1774–1839). Charles Lallemand, an exiled Napoleonic general who founded an illegal military colony on the Trinity River in 1818, was born in Metz, France, on June 23, 1774. He entered the cavalry during the French Revolution (1792) and by 1811 rose to brigadier general, baron of the empire, and commandant of the Legion of Honor while serving in France, Egypt, Santo Domingo, and Spain. During a trip to New York in 1804 Lallemand married a sixteen-year old Creole called Caroline, born Marie Charlotte Henriette Lartigue. In 1815 Charles Lallemand and his younger brother Henri-Dominique- supposedly serving in the army of Louis XVIII-attempted unsuccessfully to lead a rebellion against the royal government, which resulted in their arrest. When Napoleon arrived in Paris and replaced the Bourbon government, he rewarded their efforts with a brevet of general of a division. After the battle of Waterloo, as the Allies began to occupy Paris, Charles Lallemand accompanied Napoleon to Rochefort, where the former emperor surrendered himself to Captain Maitland on board the Bellerophon. The British refused to allow Charles Lallemand to accompany Napoleon into exile and imprisoned him in Malta for two months before permitting him to escape. Lallemand and the other officers who instigated the rebellion against Louis XVIII were condemned to death in absentia. Considered incorrigible, the Lallemand brothers were exempted from subsequent amnesties.

From the moment of Napoleon's surrender, Charles Lallemand was continuously identified in the United States and British newspapers as "Lallemand, the elder, who accompanied the Emperor when he surrendered. . ." Lallemand galvanized the world's attention and concern, and he came to symbolize the remains of imperial glory in a world-wide contest with Bourbon and Allied powers. In 1817 Lallemand arrived in Philadelphia and became the president of the French Emigrant Association (the Society for the Cultivation of the Vine and Olive), which obtained a grant of four townships in the portion of the Mississippi Territory that became Alabama. Remaining in contact with Sainte Helena, Lallemand established American mining, military, and piratical connections, under constant surveillance of the French, Spanish, and U.S. officials. Lallemand and his followers accepted Alabama land grants, which were sold to finance an alternative colony in Texas on land disputed between the United States and Spain since the Louisiana Purchase. With diplomatic attention focused on Texas and rumors flying, the repercussions of this French intrusion would be international. Many people expected Lallemand and his followers to rescue Napoleon from Sainte Helena or set his brother Joseph, formerly King of Spain, upon a Latin American throne, thereby establishing a base for liberating Central and South America. Lallemand possibly considered these options, as well as liberating Florida from Spain.

Answer 3

James I reigned as King of England from 1603 to 1625. He was also James VI of Scotland from 1567 till 1625.

Answer 4

From 1941 to 1944 America and its allies pursued the goal of defeating "Germany First." Their strategy rested on a key assumption, ultimately there would have to be a massive invasion of Northwest Europe aimed at the heart of the Axis empire. This would reduce German pressure on the Soviet Union by creating a true "second front" in Europe. Germany would be trapped between the Soviets in the east and the Americans and British in the west.

By 1943 success on the battlefield and production in the factories made it possible to begin formal planning for this bold operation,the largest amphibious invasion in history. The target date was spring 1944.

In Berlin, Hitler understood that an invasion would come. Fortification of the coast of Northwest Europe was already underway. In 1943 its pace accelerated and more troops were posted in the west. The Germans expected the invasion in early 1944. They knew that it would determine the war's outcome. What they did not know was precisely when and where the Allies would strike.