86. John Shaw to Paul Hamilton, October 27, 1812, M-125, NA.
SEVEN
1. Presentment, October 27, 1814, United States vs. Leverne Cortais, Case #0782; Libel of Jayme Fontenals, October 7, 1814, Jayme Fontenals vs. Schooner La Cometa, Case #0730, NAFW; Faye, "Privateersmen," p. 1018.
2. Renato Beluche vs. Ship Jane, Case #0552, NAFW.
3. Deposition of Bertrande Priella, October 7, 1814, United States vs. Dominique Youx, Case #0779, NAFW.
4. Galveston, Daily News, September 19, 1926; New Orleans, Louisiana Gazette and New-Orleans Advertiser, March 11, 13, 1813.
5. Vincent Nolte, The Memoirs of Vincent Nolte. Reminiscences in the Period of Anthony Adverse or Fifty Years in Both Hemispheres (New York, 1934), p. 188–89.
6. New Orleans, Louisiana Gazette and New-Orleans Advertiser, March 18, 1813.
7. Morphy to Apodaca, March 11, 1813, Legajo 1828, AGI-Newberry.
8. Proclamation, March 15, 1813, Dunbar Rowland, ed., Official Letter Books of W .C. C. Claiborne 1801–1816 (Jackson, MS, 1917), VI, pp. 232–33.
9. Claiborne to Wilkinson, March 15, 1813, Rowland, Letter Books, VI, p. 216.
10. "The Baratarians vs. the United States: A Chronology, 1812–1815," Laffite Study Group Newsletter, VII (Spring 1987), p. 2.
11. New Orleans, Louisiana Gazette and New-Orleans Advertiser, March 13, 1813.
12. New Orleans, Gazette, May 6, 1813.
13. Anonymous note, June 21, 1813, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
14. Suit, April 3, 1813, Jean Baptiste Soubie transfer, June 8, 1813, Paul Lanusse vs. Jean Jannetty, Vincent Gambi, et al., Case #10, First Judicial Court, NOPL; Statement of Andrew Whiteman, April 25, 1814, United States vs. Certain Goods, etc., Minutes, III, pp. 306–7, M-1082, NA. Whiteman specifically states that the goods taken to New Orleans by the Laffites and hidden there were later seized.
15. James Wilkinson, Memoirs of My Own Times (Philadelphia, 1816), III, pp. 341–42.
16. Bollaert, "Lafitte," p. 436; Galveston, Weekly News, October 11, 1883. This is according to the recollection of John Ijams, who claimed to have spent time with the Laffites as a boy.
17. Nolte, Memoirs, pp. 188–89.
18. The Pirate of the Gulf, transcription of unidentified newspaper clipping ca. 1873, Jean Laffite Vertical File, LSM.
19. There are tempting suggestions that Pierre Laffite could have been commanding a privateer out of Charleston this summer. A "Peter Lafete" took command of the privateer the Eagle, commissioned June 28, 1813. The same source also records the commissioning of the American privateer the Hazard on June 12, 1813, commanded by "Peter Lamason," who is probably the same Lameson who served as an officer aboard the La Diligent, and who would have frequent later associations with the Laffites. (Commission 742 issued to Peter Lafete, June 28, 1813, Certificate 740 issued to Peter Lamason, June 12, 1813, Return of Commissions Issued to Private Armed Vessels, from the Month June 1813 to this date, by Simeon Theus, collector, Charleston, S.C., Letters from Collectors of Customs Relating to Commissions of Privateers, 1812–1815, Entry 388, RG 45, NA). The Eagle put out on cruise July 5, 1813, bound for Cartagena, and was several times seen thereafter: off Cape Tiburon in July; then Cuba in August, where she encountered Beluche; then in October off Jamaica, where she encountered the Philanthrope, a prize taken by Beluche and soon to be commanded by Gambi (Charleston, Courier, July 5, August 4, October 29, 1813). Pierre certainly disappears from the record in Louisiana after early June 1813, but the Charleston Peter Lafete is almost certainly a different character, and one willing to privateer within the law. A Frances Laffatte also had a ship L'Esperance seized in New Orleans on May 26, 1813, but there appears to be no connection with the Laffites (Register of Ships Seized in New Orleans, April 26, 1817, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA).
20. Thomas Flournoy to J. F. H. Claiborne, August 3, 1846, J. F. H. Claiborne Papers, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, MS. In describing this episode some years later, Flournoy spoke only of "a man called Laffite, (said to be at the head of the smugglers & pirates,)" without identifying whether it was Jean or Pierre. Jean is not known to have had a mistress as of this period, whereas Pierre certainly did, which argues that Pierre was the man in question. He was also at this stage still the public face of the brothers' operation in New Orleans, far better known than Jean. Nor does Flournoy precisely date the episode. It had to have happened between June 1813, when Flournoy took command, and November 4, when Claiborne issued a proclamation mentioned by Flournoy as a subsequent event. J. F. H. Claiborne, Life and Times of Gen. Sam. Dale, the Mississippi Partisan (New York, 1860), pp. 87–89n, reproduces this letter but with extensive revision in the wording, considerably changing Flournoy's meaning in places.
21. Henry D. Peire to Flournoy, August 15, 1813, Flournoy to P. Dubourg, August 27, 1813, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
22. H. D. Peire to Dubourg, October 3, 1817 [1813], Ibid.
23. Deposition of Thomas Copping, July 1813, Sabourin Papers, Tulane.
24. Foley to Mr. Portier, July 10, 1813, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
25. William Jones to P. F. Dubourg, August 24, 1813, Secretary of the Navy Letters, Naval Records, M-175, RG 56, NA.
26. Gilbert to Freeman, August 1813, copy in Laffite Society Research Collection, Sam Houston Regional Library, Liberty, TX.
27. George Robert Gleig, The Campaigns of the British Army at Washington and New Orleans in the Years 1814—1813 (London, 1847), p. 192; Statement of Pierre Laffite, n.d., United States vs. Schooner Presidente, Case #0811, NAFW.
28. Faye, "Privateersmen," p. 1029.
29. Faye, "Privateersmen," p. 1029.
30. Deposition of Andrew Whiteman, November 24, 1813, Entry 949, RG 59, NA.
31. Arrest orders, April 20, July 20, 24, October 18, 1813, United States vs. Pierre Laffite, Case #0574; Arrest orders, April 20, July 24, October 16, 1813, United States vs. Jean Laffite, Case #0573, NAFW.
32. Gilbert to Dubourg, October 1, 1813, List of goods seized by Walker Gilbert, September 28, 1813, Foley to Dubourg, September 28, 1813, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
33. Foley to Dubourg, October 4, 1813, Ibid.
34. Gilbert to Dubourg, October 8, 1813, List of goods seized by Walker Gilbert, October 8, 1813, Ibid.
35. Deposition of Andrew Whiteman, November 24, 1813, with interlineations dated December 6, 1813 and July 18, 1814, Sabourin Papers, Tulane; William Randall to Dubourg, December 10, 1813, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
36. Foley to Dubourg, October 22, 1813, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
37. G. W. Campbell to P. Dubourg, July 22, 1814, M-175, RG 56; Gilbert to Dubourg, December 2, 1813, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
38. Gilbert to Dubourg, December 2, 1813, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
39. Gilbert to Dubourg, October 29, 1813, Ibid.
40. Deposition of Hypolite Bourgouin, July 11, 1814, Sabourin Papers, Tulane. This episode is also described in Gayarré, Pirate-Patriots, p. 57, though Gayarré attributes it to Jean Laffite, which is impossible. In any event, Bourgouin specifically states that it was Pierre whom he encountered.
41. James Miller to Dubourg, October 26, 1813, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
42. Shaw to Dubourg, October 24, 1813, Ibid.
43. William W. Kimball to Don C. Seitz, December 26, 1919, Miscellaneous Manuscripts, LSU.
44. Robert C. Vogel, "Jean Laffite, the Baratarians, and the Historical Geography of Piracy in the Gulf of Mexico," Gulf Coast Historical Review, V (Spring 1990) pp. 64–65.
45. Castellanos, New Orleans as It Was, pp. 151–52.
46. Deposition of Andrew Whiteman, November 24, 1813, Sabourin Papers, Tulane.
47. List of goods taken by Jas. Robinson at Patton and Mossy [Morphy, Murphys] auction house, October 9, 1813, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
48. James Miller to Dubourg, October 26, 1813, Ibid.
49. Walker Gilbert to Dubourg, October 29, 1813, Ibid.
50. Foley to Dubourg, October 22, 1813, Ibid. The full extent of the Laffite-Dumon
relation is hard to discern. Fragments of a suit against Dumon by Pierre Laffite, including an affidavit dated July 29, 1816, have been interpreted to suggest that Pierre and Dumon were engaged in a contest over control of land fronting the Attakapas Canal that connected Bayou Lafourche with Lake Verret, the vital smuggling route much used by the Laffites in this period. However, the original document, identified as Suit No. 34, Second Judicial Court, August 17, 1816, Clerk of Court, Ascension Parish, Donaldsonville, LA, cannot be found. All that survives is a partial photocopy that says nothing of the canal and only indicates that Dumon owed Laffite $3,075.50 that Pierre sought a seizure order to obtain (copy courtesy of Robert Vogel). John Howells, who found the original and was presumably the last person to see it, said that it dealt with the canal, which is possible. In any case, the suit is evidence of a continuing relationship between the Laffites and Dumon, if not in the end an amicable one.
51. Foley to Dubourg, October 30, 1813, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
52. Walker Gilbert to Dubourg, October 29, 1813, Ibid.
53. Foley to Dubourg, October 22, 1813, Ibid.
54. C. Wolstonecraft to Dubourg, October 8, 1813, Ibid.
55. William Jones to Pierre F. Dubourg, September 27, 1813, M-178, RG 56, NA.
56. Oath of John Foley, October 17, 1813, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
57. Walker Gilbert to Dubourg, October 29, 1813, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
58. Foley to Dubourg, October 15, 1813, Ibid.
59. B. Hubbard to Dubourg, November 10, 1813, Ibid.
60. John Hughes to P. Dubourg, November 5, 1813, Ibid.
61. Gilbert to Dubourg, November 15, 1813, Ibid.
62. J. W. Windship to William Plumer, November [December] 1, 1813, Everett'S. Brown, ed., "Letters from Louisiana, 1813–1814," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XI (March 1925), pp. 575—76.
63. Foley to Dubourg, December 7, 1813, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
64. Gilbert to Freeman, February 18, 1814, Historical Land Title Records Section, Louisiana State Land Office, Baton Rouge.
65. Fine, July 19, 1813, United States vs. Antonio Ruiz and Francis Lacarter, Case #0596, NAFW.
66. John Brackenridge to William Shaler, December 27, 1813, cited in Warren, Sword, p. 100.
67. Patterson to William Jones, November 15, 1813, Letters Received by the Secretary of the Navy from Commanders, 1804–1886, M147, NA.
68. Patterson to Jones, November 22, 1813, Ibid.
69. Daniel Patterson to Secretary of the Navy, November 23, 1813, Ibid.
70. Claiborne to Benjamin Rush, October 30, 1814, Gayarre, Pirate-Patriots, p. 68.
71. Proclamation, November 24, 1813, Rowland, Letter Books, VI, pp. 279—80.
72. Windship to Plumer, November [December] 1, 1813, Brown, "Letters from Louisiana," pp. 575–76. This letter is clearly misdated as November 1, since it mentions Claiborne's reward of November 25. Obviously, as commonly happens, the writer wrote it on December 1 but neglected to note the new month. Interestingly, he does not name Laffite specifically, and mistakenly refers to him as a French general, but there is no mistaking about whom he writes. This is the earliest verifiable reference to Laffite offering a reward for Claiborne. Over the years the amount of the reward would come to be exaggerated to $5,000 or more.
73. Flournoy to Claiborne, August 3, 1846, Claiborne Papers, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson.
74. Gilbert to Thomas Freeman, February 18, 1814, Historical Land Title Records Section, Louisiana State Land Office, Baton Rouge.
EIGHT
1. Foley to Dubourg, January 16 1814, Ibid.
2. Morphy to Apodaca, January 19, 1814, Legajo 1836, AGI-Newberry.
3. Gilbert to Dubourg, January 14, 1814, Ibid.
4. William C. C. Claiborne to Dubourg, January 24, 1814, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
5. Oath of John Stout, October 4, 1813, Letter of recommendation, September 23, 1813, Ibid.
6. James D. Stout to Dubourg, March 2, 1814, Ibid.
7. Morphy to Apodaca, January 19, 1814, Legajo 1836, AGI-Newberry. Morphy knowing of the captured officers on January 19 suggests that the news had just come into town, likely the day before.
8. Gilbert to Thomas Freeman, February 18, 1814, "Letters from Surveyor to Surveyor General, 1807–1824," Cabinet C-5, Louisiana State Land Office Archives, Baton Rouge, LA.
9. Paul Lanusse vs. Jean Jeanetty, Vincent Gambi, et al., Case #10, First Judicial Court, NOPL.
10. Paul Lanusse et al. vs. Pierre Laffite, Case #300, Parish Court Civil Suit Records, NOPL.
11. Court order, March 8, 1814, notation March 9, 1814, Paul Lanusse et al. vs. Pierre Laffite, Case #300, Parish Court Civil Suit Records, NOPL.
12. Summons, March 8, 1814, notation March 9, 1814, Paul Lanusse et al. vs. Pierre Laffite, Case #300, Parish Court Civil Suit Records, NOPL.
13. New Orleans, Courier de la Louisiane, March 16, 1814.
14. Marie Louise Villard to Eugenie Tressanceaux, September 1, 1815, Notary Pierre Pedesclaux, Vol. 71, item 827, NONA.
15. Henry Peire to Dubourg, February 21, 1814, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
16. James Miller to Dubourg, February 3, 1814, Ibid.
17. "A—Z Town of Donaldson" to Dubourg, February 25, 1814, Ibid.
18. Claiborne to Dubourg, February 9, 1814, Ibid.
19. Flournoy to Dubourg, March 3, 1814, Ibid.
20. Patterson to Dubourg, March 7, 1814, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
21. Flournoy to Dubourg, March 7, 1814, Ibid.
22. Deposition of Jose Rodriguez and Joseph Lor, July 12, 1814, Sabourin Papers, Tulane. Faye, "Privateersmen," p. 1034, mistakenly says it was the Legislateur that took the Amiable Maria.
23. Mariano Medina y Madrid to Morphy, May 13, 1814, Morphy to Apodaca, May 20, 1814, and enclosure, Legajo 1836, AGI-Newberry.
24. Aury to Victoire Aury, February 24, 1814, Aury to J. Maignet, February 24, 1814, Aury Papers, CAHUT.
25. Luis Onís to Commanding General, August 20, 1813, Nacogdoches Archives Transcripts, Supplement, VIII, pp. 56–58, Robert Bruce Blake Collection, East Texas Research Center, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, TX (Blake).
26. Warren, Sword, pp. 79–80.
27. Statement, March 18, 1820, United States vs. John Desfarges et al., Case #1440, NAFW.
28. José L. Franco, Documentos Para la Historia de Mexico (Havana, Cuba, 1961), n.p., cited in Robert Vogel to the author, December 20, 2003.
29. New Orleans, L'Ami des Lois, January 6, 1814.
30. Antonio de Sedella to Apodaca, February 4, 1814, Legajo 1815, AGI-Newberry.
31. New Orleans, Le Moniteur de la Louisiane, February 12, 1814; Petition, February 12, 1814, in Sedella to Apodaca, February 23, 1814, Legajo 1815, AGI-Newberry.
32. Sedella to Apodaca, February 23, 1814, Legajo 1815, AGI-Newberry.
33. Onís to Monroe, July 18, 1814, Notes from the Spanish Legation in the United States to the Department of State, 1790–1906, Vol. 3, M-59, Record Group 59, Department of State, NA.
34. Onís to Monroe, July 18, 1814, M-59, RG 59, NA.
35. Morphy to Apodaca, June 3, 1814, Legajo 1836, AGI-Newberry.
36. Morphy to Apodaca, May 20, 1814, Legajo 1836, AGI-Newberry.
37. Morphy to Apodaca, June 3, 1814, Ibid.
38. Morphy to Apodaca, April 12, 1814, Ibid.
39. Sea protest, May 17, 1813, Notary John Lynd, Vol. 10, item 195, NONA.
40. Minutes, III, April 30, 1814, p. 309, M-1082, RG 21, NA.
41. Affidavit, December 1, 1814, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
42. Foley to Dubourg, May 10, 1814, Gilbert to Dubourg, May 3, 1814, Ibid.
43. Deposition of William Hosy, December 5, 1814, United States vs. Jean Laffite, Case #0573, NAFW; Vicente Quintanilla to Morphy, June 29, 1814, Morphy to Captain Intendent of Yucatan, July 7, 1814, Legajo 1836, AGI-Newberry.
44. "Memoir of Ellis P. Bean," Henderson Yoakum, History of Texas from Its First Settlement in 1685 to Its Annexation to th
e United States in 1846 (New York, 1856), I, pp. 447–49. Bean wrote this memoir in 1816, so his memory should have been fresh, but there appear to be some errors and confusion in chronology. See also Bennett Lay, The Lives of Ellis P Bean (Austin, 1960), p. 3. The fate of the Tigre is covered in testimony of John Oliver, n.d. [December 1814], United States vs. Jean Laffite, Case #0573, Parsons Collection, CAHUT, in which he says that Dominique "went out on the Tiger which was lost & he afterwards in a boat took the Felucca from the Spaniards."
45. Morphy to Apodaca, June 18, 1814, Legajo 1836, AGI-Newberry.
46. Sedella to Apodaca, July 10, 1814, Legajo 1815, AGI-Newberry.
47. Ibid; Marriage Book 3, p. 91, SAANO.
48. Faye, "Privateersmen," p. 1031.
49. Humbert statement, March 18, 1820, United States vs. John Desfarges et al., Case #1440, NAFW.
50. "Memoir of Ellis P. Bean," Yoakum, Texas, I, pp. 447–49; Morphy to Apodaca, November 3, 1814, José Antonio Pedroza manifesto, October 30, 1814, Legajo 1836, AGI-Newberry. The arrival of Dominique and Humbert at Barataria is fixed approximately by testimony of John Oliver, n.d. [December 1814], United States vs. Jean Laffite, Case #0573, Parsons Collection, CAHUT, in which he states that Dominique "was at Barataria when the expedition arrived [the Patterson naval attack on Barataria, September 16], he came there about 10 or 12 days or a little more from the coast of Mexico on an unarmed Felucca, & I understood that a Spanish Genl came with him & I think his name was Humbert." This would place Dominique and Humbert's arrival at around September 1–4, 1814, which is confirmed by Bean's October 21, 1814, letter in the New Orleans, L'Ami des Lois, October 25, 1814, in which he says he joined them at Barataria and then they sailed to New Orleans, arriving September 6. Isidro A. Beluche Mora, "Privateers of Cartagena," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXXIX (January 1956), pp. 86–87, places the arrival of Anaya in July, thanks to dependence on a bogus Jean Laffite journal, which misinterprets chronology thanks to the absence of dates in Bean's memoir, which was undoubtedly the source for this bit of the journal. September is unquestionably established by the Oliver statement.
The Pirates Laffite Page 57