The Pirates Laffite

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by William C. Davis


  117. Rowland, Letter Books, VI, p. 324.

  118. Latour, Historical Memoir, pp. 226–27 (Smith edition); Marigny, Reflections, pp. 65–66. Marigny's chronology is off here, for he says that the legislature passed its resolution "the next day and was passed unanimously." The resolution passed December 18, in fact, but Hall recessed the court December 15.

  119. Jackson to Samuel L. Southard, March 6, 1827, Bassett, Correspondence, III, p. 347.

  120. Marigny, Reflections, pp. 65–66.

  121. Nolte, Memoirs p. 209.

  122. Hatcher, Livingston, pp. 214–1511.

  123. John Dick to Claiborne, February 10, 1815, Entry 9, Records of the Attorney General's Office, General Records—Letters Received 1809–1870, Louisiana 1815 to 1860, Record Group 60, General Records of the Department of Justice, NA.

  124. Claiborne to John Dick, February 11, 1815, Rowland, Letter Books, VI, p. 338.

  125. John Coffee to Jackson, December 15, 1814, Moser et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, III, p. 482; W. H. K. to the editor, May 20, 1852, "Lafitte," DeBow's Southern and Western Review, XIII (August 1852), p. 204.

  126. Jean Laffite to Madison, December 27, 1815, Madison Papers, Library of Congress. In this letter Laffite says that he held the meeting "where I acquainted them with the nature of the danger which was not far off (as may be seen by the annexed document which is attested by some of the most notorious of the inhabitants which were present) a few days after a proclamation of the Governor of the state permitted us to joyne the army which was organizing for the defence of the country."

  127. Vogel argues correctly that there is no contemporary evidence of a meeting between Laffite and Jackson before December 17 and Claiborne's pardon offer proclamation. He says they might have met on Sunday, December 18, the day Jackson ordered the release of the Baratarians who agreed to volunteer, which seems reasonable (Vogel, "Battle of New Orleans," pp. 264–65). With the meeting of Jackson and Jean Laffite, as with other elements of this story, there are wild tales that later appeared in print. Perhaps the most silly is the story in Charles Ellms, The Pirates Own Book, or Authentic Narratives of the Lives, Exploits, and Executions of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers (Portland, ME, 1837), pp. 70—71, which says that Laffite met with Jackson and Claiborne in late September, when Jackson was 140 miles away at Mobile.

  128. Latour, Memoir, pp. 71—72.

  ELEVEN

  1. Enrollment December 23, 1814, Vincent Gamby Compiled Service Record, War of 1812, Records of the Adjutant General's Office, Record Group 94, NA.

  2. Smith, "Editor's Introduction," Latour, Historical Memoir; p. xvi.

  3. Ibid., pp. xx-xxi.

  4. Jackson to Michael Reynolds, December 22, 1814, Parsons Collection, CAHUT.

  5. James Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson (Boston, 1860), II, pp. 119–20, is the earliest known source for this claim that Livingston placed his family in Pierre's protection. It was repeated four years later in Hunt, Livingston, p. 204. Neither offered authority for the statement, and Hunt may have gotten it from Parton, or from the Livingston family.

  6. Letter dated January 30, 1815, "A Junior Officer's Observations from the Field of Battle," Naval Chronicle, XXXIII (April-May 1815), pp. 385–88.

  7. Jackson to Pierre Laffite, n.d. [March-April 1815], Parsons Collection, CAHUT [a copy of this is also among three items in the Jean Laffite Collection, William R. Perkins Library, Duke University, Durham, NC, but they are all photocopies of items from the Parsons Collection]. There is some ambiguity about this document. The signature certainly appears to be Jackson's. It is not explicitly addressed to Laffite, but merely to "Sir." However, attribution in a different hand says it is a recommendation to a "Lafette." Stanley Clisby Arthur, Jean Laffite, Gentleman Rover (New Orleans, 1952), pp. 130–31, reproduces the text of this letter, but cites it as being part of Case #0746, United States vs. Certain Goods and Merchandise, NAFW, a document introduced along with others in establishing the Laffites' services to the country during the crisis. Most of the other documents in the Parsons Collection came from NAFW, and some from Case #0746. Some have suggested that the Jackson letter was addressed to Claiborne, but the burden of logic, and the general provenance of the Parsons documents, leans toward Laffite as the addressee.

  8. Livingston to Jackson, December 25, 1814, Bassett, Correspondence, II, p. 125. Jane Lucas de Grummond, The Baratarians and the Battle of New Orleans (Baton Rouge, LA, 1961), p. 101, incorrectly reads this letter to mean that Jean Laffite advised Livingston.

  9. De Grummond, Baratarians, p. 104, with no supporting source, says that Jean Laffite supervised the placement and fortifying of this battery. There is, in fact, no evidence that he was even on the field at this time.

  10. Nolte, Memoirs, p. 216.

  11. Le Chevalier de Tousard to John Clement, January 6, 1815, Norman Wilkinson, ed., "The Assaults on New Orleans, 1814–1815," Louisiana History, III (Winter 1962), pp. 47–48.

  12. Gayarre, Pirate-Patriots, p. 71. Gayarre states that he was told this by an eyewitness.

  13. Nolte, Memoirs, pp. 217–18.

  14. Despite all that has been written, there is not a single reliable contemporary source that mentions Jean Laffite's whereabouts between December 22 and January 8, 1815. There are numerous references to "Mr. Laffite" with the main army, and their context makes it clear that Pierre is the one referenced.

  15. Vogel, "New Orleans," p. 274.

  16. Nolte, Fifty Years, p. 218; Gamby Service Record, RG 94, NA.

  17. Jackson to David B. Morgan, January 8, 1815, Bassett, Correspondence, II, pp. 132–33.

  18. David B. Morgan to Jackson, January 8, 1815, Ibid., VI, pp. 445–46. That the Laffite referred to in this correspondence is Pierre is confirmed by Morgan's reference to him as "Mr. Lafeete senr."

  19. John Grymes to Morgan, January 8, 1815, Parsons Collection, CAHUT.

  20. There is no certainty of this friendship between Laffite and Morgan, but in the New Orleans, Times-Picayune of August 23, 1925, appeared a miniature portrait allegedly of Pierre Laffite that antique dealer Joseph Pelletier of New Orleans claimed to have acquired from a lineal descendant of Morgan.

  21. Deposition of Michael Reynolds, July 22, 1815, United States vs. Schooner Presidente, Case #0811, NAFW.

  22. Deposition of Pierre Laffite, n.d., United States vs. Schooner Presidente, Case #0811, NAFW; Sea Protest of David Libby, February 27, 1815, Notary John Lynd, Vol. 12, item 7, NONA.

  23. Deposition of John O'Neil, n.d., United States vs. Schooner Presidente, Case #0811, NAFW.

  24. Deposition of John Antoine, June 24, 1815, United States vs. Schooner Presidente, Case #0811, NAFW.

  25. Deposition of James Thompson, June 23, 1815, United States vs. Schooner Presidente, Case #0811; Lameson statement, n.d., United States vs. Pierre Lameson, Case #0825, NAFW.

  26. Deposition of John Antoine, June 24, 1815, United States vs. Schooner Presidente, Case #0811, NAFW.

  27. Pierre Lameson commission, February 25, 1813, United States vs. Schooner Presidente, Case #0811, NAFW.

  28. Deposition of James Thompson, June 23, 1815, Deposition of Marco Bashia, June 8, 1815, Deposition of A. Miller, June 24, 1815, United States vs. Schooner Presidente, Case #0811, NAFW.

  29. Letter from New Orleans, January 13, 1815, Baltimore, Nile's Weekly Register, VII, February 11, 1815, p. 375.

  30. Letter of Anne Louis de Tousard, January 20, 1815, Wilkinson, "Assaults on New Orleans," p. 51.

  31. Lachance, "Immigrants," p. 138.

  32. St. Louis, Missouri Gazette & Illinois Advertiser, February 4, 1815.

  33. Letter dated January 20, 1814, Savannah, GA, Republican and Savannah Evening Ledger, February 21, 1815.

  34. Hunt, Livingston, p. 204.

  35. Latour, Historical Memoirs, appendix LXIX, pp. clxxxiii-clxxxv.

  36. Patterson to B. W. Crowninshield, December 29, 1814, Area 8, M-625, NA.

  37. New Orleans, Daily Delta, November 5, 1851.

  38. I
t seems especially noteworthy that Latour is silent on the subject of the brothers during the battle, since he clearly got his account of the Lockyer affair and the subsequent pardon-for-service bargain directly from Jean or Pierre Laffite. If they played any active part in the battle, or if Jean was even present on the occasion, they would surely have told their friend when he gathered accounts for the book that he would start writing within a few months after the victory. His silence, especially considering the tendency of both Laffites otherwise to exaggerate their importance, suggests that there was nothing for them to tell.

  39. Many years later a story was told that during the battle Plauché's company needed flints. Jean Laffite went aboard one of the schooners that had been taken from him at Barataria and with the help of others rolled off a keg of flints, then passed them out personally along the line. It is surely apocryphal, conflating the Laffite contribution to the battle with the established provision of the flints. New Orleans, Bulletin, August 29, 1874.

  40. Jackson to Hugh L. White, February 7, 1827, Bassett, Correspondence, II p. 339.

  41. Indictment and fine, March 31, 1815, United States vs. Andrew Jackson, Case #0791, Works Project Administration, Synopses of Cases in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana Cases #1 to #3ooo 1806–1831 (Baton Rouge, 1941), p. 91.

  42. Nolte, Memoirs, pp. 229–31.

  43. Andrew Jackson to Pierre Laffite, n.d. [March—April 1815], Parsons Collection, CAHUT.

  44. W. H. K. to the editor, May 20, 1852, "Lafitte," DeBow's Southern and Western Review, XIII (August 1852), pp. 204–5. Of course this anecdote, published thirty-seven years after the fact as a recollection supplied to an editor, may be apocryphal or embellished. Yet given the association between Pierre and Coffee during the campaign, it has the ring of authenticity. As so often happened by this time, the Laffite involved has been shifted in recollection from Pierre to Jean.

  45. James Madison Proclamation, February 6, 1815, Richardson, Messages and Papers, I, pp. 558–60.

  46. Claiborne to John Dick, February 11, 1815, Rowland, Letter Books, VI, p. 338.

  47. Later writers sometimes claimed that Grymes resigned in order to represent the Baratarians, but that simply is not true. He did not appear in court as counsel for a privateer or smuggler until the trial of William Mitchell of the Cometa in 1816. See, for instance, Gayarre, Pirate-Patriots, p. 11, and Arthur, Laffite, p. 130. Saxon, Lafitte, p. 119, builds on Gayarre, and erroneously has both Grymes and Livingston acting for the Laffites from the summer of 1814. Ramsay, Laffite, p. 46, has Livingston working to defend Pierre Laffite from August 1814.

  48. Nolle prosse entries, February 20, 1815, Cases #0770, 0771, 0772, 0773, °774, 0775, 0776, 0777, 0778, 0779, 0780, 0781, 0782, 0783, 0784, 0785, 0786, 0787, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  49. Dick to Claiborne, February 10, 1815, Entry 9, RG 60, NA; Claiborne to Dick, February 11, 1815, Rowland, Letter Books, VI, p. 338.

  50. Discontinuance, May 20, 1815, United States vs. Jean Humbert, Case #0738; Discontinuance, May 16, 1815, United States vs. J. A. De Riano, Case #0794; same for Cases #0739, 0740, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  51. George W. Morgan endorsement, May 7, 1816, on court order, March 26, 1816, Laffite vs. Sylvestre, Case #829, Parish Court Civil Suit Records, NOPL.

  52. Nolte, Memoirs, p. 207.

  53. Joaquin Provensal to Jackson, February 17, 1815, Moser et al., Papers, III, p. 516.

  54. During his research in the 1920s Lyle Saxon claimed to have found ten sources touching on Jean Laffite and women, but in his book he did not identify any of them such that they could be found and assessed today. In the quotations he gave, a few sound contemporary to the 1810s, and others more like recollections. In the absence of any original sources for the quotations Saxon presented, they have not been used here. Saxon, Lafitte, pp. 191–92.

  55. The clear and inferential connections between Catiche Villard and Marie's sister Catherine are many, more than sufficient to risk identifying the two as one and the same. In the 1850 census for Orleans Parish Catiche is found living next door to Pierre and Marie's daughter Catherine Coralie Roup, while in her own household there dwelled Adele Lafite and in the Roup home lived Alexandre Lafite (1st Ward, 3d Municipality, 1850 Census, Orleans Parish, p. 90). The possibility of a liaison with Jean Laffite predating February 1815 lies in Catiche's giving birth to a daughter Marie on November 10, 1813. The sponsors on the occasion of the baby's baptism on June 12, 1814, were Joseph Aicard and Louise Filiosa, who later sponsored Pierre and Marie's son Joseph in 1821 (Nolan and Dupont, eds., Sacramental Records of the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, Volume 11, 1812–1814, p. 434; Volume 14, 1820–1821, p. 228). However, with no father identified, and no association of the Laffite name with the baby Marie, this could easily have been a child by a prior liaison. Sources give Catiche's birth year only approximately, as early as 1780 and as late as 1794, the preponderance leaning toward 1792–93.

  56. The date of Catherine's conception is derived from the baptismal record of her son by Jean Laffite, which records the date of birth as November 4, 1815. Pierre Laffite and Marie Villard appeared at the baptism as sponsors (Nolan and Dupont, eds., Sacramental Records of the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, Volume 14, 1820–1821, p. 229).

  57. New Orleans, L'Ami des Lois, February 28, 1815.

  58. Petition of Paul Lanusse, John Francis Meriente, Claude Guillodon, and José Antonio De Riano, November 4, 1814, Paul Lanusse et al. vs. Pierre Laffite, Case #300, Parish Court Civil Suit Records, NOPL.

  59. Guilledon Cadet vs. Bellurgey, Robin, Pierre Lafitte, and William St. Marc, #2560, City Court Suit Records; William Thomas vs. Peter Laffite, #729, First Judicial Court Records, NOPL.

  60. Agreement between John Lafith and Edward Grant, April 24, 1815, Notary John Lynd, Vol. 12, item 104, NONA.

  61. One thing the Laffites definitely did not contemplate doing was going into the retail meat business. Tim Pickles, New Orleans 1813 (Oxford, UK, 2000), p. 90, reproduces a document dated January 4, 1815, credited only to an unidentified "New Orleans Auction Company." It purports to be a license granted to Pierre Laffite "to have a butcher shop on Bourbon and the intersection with St. Philip" for one year from that date. It is signed by Mayor Nicolas Girod and by Laffite. The Pierre Laffite signature does not even closely resemble his authentic signature. Moreover, the city council did not issue such licenses, and on the date specified the council did not meet, its sessions being suspended for some time because of the pending battle. The document is a forgery of unknown origin and date, and its falsity is further confirmed by its linking Laffite to the Bourbon and St. Philip intersection that tradition identified as the site of the fictional blacksmith shop.

  62. New Orleans, L'Ami des Lois, March 21, 1815.

  63. Livingston to Lewis Livingston, July 1815, Hunt, Livingston, p. 215 and n.

  64. See the French draft of Latour, Historical Memoir, in Latour Papers, HNOC.

  65. See, for instance, the Smith edition of Historical Memoir, pp. 185–93.

  66. Minutes, October 24, 1814, p. 388, M-1082, RG 21, NA.

  67. Minutes, November 29, 1814, p. 404, Ibid.

  68. Statement of J. Duplessis, December 5, December 8, 1814, Daniel Patterson vs. the General Bolivar, Case #0760, NAFW.

  69. Court order, February 20, 1815, Patterson et al. vs. 74 Pipes, Case #0762; Court order, February 25, 1815, Patterson and Ross vs. Certain Goods and Vessels Seized at Barataria, Case #0734, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  70. Claim, March 23, 1815, Francisco Ajuria vs. Schooner La Dorada, Case #0763, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  71. Court order, April 17, 1815, William Lawrence, Daniel Patterson et al. vs. Seventy Four Pipes of Wine, etc., Case #0762, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  72. Court orders, April 24, 1815, Cases #0746, 0734, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  73. Motion, April 24, 1815, United States vs. Certain Goods and Vessels Ta
ken at Barataria, Case #0746 and 0734, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  74. United States vs. Certain Goods &c Taken at Barataria, Case #0746, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  75. Court order, May 16, 1815, Diego Francisco Unzaga & others vs. Dorada alias Rosalie, Case #0763, Court order, May 16, 1815, Miguel Barcenas vs. Amiable Maria, Case #0764, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  76. Court order, May 27, 1815, Patterson, Ross & others vs. Certain Gold and Silver, Case #0750, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  77. Faye, "Great Stroke," p. 752.

  78. The extant Livingston biographies are inadequate, unfortunately, and none explore the relationship with the Laffites beyond a superficial mention.

  79. Court order, July 12, 1815, Patterson, Ross et al. vs. Certain Vessels, Goods and Merchandise taken on the Petit Milan, Case #0734, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  80. Deposition of John Blanque, April 22, 1815, United States vs. Certain Goods taken at Barataria, Case #0746, Jackson to Pierre Laffite, n.d. [March-April 1815], Parsons Collection, CAHUT; Latour, Memoir, p. 16. The surviving originals of the Lockyer documents, in the Parsons Collection, show none of the customary docketing that appears on documents submitted to the district court, suggesting that Laffite did not successfully introduce them as evidence or exhibits.

  81. Duplessis to Campbell, January 19, 1816, Entry 1627, RG, NA.

  82. Sedella to Apodaca, December 27, 1815, Legajo 1815, AGI-Newberry.

  TWELVE

  1. Toledo to the Mexican Congress, February 10, 1815, in Warren, Sword, pp. 120–21.

  2. Toledo to Bean, March 23, 1815, Papeles Dirigos por el Traidor Toledo, Archivo General de Indias Transcripts, CAHUT.

  3. John Dick to Richard Rush, August 19, 1815, M-179, RG 59, NA, says she was purchased by Julius Amigoni, but West appears to have been the owner.

 

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