Napoleon's Soldiers in America

The surprising history of the French fighters who came to America—and helped build the young nation—after Napoleon’s defeat and exile.

Early-nineteenth-century Europe had been in turmoil. The Napoleonic Wars that once ravaged the continent had ended, Napoleon had been exiled to St. Helena, and his Grande Armee lay in disarray. His most devoted officers and men, refusing allegiance to the hated Bourbons, looked for new and distant lands.

With hope, if not enthusiasm, they came to America. Most of them remained to help build an emerging nation. Among their number were many of the skilled minds—the engineers, generals, architects, city planners, and newspaper publishers—whose contributions to a young America were vital and whose legacies still endure.

In recounting the saga of these former Napoleonics, Simone de la Souch’re Del’ry has drawn extensively from documents, letters, relics, and other treasured family heirlooms in the possession of their descendants. Countless Americans today can trace their ancestry to these hardy exiles who, in the manner of the Pilgrims two centuries earlier, sailed to America in search of a new life.