In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

4 Ultra-Quixotism: The Bonapartist Invasion of Texas The discovery of the Lakanal papers effectively killed the plot to put Joseph Bonaparte on a Mexican throne—if such a plot ever really existed.1 But not all the French exiles abandoned the idea of intervening in the turbulent affairs of New Spain. In the summer of 1817 the recently arrived Gen. Charles Lallemand set in motion an audacious plan to establish a forti¤ed camp in the disputed Texas borderlands, a region claimed by both the United States and Spain. At the time, many observers suspected that it would become a base from which to invade Mexico proper. Aided by an inner circle of talented lieutenants—his own brother Henri, Gen. Antoine Rigau, and the seasoned colonial administrator George Jeannet—the charismatic General Lallemand assembled a group of followers among the military expatriates to undertake this dangerous adventure. Lallemand intended the Society for the Cultivation of the Vine and Olive to play a role in this endeavor. The Bonaparte of the New World Like so many of his fellow of¤cers-in-exile, Gen. Charles-FrançoisAntoine Lallemand had passed his entire adult life under arms.2 He had enlisted in the army at the age of seventeen and risen rapidly through the ranks. His remarkably active career took him through some of the most storied military campaigns of the age: Napoleon’s invasion of Italy, the expedition to Egypt, the attempted reconquest of Haiti, and the guerilla war in Spain. In 1815, when General Lallemand learned of Napoleon’s return from Elba, he attempted to lead a military uprising he had previously coordinated with two other generals, his younger brother, Henri, and Lefebvre-Desnouettes. Although the revolt failed and the plotters were imprisoned, Lallemand’s actions earned him Napoleon ’s gratitude and the hatred of the Bourbon regime. Back in power, Napoleon rewarded the intrepid general with the command of a mounted regiment of the Imperial Guard, at whose head he was lightly wounded at Waterloo. Returning to France with the remnants of the army, he caught up with the indecisive former emperor at the Atlantic port of Rochefort. Lallemand urged his wavering chief to escape to America. To arrange for Napoleon’s ®ight, Lallemand went to Bordeaux where the local military commander, General Clausel, put him in contact with the sympathetic American consul, William Lee, about hiring a fast ship to undertake the hazardous mission.3 But on his return to Rochefort, Lallemand found that Napoleon had decided to place himself in English custody. In a gesture of loyalty, Lallemand and other members of Napoleon ’s retinue embarked with him on the warship Bellerophon and sailed for England. The date was 16 July 1815.4 For Lallemand this was the beginning of a two-year anabasis that would take him halfway around the world before ¤nally reaching the United States.5 In what Lallemand considered a breach of trust, the British refused to release him after arriving in England, but instead dispatched him, General Savary (another of Napoleon’s eleventh-hour stalwarts), Major Schultz, and several other of¤cers to a fortress dungeon on the island of Malta. Lallemand’s incarceration was actually a blessing in disguise, for it saved him from the Bourbon military court in France, which condemned him to death in absentia on charges of treason, rebellion, and attempting to overthrow the monarchy. When ¤nally released, Lallemand boarded an English merchant ship bound for the Turkish port of Smyrna.6 There, after being rebuffed by the Sultan and evading arrest by French agents, Lallemand headed for Persia where he hoped to gain employment in the Shah’s army.7 This and a subsequent attempt to enter the service of Egypt having failed, Lallemand decided to join his younger brother, Henri, in America. Upon arriving in Boston on 11 May 1817, he was feted by enthusiastic Americans who had followed in their newspapers the hair-raising odyssey of a man portrayed in the press as one of the most heroic victims of “English Machiavellianism.”8 Lallemand was soon joined by several other late-arriving refugees from Bourbon France who would play key roles in the planning and execution of the Texas expedition. His second-in-command was Gen. Antoine Rigau, a career soldier of a socially modest, small-town background who had enlisted as a private in the infantry in 1779.9 For young men who, like himself, lacked wealth and pedigree, promotion to of¤cer...

Share