Empire's Eagles: The Fate of the Napoleonic Elite in America

by Thomas E. Crocker

Overview

The never-before told story of how Napoleon's top brass escaped to America after Waterloo. Empire's Eagles is colorful, new, and an effectively unknown chapter in American history. In its center is the mystery of whether Napoleon's "Bravest of the brave," Marshal Ney, cheated a firing squad to escape under an alias and reinvent himself in America. At sunset on June 18, 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte was in desperate flight from the battlefield at Waterloo. Racing to reach Paris, he abandoned on the road his armored coach and Imperial necessaire containing a fortune in precious gems and cash. Would he stand and fight again or flee to the United States of America? On the run and with his options dwindling by the day, Napoleon came within one hour of secretly slipping to America on a Baltimore privateer with the active collusion of the United States consul in Bordeaux. Empire's Eagles tells the details of this story for the first time ever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633886544
Publisher:	Prometheus Books
Publication date:	04/01/2021
Pages:	456
Sales rank:	1,112,688
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Thomas E. Crocker is the author of Braddock's March: How the Man Sent To Seize a Continent Changed American History, which received the 2011 Distinguished Book Award from both the New York and District of Columbia Societies of Colonial Wars. Mr. Crocker is currently a member of the Cox Book Prize committee of the Society of the Cincinnati and of the Distinguished Book Prize committee of the General Society of Colonial Wars. In addition to being a published historian, the author is an honors graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School. For over 40 years he was a partner in a major national law firm and a U.S. diplomat. He lives in Washington, DC.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Maps vii

Preface ix

Chapter 1 Little Drummer Boy 1

Chapter 2 Bonaparte's Retreat 5

Chapter 3 The Enabler 39

Chapter 4 The Hounds of Retribution 63

Chapter 5 The Philadelphia Story 87

Chapter 6 The Altruistic Adventurers 111

Chapter 7 The Alarming Adventurers 123

Chapter 8 The Strange Case of Michel Ney, the "Bravest of the Brave, "Duke of Elchingen, Prince of Moscow, and Marshal of France 155

Chapter 9 The Flight, Trial, and Execution of Marshal Ney 201

Chapter 10 The Eyewitnesses 239

Chapter 11 Was Marshal Ney Executed? 295

Appendix A Principal U.S. Foreign Policy Decision Makers Responsible for France, 1809-1823 361

Appendix B Letter from P. S. Ney to Former President James Madison 363

Notes 365

Bibliography 407

Acknowledgments 415

Index 417

About the Author 431

Editorial Reviews

A long-overdue look at the fate of the great French high command after their humiliation at Waterloo. Of particular interest is the little-known effort of Napoleon I to flee to America—to found a new state! Crocker has fashioned a must-read tale of intrigue and adventure for all Franco-American history lovers.” —Harlow Giles Unger, author of Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence

"Crocker’s Empire's Eagles is a gripping, eye-opening account of a little-known but important consequence of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo: the surprisingly large number of high-ranking military men and other Bonapartists who came to the United States—and the mystery surrounding the fate Marshal Michel Ney, one of Napoleon’s top generals. This is an engagingly written, deeply researched and valuable story of the Early American Republic. Highly recommended.” —Marc Leepson, author of Lafayette: Idealist General, Flag: An American Biography, and Saving Monticello

“Empire’s Eagles vividly reassembles the lives of great men whose world shattered at Waterloo. Tom Crocker follows them as they flee the cordite haze of the battlefield, elude vindictive Bourbon agents, and venture into the dank forests of frontier Alabama and the contested wilds of Texas. His bold story sheds new light on connections between the fall of the Napoleonic empire and the rise of the American empire.” —Gregory May, author of Jefferson’s Treasure: How Albert Gallatin Saved the New Nation from Debt

"Gripping. Crocker’s case on Marshal Ney/Peter Stuart Ney is well done."  —Dr. Larrie D. Ferreiro, author of the 2017 Pulitzer finalist Brothers at Arms

"A lively, well-written exploration of a little-known chapter of American history peopled with fascinating characters."-Kirkus

From the Publisher

2021-01-06
Historical excavation of the members of Napoleon’s inner circle who fled to America following the collapse of his regime.

Former attorney and U.S. diplomat Crocker takes up the story in 1815, shortly after Waterloo. Fleeing the victorious British and Prussian armies, Napoleon reached the vicinity of Bordeaux. There, with the help of Consul William Lee, he hoped to escape to America, where he “envisioned a new, private life.” Ultimately, he decided to surrender to the British, but many of his officers and other associates sailed to the U.S. Several members of that group, including Napoleon’s brother Joseph, settled near Philadelphia. Crocker describes their careers and the fates of some of their longer-range projects: A wine- and olive-growing community in Alabama failed due to inhospitable climate, as did an attempt to colonize a stretch of Texas. A proposal to install Joseph as king of one of the Spanish colonies, possibly Mexico, drew strong opposition because it “would have upset the delicate relations between the United States and Spain and would have had profound reverberations in England and France as well.” In the final chapters, Crocker looks at the career of P.S. Ney, a North Carolina schoolteacher who was believed by many who met him to be Marshal Ney, one of Napoleon’s generals. The author arrays the evidence for and against the supposition, mainly in the form of reminiscences of Ney’s former students 40 to 50 years afterward. The key issues are whether Marshal Ney’s execution in France could have been faked; whether the descriptions of the two men are different enough that they could not be the same person; and whether there is any record of P.S. Ney’s independent existence prior to his appearance in America. Crocker leans toward the conclusion that the two are different, but he concedes that there remains room for doubt.

A lively, well-written exploration of a little-known chapter of American history peopled with fascinating characters.

Kirkus Reviews