On January 8, 1862 President and Mrs. Lincoln attended a celebration hosted by the 55th New York Infantry at Tennalytown, D.C. to mark their receipt of a new regimental flag. Newspaper reports from the winter of 1861-62 are full of stories about various regiments being presented with regimental flags in events attended by prominent home state politicians. What made this particular flag presentation unique was that the regiment was comprised heavily of French-born New Yorkers who had answered their adopted homeland's call for volunteers. The flag presentation ceremony was scheduled for January 8th to coincide with the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans, a battle in which French Creoles had fought with Americans against the British. This at a time when Washington was stridently trying to ensure that England and France did not intervene in the war on the Confederacy's behalf. Besides, this regiment also knew how to dine.
The 55th New York had its roots in a state militia unit affectionately known as "Guard Lafayette," due to its large number of French emigres. The regiment was organized and led by Colonel Baron Phillipe Regis de Trobirand, a French aristocrat who emigrated to the U.S. in 1841. After initial training on Staten Island, the regiment departed southward, arriving in Washington in the fall of 1861. It was soon assigned to garrison duty in the Defenses of Washington. The unit was posted to Fort Gaines on what is now the campus of American University. Today there are no extant remains of the fort which was approximately where AU's Katzen Arts Center now stands. Constructed in the fall of 1861, the fort was armed with five 32-pounder seacoast guns and a single 4.5 inch rifled cannon.
Historian James Johnston writes that "the exotic-looking regiment marched out of the city to its band playing the French March, to its men singing the “Marseillaise” and the “Chant des Girondins,” and to the likely bewilderment and bemusement of Washingtonians." In addition to its French Algerian-style Zouave uniforms, the regiment was also noted for exquisite French cuisine.
President Lincoln is said to have pronounced his dinner with the 55th as "the best meal he had had in Washington. Other accounts quote the president as stating to the 55th that "if you fight as well as you treat your guests, victory is assured to us." Colonel de Trobriand recounted the banquet in a letter home: "It was the pride of the regiment to serve nothing which had not been prepared by its culinary artists. The triumph of the latter was complete but costly, in the sense that the cooks, having given too good proof of talent, were very soon carried off by the Generals, who had them detailed to their quarters. I thus lot a half-dozen fighting men, whom the fires of the kitchen saved from the fire of the enemy."
Within a few months, the 55th would break camp in Tennallytown and board transports bound for the Peninsula. There, the regiment participated in its first engagement during the Battle of Williamsburg on May 5, 1862. The regiment and its commander would distinguish themselves in the Army of the Potomac's campaigns. Shortly after the war ended, Trobriand published his war memoirs in French noting, "I relate them, not as a Frenchman who has taken part in a foreign war, but as an American who has fought for the country of his adoption and for the institutions of his choice."
Photograph of Regis de Trobriand after he had been promoted to the rank of Brigadier General (Library of Congress) |
Sources:
Cooling, Benjamin Franklin III and Walton H. Owen II. Mr. Lincoln's Forts: A Guide to the Civil War Defenses of Washington. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2010.
Johnston, James H. "Lincoln's French Toast," The New York Times, Opinionator, Disunion, January 7, 2012.
Washington Evening Star, January 9, 1862.
Post, Marie Caroline. The Life and memoirs of Comte Regis de Trobirand, Major-General in the Army of the United States. E.P. Dutton & Company, 1910.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI have gone through your post and came to know that it is regarding the illusion of control. But this concept is not at all clear to me. I would like to know more on this topic. Please provide it.abcya boy games
ReplyDeletejogos friv online
Jogos live
jogos friv 4 school
TAKE A MINUTE OF YOUR TIME TO READ THIS. This is my story, and how one person changed my life for good.
ReplyDeleteI lost my job and there was no hope for me. I suffered looking for a job and luckily I came across Mr Bernie Doran on a review about Forex, NFT, Binary, and Crypto trade. I borrowed
$2000 from a colleague to invest with Mr Bernie platform , thank goodness I made a profit of $22,000 on the first week, reinvested 5000, and withdrew the remaining balance directly to my bank account. I. was able to pay my friend, and convinced him to invest as well. I'm very grateful to him for helping me
manage my trading account. I will advise all of you who want to invest for the future and a better tomorrow should start with Mr Bernie Doran
Contact him on WhatsApp : + 1 (424) 285 - 0682 or his Gmail: Berniedoransignals@ gmail. com
i stumbled across your site by accident (i think following a link trail from someone else's site) and i wanted to let you know how much joy and nostalgia this gave me, I just want to say Bitcoin has bounced back and is currently trading slightly above $60,000 support zone against the US Dollar and the bulls are so much in charge to see BTC to $100,000 and ahead.