Honor Guard 

The Cabildo

The Unveiling

The Honor Guard and flag presentation were provided by the Louisiana 1801 Militia Re-enactment Group. One of the local area bands provided us with authentic French Quarter Jazz and Blues prior to the opening of the program and played the National Anthem during the Flag Ceremony. 

I had a wonderful time and the setting could not have been more perfect. The French Quarter of New Orleans still reflects a charm and a way of life that hasn't changed much in the last 100 years.

Surrounded by magnificent period buildings and little alleys alive with artists, fortune tellers,  mimes, and other curious folk and with the occasional clatter of a horse drawn wagon passing by; all in all, this was an experience not to be missed and one I will have fond memories of for a long time to come.
     

   

St. Louis
Cathedral

In 1682, the French Cavalier and explorer Rene-Robert Sieur De La Salle claimed all of the territory drained by the Mississippi River from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. He named it Louisiana in honor of the King of France.

France ceded New Orleans and all of the territory west of the Mississippi to Spain in 1762, (They ceded all of the territory east of the Mississippi and north of New Orleans to the British in 1763.) 

Napoleon Bonaparte seized supreme power in France as "The First Citizen" in 1799 and in 1800 France reacquired the territory in the secret Treaty of Ildefonso. (Napoleon became Emperor in 1804.)

Many of the freedom fighters of Haiti first gained their experience and military training during the American Revolution. Over 700 free Black Haitians fought under the French General Rochambeau during the war. Several of the future leaders in the Haitian Revolution were members of the Fontages Legion and fought against the British in the American South. They included: Henri Christophe, Martial Besse, Andre Rigaud, and Louis Jacques Beauvais.

(Southern slave owners were afraid that these Free Haitian soldiers might contaminate their slaves with ideas and thoughts of freedom and prevented all contact between their slaves and the Black soldiers.)

In the late 1790s Toussaint L'Ouverture, a former slave gained control over several areas in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) and earned the initial support of the French.  Toussaint gave nominal allegiance to France while pursuing his own political and military plans, which included negotiating with the British. In May 1801 Toussaint had himself named Governor-General for life. Napoleon wishing to maintain control of the island, attempted to restore the old regime (and white rule) by sending his brother-in-law, General Charles Leclerc, with an experienced force that included several exiled mulatto officers. Toussaint struggled for several months against Leclerc's forces before agreeing to an armistice in May 1802, however the French broke the agreement and imprisoned him in France. He died on April 7, 1803.

Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henry Christophe led a black army against the French in 1802, following evidence that Napoleon intended to restore slavery in Saint-Domingue as he had done in other French possessions. They defeated the French commander and a large part of his army, and in November 1803 the Viscount de Rochambeau surrendered the remnant of the expedition.

On January 1, 1804, Saint Domingue was declared independent under the native Arawak name of Haiti. The United States did not recognize the independence of Haiti until after the secession of the southern states in 1862.