|
an ACADIAN EXILE article
Cultures
of Acadiana |
Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, March 30, 1999
15- year old Acadian was at Revolutionary Battle of Yorktown
Michel Trahan came to La. after war
by Jim Bradshaw
Not all of the Acadians who fought in the American Revolution fought with the Spanish. At least one of them fought alongside American Revolutionary soldiers and, in fact, lived to be the oldest Revolutionary War veteran in Louisiana.
His name was Michel Trahan. He was 100 years old when he died at Indian Village near Prien Lake in Calcasieu Parish in November 1864. He was the last known veteran in Louisiana. The last known veteran in the entire nation died in 1866.
Trahan was the son of Jean Baptiste and Madeleine Trahan. He was born Aug. 21, 1764, in Morlaix, France, where his parents were sent after the expulsion. They had originally been sent to England, married at Liverpool in January 1757, and were sent to Morlaix in 1764. Three years later, the young family was settled with other Acadians at Belle-Isle-en Mer. They came to Louisiana about 1785 and settled in the St. Martinville area.
But young Michel was already in America by then. He probably got here in 1779, when he was only 15 years old. What is known about him comes from a letter written to a newspaper many years later and from bits of census information.
In the census of 1860, Michel is recorded as a blind Revolutionary War veteran. An anonymous writer fills in a few details in a letter published in the Galveston Weekly News on May 19, 1866. The writer used the pen name "Lucullus". He wrote that Trahan came from France with the Marquis de Lafayette's army and was present when lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Va., on Oct 19, 1781. Ironically, Yorktown is only a few miles from the port of Williamsburg, where Michel's parents (and hundreds of other Acadians) were not allowed to land at the time of the dispersion.
Michel was out of the army by the time his family reached St. Martinville in 1785. It is not known whether he preceded them to Louisiana or came after they did. Church records show that he was married in 1796 in St. Martinville to Maria Regina Trahan. The couple moved from there to Calcasieu Parish about the turn of the century.
Michel was apparently a typical farmer of the time and place, but at time western Calcasieu Parish was a region frequented by smugglers and outlaws. "Lucullus" wrote that Michel and other local farmers sold beef and vegetables to the pirate Jean Lafitte.