Thursday, August 23, 2012

Generosity at Carillon

After Montcalm's victory at Fort Carillon, the French recovered the English wounded and combed the battlefield for trophies.  One captain of Regiment Bearn recovered a miniature.

A miniature portrait,
similar to the one recovered by d'Aubrespay
"Note: The English officer asked the return of a picture of Mrs. Bever left on the battlefield, her husband, a colonel, having been killed.  It was in the possession of Sieur d'Aubrespay, captain in the Bearn regiment, who at once gave it back to him.
M. Rigaud de Vaudreuil, Governor of Montreal, brother of the Governor General of Canada, like him, born and baptized in this colony, advised him to sell the picture very high.  One would not be embarrassed in France at the answer made him by a person of quality, an officer, and a Frenchman." (Adventure in the Wilderness: The American Journals of Louis Antoine de Bougainville, pg. 248-9)

The colonel that Bougainville refers to is mentioned in the Journal of Captain John Knox, pg. 192:
"Samuel Beaver, appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the 46th Regiment, February 2, 1757; Colonel in America, January 25, 1758."

An inspiring story of honor and generosity found in Bougainville's invaluable Journal.

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