Book I: The American Egypt · Chapter 4
The official story says Napoleon fought in Egypt. The record also shows his men all over the Americas.
His men were here
- Ayiti, 1802: Napoleon sent his brother-in-law, General Leclerc, to retake Ayiti. The army was destroyed. (Record)
- Louisiana, 1803: right after that loss, Napoleon sold Louisiana. (Record)
- His brothers: Jérôme lived in Baltimore from 1803 to 1805, and Joseph at Bordentown, New Jersey from 1815 to 1832. (Record)
- General Charles Lallemand fought in Egypt and in Ayiti. After 1815 he ran Napoleon’s exiled officers out of Philadelphia and New Orleans: the Vine and Olive Colony in Alabama (1817) and the fortified Champ d’Asile in Texas (1818). His officers named Marengo County and Demopolis, Alabama. (Record)
The timeline
- 1812: Isaiah Thomas, Grand Master of Massachusetts Masons, founds the American Antiquarian Society.
- 1813: Brackenridge tells Jefferson the Cahokia mound is “as ancient as those of Egypt.”
- 1814: Napoleon’s officers bring the Masonic Rite of Misraïm (“Misraim” is Hebrew for Egypt) to France.
- 1817–18: Egypt-campaign veterans settle the Gulf country.
- 1818: DeWitt Clinton, Grand Master of New York Masons, writes up the mounds of New York. Cairo, Illinois is planned.
- 1819: Memphis, Tennessee is named.
All on record.
The lens: the men who fought in “Egypt” show up here right as “Egypt” appears on this map. Some say the Egypt campaign was the cover story, and the real war was for the American Egypt. (Pattern; Open)
Still open: the French army archives at Vincennes, Lallemand’s papers, and river maps from 1790 to 1820.
Sources: Charles Lallemand · Champ d’Asile · Vine and Olive Colony · Rite of Memphis-Misraïm · American Antiquarian Society