Ignace Martin de Lino de Chalmette

Born August 23, 1755, Ignace Martin de Lino de Chalmette was a French American engineer and farmer. He was descended from the heirs of French nobility who had migrated to North America. In fact, de Chalmette’s great-grandfather, René-Louis Chartier de Lotbinière, was one of the founding fathers of New France. He held the position of Chief Councilor of the Sovereign Council of New France (the colony’s governing body). De Chalmette’s maternal grandfather, Ignace François Broutin, was the Royal Engineer of Louisiana, and also ran the French outpost in Natchez (in modern-day Mississippi). His parents, Louis Xavier Martin de Chalmette, and Madeleine Marguerite de Broutin Denys de La Ronde, married in New Orleans in 1748. Sadly, Louis passed away the same year Madeleine gave birth to Ignace. One year later, she re-married Pierre Denis de La Ronde, a planter, Colonel of the militia, and a member of the Superior Council. Ignace had two siblings and one half-sibling. 

De Chalmette, himself well educated, advocated for those around him to seek learning. He often told Bernard de Marigny, a young Creole nobleperson in his care, to “get education—a man without education is only half a man.” De Chalmette married Magdeline Victoire Josephine de Vaugine de Verges sometime in the mid-1770s. Following in his ancestor’s footsteps, de Chalmette, who went by Martin in everyday life, became the Chief Engineer of the Louisiana colony. It was de Chalmette’s job to manage engineering projects, such as military infrastructure and public works. In doing so he amassed a significant fortune – enough for him to purchase a property on the banks of the Mississippi River downstream of New Orleans. He allegedly purchased the plantation on the advice of Bernard’s father. Purchasing the initial parcel in 1805, by 1813 he had accumulated the surrounding plantation, known as Chalmette. In doing so he acquired the honorific surname de Chalmette, meaning “of Chalmette.” The home he built on the plantation housed many thousands of dollars’ worth of family treasures, accumulated over hundreds of years of rule in French North America. By this time Louisiana had already come under the control of the United States through the Louisiana Purchase, and de Chalmette supported the new governing arrangement. 

 A little over a year after he acquired the plantation, however, de Chalmette’s fortunes changed. America was at war with Britain for a second time, and the British were winning. Washington, D.C. was burned in 1814, and negotiations were already under way to cease hostilities. Amidst these developments a British force sailed into the Gulf with its eyes set on capturing New Orleans, choking off the vital trade artery of the Mississippi River. The Redcoats landed on the Gulf Coast only a few miles from de Chalmette’s plantation. As American troops under Major General Andrew Jackson gathered to repel the invasion force, Chalmette learned that his property would be where the American line of defenses was established. 

With little time left before the arrival of British troops Chalmette and his family fled in haste, taking as many of their valuables as they could, but only a fraction of the total. His family took refuge in a house on Bourbon Street, in downtown New Orleans. Before the battle Major General Jackson ordered the de Chalmette home burned, as it stood in front of the American defenses and could provide cover to advancing British troops. The house, and the remainder of de Chalmette’s belongings disappeared in the blaze. Despite this, and his advanced age, de Chalmette, a veteran of the American Revolution, was determined to fight alongside Jackson’s troops to defend his property. 

The ensuing battle was a lopsided American victory. The British charged across de Chalmette’s land toward a large American rampart. The Americans fired from this cover while the British troops out in the open suffered immense casualties. The British never broke through, and the survivors of the invading army withdrew to their ships and evacuated. 

The battle had not been without loss for de Chalmette, however, whose house and most of his fortune had disappeared. Realizing the depth of his losses, de Chalmette began to despair that he would never recover. Only a month after the battle, the immense weight of rebuilding his life took it away. De Chalmette died February 10, 1815, of health complications due to stress. 

Two years later his heirs sold the plantation to Hilaire and Louis St. Amand, and the farm passed through many hands over the course of the 19th Century, including a relative of General P. G. T. Beauregard. During the Civil War, the United States established a military cemetery there, now known as Chalmette National Cemetery. The property and cemetery became a unit of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park in 1933. De Chalmette himself rests in Saint Louis Cemetery Number 1, in New Orleans, Louisiana.