A Guide to the French and American Claims Commission 1880-1885

The U.S. Civil War was fought mostly on southern soil where many foreign residents suffered significant monetary and personal losses. In 1880 the United States and France set up a commission to examine claims from French citizens living or doing business in America between 1861 and 1866. Over 700 claims were adjudicated although few were paid any significant amount of money. The case files, housed at the National Archives, are a treasure-trove of information about these immigrants and their families, their origins, their occupations, as well as the operations and conduct of both southern and northern troops who fought literally in their backyards. The majority of the claims were filed from Louisiana, although a hundred or so came from Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. These French immigrants had come from metropolitan France, most from small villages, although a few hailed from large venues such as Paris, Bordeaux, Nice, Nantes and Nancy. A substantial number also came from the French Antilles: Saint-Domingue (Ha ti) and Martinique. Others were natives of southern Belgium, the Rhinepfalz (Bavaria, Germany) and Monaco, born French between 1799 and 1815 during the reign of Napoleon. A select few of the claimants were wealthy businessmen and French noblemen who had assets, but had never resided, in the United States. Although the claimants' wealth and social status varied greatly, tragedy and hardship beset them equally. From Champagne Charlie Heidsieck, who earned, lost, and recovered a fortune in America, to women like Marie Dugout, who fled France with her daughter and her paramour to start life over in Louisiana, each story is unique and compelling. Sadly, only a handful of claimants, or their heirs, received enough money to compensate for their losses.