De Bretigny: The French Marquis of New Bern

Among the unexpected figures of the American Revolution is a French marquis who ended his days in North Carolina. Charles-Francois Sevelinges, Marquis de Bretigny, was born in France and served as an officer before sailing to join the American cause. He is said to have led a small detachment of North Carolina militia dragoons at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in March of seventeen eighty-one, one of the costliest British victories of the entire war.

After the fighting, North Carolina is said to have appointed de Bretigny as the state's purchasing agent in Martinique, where he coordinated financial transactions and shipments of military supplies between France and the embattled colony. It was a thankless task, requiring as much diplomacy as courage. When the war ended, de Bretigny retired to New Bern, settling near this spot. The French Revolution then stripped him of whatever fortune he had preserved. He is said to have died in Philadelphia in the early seventeen nineties, nearly penniless, a French nobleman who had given his loyalty to a republic that was not his own.