Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II
Born(1830-11-05)November 5, 1830
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
DiedSeptember 3, 1893(1893-09-03) (aged 62)
Prides Crossing, Massachusetts, U.S.
AllegianceUnited States
France
Service/branchUnited States Army
French Army
Years of serviceUnited States Army (1852–1854)
French Army (1854–1871)
RankSecond Lieutenant (US)
Lieutenant Colonel (France)
UnitRegiment of Mounted Riflemen
3rd US Cavalry
7th (French) Dragoons
1st African Chasseurs
1st Carabiniers
3rd Cuirassiers
Dragoons of the Empress
Battles/warsFrench conquest of Algeria
Crimean War
Second Italian War of Independence
Franco-Prussian War
AwardsCrimea Medal. Officer of the Légion d'honneur

Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II (November 5, 1830 – September 3, 1893)[1] was a French-American military officer who served in the United States Army and later in the French Army. He was a member of the American branch of the Bonaparte family.[2]

Early life

He was born in Baltimore, Maryland on November 5, 1830. He was the eldest son of the French-American Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte (1805–1870) and his wife, the former Susan May Williams (1812–1881). His younger brother was Charles Joseph Bonaparte, who served as the United States Attorney General and Secretary of the Navy under Theodore Roosevelt.[1]

His paternal grandparents were Jérôme Bonaparte, who reigned as King of Westphalia from 1807 to 1813, and his first wife, the American socialite and successful businesswoman Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte.[3] Through his grandfather, he was the grandnephew of Emperor Napoleon, who died in 1821.[2] His maternal grandparents were Sarah (née Copeland) Morton Williams and Benjamin Williams, who helped found the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first railroad company in the United States.[4]

Bonaparte entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1848 and graduated 11th in the Class of 1852.[1]

Career

Upon graduation, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and served in Texas with the Regiment of Mounted Riflemen.[1]

Bonaparte resigned from the U.S. Army in August 1854 to serve in the army of his first cousin-once-removed, Emperor Napoleon III. A few weeks later, he was commissioned as a lieutenant of dragoons in the French Army. He fought in the Crimean War, Algeria, the Italian campaign, and the Franco-Prussian War, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel.[5] For his services, he was the recipient of the decoration of the Medjidie Order from Abdulmejid I, the Sultan of Turkey, the Crimea Medal from Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and was made a knight of the Légion d'honneur.[1]

Following the Siege of Paris, Bonaparte left the French Army and returned home to the United States.[6]

Personal life

Upon his return to the United States, he married Caroline Le Roy Appleton Edgar (1840–1911), daughter of Samuel and Julia Appleton, and widow of Newbold Edgar. Caroline was also the granddaughter of American statesman, Daniel Webster. Together, they were the parents of two children:[1]

  • Louise-Eugénie Bonaparte (1873–1923), who married Count Adam Carl von Moltke-Huitfeld (1864–1944) (see Moltke family) in 1896 and had issue.
  • Jerome Napoleon Charles Bonaparte (1878–1945), who married Blanche Pierce Strebeigh, daughter of Edward and Emily Pierce of Newtonville, Massachusetts, and former wife of Harold Strebeigh of Hewlett, New York, in 1914, no issue.

Had his family not been excluded, he would have been first in line to the Bonaparte succession from 1873, and would have succeeded in 1879.[2]

Bonaparte died on September 3, 1893, in Prides Crossing, Massachusetts.[1]

Legacy

His letters from Fort Inge and Fort Ewell have been preserved by the Maryland Historical Society.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "JEROME BONAPARTE DEAD.; He Was a Grand Nephew of the Great Napoleon, and Was a Distinguished Soldier" (PDF). The New York Times. 5 September 1893. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 "Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, Jr.". Handbook of Texas. Retrieved 2017-10-29.
  3. ↑ Deutsch, Alexandra (2016). A Woman of Two Worlds: Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte. Maryland Historical Society. ISBN 9780996594431. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  4. ↑ Lester, Charles Edwards; Williams, Edwin (1852). The Napoleon Dynasty: Or, The History of the Bonaparte Family. An Entirely New Work. Cornish, Lamport & Company. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  5. ↑ Allen Johnson (dir.), Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 10 + 1 + 1 volumes, 1937–1964, volume 1 (Abbe — Brazer), 660 pages + 613 pages, entry « Bonaparte, Jerome Napoleon » (1830–1893) page 429 (part 2 of volume 1 : Barsotti — Brazer) by T. M. S. (Thomas Marshall Spaulding).
  6. ↑ Macartney, Charles Edward, and Dorrance, Gordon, The Bonapartes in America, Dorrance and Company, Philadelphia, 1939.
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