52 Ancestors #7: Julien Rachal - An Unconventional American Patriot

I'm writing about my ancestors for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. Please join me in taking a moment to appreciate some of the people who helped me be here today!

When Americans think of the Revolutionary War, most will immediately think of places located within the 13 colonies and the residents of those colonies fighting in the Continental Army against the British.  They didn't fight the war alone, however.  They had allies from Spain and France, and many might be surprised to know those allies included inhabitants of Louisiana, then under Spanish government.

My French Creole ancestor, Julien Rachal, was one of those soldiers.  Born at Natchitoches in 1760 to Louis Rachal dit Blondin and Marie Louise LeRoy¹, Julien was a member of one of the oldest and most influential families in the area, and his wife, Marie Louise Brevel, was the daughter of a leading citizen of the parish.  As a member of the local militia, Julien served in the Galvez Expedition to Pensacola under Spanish governor Bernardo de Gálvez in a successful bid to push the British out of Spanish Florida and give their beleaguered allies further north respite from the threat of invasion from the south.  Due to this service, Julien and other soldiers like him who were not Americans* nevertheless count among the veterans of the American Revolution and even count toward eligibility for the American Revolution-based lineage societies.

For those interested in tracing a potential qualifying ancestor in a non-English colony, the Northwestern State University of Louisiana's Creole Heritage Center has a listing of names from the Natchitoches militia available in PDF form on their website.  Another good resource I found online is this collection of research by Dr. Granville Hough on Patriots from Spanish America.  While Spain was the administrating government from this period, the records include many names of French and German extraction.

*Julien died in 1810, seven years after the Louisiana Purchase.  Although not born an American, he technically died one.  His death is recorded as occurring on August 5, 1810.²

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1 Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Natchitoches, 1729-1803: Abstracts of the Catholic Church Registers of the French and Spanish Post of St. Jean Baptiste Des Natchitoches in Louisiana. Westminister, MD: Heritage Books, 2007.^↩

2 Riffel, Judy. "Natchitoches Burials, 1807-1813." Le Raconteur XXXI.4 (2011): 250.^↩