Charles Gratiot

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Charles Gratiot
Charles Gratiot by Thomas Sully in the
West Point Museum Art Collection, U.S. Military Academy
Birth nameCharles Chouteau Gratiot
BornAugust 29, 1786 (1786-08-29)
St. Louis, Spanish Upper Louisiana Territory, present-day State of Missouri
DiedMay 18, 1855 (1855-05-19) (aged 68)
St. Louis, Missouri, US
Buried
Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri
AllegianceUnited States
Service/branchUnited States Army
Years of service1806–1838
RankColonel
Brevet Brigadier General
UnitU.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Commands heldChief of Engineers
Battles/warsBattle of Mackinac Island, 1814, during War of 1812
Spouse(s)Ann Belin
ChildrenMary Victoria Gratiot
Julia Augusta Gratiot

Charles Chouteau Gratiot (August 29, 1786 – May 18, 1855) was born in St. Louis, Spanish Upper Louisiana Territory, now the present-day State of Missouri. He was the son of Charles Gratiot, Sr., a fur trader in the Illinois country during the American Revolution, and Victoire Chouteau, who was from an important mercantile family. His father became a wealthy merchant, during the early years of St. Louis.[1][2][3] After 1796, Charles was raised in the large stone house purchased by his father in St. Louis, near the Mississippi River.[4] He made a career out of being a U.S. Army military engineer, becoming the Chief Engineer of the United States Corps of Engineers, and supervised construction of a number of important projects. He was dismissed by William Henry Harrison, which led to a protracted controversy.

Portrait of Charles Gratiot

Military career[edit]

President Thomas Jefferson personally appointed him (and 3 other young Missouri men) as a United States Military Academy cadet in July 1804. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, was the first school of engineering in the United States and graduated its first class in 1802.[5][6] Gratiot was a member of the Class of 1806, the fourth graduating class, and was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers. He became a captain in 1808 and assisted Alexander Macomb in constructing fortifications in Charleston, South Carolina. He returned to his alma mater in 1810 to be commander of the Army garrison at West Point during 1810–1811.[6][7]

As General William Henry Harrison's Chief Engineer in the War of 1812, he distinguished himself by planning and building Fort Meigs in 1813. He also rebuilt Fort St. Joseph, later renamed Fort Gratiot in his honor. In 1814 he took part in the attack of the Battle of Mackinac Island. He received the Thanks of Congress for his efforts during the war.[6]

He served as Chief Engineer, 1817–1818, in Michigan Territory followed by assignment as the superintending engineer, 1819–1828, for the construction of defenses at Hampton Roads, Virginia.[6][A][9]

Chief of Engineers[edit]

On May 24, 1828, Gratiot was appointed colonel of engineers, brevet brigadier general, and Chief Engineer.[5][6][8] For ten years he administered an expanding program of river, harbor, road, and fortification construction. He also engaged in a lengthy dispute with War Department officials over benefits, and in 1838 President Martin Van Buren dismissed him for failing to repay government funds that had been entrusted to him.[5][6][7][9]

He assigned Robert E. Lee to do engineering in the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri.

Late life[edit]

Gratiot became a clerk in the United States General Land Office from 1840–1855 and died in St. Louis.[6]

Gratiot became a party to lengthy litigation against the United States government, which was appealed twice to the U.S. Supreme Court.[10][11] It is said that the General of the Army, Alexander Macomb, was of the opinion that President Martin Van Buren's actions were too harsh.[7]

Family[edit]

He married Ann Belin on April 22, 1819.[12] They had two children:

Death and legacy, tributes and memorials[edit]

  • His remains are interred in section 13 of Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.
  • Fort Gratiot, Michigan, was named after Gratiot, who oversaw its reconstruction in 1814 to guard the mouth of the St. Clair River at Lake Huron.[5] Fort Gratiot Park is located there.[13][14]
  • Gratiot Avenue, an early roadway between Detroit and Port Huron, Michigan, was named for the fort near Port Huron, which was in turn named for Gratiot.[15] Construction started in Detroit in 1829, and the roadway was completed in the same year to Mount Clemens. The rest was finished in 1833. Sections of the roadway are designated as state highways M-3 or M-19, and before I-94 was built, Gratiot Avenue was the main link between the two cities.[16]
  • Gratiot is the namesake of the village of Gratiot, Ohio.[17]
  • Point Gratiot, Point Gratiot Light (a/k/a Dunkirk Lighthhouse)[18] and Point Gratiot Park in Dunkirk, New York[19] are also named for him.[citation needed]
  • Gratiot County, Michigan is named for Gratiot.[20] It was described by the Territorial Legislature in 1831. By 1837, the Territory had been admitted to the Union as a state; in 1855 the State Legislature authorized the organization of Gratiot County—the death year of the county's namesake.[20][21]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ "He was superintending engineer of the construction of the defenses of Hampton Roads, 1819–1829. He became chief engineer of the army in May, 1828 and was brevetted brigadier. On the pretext of discrepancies in Gratiot's accounts, he was dismissed from the army in 1838. Thereafter, he worked as a clerk in the General Land Office in Washington. Lee was much shaken by Gratiot's dismissal and studied the matter closely. He came to the conclusion that Gratiot was an honest man, the victim of a cabal. See George W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (New York, 1868, 2 vols.), 1, 99–100. See also Douglas S. Freeman, R. E. Lee: A Biography (New York, 1934–1935, 4 vols.), 1, 157–158."[8]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ "Biography of Charles Gratiot's father". Archived from the original on October 17, 2007.
  2. ^ Foley, William E. Charles Gratiot (1752–1817). {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  3. ^ Foley, William E. (October 7, 1999). Christensen, Lawrence O.; Foley, William E.; Kremer, Gary R.; Winn, Kenneth H. (eds.). Charles Gratiot (1752–1817) (Hardcover). Vol. I (First ed.). Columbia: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 978-0826212221. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  4. ^ "The house in St. Louis where Charles Gratiot was raised". Archived from the original on 2008-07-24. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
  5. ^ a b c d Jenks, William A. (January 1920). "Fort Gratiot and Its Builder Gen. Charles Gratiot". Michigan History Magazine. 4 (1). Lansing: Michigan Historical Commission: 144–46. Retrieved May 9, 2012.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Baldwin, William; United States. Army. Corps of Engineers (July 16, 2008). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: A History (Paperback). Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Office of History. pp. 11, 281. ISBN 978-1410210593.
  7. ^ a b c "Chief's Briefs". The Engineer. 12 (2). United States: U.S. Army Engineer Center and Fort Belvoir: 1. 1974. Retrieved February 17, 2023.
  8. ^ a b Shackelford, George Green. "From the Society's Collections: Lieutenant Lee Reports to Captain Talcott on Fort Calhoun's Construction on the Rip Raps". Lee Family Digital Archive.
  9. ^ a b Commanders of the Corps of Engineers U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
  10. ^ Charles Gratiot, plaintiff in error, v. United States, 45 U.S. 80; Charles 4 How. 80; 11 L.Ed. 884 (1846).
  11. ^ Gratiot, Charles (1852). Memorial of Charles Gratiot: Stating that He Had Been Unjustly Dismissed from the Army of the United States, and Asking an Expression of the Opinion of the Senate as to the Legality of the Course Pursued Toward Him. January 15, 1852. Ordered to be Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and Printed in Confidence for the Use of the Senate. United States: 32nd United States Congress.
  12. ^ "Jones-Walker GEDCOM". Ancestry.com. Retrieved September 2, 2014.
  13. ^ Fort Gratiot County Park St. Clair County, Michigan
  14. ^ Fort Gratiot County Park Trip Advisor
  15. ^ Farmer, Silas (1884). History of Detroit and Michigan. Detroit: S. Farmer & Co. p. 940. OCLC 11182400. Retrieved March 5, 2020 – via Archive.org.
  16. ^ Barnett, LeRoy (2004). A Drive Down Memory Lane: The Named State and Federal Highways of Michigan. Allegan Forest, Michigan: Priscilla Press. pp. 95–96. ISBN 1-88616-7-24-9.
  17. ^ Overman, William Daniel (1958). Ohio Town Names. Akron, Ohio: Atlantic Press. p. 53.
  18. ^ "The Dunkirk Lighthouse, shining over Lake Erie for nearly 200". The Buffalo News. ... light 27 miles out into Lake Erie. The structure were named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 as the Point Gratiot Lighthouse Complex.
  19. ^ Dunkirk Lighthouse
  20. ^ a b Smith, Mildred L. (1987). General Charles Gratiot: Acres and Avenues Bear His Name. Gratiot County Historical and Genealogical Society.
  21. ^ Tucker, Willard D. (1913). Gratiot County, Michigan: Historical, Biographical, Statistical. Chronicling the Events of the First Sixty Years of the County's Existence as the Abode of White Men; with County, Township, City and Village Matters Fully Detailed and with Miscellaneous Events of Importance Duly and Suitably Treated; by One who Has Been a Resident of the County Nearly Half a Century. Saginaw, Michigan: Press of Seemann & Peters. p. 25. OCLC 497670.

External links[edit]

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Military offices
Preceded by Chief of Engineers
1828–1838 		Succeeded by
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