Jules Victor Bouquet; history, Cameron, Louisiana
Submitter: W. T. Block, Historian
Submitted: July 10, 2004

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JULES  VICTOR  BOUQUET: AN  ACADIAN  CAVALRYMAN
By  W.  T.  Block

	Jules Bouquet, my great uncle my marriage, was a Confederate 
cavalryman of only limited book learning, but he could track and scout 
like a Comanche Indian. He grew up in the saddle, worked as a Texas 
cowboy, mule skinner, even briefly as a stage coach driver, long before 
the Civil War. He was born on August 6, 1836 in Thibodaux, Louisiana

	Jules' father was Louis Edward Bouquet, who was born in France 
on Jan. 24, 1803, but he emigrated with his parents to South Carolina 
in 1815. About 1834 h resettled in Lafourche Parish, where he married 
Rosaline Broussard. Louis Bouquet died in Thibodaux, LA. in 1838, only 
2 years after his son Jules' birth.
 
	After Rosaline Bouquet remarried, Jules worked in the cane fields 
around Thibodaux for several years until his stepfather began treating 
him like a field slave. In 1851 he left home to live with an uncle in 
Orange, Texas, who taught him to write his name and to speak English. 
At age 17 Jules began working as a cowboy for Alexis Blanchette, who 
taught him how to brand calves and the rudiments of ranch life. Later 
he worked for the William McFaddin ranch, and soon was engaged in long 
cattle drives from the San Antonio River to New Orleans. It was while 
herding cattle at Port Lavaca in Calhoun County that Uncle Jules found 
a spot on Hog Bayou, where he hoped some day to own a "vacherie" (ranch) 
of his own.
 
	In 1861, after the Civil War had begun, Jules Bouquet enlisted 
in Captain January's cavalry company at Victoria, Texas. His ranch foreman 
gave Bouquet the horse he had always riden as a cowboy. Old Champ was a 
saucy, gray stallion, whose erect head and bearing identified his Arabian 
breeding. Champ could run with great speed and endurance, and before the 
war ended many Union officers swore they would capture and own that horse. 
As a Confederate scout on the Bayou Teche, Jules had accidently wandered 
5 times into the camps of Union cavalry, and each time old Champ's 
hooves had pounded out clouds of dust while escaping.
 
	In 1862 Jules' company was assigned to Gen. Tom Green's Texas 
Cavalry Brigade, with which unit Bouquet remained until the war ended. 
In both 1863 and 1864, Bouquet was part of a force of 2,000 cavalrymen 
sent to Louisiana to help quell the Union advance, first along the 
Bayou Teche in 1863, and a year later along the Red River, where Jules 
fought during the Battle of Mansfield.
 
	A statuesque sergeant while seated in the saddle, Uncle Jules 
soon became one of Gen. Green's personal scouts because he could 
question residents and soldiers in either French or English. In Feb. 
1864 he was detailed to a detachment of Col. Vincent's cavalry, who 
were tracking and later fought a pitched battle with the Mermentau 
Jayhwkers, at which time Milledge McCall, Jr. of Grand Chenier was 
killed. While stationed briefly at Grand Chenier, Jules ate lunch at 
the home of John W. Sweeney (my great grandfather), where Jules met 
19-year-old Sarah Ellen Sweeney. And after Cupid's arrows had punctured 
each of their hearts, Bouquet swore to Sarah Ellen that he was coming 
back after the war to marry her.
 
	Jules and Sarah Ellen were married in Abbeville on Jan. 25, 1866, 
and the newlyweds left immediately for Calhoun County, Texas, where they 
built a log cabin on Hog Bayou, and began ranching with a small herd of 
cattle. In July, 1871 they bought a larger place of Big Chocolate Bayou, 
where Jules and Sarah Ellen lived for the remainder of their lives, and 
became parents of 12 children. Eventually Sarah Ellen, her health weakened 
by frequent child-bearing, died at age 43 on Jan. 28, 1889, and Uncle 
Jules Bouquet never remarried.
 
	He continued to tend his herd of about 1,000 cattle until 1926, 
when at age 90 he decided to retire, and he turned his herd and lands 
over to his children. Each year on Aug. 6th his children gave Bouquet 
a big barbeque to celebrate his birthday. Uncle Jules died on Nov. 27, 1933 
at age 97, and he is buried beside Sarah Ellen not far from Big Chocolate Bayou.