DE CLOUET, Paul L, St. Martin then Lafayette Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ PAUL L. DE CLOUET, LAFAYETTE.--Paul L. De Clouet, a planter of the third ward, was born in St. Martin parish July, 1841. He is the son of General Alexandre De Clouet and Marie Louise de St. Clair. General De Clouet died in Lafayette parish June 26, 1890. He was born June 9, 1812, in St. Martin parish. His mother died when he was but an infant, and his aunts, Mesdames Chas. Lastrapes and Chevalier Dellomme, and his grandfather and grandmother Fuselier took charge of him and raised him. General De Clouet was educated at Bardstown, Kentucky, and Georgetown College, Washington, D. C. He graduated from the first named institution in 1829 with high honors, receiving his diploma from the hands of Henry Clay, who presided over the exercises of the closing year. After leaving school General De Clouet made an extended tour through Europe, where he visited relatives and completed his education. Upon his return home he studied law in the office of Judge Edward Simon, an eminent jurist; but agricultural pursuits were seemingly more congenial to his taste, and he abandoned the study of law and became a planter. In this he was remarkably successful, and he accumulated quite a large fortune. Though well qualified for political life by his birth, talents, and education, General De Clouet was too fondly attached to the quiet of home to forego his enjoyments. He had little ambition for political favor, but by those who knew him he was so highly revered that his public services were demanded at their hands. He was soon drawn into political life, and became one of the boldest and most effective champions of the Whig party. He first appeared in politics in 1837, when he was elected to the Legislature. Subsequently he served in the Senate and House for several terms. In 1849, during the exciting period when the Democratic and Whig parties were contending for supremacy in the State, General De Clouet was honored with the charge of standard bearer of the Whig party in the gubernatorial campaign of that year. These were the halcyon days of the Republic. In Congress Clay, Calhoun, Webster and Hayne met in heated debate in defending their respective causes, while in Louisiana her gifted sons of that day were not wanting in their efforts to obtain the balance of power. General De Clouet was a most attractive speaker, and the campaign was a very interesting one. The election resulted in the seating of General Joseph Walker of Rapides parish, in the gubernatorial chair. General De Clouet was not retarded, however, in his earnest efforts to promote the welfare of his party or the State, and he clung with devotion to the Whig party till, overwhelmed with defeat, it passed out of existence. From that time he advocated the principles of Democracy with the same fervent zeal. He was elected, in 1852, one of senatorial delegates to the convention which framed the constitution of that year. In 1861 he was chosen member of the Secession Convention. He soon after represented the State at large in the Confederate Congress, and was one of the signers of the constitution of the Confederate States. At the close of the war, General De Clouet returned to his plantation near St. Martinsville and devoted himself to retrieving the fortune which had been severely shattered by the war. But his life of quiet happiness was only of short duration. The turbulent state of affairs in Louisiana demanded his services. General De Clouet strained every nerve to meet and defeat the threatening issues, and foremost among the names of those to whose wisdom these great results are to be attributed, may be placed that of General Alexandre De Clouet. Upon the installation of General Nicholls as governor of Louisiana, General De Clouet, without asking recognition for the many services which he had rendered to the people of his State, withdrew from public life, and, secluded in his home, he retired to the domestic quiet that had been his life's dream. Here he lived on his plantation--a lovely spot near Bayou Vermilion--with his happy family and surrounded by admiring friends, to whom he dispensed, as in by-gone days, the hospitality of his roof. Age crept upon him with its attending train of physical infirmities, though it left unimpaired his bright intellect. The evening of his life was thus spent in resignation to a decree that was higher than his own will. General De Clouet had married early in life, and became the father of thirteen children; six sons and seven daughters. Of these six are now living. His widow died on January 18, 1891, in Lafayette parish, where she resided with her son, Paul, the subject of this sketch. Paul L. De Clouet took a collegiate and military course in the University of Virginia and the Virginia Military Institute. He was a soldier in the Civil War, having enlisted, in 1861, in Company G, Fifty-ninth Virginia Infantry, in which he served during six months, as sergeant, in Virginia, and afterwards became first lieutenant of an infantry company, raised in St. Martin parish and attached to the Orleans Guard Battalion. He was wounded and taken prisoner at the battle of Shiloh, and was consigned to prison at Johnson's Island, where he was confined for six months. He afterward joined Capt. Corney's Artillery, First Louisiana Field Battery, and here served until the close of the war in the Trans-Mississippi Department. He was in the battles at Bisland, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Simmesport, Yellow Bayou, and numerous skirmishes in Virginia. Paul De Clouet was married, in 1865, to Miss Jane Roman, of St. James parish, Louisiana; born 1842. Six children were born to this union, four sons and two daughters, three of whom are living, viz.: George H., Edwidge, Lizima. Mr. De Clouet, in connection with his brother, Alexander, and sisters, owns four thousand acres of land in two plantations, located, one in Lafayette and one in St. Martin parishes. He is an extensive stock dealer, and now has on his plantation a large number of a fine grade of cattle, horses, and hogs. Mrs. De Clouet, an accomplished and most estimable lady, died July 24, 1878. Paul De Clouet has inherited many noble traits of character prominent in his father, and is a polished and scholarly gentleman. Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical, Biographical Section, pp. 215-217. Edited by William Henry Perrin. Published in 1891, by The Gulf Publishing Company.