Thomas Jefferson Papers
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Thomas Jefferson to Louis Marie Turreau, 6 August 1809

To Louis Marie Turreau

Monticello Aug. 6. 09.

Th: Jefferson presents his friendly salutations to General Turreau, and incloses a letter which came to him under cover from M. de. la Cepede. he is happy in the occasion it furnishes him of assuring General Turreau of his great esteem & respect, and his regret that the distance and infrequency of the posts from this place, will have produced several days delay in the reciept of this.

PoC (MHi); dateline at foot of text; endorsed by TJ. Not recorded in SJL. Enclosure not found.

Louis Marie Turreau de Garambouville (1756–1816) was the French minister plenipotentiary to the United States, 1804–11. A native of Evreux, France, he fought in both the American and French revolutions. During the latter Turreau rose to the rank of lieutenant general and distinguished himself by brutally but successfully quelling revolts in the Vendée and Switzerland. Rumored to be a wife-beating profligate, after his return to France he separated from his wife and unsuccessfully pursued the late empress Josephine Bonaparte, whose own marriage to Napoleon had been annulled in December 1809 (Biographie universelle description begins Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne, new ed., 1843–65, 45 vols. description ends , 42:300–3; Brant, Madison description begins Irving Brant, James Madison, 1941–61, 6 vols. description ends , 4:266–79; Dolley Madison, Selected Letters description begins David B. Mattern and Holly C. Shulman, eds., The Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison, 2003 description ends , 62; Turreau, Mémoires pour servir à l’Histoire de la Guerre de la Vendée [Paris, 1824]).

Index Entries

  • Bonaparte, Josephine search
  • Lacépède, Bernard Germain Étienne de La Ville-Sur-Illon, comte de; TJ forwards letter from search
  • Turreau de Garambouville, Louis Marie; identified search
  • Turreau de Garambouville, Louis Marie; letters to search
  • Turreau de Garambouville, Louis Marie; TJ transmits letter to search