French Imperial Remnants on the Middle Ground: The Strange Case of August De la Balme and Charles Beaubien

Colonel August de la Balme witnessed intense anger among French Creoles of Illinois country in 1780. Threatened physically by British, Americans, and Native Americans warring with one another, French stood isolated, without military protection, and psychologically insecure; their government had abandoned them in peace accords of 1763. When de la Balme promised Creoles a quick remedy and targeted a scapegoat, Charles Beaubien, British agent to Miamis, they received him as the Messiah.1 Prolonged stability or peace rarely graced pays d'en hauf during seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Instead, intrigue and violence abounded. Certainly existence of constructed added to a superficial calm. One may define as a place as well as a concept, a French Borderlands.z Centered around western Great Lakes, middle ground served as a place in which empires and frontiers clashed with native cultures, but had yet to conquer them. Instead, a constructed culture, neither European nor Indian, reigned. While it was still dark, bloody, and violent, middle ground relied on trade as basis of cultural interaction rather than merely incessant conquest or warfare. Richard White argues that middle ground ended with death of Tecumseh in 1813, as native cultures could no longer play English against Americans.3 Jay Gitlin has taken this a step further, demonstrating that even after United States won War of 1812, competing Indian and French Creole interests remained a predominant feature of life on and around Mississippi, Ohio, Maumee, and Wabash rivers.4 The real instability began in early 1760s. After forlorn possibility of victory in North America, dramatic French losses on Plains of Abraham reverberated throughout pays d'en haut. As British painfully and inadequately reestablished Middle Ground French had created, they met incredible resistance from many of American Indians who resented their new role as British subjects, rebel Americans who wanted their own republic, and remaining Creole French in region, upon whom British had hoped they could rely. This article examines conflicting lives of two renegade Frenchmen, Charles Beaubien and August de la Balme. In vacuum left by official French departure in 1763, these two men served as powerful symbols of what Creoles and freelancers could do for international relations as well as local situations. At hinterland, edge of empires, they wielded considerable influence. It also considers effects of their conflict on Miami Indians and stability of region. Very little is known of August de la Balme's background prior to his arrival in United States. A French military officer since mid-1760s and self-acclaimed cavalry expert, he applied to fight for United States in October 1776. Holding equally a dislike of Great Britain and a desire to make a name for themselves in military combat, numerous European officers applied to United States for commissions. Congress and military accepted few, believing that United States could not effectively pay them. The American military also disliked prospect of European gentlemen taking credit for their rebellion. De la Balme had better connections than most. Presenting a letter of recommendation from Benjamin Franklin, de la Balme received rank of Lieutenant Colonel and Inspector General of Cavalry from Continental Congress. He quickly proved an enigma. Unexpectedly and with little stated reason, de la Balme resigned in October 1777, having served only a few months.s By beginning of 1778, de la Balme had second thoughts about his hasty departure. Confident that Canada needed to be attacked directly, or so he stated, de la Balme again applied to Congress to organize an expedition against Canada. …

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