Royal Deux-Pont regiment, with which he served in Gennany until the peace of 1703. After attain- ing the rank of lieutenant-colonel, he served in this country during the Revolutionary war, distin- guishing himself at Yorktown, where his regiment, having captured two howitzers, obtained by the exploit the title of " Royal." In September, 1792, he was made lieutenant-general and given com- mand of the advance guard of the army of the centre, which repelled the Prussians at the camp of La Lune. He was suspended as a nobleman in 1793, but was afterward restored and employed in the army of Italy, of the Pyrenees, and of the Rhine. He was deprived of his command. 26 Oct., 1795, and then retired to his estates in Ornex.
DESSALINES, Jean Jacques, Haytian emperor, b. in Guinea, Africa, in 1758; d.-iu Ilayti. 17 Oct., 1806. He was brought, when young, to Cap Frangais (now Cap Haytien), where he was purchased by a French planter, whose name he subsequently assumed. In 1791 he left his master and
joined the insurgent army under Biassou. In the
servile war that followed he distinguished himself,
^nd became adjutant-general of Jean Francois, the
negro commander. Later he sided with Toussaint
L'Ouverture when the latter left his Spanish allies
and joined the French. In the campaign that fol-
lowed, having attained the rank of lieutenant-gen-
eral, he led the forces against the mulatto chief
Rigaud. His success, with the promptness and
energy evinced in this movement, recommended
him to Toussaint, who afterward invariably sent
him where the utmost severity was considered
necessary. His name spread terror wherever he
went, and thousands of mulattoes were slaughtered,
drowned, or shot by his orders. At the same time
he led a most dissolute life, and enriched himself
by extensive robberies perpetrated in the guise of
legal confiscations. In 1802 he conducted a gue-
rilla war against Gen. Leclere, who had been sent
to Hayti by Napoleon. His obstinate defence of
St. Marc against Gen. Boudet was characteristic.
When unable to hold the town any longer, he
burned it, setting fire to his own palace, and
butchered all the white inhabitants of the place,
and also those he met with on his retreat. Later
he submitted to Gen. Leclere, after the affair at
Crete-a-Pierrot. Peace having been established,
he was made governor of the southern portion of
the island, with the rank of general. Here he
plunged into the deepest debauchery, but affected
much zeal for the French. He treated the van-
quished negroes with the same cruelty that he had
shown to the whites, and when Toussaint's nephew
rose against the French, Dessalines cruelly mur-
<lered him in cold blood, with 300 of his followers.
His loyalty to the French, however, was of short
duration, for afterward, when yellow fever attacked
the French army, numbering among its victims
Gen. Leclere. Dessalines became commander-in-
chief of the negro forces. Gen. Rochambeau suc-
ceeded to the command of the French, and at once
adopted retaliatory measures against their insur-
gents. He tortured to death the negro general,
Maurepas, with his entire family. A terrible reti'i-
bution was determined upon. Dessalines erected
500 gibbets, and hanged half a regiment of French
that he had captured by a bold countermarch. A
war of extermination followed, and in December,
1803, aided by an English squadron, the French
were compelled to evacuate the island. On 1 Jan.,
1804, he was appointed governor-general of Hayti
for life. For a few months he ruled in a spirit of
moderation, and put into force several wise and
just measures toward a healthy reorganization of
the commonwealth ; but his brutal nature prevailed
over his judgment, and shortly afterward he
ordered a general massacre of the white residents,
who had remained iinder a promise of protection.
In April, 180-1, he niiide an unsuccessful attempt
to conquer the Spanish portion of the island, and
after his return became more frantic than ever. He
had himself crowned as emperor of Hayti on 8 Oct.,
1804, in imitation of Napoleon, under title of " Jean
Jacques I.," and proclaimed a new constitution,
which concentrated all real power in his own hands.
Subsequently his extravagance deranged the finan-
ces, his dissoluteness corrupted the morals of all
classes, his cruelty increased, and he put to death
every one against whom he was suspicious. His
despotism soon caused an insurrection, and in 1806,
while endeavoring to repress it, he fell into an am-
buscade, and was assassinated by two of his officers,
Christophe and Petion, of whom the former became
president of Hayti. In a slender and hideous
frame Dessalines united the wildest passions of the
ferocious savage with extraordinary shrewdness,
an undeniable keenness of judgment, and a clear
statesmanlike knowledge of the men and things
with whom he had to deal. However abominable
his character may appear, it is nevertheless true
that he understood the means of accomplishing the
independence of Hayti better than even Toussaint
himself. He left Ilayti a ruined and desolate,
though independent, state. See " Vie de J. J. Des-
salines," bv Louis Dubroca.
DESTREHAN, Jean Noel, senator, b. about
1780. He was a citizen of Louisiana, and in 1805
one of the authors of a pamphlet attacking the ter-
ritorial government. He was a member of the state
convention of 1811, and voted with the minority
against the application of Louisiana for admission
into the Union. Notwithstanding this, he was
appointed one of a committee of seven to draft a
constitution for the new state. In 1812 he was
elected to the U. S. senate, but resigned the office
before taking his seat. .
DETMOLD, William Ludwig, surgeon, b. in
Hanover, Germany, 27 Dec., 1808; d. in New York
city, 26 Dec., 1894. His father was a physician.
William received his medical degree from the
University of Göttingen in 1830, and enlisted as surgeon
in the royal Hanoverian grenadier-guard. He came
to the United States on leave of absence in 1837, and
sent his resignation from New York, he became
professor of military surgery and hygiene at
Columbia in 1862, and was made professor emeritus in
1866. Dr. Detmold introduced orthopedic surgery
into the United States, and during the civil war
acted as volunteer surgeon in Virginia. He introduced
a knife and fork for one-handed men, which
was put by Surgeon-General Barnes on the supply
list, under the name of “Detmold's knife.” Among
his numerous contributions to medical literature is
“Opening an Abscess in the Brain,” in the “Journal
of the Medical Sciences” for February, 1850. —
His brother, Christian Edward, engineer, b. in
Hanover, 2 Feb., 1810; d. in New York city, 2 July,
1887, was educated at the military academy in his
native city, and came to New York in 1826, with
the intention of entering the Brazilian army.
But unfavorable accounts of the condition of that
country induced him to remain here, and he became
well known as an engineer. In 1827 he made many
surveys in Charleston, S. C., and vicinity, and in
1828 made the drawings for the first locomotive
built by the Messrs. Kemble in New York. In
1833-'4 he was in the employ of the U. S. war
department, and superintended the laying of the
foundations of Fort Sumter during the illness of the
en-
