Jean-Baptiste Raymond de Lacrosse

Jean-Baptiste Raymond de Lacrosse
Governor of Saint Lucia
In office 1792–1793
Preceded by	Jean-Joseph Sourbader de Gimat
Succeeded by	Nicolas Xavier de Ricard
Personal details
Born	Jean-Baptiste Raymond de Lacrosse 6 September 1760 Meilhan-sur-Garonne, France
Died	10 September 1829 Meilhan-sur-Garonne
Nationality	French
Occupation	Soldier

Jean-Baptiste Raymond de Lacrosse (Meilhan, 6 September 1760 – Meilhan, 10 September 1829) was a French sailor, admiral and hero of the French Revolutionary Wars.

Career[]

Lacrosse joined the Navy in 1779 as a Garde marine. He rose to enseign in 1782, to lieutenant in 1786, and to capitaine de vaisseau in 1792. He was military governor of Saint Lucia in 1792 to 1793.^[1]

In 1795, he was sent to Martinique and Guadeloupe to crush revolts. On his return to France, Lacrosse was arrested.

Freed, he was attached to the planned invasion of Ireland in late 1796, commanding the 74-gun Droits de l'Homme. The invasion failed, and on her journey back, the Droits de l'Homme fought the action of 13 January 1797 against two Brutish frigates, the Indefatigable under Sir Edward Pellew and the Amazon. Lacrosse was wounded and his ship was lost when she ran aground.

Despite the loss of his ship, Lacrosse was made contre-amiral. In 1799, he was sent as ambassador to Spain and notably negotiated the forcible return of émigréssl to France, he was offered the Ministry of Marine, which he declined.

In 1802, First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte made him general captain of Guadeloupe. On 1 November 1801, Lacrosse was captured by rebels, as he was leading a reconnaissance out of Pointe-à-Pitre. Pelage, the leader of the rebels, brought him aboard a Danish ship. Lacrosse set out for Dominica, where he joined the expedition led by General Antoine Richepanse, and returned with it to Guadeloupe. When Richepanse died, Lacrosse took command and managed to crush the rebellion and to restore slavery.^[2]

In Guadeloupe, Lacrosse sent the military to track down farmers, who were treated as rebels and summarily killed. The journalist Christopher Hudson wrote in the Daily Mail in 2008: "The ferocity of the repression sparked another uprising, which Lacrosse subdued with the most barbarous methods yet. ‘Being hung is not enough for the crimes they have committed,' he said. 'It is necessary to cut them down alive and let them expire on the wheel' [prisoners were bound to a cart wheel before having their arms and legs smashed with cudgels]. 'The jails are already full: it is necessary to empty them as quickly as possible.' In this, he was successful, hanging, garroting and burning the rebels and breaking their limbs on the wheel. Lacrosse developed possibly the most fiendish instrument of slow execution ever created. The prisoner was thrust into a tiny cage and had a razor-sharp blade suspended between his legs. In front of him was a bottle of water and bread, neither of which he could reach. He was stood in stirrups, which kept him just above the blade, but if he fell asleep or his legs tired, he was sliced by the blade. Neither fast nor economical, it was pure sadism. After four months in Guadeloupe, the French lost patience with the islanders, and the ferocity of their repression reached new heights. Blacks with short hair were shot out of hand, since the expeditionary force considered short hair to be a sign of rebellion. Orders were given that 'the type of execution should set a terrifying example.' The soldiers were encouraged to cut open insurgents, to strangle and to burn them.' French officers spoke proudly of creating 'torture islands.'"^[3]

Lacrosse sailed back to France aboard the frigate Didon. He did not know that the Peace of Amiens had ended and that hostilities had resumed with the British. Off Brest, he ran into twelve British ships of the line blockading the port. He managed to evade the blockading fleet and captured the corvette Laurier in the process. He reached Spain, left his prize in Santander and returned to France.

Napoléon made him préfet maritime and gave him command of the flotilla intended to ferry troops for an invasion of England. Lacrosse was made commander of the Légion d'Honneur at the founding of the Order. When Admiral Bruix died in 1805, Lacrosse succeeded him as commander-in-chief of the navy.

Lacrosse retired in 1815 and died in his hometown of Meilhan on 10 September 1829.

See also[]

• List of colonial governors and administrators of Saint Lucia

References[]

• "Lacrosse, Jean-Baptiste-Raymond baron de 1765-1829". Worldcat Identies. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
• "Le Contre Amiral le Crosse". Retrieved August 24, 2021.
• Monroux, Pierre (1803). Memoire pour Pierre Monroux, : capitaine de frégate dans la Marine française, et ci-devant chef des mouvemens du port, à la Pointe-à-Pitre, île de la Guadeloupe. Paris.