Regarding the new Savannah historic plaque -- John S. de Montmollin II is my wife's ancestor. In recent years my decades-long genealogy geekdom has been expressing itself in the form of a running online writeup of "infamous" and should-be-famous people up in the vast family tree. Among the former category is de Montmollin whose individual story has a highly karmic ending. Way too much for their plaque of course but hopefully the folks in Savannah know of it...this is from my running document:
"....a successful banker, plantation owner and slave trader in and around Savannah, Georgia. In the latter activity de Montmollin declined to be restrained by overseas slave trading having been banned in the U.S. in 1808.
De Montmollin first became wealthy in 1850 in the gold fields of California but not as a miner: he started and built a successful business supplying the miners. Having moved back east and become president of a successful Savannah bank, de Montmollin in 1856 constructed a three-story building which is still standing in historic Savannah and known as the John Montmollin Warehouse. He’d built it with the third floor as a slave pen; after the city’s occupation by Union troops near the end of the Civil War it was converted into a school for Black children.
While buying and selling enslaved persons domestically, de Montmollin lobbied unsuccessfully for the resumption of legal overseas trafficking. He also was an investor in the Wanderer, a schooner which in 1858 brought the second-from-last documented shipload of enslaved persons to the U.S. It arrived at Jekyll Island, Georgia on November 28, 1858; federal authorities tried the ringleaders in Savannah three times but were unable to get a conviction from the locally-drawn juries.
De Montmollin was one of 11 people killed in June 1859 when the boiler of a Savannah River steamboat exploded. His body, blown clear of the steamboat, landed on Jekyll Island near where the Wanderer had offloaded its captives...."
P.S. That running online writeup has a number of Civil War-related entries, all in its section 2. They include Gen. John Hunt Morgan, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet and his nephew Gen James G. Longstreet, Gen. Leonidas Polk, William Huntington Russell, and couple of more-famous names. Corrections, comments or questions are always welcome especially from experts!
I really appreciate these weekly tidbits. Always lots of interesting content. That’s a great story about Grant getting arrested (twice) by a former USCT for speeding in DC. If you want to learn a bit more about Grant’s character, Horace Porter’s memoir “Campaigning with Grant” is good. Yes, it’s a bit fawning, but the man clearly loved and admired his old boss.
Also, if anyone hasn’t been to Reconstruction Era National Historical Park, go! It’s fantastic as are the rangers/public historians!
Glad to hear it. Porter's memoir is well worth reading and I also highly recommend visiting Beaufort, SC and the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park. Chris Barr and his staff do a fabulous job.
Thank you for the kind words, Kevin.
Hope you are doing well, Chris.
Great stuff.
Regarding the new Savannah historic plaque -- John S. de Montmollin II is my wife's ancestor. In recent years my decades-long genealogy geekdom has been expressing itself in the form of a running online writeup of "infamous" and should-be-famous people up in the vast family tree. Among the former category is de Montmollin whose individual story has a highly karmic ending. Way too much for their plaque of course but hopefully the folks in Savannah know of it...this is from my running document:
"....a successful banker, plantation owner and slave trader in and around Savannah, Georgia. In the latter activity de Montmollin declined to be restrained by overseas slave trading having been banned in the U.S. in 1808.
De Montmollin first became wealthy in 1850 in the gold fields of California but not as a miner: he started and built a successful business supplying the miners. Having moved back east and become president of a successful Savannah bank, de Montmollin in 1856 constructed a three-story building which is still standing in historic Savannah and known as the John Montmollin Warehouse. He’d built it with the third floor as a slave pen; after the city’s occupation by Union troops near the end of the Civil War it was converted into a school for Black children.
While buying and selling enslaved persons domestically, de Montmollin lobbied unsuccessfully for the resumption of legal overseas trafficking. He also was an investor in the Wanderer, a schooner which in 1858 brought the second-from-last documented shipload of enslaved persons to the U.S. It arrived at Jekyll Island, Georgia on November 28, 1858; federal authorities tried the ringleaders in Savannah three times but were unable to get a conviction from the locally-drawn juries.
De Montmollin was one of 11 people killed in June 1859 when the boiler of a Savannah River steamboat exploded. His body, blown clear of the steamboat, landed on Jekyll Island near where the Wanderer had offloaded its captives...."
P.S. That running online writeup has a number of Civil War-related entries, all in its section 2. They include Gen. John Hunt Morgan, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet and his nephew Gen James G. Longstreet, Gen. Leonidas Polk, William Huntington Russell, and couple of more-famous names. Corrections, comments or questions are always welcome especially from experts!
https://medium.com/@PaultheFossil/by-paul-botts-7f825c0bf4a8#85c1
(no Medium account needed)
I really appreciate these weekly tidbits. Always lots of interesting content. That’s a great story about Grant getting arrested (twice) by a former USCT for speeding in DC. If you want to learn a bit more about Grant’s character, Horace Porter’s memoir “Campaigning with Grant” is good. Yes, it’s a bit fawning, but the man clearly loved and admired his old boss.
Also, if anyone hasn’t been to Reconstruction Era National Historical Park, go! It’s fantastic as are the rangers/public historians!
Glad to hear it. Porter's memoir is well worth reading and I also highly recommend visiting Beaufort, SC and the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park. Chris Barr and his staff do a fabulous job.