Bouquet, Henry (1719?–02 September 1765), soldier of fortune, was born in Rolle, Switzerland, the son of Isaac-Barthelemy Bouquet, a hotel proprietor, and Madeleine Rolaz du Rozay. In 1736 he became a cadet in the Swiss Regiment of Constant in the Dutch service. From 1739 to 1748 he served in the army of the king of Sardinia. He obtained a command in the Dutch army’s Swiss Guards, serving until 1755, when Jacques Prevost recruited him with other mercenary officers for the Royal American Regiment, a four-battalion British army unit Prevost was raising for service in America. Embarking in May 1756 to spend the rest of his life in the British army in America, Bouquet commanded as lieutenant colonel, in October 1756, the First Battalion, which was sent to Philadelphia. He clashed with Pennsylvania authorities over troop quarters and the need for a smallpox hospital. In June 1757 he took four companies and part of the Seventy-seventh Highland Battalion to Charleston, South Carolina. Again colonial officials did not provide facilities. With other Swiss officers he invested in South Carolina rice growing lands, although the project collapsed in 1761. Bouquet brought five First Battalion companies to Philadelphia in May 1758 to join Brigadier ...
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Bouquet, Henry (1719?–02 September 1765), soldier of fortune
Louis M. Waddell
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Gage, Thomas (1719 or 1720–02 April 1787), soldier and the last royal governor of Massachusetts
Philip Cash
Gage, Thomas (1719 or 1720–02 April 1787), soldier and the last royal governor of Massachusetts, was born in Firle, Sussex, England, the son of Thomas Gage, first Viscount Gage of the Irish peerage, who had for political reasons abandoned his family’s traditional Roman Catholicism and joined the Church of England, and Benedicta or Beata Maria Theresa Hall, an heiress who gained notoriety for her alleged promiscuity. The year of Gage’s birth traditionally has been given as 1721, but the fact that he entered school in 1728 suggests that he was actually born in 1719 or early 1720. Gage spent much of his early childhood at his mother’s family seat in Gloucestershire. During his eight years at the Westminster school (1728–1736), Gage associated with a number of youths who would later achieve military and political prominence....
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Mauldin, William Henry (29 October 1921–22 January 2003)
Bruce J. Evensen
Mauldin, William Henry (29 October 1921–22 January 2003), Pulitzer Prize–winning editorial cartoonist, was born in Mountain Park, just east of Alamogordo, New Mexico, the second son of Sidney Albert Mauldin, a wrench salesman, outdoor privy builder, and odd-jobman, and Edith Katrina (Bemis) Mauldin. Bill was often confined to his bed by rickets as a kid and drew pictures of his daydreams. At age thirteen he took a correspondence course for cartoonists. His family traveled southwest and northern New Mexico looking for work during the Great Depression. His parents divorced when he was seventeen years old, and he headed to Phoenix, Arizona, on his own. A loan from his maternal grandmother paid his tuition to the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1939, where he studied under the ...
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Mauldin, William Henry (29 October 1921–22 January 2003)
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Morris, Roger (1727-1794), British soldier and Loyalist
Harry M. Ward
Morris, Roger (28 January 1727–13 September 1794), British soldier and Loyalist, was born in Yorkshire, England, the son of Roger Morris and Mary Jackson, daughter of Sir Peter Jackson. On 13 September 1745 Morris was commissioned a captain in the Forty-eighth Regiment of Foot. In that regiment he accompanied General ...
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Nicholson, Francis (1655-1728), colonial governor and soldier
Jacob Judd
Nicholson, Francis (12 November 1655–05 March 1728), colonial governor and soldier, was born in the parish of Downholme, in Yorkshire, England. While his parentage and early years remain obscure, a supposition developed among his contemporaries that he was the illegitimate son of Charles Paulet, who bore the titles of Lord St. John and, later, duke of Bolton and who became his patron. From Nicholson’s writings it is known that he had some local schooling, probably prior to becoming a page to Lady St. John during his teenage years. At twenty-three he joined the King’s Holland Regiment as an ensign and served in Flanders. By July 1680 Nicholson was in Tangier, a lieutenant in the King’s Own Regiment. There he developed a reputation for being a strict drillmaster and loyal adherent to King Charles II. Appointed an aide-de-camp to Colonel Percy Kirke, deputy governor of Tangier, he served as an envoy to the emperor of Morocco and as a courier. For exemplary service, he was brevetted captain....
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Rocco, Louis Richard (19 November 1938–31 October 2002)
Henry Franklin Tribe
Rocco, Louis Richard (19 November 1938–31 October 2002), soldier and Medal of Honor recipient, was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the son of Louis Rocco, an Italian American, and Lita Rocco, a Mexican American. He always went by the name Richard Rocco. Growing up in a poor family with eight siblings and a father often unemployed, Richard experienced much hardship. As a youngster in the Albuquerque suburb of Barelas, he stole potatoes and corn from local fields to provide for his family. When he was ten years old, the family moved to the San Fernando Valley in California. As a teenager, Richard joined a barrio gang in Wilmington, spent time in jail, and found himself in constant trouble with the authorities. At the age of sixteen, he prepared to be sentenced for armed robbery. While expecting the worst, Richard visited an army recruiting station in Los Angeles and talked candidly to a sympathetic recruiter about his problems. The recruiter talked to the judge, who decided to send Richard to a delinquency home for a year and then allow him to join the army when he turned seventeen after his parents signed a waiver. Richard was also ordered to stay in school and avoid involvement with the gang....
