Lt. Col. E.M.S. LeBreton: Captured at Port Hudson, La.

Lt. Col.E. S.M. LeBreton
(Immortal 600)

       Lieutenant Colonel Emile Bartholomew St. Mesme Le Breton des Chapelles was serving as the aid to the chief of heavy artillery at Port Hudson when he was captured by the Yankees when the Confederate bastion  on the Mississippi surrendered on July 9, 1863, The heavy artillery was under the command of Colonel Marshall  J. Smith. Major  General Franklin Gardner was in overall command at Port Hudson. Here was his record as a prisoner of war of the U,S Army:
     Lt. Col., F. and S., 4th La. Inf. Federal Rolls of Prisoners of War, Captured Port Hudson, July 9, 1863. Sent to New Orleans, La., on Str. Zephyr, July 13, 1863. Forwd. to Johnson's Island, Ohio, from Fort Columbus, N. Y. Harbor, Oct. 13, 1863. Recd. at Fort Delaware, Del., from Pt. Lookout, Md., June 25, 1864. Released on Oath of Allegiance to United States. July 24, 1865 by order of the President. Res. Jefferson Parish,
complexion fair, hair brown, eyes gray, height 5 ft. 8 in.
     For about a month, between September and October 1864, he was one of 600 Confederate officers who were transferred to Morris Island, S.C., fed starvation rations and held under fire of Confederate guns in Charleston. Three of the prisoners actually died there of starvation. The men became martyrs for the cause of Southern Independence and famous throughout the south for refusing  to take the Oath of Allegiance to the U.S.
    LeBreton was born in  1833 in New Orleans, Louisiana to Bartholomew St. Mesme LeBreton St. des Chapelles and Marie Celeste Roman. LeBreton was a lawyer in New Orleans and his family owned extensive tracts of land in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. He was married to Margaret Irene Abbott and they had four children. He died January 11, 1908 in New Orleans and is  buried at the historic St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 in  New Orleans.