To Generals Lallemand, Antoine Riguad, the veterans of the Napoleonic Wars

What Charles Lallemand intended at Champ d'Asile remains an open question. The Handbook of Texas says there is no evidence the Bonapartist colonists farmed in any serious way. The officers, organized into three cohorts, spent their effort on a fortress and on making munitions, and the known roster runs to 149 names, plus four women and four children. When Lallemand learned that Spanish troops had been sent from San Antonio to expel them, he ordered the camp abandoned. By July 24, 1818, the retreating colonists were at Galveston Bay.

What the plaque says

To Generals Lallemand, Antoine Riguad, the veterans of the Napoleonic Wars To Generals Charles Lallemand, Antoine Rigaud, the veterans of the Napoleonic Wars and other French settlers, who, after many trials and adventures, came to Texas in the spring of 1818 to found on the banks of the Trinity River the Champ D'Asile: a last refuge for peace and liberty "Nous voulons vivre libres, laborieux et paisables" (We want to live as free men through our labor, and in peace.) Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center — 4.6 mi
  A state archives and museum north of Liberty with an exhibit on Southeast Texas history and a campus of historic buildings, including an 1848 house and an 1898 church.
• San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site — 27 mi
  The 1,200 acres of coastal prairie and marsh where the Texas Revolution ended in eighteen minutes, and the 567-foot shaft of fossil-studded limestone that has stood over them since 1939.

More markers nearby

• The Trinity River — steps away
• Milton Ashley Hardin — 0.9 mi
• Catholic Cemetery — 0.9 mi
• Site of Liberty's Ursuline Convent — 1.0 mi