Founding
The Vine and Olive Colony was an effort started by the French Emigrant Association, made up of high-ranking officials and followers of Napoleon fearing for their lives after the restoration of Louis XVIII to the French throne. In the fall of 1816 the group, headed by the former General Charles Lallemand, decided to petition Washington, D.C. for four townships upon which they could settle. They began scouting the western frontiers of the Southern United States for an appropriate place upon which to establish their endeavor, with a location at the confluence of the Black Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers being chosen after being recommended by other western pioneers. The United States Congress agreed to allow them to settle and on 3 March 1817 approved an act that granted them four contiguous townships totaling 92,160 acres (373.0 km2) of land for the price of $2 per acre on the condition that they cultivate grapes and olives. This condition was because several other Bonapartist colonies in the world were thought to be little more than military operations with the intention of returning Napoleon to power.
After their journey across the Atlantic, they first arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the largest group of settlers chartered a schooner, the McDonough, to sail them from Philadelphia to Mobile, Alabama. They arrived in Mobile by 26 May 1817 and began the ascent up the rivers, arriving at their destination of Ecor Blanc, literally meaning White Bluff or White Cliff, on the Tombigbee River by 14 July 1817.
Most prominent and wealthiest among the immigrants was Count Charles Lefebvre Desnouettes, who had been a cavalry officer with the rank of Lieutenant-General under Napoleon. He was to serve as the leader of the colony. Other prominent settlers included Lieutenant-General Baron Henri-Dominique Lallemand, brother of Charles, Count Bertrand Clausel, Joseph Lakanal, Simon Chaudron, Pasqual Luciani, Colonel Jean-Jerome Cluis, Jean-Marie Chapron, Colonel Nicholas Raoul, and Frederic Ravesies.
The colonists, comprising about 200 people, soon established the town of Demopolis, or "City of the People", on top of White Bluff, but following a survey in August 1818, they learned that their actual land grants began less than a mile to the east of their newly cleared land. After abandoning the settlement of Demopolis, they soon established two other towns, Aigleville and Arcola. Aigleville was named in honor of Napoleon's ensign, featuring an eagle. Arcola was named for an Italian village (now Arcole) that was the site of a Napoleonic victory in 1796. It became the largest town in the colony.
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