On February 5, 1860, Michael Jamart, a native of Paris, France died at the age of eighty, in Baltimore, one of the Old Defenders’ of Baltimore of 1814.
Mr. Jamart arrived in Maryland onboard the French seventy-four ship-of-the-line L’Eole in 1806, the ship having been nearly dismasted in a gale off the Virginia seaboard. The ship was towed to Baltimore from Annapolis, where under the direction of a French official was condemned and sold at auction, her armament of cannon were stored in a Fell’s Point warehouse. In 1813 the U.S. Government purchased the 18- and 36-pounder naval guns and mounted them at Fort McHenry, where they defied the British navy during the War of 1812.
Mr. Jamart became an American citizen and enlisted in Captain Philip B. Sadtler’s rifle company, the Baltimore Yagers, 5th Maryland Regiment, who fought at the Battle of Bladensburg (August 24) and North Point (Sept. 12) in 1814.
After the war he became a “French Restorateur” at No. 40 Water Street near Gay, opposite the Exchange, offering “the delicacies of the French Restaurants.” As proprietor of the Exchange Coffee House, he continued his militia service as an officer with the Independent Blues until old age compelled him to decline his service.
He is buried in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore.
Source: Baltimore Patriot, September 9, 1830; The Sun, February 6, 1860.
Maryland in the War of 1812 