
[Nicole Sauvage]
It is mistakenly believed that the Vine and Olive Colony was populated by wealthy aristocrats who wanted to craft a paradise out of the southern wilderness. The only notable person involved with the colony was General Count Charles Lefebvre-Desnouettes. The aristocrat climbed up the ranks of the French Revolutionary army and received his title from Napoleon in 1808. Several other Napoleonic officers also arrived in Alabama but only for brief periods; Lefebvre-Desnouettes eventually left the state in 1821 to return to France, drowning off of the coast of Ireland. By 1830 the colony was depleted of its Napoleonic settlers, but this did nothing to stop romantic stories about the Vine and Olive Colony from remaining a part of the cultural history of our state.