The mysterious peter ney

Marshall Michel Ney was born in 1769 in Sarrelouis, a town along the
French-German border. He enlisted in the French Army in 1787 and rose
rapidly through the ranks, fighting on the side of the Republic during
the French Revolution and eventually casting his lot in with Napoleon
Bonaparte. France's new Emperor would continually praise Ney for his
intelligence and bravery, awarding him the title of Marshall of the
Empire in 1804. Marshall Michel Ney was known as the "Last Frenchman in
Russia" after standing with the rear guard of the French invasion force
as it retreated from the disastrous 1812 invasion of Russia. But Ney
eventually turned against Napoleon, leading a military revolt seeking
the Emperor's abdication in 1814. The restored Louis XVIII granted Ney
the title of Duc d'Elchingen. Ney's sympathies for the restored monarchy
 proved short-lived, and when Napoleon returned to France in 1815 Ney
once again joined with Bonaparte. It was a decision with great
consequences for Marshall Ney. When Napoleon was defeated, Ney was
arrested for treason, and executed by firing squad on December 6, 1815.

Peter Stuart Ney was a man seemingly without a past who appeared in
America in the early 1820s. He moved from town to town throughout the
Carolinas, working as teacher of French and Latin. He eventually settled
 in Davidson, where he supported himself teaching at Davidson College.

Peter Ney kept to himself. He was known to voraciously read any
newspaper he could get his hands on, paying particular attention to news
 from France or of the Emperor. He would spend many of his evenings
drinking and would reportedly occasionally let slip hints of of a former
 life in the French army. He once challenged a French fencing instructor
 who had set up residence in Mocksville to a duel, and defeated the much
 younger man almost effortlessly. When news of Napoleon's death reached
Peter Ney, he dropped to the floor in a cold faint, and when he
recovered tried,unsuccessfully, to end his own life. Many veterans of
the French wars had settled in America after Napoleon's defeat, and
those that passed through this small North Carolina town noted
unanimously on the striking resemblance between this tall, red-headed
schoolmaster and the late Marshall Michel Nay of France.

Soon, people began to speculate they were one and the same man.

Was it possible the Marshall Ney had somehow avoided execution had
relocated across the ocean to North Carolina, hoping to one day return
when Napoleon once again rose to power? Even at the time of Marshal
Ney's death, there had been speculation that his execution may have been
 faked. Michel Ney was a Freemason, as were many of the peers who
oversaw his trial and execution. There were rumors that the Freemasons
were unwilling to execute a fellow member, and so had arranged for Ney's
 death to be staged and for him to be transported to safety. There may
also be some clue in the name Peter Stuart Ney itself. Michel Ney's
father was Pierre Ney, which would be Anglicized as "Peter", and the
name "Stuart" recalls another famous exile. England's Charles II of the
Stuart line spent the years during the interregnum in exile in France,
to return to the throne in 1660 when the monarchy was restored. This
connection to another exile may have appealed to Ney's sense of irony,
or his sense of self-aggrandizement.

Throughout his life in North Carolina, rumors circulated that Peter
Ney was, indeed, Marshal Ney. The schoolmaster's surprising military
skill, his inebriated recollections, his natural command of the French
language, and his surprising resemblance to the fallen Marshall all
fueled the speculation.

It should be noted that at this time in America there was widespread
fascination with the fallen French monarchy and with Napoleon's fallen
court. Impersonating exiled French aristocracy was even something of a
career choice. Many small-time con men with enough French to pass
themselves off as members of the Gallic upper crust could spend years
dining out on their invented recollections, to the point where Mark
Twain even parodied the trend in the Duke and Dauphin episode of *Huckleberry Finn*.

Still, according to the legend Peter Ney himself may have had the
 final word on the matter. When asked on his deathbed in 1846 if he was
indeed Marshall Michel Ney, the Davidson Schoolteacher's dying words
were reported to be "I will not die with a lie on my lips! I am Marshall
 Ney of France!"

Whether or not Marshall Ney was Peter Ney, and whether Marshall
Ney's glorious grave in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris is empty will
probably be forever unknown. But there is a tomb in a Presbyterian
church in Davidson over which a French flag flies and where a plaque
bears the words “In memory of Peter Stuart Ney, a native of France and
soldier of the French Revolution under Napoleon Bonaparte, who departed
this life November 15, 1846, aged 77 years.”