Robert McCausland (1771 - 1851)

Born 21 Jul 1771 in County Armagh, Ireland

Died 11 Apr 1851 at age 79 in Laurel Hill, West Feliciana, Louisiana, United States

Biography

General Robert McCausland served for Louisiana in the War of 1812
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Robert McCausland

General in command of the 13th Regiment, 3rd Brigade of the Louisiana Militia during the war of 1812. Fought in the Battle of New Orleans. John Austin, who served as the Generals Aide, thought so much of him that he named his son Robert McCausland Austin. There is a chapter of the Daughters of the War of 1812 in Louisiana named after Robert. At the age of 18 years, Robert came to America to seek his fortune. The Indian difficulties having broken out in the Northwest, he volunteered and served under General Anthony Wayne and fought with him through that trying campaign in Ohio and Indiana. U.S. Military records list him as serving in Adair's Regiment of Kentucky Cavalry. At the conclusion of hostilities, young Robert McCausland descended the Mississippi River to what is now the State of Louisiana. The wild beauty of the "Feliciana" country as it came to be designated by the Spaniards, means a" Happy Land," won his heart and he decided that there he would build his home. In the 1800s, Robert McCausland married Martha Davis, sister of his friends and neighbors, Lewis and Robert Davis. Martha's father, Lewis, and her uncles, Landon and Hugh Davis, had settled in the Natchez Territory before the American Revolution and played prominent roles in the development of that area. In spite of the compatibility of the young couple, their happiness was not complete, as Martha was unable to give her husband the family he desired. After 15 years, they separated by mutual agreement and Martha returned to her home "Valhalla" in adjoining Wilkinson County. She later married Dr. Richard Roach. In 1816, into this new section of the United States, came the Chichester Chinn family, descendants of an Englishmen, John Chinn, who had settled in Virginia about 1660 and whose children and grandchildren had intermarried with the Balls, Withers, Thorntons and Scotts of Sir Walter Scott's line. Chichester Chinn died during a session of the Kentucky Legislature in 1814. His eldest son, Thomas Withers Chinn sold the family's Kentucky estate and brought his widowed mother, sister and brothers to the Felicianas. Margaret Scott Chinn married General Robert McCausland on May 2, 1820.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVVQ-67SY : 13 December 2015), Robert McCausland, 1851; Burial, Laurel Hill, West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, United States of America, McCausland Cemetery; citing record ID 7783314, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com. Find A Grave: Memorial #7783314