Charles Michel De Langlade was born on May 9, 1729 at Mackinac, Michigan, United States. His father, Augustin Mouet de Langlade, was a scion of nobility from Guienne, and his mother (baptized Domitelle) was an Ottawa Indian, daughter and sister of the chiefs Nis-so-wa-quet or La Fourche. He was the only child, but by his mother’s previous marriage to a trader named Villeneuve, he had several half brothers and sisters.
Charles was educated by the Jesuit priests of the post where he lived, wrote a good hand, and was everywhere received as a gentleman.
The first event of his career occurred when at the age of ten he accompanied his Indian uncles on a war expedition down the Mississippi. Thither a considerable French army came from New Orleans, and built a post near Memphis and there passed a winter preparing for a campaign against the rebellious Chickasaw.
Young De Langlade became enamored of military life and learned much of its details from French officers. Before 1730 he had been enrolled as a cadet in the colonial troops, in 1755 was ensign, and in 1760 lieutenant.
His first expedition was that of 1752, when he drove the British traders from the post of Pickawillany and killed the Miami chief “Old Britain. ” During all the French and Indian War De Langlade was actively employed as a leader of Indian auxiliaries; he was credited by his contemporaries with the victory over Braddock; he defeated Rogers’s Rangers in 1757 on Lake Champlain; he aided in the attack on Fort William Henry; and served in the Quebec campaign of 1759. The next year he left Montreal before its capitulation to Amherst, and brought to Mackinac the news of the French downfall. Upon the desertion of that post by the commandant, De Langlade as second in command delivered it to the English, and soon thereafter transferred his allegiance and became a loyal British subject. In Pontiac’s conspiracy he was instrumental in saving the lives of several British soldiers; soon thereafter he removed his home to Green Bay, where he and his father had long had a trading-post. There as the chief settler he became known as the “Father of Wisconsin. ” His services for the British during the American Revolution were considerable; he had the rank of captain in the Indian department and sent Indian auxiliaries to Carleton and Burgoyne. In the West he parried the efforts of George Rogers Clark, and opposed both American and Spanish partisans. The King granted him lands in Canada for his services.
He lived at Green Bay in patriarchal fashion and there died in the midst of his descendants and retainers.
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Essentially military in his characteristics, known to the western tribesmen as Akewaugeke-tauso, a soldier chief, he was in his home a kind and devoted father and master, was deeply loved by the Indians, and maintained under three flags his integrity and honor.
In 1754 Charles Michel de Langlade married at Mackinac Charlotte Bourassa, and left numerous descendants chiefly in the Grignon line.
