Charles Fleury Bien-aimé Guilloû (1813–99) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
military physician. He served on a major exploring expedition that included both scientific discoveries and controversy, and two historic diplomatic missions. He ran a hospital in the
Hawaiian IslandsThe Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
, before returning to the US.
Life
Charles Fleury Bien-aimé Guilloû was born in Philadelphia on July 26, 1813.
His father was Victor Gabriel Guilloû (1776–1841), who had escaped from the
French RevolutionThe French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
and fought in the
Haitian RevolutionThe Haitian Revolution was a period of conflict in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which culminated in the elimination of slavery there and the founding of the Haitian republic...
. His father introduced him to Marquis de Lafayette when he visited the US in 1824. Guilloû attended a military academy and then graduated from the
University of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
medical school in 1836. During 1836, he visited his father, who had moved to
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
to start a sugar plantation after running a dance academy in Philadelphia.
Exploration
On February 9, 1837, Guilloû was appointed assistant surgeon for the in the
United States NavyThe United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
.
It was one of the ships sent on the
United States Exploring ExpeditionThe United States Exploring Expedition was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States from 1838 to 1842. The original appointed commanding officer was Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones. The voyage was authorized by Congress in...
commanded by
Charles WilkesCharles Wilkes was an American naval officer and explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 and commanded the ship in the Trent Affair during the American Civil War...
, although it was 1838 before the squadron could depart. After a dispute with
Cadwalader RinggoldCadwalader Ringgold was an officer in the United States Navy who served in the United States Exploring Expedition, later headed an expedition to the Northwest and, after initially retiring, returned to service during the Civil War....
, he was transferred to the . He befriended young midshipman William Reynolds, whose journals provide a non-official version of the events of the voyage. In December 1839, the squadron headed farther south, and in January 1840 provided the first sighting of the continent of
Antarctica by a US Navy ship. Guilloû provided a sketch when the
Peacock was stuck in the ice. They returned to
SydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
for repairs, before resuming exploration.
Wilkes' imperious manner included dismissing many of the officers, leading to further low morale. Guilloû attended to sailors injured by frequent floggings. In September 1841 the squadron arrived in Honolulu in the
Hawaiian IslandsThe Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
to spend the winter. The three year planned time of the voyage was over, and several members requested to leave. Wilkes insisted on reading all journals and letters. When Guilloû removed some pages from his journal, saying they were of a personal nature, Wilkes suspended Guilloû and prepared charges for various offenses. After the
Peacock was lost in July 1841 while exploring the
Pacific NorthwestThe Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
, Guilloû was shuttled between various ships, officially under arrest.
On his return in 1842, Guilloû helped organize the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery under William P. C. Barton.
He was sentenced to dismissal at the
court-martialA court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...
trials in 1843 related to the Wilkes expedition, but President
John TylerJohn Tyler was the tenth President of the United States . A native of Virginia, Tyler served as a state legislator, governor, U.S. representative, and U.S. senator before being elected Vice President . He was the first to succeed to the office of President following the death of a predecessor...
reduced the sentence to a year suspension.
Guilloû filed seven charges against Wilkes, including questioning his claim to have "discovered" Antarctica. Wilkes was found guilty of only one: illegal punishment. Wilkes was sentenced to a public reprimand.
Diplomacy
After being reinstated, Guilloû served on the , under Commodore
James BiddleJames Biddle , of the Biddle family, brother of financier Nicholas Biddle and nephew of Captain Nicholas Biddle, was an American commodore. His flagship was USS Columbus.-Education and early career:...
. In June 1845 the ship was sent to
GuangzhouGuangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
(then known as Canton), on a diplomatic mission with the first treaty between the US and
ChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. It then visited
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. When returning via Honolulu, at the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, the
Columbus was recalled to
Monterey, CaliforniaThe City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
and the ranch of
William A. Richardson. Guilloû met
John SutterJohann Augus Sutter was a Swiss pioneer of California known for his association with the California Gold Rush by the discovery of gold by James W. Marshall and the mill making team at Sutter's Mill, and for establishing Sutter's Fort in the area that would eventually become Sacramento, the...
, and spoke French with the Swiss native on July 4, 1847; a year later the discovery of gold near Sutter's mill would spark the
California Gold RushThe California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
. On August 28, 1847 he was promoted to the rank of full Navy Surgeon. The
Columbus returned to
Hampton RoadsHampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...
in March 1848.
Guilloû was then assigned to the which took another diplomatic trip, this one to Europe.
On July 30, 1849, while at
GaetaGaeta is a city and comune in the province of Latina, in Lazio, central Italy. Set on a promontory stretching towards the Gulf of Gaeta, it is 120 km from Rome and 80 km from Naples....
, the multilingual Guilloû acted as interpreter for a visit to the palace of
King Ferdinand IIFerdinand II was King of the Two Sicilies from 1830 until his death.-Family:Ferdinand was born in Palermo, the son of King Francis I of the Two Sicilies and his wife and first cousin Maria Isabella of Spain.His paternal grandparents were King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and Queen Marie...
by local diplomat John Rowan. They also met Cardinal
Giacomo AntonelliGiacomo Antonelli was an Italian cardinal deacon. He was the Cardinal Secretary of State from 1848 until his death; he played a key role in Italian politics, resisting the unification of Italy and affecting Roman Catholic interests in European affairs...
, who was
secretary of stateThe Cardinal Secretary of State—officially Secretary of State of His Holiness The Pope—presides over the Holy See, usually known as the "Vatican", Secretariat of State, which is the oldest and most important dicastery of the Roman Curia...
for the
Papal StatesThe Papal State, State of the Church, or Pontifical States were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia .The Papal States comprised territories under...
. On July 31 they visited
Pope Pius IXBlessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal...
, and invited him and Ferdinand to visit the ship, with Guilloû again interpreting.
On August 1, Ferdinand and Pius had their formal visit to the
Constitution. Pius began to feel ill, and Guilloû treated him for seasickness. The grateful pope delivered rosaries to the Catholics on the ship; Guilloû received inscribed prayerbooks and a medalion, along with a plenary indulgence. The visit, however, proved to be a diplomatic embarrassment for the US, which was officially neutral in the
Italian revolutionsThe 1848 revolutions in the Italian states were organized revolts in the states of Italy led by intellectuals and agitators who desired a liberal government. As Italian nationalists they sought to eliminate reactionary Austrian control...
that were happening at the time. A visit to a navy ship was considered equivalent to stepping on "US territory", which had never been done before by a pope. Captain
John GwinnJohn Gwinn III was a United States Navy officer born in Maryland. During the War of 1812, he was a POW after the Royal Navy had captured in 1814 and he later commanded...
died before he could be formally reprimanded.
On his return, Guilloû was stationed at the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard from 1852 to 1854. He married Dinah Postlethwaite (1815–85), daughter of Samuel Postlethwaite (1772–1824) from
Natchez, MississippiNatchez is the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. With a total population of 18,464 , it is the largest community and the only incorporated municipality within Adams County...
in September 1852. They had one daughter, Margaret Acelie Guilloû (born September 13, 1853), who married George Alfred Blackmore. They also adopted Eloise ("Polly") Thibault.
Hawaii
Guilloû sailed to Honolulu in 1854. He first tried to establish a hospital with Robert W. Wood, but that failed.
Active in
FreemasonryFreemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
, he helped reactivate Lodge Le Progrés de l'Océanie in Honolulu that had been chartered from the French organization.
He was an early member of the Hawaiian Agricultural Society.
He evidently decided to stick to medicine, since in 1856, he was one of the founding members of the Hawaiian Medical Society, with other prominent doctors such as
Gerrit P. JuddGerrit Parmele Judd was an American physician and missionary to the Kingdom of Hawaii who later became a trusted advisor and cabinet minister to King Kamehameha III.- Life :...
and Thomas Charles Byde Rooke.
In 1857
Darius A. OgdenDarius Adams Ogden was an American lawyer and politician from New York.-Life:...
, the American
ConsulThe political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...
to the
Kingdom of HawaiiThe Kingdom of Hawaii was established during the years 1795 to 1810 with the subjugation of the smaller independent chiefdoms of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lānai, Kauai and Niihau by the chiefdom of Hawaii into one unified government...
, appointed him as the Honolulu U.S. Seamen's Hospital physician in 1857.
On April 23, 1858, he gave a speech proposing to improve health care for
native HawaiiansNative Hawaiians refers to the indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands or their descendants. Native Hawaiians trace their ancestry back to the original Polynesian settlers of Hawaii.According to the U.S...
by opening a hospital.
Although the plan would later be adopted, the resulting Queen's Hospital (now the
The Queen's Medical CenterThe Queen's Medical Center, originally called Queen's Hospital is an acute private non-profit hospital in downtown Honolulu founded in 1859 by Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV.-Description:...
) would pass up Guilloû and appoint German
William HillebrandWilliam Hillebrand was a German physician. He traveled the world, including over 20 years in the Hawaiian islands. In 1850, Hillebrand lived at what is now Foster Botanical Garden in Honolulu. He also became known as a botanist.-Life and career:...
to head the new institution.
Guilloû was appointed by
Victor Emmanuel II of ItalyVictor Emanuel II was king of Sardinia from 1849 and, on 17 March 1861, he assumed the title King of Italy to become the first king of a united Italy since the 6th century, a title he held until his death in 1878...
as the Consul of Italy to the Kingdom of Hawaii while he was there.
The State Department suspected overcharging for the seaman's hospital.
Commander William E. Hunt in of the was sent to investigate.
James W. BordenJames Wallace Borden was an American jurist in Indiana and diplomat.-Life:James Wallace Borden was born near Beaufort, North Carolina on February 5, 1810.His father was Joseph Borden and mother Esther Wallace ....
, the new
United States Minister to HawaiiThe Minister to Hawaii was an office of the United States Department of State to the Kingdom of Hawaii during the period of 1810 to 1898. Appointed by the President of the United States with the consent of Congress, the Minister to Hawaii was equivalent in rank to the present-day ambassador of the...
, published letters in the
Pacific Commercial Advertiser newspaper of
Henry Martyn WhitneyHenry Martyn Whitney was an early journalist in the Kingdom of Hawaii. Born of early missionaries, he became the first postmaster and founded several long-lasting newspapers.-Early life:...
with accusations against Guilloû and Abner Pratt, the American Consul who replaced Ogden.
Pratt had already headed back to
Marshall, MichiganMarshall is a city located in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is part of the Battle Creek, Michigan Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 7,459. It is the county seat of Calhoun County...
where he built a majestic mansion, while the
Levant was lost at sea.
Although Pratt was asked to return the funds, the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
caused the government to never pursue the case.
By 1861, the Seamen's Hospital was run by
Seth Porter FordSeth Porter Ford was an American physician in the Kingdom of Hawaii.-Life:Seth Porter Ford was born October 12, 1817 in Washington, Connecticut.His father was John Mansfield Ford and mother was Polly Ann Calhoun ....
(1817–1866).
Young Prince
Albert Edward Kauikeaouli KaleiopapaPrince Albert Kamehameha, formally Albert Edward Kauikeaouli Kaleiopapa a Kamehameha , was the only son of King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma, who during his short life was the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Hawaii...
became ill in August 1862. Guilloû was one of many physicians called in to help, but they could do nothing and the young prince died, leading to a series of succession crises.
He returned to the US in 1867. He lived for a while in
Petersburg, VirginiaPetersburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States located on the Appomattox River and south of the state capital city of Richmond. The city's population was 32,420 as of 2010, predominantly of African-American ethnicity...
, and then
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Death and legacy
Guilloû died on January 2, 1899 in New York of
pneumoniaPneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
.
He wrote a book of his reminiscences (never published), and took many sketches during his travels.
His sketches of Oregon and California were published in 1961.
Grandson Charles Thomas Blackmore was born July 3, 1888, joined the British army in
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and died on June 16, 1915 in the Battle of Bellewaarde.
His widow donated Guilloû's papers to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1974.
Some of his effects such as medals are on display at the museum there.
Grandson Philip Guillou Blackmore was born January 18, 1890 in Virginia and entered the
Virginia Military InstituteThe Virginia Military Institute , located in Lexington, Virginia, is the oldest state-supported military college and one of six senior military colleges in the United States. Unlike any other military college in the United States—and in keeping with its founding principles—all VMI students are...
in 1908.
After graduating, he was commissioned into the coast artillery of the US Army on December 20, 1911. During World War I he also went to
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, where he served at
Fort KamehamehaFort Kamehameha was a United States Army military base that was the site of several coastal artillery batteries to defend Pearl Harbor starting in 1907 in Honolulu, Hawaii.-History:The eastern areas of the fort were in the district called Moanalua...
and rose to be commander of
Fort RugerFort Ruger is a fort on the island of Oahu that served as the first military reservation in the Territory of Hawaii. Named after Civil War General Thomas H...
. During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he rose to the rank of temporary brigadier general. In August 1947 he assumed command of the White Sands Proving Ground. He married Emily Van Patten and had four children.
He retired in 1950 and died April 7, 1974.
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