George Washington's French-Canadian Spy

Henri Gosselin, now retired from being editor of a Catholic newspaper in the East, wrote a book about a hero he learned about in studying his family history. Clement Gosselin was a French-Canadian who served as a spy for General George Washington during the American Revolution. He did this even though his Bishop warned him that he would be excommunicated if he should participate on the side of the Americans.

Eventually, he was wounded in the last battle of the war, at Yorktown, was promoted to Major and retired. Clement Gosselin was a brother to Joseph Marie Gosselin (born 1740) who is in our direct ancestral line. My great grandmother was Marguerite Gosselin, wife of Andre Jerome, and the great granddaughter of Joseph Marie Gosselin.

The book, entitled "George Washington's French Canadian Spy", is now out of print. Because of our relationship, the author has provided me with a copy. It is exciting to read about how a distant cousin helped in the making of the history of our nation. Not only did he serve with the patriots of our country against the British forces, but he actively recruited many other French Canadians to do the same.

An article about the author, Henri Gosselin is at http://www.mainewriter.com/articles/Henry-Gosselin.htm, and an article about the book is at http://home.gwi.net/~hgosseli/english.html.