Frequently Asked Question #9: Did Marshal Ney Die in 1815 or Did He Escape to America?
By: Tom Holmburg The book, Historic Doubts as to the Execution of Marshal Ney by James A. Weston (N.Y.: Whittaker, 1895) presents the theory that Marshal Ney escaped from France after a staged execution to live in the United States as a schoolmaster. The evidence presented is tenuous at best, on a par with the theory that Elvis is still alive. In late 1819, a somewhat mysterious stranger going by the name Peter Stuart Ney appeared in South Carolina, where he was hired as a schoolmaster. Three years later P.S. Ney moved to North Carolina where he taught school in various communities until his death on 15 Nov. 1846. P.S. Ney had certain general physical similarities to the famous French Marshal, he was “vaguely” foreign, and bore scars similiar to those the Marshal may have had. P.S. Ney allowed people to believe him to be the famous Marshal; on occasion, especially when he’d been drinking, he would declare himself to be the Marshal. Supposedly certain,unnamed, Frenchmen and foreigners r
