JARNAC, Gaston Louis de (zhar'-nack'), French soldier, born in Angouleme in 1758; died in Texas in 1818. He served in the war for American independence from 1776 till 1781, was wounded at Yorktown, and received from Louis XVI. the cross of Saint Louis. He emigrated to the United States during the French revolution, taught French and mathematics in Boston and Philadelphia, and opened, in 1797, the French institute at New Orleans. Returning to France in 1805, he was for some time an officer in the army, but having expressed himself too freely on the policy of Napoleon, he feared arrest, and fled again to the United States, living quietly till 1814, when he accepted service under Jean Lafitte (q. v.). In 1816 he made the acquaintance of General Charles Lallemand (q. v.), and agreed to devote the fortune that he had made with Lafitte in the foundation of the "Champ d'Asile" on the banks of the river Trinidad in Texas, and in that military colony held an important command. But famine and troubles ruined the colony. Jarnac reproached Lallemand for his despotic rule, and with a few followers set out, under the guidance of a Choctaw Indian, to reach Louisiana. But the savage led them to an Indian village, where they were attacked and, after a desperate resistance, taken captive and murdered.