A Napoleonic Map of America

The naming of places can be an indication of cultural preoccupations. Physical evidence of the perennial popularity of Napoleon Bonaparte is stamped on the countryside of America.

Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, and Kentucky have towns named Napoleon. Louisiana has a Napoleonville.  

Police cars in Napoleon, Ohio, bear the image of the Emperor.

In the state of Alabama there is a town named Napoleon, as well as an Elba, a Waterloo, and a Marengo County. Iowa has a town named Bonaparte.

According to the official website of the state of Indiana, the naming of the town of Napoleon, Indiana was due to Alvin Peterson Hovey, the governor of the state of Indiana in the 1890s. He was said to have believed himself to be Napoleon’s reincarnation, and honored the anniversary of Napoleon’s death in solitary retreat.

Napoleonic events were also commemorated on maps of America. Elba, of course, was the island from which Napoleon escaped in 1815. Elba, in upstate New York, was also significant to those attempting to escape. It was a link in the Underground Railroad - there was a tunnel underneath Main Street, between an inn and a private home.

Today Elba claims to be the Onion Capital of the World and every year, an Onion Queen is crowned.

Twenty-eight states in the Union have towns named Waterloo. The town of Waterloo, New York so honored those fallen in battle that it was designated the official birthplace of Memorial Day, by presidential decree. The town even contains a miniature Arc d’Triumphe.

Martin Van Buren, in 1878 a state senator, later the 8th president of the United States, was an admirer of Napoleon. He became angered when an opponent in the state senate succeeded in getting a place named Waterloo. So he insisted that a new community in upstate New York be named for a Napoleonic victory, Austerlitz, rather than, like Waterloo, for a Napoleonic defeat.

The town of Austerlitz has a sign in an empty field, for the future site of Old Austerlitz.

Just east of Kansas City, in Missouri, is a Napoleon, Wellington, and Waterloo. The town of Napoleon was named first, in 1836. Then a year later a nearby town was named for his rival, Wellington. Waterloo, situated between the two, was named last - named of course after the battle in which Wellington defeated Napoleon.

Meanwhile, Napoleon, Arkansas, once called "the most wretched of wretched places," by Mark Twain, has long since been washed away by the Mississippi River.