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Michael has a BA in History & American Studies and an MSc in American History from the University of Edinburgh. He comes from a proud military family and has spent most of his career as an educator in the Middle East and Asia. His passion is travel, and he seizes any opportunity to share his experiences in the most immersive way possible, whether at sea or on the land.

Part of our in-depth series exploring Southern Early American Forts

Serving as a rendezvous place for Indians, pirates, freebooters, privateers, filibusters, explorers, and settlers, the peninsula of Point Bolivar found its place in the history of Texas. Francisco Xavier Mina built an earthwork fortification there in 1816 and after Mina's defeat by Mexico, the French pirate, Pierre Laffite recruited Mina's troops. Pierre made a base, Fort de Bolivar, on the peninsula. There is evidence that both Laffite brothers may have been in conspiracy with French settlers at Champ d' Asile in what was later revealed to be a Napoleonic plot to invade Mexico. Confederate troops destroyed the Point Bolivar lighthouse to avoid assisting the enemy.

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