Thursday, July 28, 2022

When he died in 1854 he bequeathed half of his estate to all the Hebrew congregations in the country . . . and the other half to the man who had saved his life on January 1, 1815


One low-ranking American soldier attached to the Louisiana militia, by the name of Judah Touro, volunteered to help carry ammunition from the magazine to Humphrey’s battery. Despite the missiles soaring over his head and on either sides of him he diligently kept at this task, seemingly oblivious to the danger that surrounded him. Then, suddenly, he took a twelve-pound shot in the thigh, which tore off a large mass of flesh. He was removed to a wall of an old building well behind Jackson’s lines and nearly demolished by the British bombardment. A doctor dressed the wound but held out little hope for him. Touro’s best friend, Rezin D. Shepherd, who had been assigned to Patterson’s marine battery but had recrossed the river to find two masons to help complete the building of the battery, heard what had happened to his friend and rushed to the stricken man’s side. The doctor told him there was no hope of recovery. But Shepherd would not accept that verdict. He obtained a cart and drove the wounded man to the city, administering brandy very liberally along the way to his prostrate and semiconscious friend. When he reached the city he carried Touro into his house and summoned the women who had been caring for the army’s sick and wounded and begged them to attend his friend and provide him with all their nursing skills. He then returned to his assignment.

Touro miraculously survived, and after the war the two men became millionaires, gave freely of their money to many charitable causes, and were regarded as “patriarchs” of the New Orleans community. Touro was known as “the Israelite without guile.” When he died in 1854 he bequeathed half of his estate to all the Hebrew congregations in the country and other charitable and religious organizations, and the other half to the man who had saved his life on January 1, 1815. Shepherd used the money to restore a street in New Orleans where the two men had lived most of their lives. Then he had the name changed to Touro Street.

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