Gilbert Rosière was a native of Bordeaux, a lawyer, and a graduate of a French university. He came to New Orleans to practice law, but being of a wild and carefree disposition, he fell in with a set of gay young men and became a leader in their escapades. Instead of establishing a law office he opened a fencing academy, and at the outset of his career attracted considerable local renown by fighting seven duels in one week. He earned a fortune by teaching young Army officers to fence during the Mexican War, but it was soon squandered. His contemporaries describe him as gay, witty, and somewhat irascible and, for all his record as a duelist, so tender-hearted that he could not harm a fly. He frequently wept at the theater and the opera – and killed several men who laughed at his displays of emotion.
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