Gabriel Villeré (1785-?) was a son of Jacques Villeré, the first native born governor of Louisiana. Thanks to his father's influence, Gabriel was a major in the United States Army at the time of the War of 1812. On December 23, 1814, Gabriel Villeré's plantation was part of the territory overrun by British general John Keane. Villeré was able to escape to New Orleans, making a mad dash past his British captors and out a window. Villeré's heroism is somewhat muted by the fact that he'd ignored previous orders to block the various waterways the British had used to land troops.