Abel Douay
Charles Abel Douay (born March 2, 1809 in Besançon , † August 4, 1870 fallen near Weissenburg ) was a French general .
Douay received training at the Saint-Cyr Military School . He joined the army and in 1848 became commander of the 8 e bataillon de chasseurs à pied (8th hunter battalion) in Algiers . In 1855 he was promoted to colonel for his services in the Crimean War when he helped storm the Malakov fortress . In 1859, after the battle of Solferino, he was promoted to Général de brigade and became the commandant of a brigade outside Paris . He was then promoted to Général de division in 1866 and commanded the 7th Territorial Military Division in Besançon until 1870 .
During the Franco-Prussian War he took over command of the 2nd Division of the 1st Army Corps (under General Patrice de Mac-Mahon ), which formed its vanguard . By failing to clarify and ignoring the reports sent by the civilian sub-prefect of Weissenburg, Edgar Hepp, to the interior, war and foreign ministries about the German deployment directly across the border, the Douays troops were carelessly ordered into an extremely exposed position On August 3, 1870, in the evening, she moved into the vicinity of the fortress and border town of Weißenburg , where she was surprised by the advance of the German 3rd Army on the morning of August 4 . Douay holed up with his troops on the heights of Weißenburg and fell there right at the beginning of the fight while judging a mitrailleuse .
In Germany, General Abel Douay became known through the famous picture of the Berlin court painter Anton von Werner , who set a monument to him with the picture "Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm on the corpse of General Abel Douay". The picture hangs in the treasury of Hohenzollern Castle .
His brother Félix-Charles Douay was also a general in the French army.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Wilhelm Oncken : The Age of Emperor Wilhelm. (Individual edition: ISBN 978-3-8460-3638-9 ) in: Oncken, W. (ed.): General History in Individual Representations , Fourth Main Department, Sixth Part, Volume 2, Berlin: Grote, 1890 and more, p. 93 to 96.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Douay, Abel |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Douay, Charles Abel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French general |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 2, 1809 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Besançon |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th August 1870 |
| Place of death | at Wissembourg |