Alexandre-Antoine Hureau, Baron de Sénarmont

Alexandre-Antoine Hureau de Sénarmont

Alexandre-Antoine Hureau, Baron de Sénarmont (born April 21, 1769 in Strasbourg ; † October 26, 1810 fatally wounded during the siege of Cádiz ) was a French general de division and pioneer of modern artillery tactics.

In the Battle of Friedland on June 14, 1807 , he demonstrated to Napoléon the efficiency of a concentrated artillery massing. The emperor then used this technique successfully in the Battle of Wagram , the Battle of Borodino and during the campaign of 1813.

His name is immortalized in the crypt of the Pantheon , where his embalmed heart rests in an urn .

Career

As the son of Général Alexandre-François de Senarmont , he entered the "École d'application de l'artillerie et du génie" (about: Artillery and Pioneering Equipment Training Institute) in Metz on August 1, 1784 as an aspirant . On September 1, 1785, he resigned and was assigned the rank of lieutenant to the "3 ^e régiment d'artillerie" in Besançon . He then served his father as aide de camp in the Armée du Center and the Armée du Nord.

In 1792 he was promoted to captain of the artillery and in this capacity took part in the siege of Charleroi and the battle of Fleurus in 1794 . On November 13th of the same year he was promoted to Chef de bataillon and transferred to the Sous-direction (sub-division) of Douai . In 1797 he took part in the battle of Neuwied and was then transferred to the Comité central d'Artillerie (Central Artillery Committee) as chief de bataillon. In 1798 he was appointed Chief d'État-major de l'artillerie de l'armée de réserve (Chief of the Staff of the Artillery of the Reserve Army). In 1799 he crossed the Great Saint Bernard with the Italian Army . In 1800 he took part in the battle of Montebello , on June 14th he was promoted to (provisional) colonel of an artillery regiment. The occasion was the meritorious participation in the Battle of Marengo . On January 21, 1802 he was appointed commander of the 6 ^e régiment d'artillerie à pied (6th artillery regiment on foot) in Rennes . On December 8, 1803, he was appointed Chief of Artillery Staff in the Brest camp. (Here the French army gathered to invade Great Britain). Four days later he was awarded the Legion of Honor .

On June 9, 1804, he was awarded the next higher level of the Legion of Honor (Officier de la Légion d'honneur). The following year he went to the field camp at Boulogne-sur-Mer to take part in the preparations for the landing in England. He wrote to his son:

“Nothing seems truer than our boarding: everything is ready and embarked, weapons, ammunition and powder that had been withheld until the last moment. (...) The company seems extremely bold, but so many things have already been achieved that this one won't fail either ... "

In 1806 he was promoted to Général de brigade and was given command of the artillery of the Grande Armée . The campaigns in Prussia and Poland followed with participation in the battles near Jena , Eylau , Friedland and in the negotiations for the peace of Tilsit.

During the Battle of Eylau on March 3, 1807, he was appointed Commander of the Legion of Honor (Commandant de la Légion d'honneur). This was followed on June 15 with a commendation for heroic behavior in the Battle of Friedland. On October 2, he took a leave of absence from the troops and took over the post of President of the Collège électoral d'Eure-et-Loire.

On July 2, 1808, he was appointed Baron of the Empire by Emperor Napoleon. On August 26th he received the order to report to the army in Spain and to report to the Maréchal Victor . On September 2, he was present at the surrender of Madrid and was promoted to Général de division on the occasion. On November 22nd he was awarded the Order Chevalier de la Couronne de Fer ( Knight of the Iron Crown ). He was involved in the battle at Somosierra that same year .

On March 9, 1809 he was Commander-in-Chief (Commandant en chef) of the artillery of the army in Spain and replaced the Général Jean Ambroise Baston de Lariboisière in this capacity . He took part in the Battle of Uclés, the Battle of Talavera and the Battle of Almonacid de Toledo. This was followed by the battle of Ocaña and the campaign to Andalusia .

On October 26, 1810, he was fatally wounded by an English bullet while he was organizing the siege of Cadiz and El Puerto de Santa María . He was buried in the church of Santa Ana de Chiclana.

On the orders of Napoleon, his embalmed heart was transferred to the Pantheon in Paris on January 17, 1811, and arrived there on June 5, 1811. General Jean Ambroise Baston de Lariboisière gave the laudatory speech .

During the French invasion of Spain , the Général de division Vicomte Tirlet, the commander of the artillery, wrote to Amédée de Sénarmont:

“What happened what you feared, the Spaniards desecrated and destroyed the tomb in the Santa Anna chapel (...) The senseless mob scattered the ashes of the generous man who was always tempted to protect the people so well before the disasters of war to protect as possible, who was always just and loyal, to the wind. "

family

Alexandre-Antoine Hureau de Sénarmont had two children, Alexandre-Hyppolyte (1794–1870) and Henriette-Désirée (1800–1874). After the hereditary barony was confirmed in 1817, Alexandre-Hippolyte emigrated to the Île de la Réunion , where, after two marriages, he left numerous descendants.

His nephew Henri Hureau de Senarmont (1808–1862) became a successful physicist and geologist who dealt specifically with the study of the northern lights , the thermal conductivity of crystals, the optical properties of isomorphic bodies, etc. He held a chair in mineralogy at the French mining school.

Honors

• His bust, created by Antoine Laurent Dantan, can be found in the “ Galerie des Batailles ” in the Palace of Versailles . The Grand Cross, which is shown on his uniform, was awarded to him by the Grand Duke of Baden after the battle of Talavera - although Napoleon had forbidden him to wear it.
• Another sculpture is in the Dreux Museum (Eure-et-Loir), where a street is named after him. There is also a memorial plaque in the Saint-Pierre church .
• His name is engraved on the west pillar of the Arc de Triomphe on the west pillar in the 38th column.
• The Fontainebleau Castle riding arena was named after him.

• 

  Bust in the Palace of Versailles

• 

  West pillar of the Arc de Triomphe

Remarks

1. ↑ A. Lievyns, Jean-Maurice Verdot, Pierre begat: Fastes de la Legion d'Honneur . 1844, p. 552.

literature

• Alphonse Halter: Alexandre Antoine Hureau de Sénarmont. In: Nouveau dictionnaire de biographie alsacienne . Faszikel 18, 1991, p. 1722ff.