Charles Lefebvre-Desnouettes

Charles Lefebvre-Desnouettes

Charles Lefebvre-Desnouettes , more rarely Charles Lefèbvre-Desnoëttes (born September 14, 1773 in Paris , † May 22, 1822 on the coast of Ireland, shipwreck) was a French Général de division of the cavalry .

Life

In 1792 Lefebvre-Desnouettes joined the army and served first in the Northern Army, then later in the Rhine Army . After the first carriage he was appointed in 1798 to the aide-de-camp of Napoleon and as such he fought among others at Marengo (14 June 1800).

After further promotions, he was able to distinguish himself through bravery in the Battle of Elchingen (October 14, 1805) and the Battle of Austerlitz (December 2, 1805). The following year he was already Général de brigade and as such he was ordered to Spain to be used there in the Napoleonic Wars on the Iberian Peninsula .

Lefebvre-Desnouettes was involved in the siege of Saragossa in 1808 - alongside Bon-Adrien-Jeannot de Moncey and Jean-Antoine Verdier . He fought in the Battle of Benavente (December 29, 1808) and fell into the hands of British troops under Henry William Paget . As an official prisoner of war Lefebvre-Desnouettes was brought to the UK and spent two years at Cheltenham ( Gloucestershire ). In 1811 he broke his word of honor and fled back to France.

In 1812 he took part in Napoleon's Russian campaign and fought in the Battle of Borodino and the Battle of the Berezina .

In the battle of Brienne (January 29, 1814), the battle of La Rothière (February 1, 1814), the battle of Montmirail (February 11, 1814), the battle of Vauchamps (February 14, 1814) and the battle of Arcis -sur-Aube (March 20/21, 1814) Lefebvre-Desnouette was again able to distinguish himself through courage and bravery.

When Napoleon had left the island of Elba and the " rule of the hundred days " began, Lefebvre-Desnouette immediately rejoined the emperor and received command of the light guard cavalry division (Division de cavalerie légère de la Gard). With this he participated in the federation of the Imperial Guard in the fighting at Quatre-Bras (June 16, 1815) and in the Battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815).

During the Restoration , Lefebvre-Desnouettes was accused of being Napoleon's favorite and sentenced to death. But he was able to flee to the USA and lived there from 1817 for a few years in the Société coloniale de la vigne et de l'olivier in Alabama ; a foundation by and for French Bonapartists in exile, similar to the Champ d'Asile by François Antoine Lallemand .

Often Lefebvre-Desnouettes King Louis XVIII. Requests and devotion addresses are received. Unsure of his return, he sold his property, Château des Nouettes , to the writer Sophie de Ségur in 1821 . In the spring of 1822 he was assured of impunity and allowed to return to France. Lefebvre-Desnouette sailed with the ship "Albion" towards Europe, but suffered shipwreck on the coast of Ireland on May 22, 1822, in which almost the entire crew sank. His body was never found.

In memory of him and all who died with him, his widow had a cenotaph ( obelisk ) built on a hill in Sainte-Adresse (now a suburb of Le Havre ) on Rue Charles Alexandre Lesueur ; popularly called Pain de Sucre .

Honors

• March 1808 Comte de l'Émpire
• Its name can be found on the western pillar (31st column) of the triumphal arch on Place Charles-de-Gaulle ( Paris ).
• The Rue Desnouettes and the Square Desnouettes in the 15th arrondissement of Paris were named after him.

literature

• Kevin F. Kiley: Once there were titans. Napoleon's generals and their battles 1800–1815 . Greenhill, London 2007, ISBN 978-1-85367-710-6 .
• Charles Mullié: Biography of the celébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850 . Poignavant, Paris 1851 (2 vols.).
• Stephen Poe: The Cassell Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars . Cassell, London 1999, ISBN 0-304-35229-2 .
• Digby Smith : The Napoleonic Wars Data Book . Greenhill, London 1998, ISBN 1-85367-276-9 .