Claude Carra Saint-Cyr

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Claude Carra Saint Cyr

Claude Carra St. Cyr (* 28. July 1760 in Lyon , † 5. January 1834 in Vailly-sur-Aisne ) was a French Général de division during the Napoleonic Wars .

Life

In 1774, his parents wanted to help their only 13-year-old son Claude enter the military early. To achieve this, he was established as a sergent in the Bourbonnais Régiment under the name of his older brother Jean François (born 1756) . In the following years, his actions appeared under the name of Jean-François. He got his first military experience in America, where he participated as part of the French Army in the American Revolutionary War , where he was promoted to Sous-lieutenant .

In 1784 he returned to France and was promoted to Capitaine in 1785 . Due to his poor health, Carra St. Cyr changed jobs several times over the next few years and had to leave the military on short notice in March 1792. As early as January 1793, after the outbreak of the coalition war , he volunteered again for the 2nd battalion in the Rhone-et-Loire department. Seven months after the re-commissioning, Carra St. Cyr was appointed adjutant to General Aubert-Dubayet in the coastal army of Brest and fought the Vendée uprising . In March 1795 he was promoted to Chief de bataillon , in June he led a brigade and in October he was promoted to Général de brigade . In 1796 General Aubert-Dubayet was appointed ambassador of the Ottoman Empire , Carra St. Cyr accompanied him to Constantinople . In October 1796 he was appointed French consul general in Wallachia , after Aubert's death he took over his position as ambassador to the Sublime Porte in December . Only in the summer of 1798 did he return to France together with Aubert's widow, who had already become his partner.

In February 1799 he was a member of the Italian Army and was wounded in the thigh by a bullet during the fighting that followed. Returning to France for rehabilitation, he married General Aubert-Dubayet's widow in November and was then transferred to a commission that looked after the claims and care of the veterans who had left the army. In the 1800 campaign he was given command of a brigade of the Monnier division as part of the reserve army, and later in May 1800 he became the commandant of the troops in Ivrée. On June 12th he returned to the Italian Army and took part in the Battle of Marengo under General Bonaparte . Carra St. Cyr was given command of its own division in July and fought against the Austrians on the banks of the Magra. In October 1800 his troops took part in the fighting in the Arezzo area , advanced north via Pozzolo and also fought in the Battle of Hohenlinden .

In 1802 he took over the 1st Military Division, the following year he was promoted to the Général de division and took over the 2nd Division in the Bayonne camp . In the Third Coalition War of 1805, Carra St. Cyr was given command of the coastal defense against British naval attacks against Gravelines . After the defeat of Prussia, he was appointed governor of the Magdeburg Fortress at the end of 1806 . In February 1807 he took over the 2nd Division of the IV Corps under Marshal Soult and then fought with his troops in the Battle of Eylau . On July 11, 1807, he was promoted to Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor .

In 1808 Carra St. Cyr was made Peer of France and his division was moved to the Rhine as an occupation . When the Austrians began the Fifth Coalition War in the spring of 1809 , his division was part of the IV Corps, which was now commanded by Marshal Masséna . During this campaign he distinguished himself particularly in the Battle of Aspern (May 22nd). In 1810 he acted briefly as governor of Dresden before he returned to France with a division in the VIII corps. In the first half of 1810 he served in Illyria , briefly returned to France and then became governor of Hamburg, where he remained until the beginning of the wars of liberation .

After the defeat in Russia, Carra St. Cyr took over the 32nd Military Division of the observation corps in Northern Germany, and in March 1813 he evacuated Hamburg . On March 21, he and his troops were defeated on the Elbe and forced to retreat, but the Emperor reassigned him to a division, this time in the corps of General Vandamme . In October 1813 Carra defended St. Cyr on the Ems and in December took over the 3rd Division of the 1st Corps. In February 1814 he was entrusted with the defense of the fortress chain between Valenciennes , Bouchain and Condé .

After Napoleon's abdication, Carra St. Cyr switched to the Restoration of the Bourbons in April 1814 and was made Count and Knight of the Ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Louis . Before he could leave for French Guiana as a newly appointed military commander , Napoleon returned from his exile. During the reign of the Hundred Days of 1815, he stayed at home, but did not play an active role. He retired in 1824 and died 10 years later at the age of 74 in Vailly-sur-Aisne .

literature

Georges Six: Dictionnaire Biographique des Généraux & Amiraux Français de la Révolution et de l'Empire (1792–1814), Gaston Saffroy, Paris 2003.