Maurice Mathieu (General)

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Maurice Mathieu , completely David Maurice Joseph Mathieu de Saint-Maurice de La Redorte (born February 20, 1768 in Saint-Affrique , Aveyron department , † March 1, 1833 in Paris ) was a French general de division of the infantry .

Life

Mathieu came from a noble family and entered the royal army as a cadet in 1783 . During the revolution he was appointed aide-de-camp of a general; Mathieu also served in the army during the First Republic .

In 1795 he commanded the avant-garde of the corps, which was responsible for the blockade of Mainz, after the Treaty of Campo-Formio he joined the army of General Championnet in southern Italy. The Directory gave him the rank of Brigadier General by decree of September 9, 1798 after the suppression of an uprising by the residents of Terracino . From 1798 he fought in the coalition wars , u. a. in the war against the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies . On December 9, 1798, Mathieu invaded Rome after gaining an advantage over the Neapolitan troops near La Storta. On January 14, 1799, he was ordered to break up an armed gathering in the city, where he was seriously wounded and had to leave the army. His promotion to major general took place on April 17, 1799, combined with the command of a small corps of 3,600 men that protected the coast to Finistère and the port of Brest. At Napoleon's request , he took over a division in the 7th Corps of Marshal Charles Pierre François Augereau in the 1805 campaign against the Austrians .

Between 1806 and 1807 Mathieu served under King Joseph Bonaparte in his kingdom of Naples . At the beginning of November 1808 he was appointed commander of the 1st Division of the 3rd Corps during Napoleon's invasion of Spain and distinguished himself on November 23rd under Marshal Lannes in the Battle of Tudela , where he was wounded and then commanded the garrisons in southern Catalonia received. In the following year 1809, his division was assigned to Marshal Ney's 6th Corps and fought in the Battle of Alba de Tormes . From 1811 to 1813 he commanded a division of the French troops in Catalonia. He then led his troops in March 1811 in the fighting for Montjuich and in 1811 in the storming of Montserrat and the heights of Altafulla .

After the fall of the Corsican in 1814, Mathieu served King Louis XVIII. , but switched back to Napoleon during the reign of the Hundred Days the following year and was given command of the 10th Military Division in Toulouse in June 1815 . After the second restoration, Mathieu was raised to the nobility in 1819 and from then on carried the addition of Comte de La Redorte .

After the July Revolution of 1830 , he resigned all of his military offices and retired into private life. Maurice Mathieu died on March 1, 1833 at the age of 65 in Paris, where he found his final resting place.

Honors

literature

  • David Chandler: The campaigns of Napoleon . Macmillan, New York 1966.
  • Kevin F. Kiley: Once there were titans. Napoleon's generals and their battles. 1800-1815 . Greenhill Press, London 2007, ISBN 978-1-85367-710-6 .
  • Charles Mullié: Biography of the célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850 . Poignavant, Paris 1852 (2 vols.).
  • Digby Smith : The Napoleonic Wars data book . Greenhill Press, London 1998, ISBN 1-85367-276-9 .
personal data
SURNAME Mathieu, Maurice
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Saint-Maurice de La Redorte, David Maurice Joseph Mathieu de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French infantry division general
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1768
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Affrique , Aveyron department
DATE OF DEATH March 1, 1833
Place of death Paris