Elzéar-Auguste cousin de Dommartin

Elzéar-Auguste cousin de Dommartin (born May 26, 1768 in Dommartin-le-Franc , today Haute-Marne , † July 9, 1799 in Rosette , Egypt ) was a French general of the artillery division .

Life

Dommartin was a son of Arnolut-François Cousin de Dommartin, Seigneur de Dommartin and his wife Marie-Rose d'Aulnay. After first lessons by private tutors, he attended the convent school of Joinville , which was run by the Order of the Capuchin Brothers Minor . In 1784 he moved to Metz to the École d'application de l'artillerie et du genie (→ Metz Fortress ). The following year he passed the exam with 38th place ( Napoleon passed the same exam with 42nd place).

After several transfers and promotions, Dommartin joined General Jean-François Carteaux's staff and fought valiantly at Ollioules (September 1793).

He took part in the Italian campaign in 1796/97 and fought near Montenotte (April 12, 1796), Dego (April 14/15, 1796), Mondovi (April 20/22, 1796), Castiglione (August 5, 1796) and Rovereto (September 4, 1796).

In 1798, Dommartin voluntarily took part in Napoleon's Egyptian expedition with the rank of Général de division . He commanded the artillery at the Pyramids (July 21, 1798), at Salayeh (August 3-4, 1798) and was involved in the sieges of al-Arish (February 1799) and Acre (March / May 1799).

On June 22, 1799 Dommartin commandeered a felucca to sail up the Nile to Rosette with some soldiers . He became infected through an untreated wound and died - six weeks after his 31st birthday - on July 9, 1799 of tetanus . When the board of directors offered his mother - Dommartin was unmarried - a pension, she declined with the words “Je remercie les représentants de la nation, mais je ne puis vivre du sang de mon fils”.

Honors

• His name can be found on the southern pillar (25th column) of the triumphal arch on Place Charles-de-Gaulle ( Paris ).

literature

• Alfred Besancenet: Le portefeuille d'un Général de la République . Plon, Paris 1877.
• Philip J. Haythornthwaite: Who was who in the Napoleonic Wars . Arms & Armor, London 1998, ISBN 1-85409-391-6 .
• Charles Mullié: Biography of the célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850 . Poignavant, Paris 1851. (2 vol.)
• Georges Six: Dictionnaire biographique des généraux & amiraux de la Révolution de l'Émpire. 1792-1814 . Saffroy, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-901541-06-2 . (Reprint of the Paris 1934 edition)
• Digby Smith : The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book . Greenhill, London 1998, ISBN 1-85367-276-9 .