Emmanuel de Grouchy

Emmanuel de Grouchy

Emmanuel de Grouchy, Marquis de Grouchy (born October 23, 1766 in Paris , †  May 29, 1847 in Saint-Étienne ) was a French general, peer of France and the last Maréchal d'Empire appointed by Napoleon .

Life

Beginnings

Emmanuel de Grouchy as Colonel des 2 ^e régiment de dragons , 1792

Grouchy entered the Strasbourg Artillery School March 31, 1780 and served in cavalry , dragoons and hussar regiments . On September 7, 1792 he became a general and fought in the "Army of the South" during the conquest of Savoy . In the spring of 1793 he appalled Nantes , but then withdrew from the army when the convent issued a decree that all nobles should be removed from the army and state offices.

Eight months later, again in military service, he became Chief of Staff of the "Western Army" under General Hoche , fought the civil war on the Loire and set sail on December 15, 1796 with 18,000 landing troops for the unfortunate landing expedition in Ireland . He finally returned in 1798 to the Armée d'Italie , which was under General Joubert and where he was appointed Général en chef of the troops in Piedmont and administrator of this region because of his successes by the Directory . In the following fights he initially achieved success, but was captured bleeding from 14 wounds at Pasturana and was not exchanged until a year later.

In the Grande Armée

In July 1800 he was assigned to the Armée du Rhin , commanded by General Moreau , and distinguished himself alongside Ney in the Battle of Hohenlinden on December 3. After the Peace of Lunéville he became inspector general of the cavalry , but fell out of favor with Napoleon when he was involved in the trial against Moreau for him, so that he had to remain inactive for a long time.

In 1805 he was given command of the 2nd Corps of the Grande Armée and took part in the battles near Wertigen, Günzburg and the Battle of Ulm , in 1806 he led a detachment of dragoons with which he entered Berlin on October 25th. In the following fighting, in which Grouchy was heavily involved, the Prussian Hohenlohe Corps surrendered on October 28 and the city of Lübeck on November 6 .

In the campaign of 1807 he led 4,000 horsemen to the Battle of Eylau , of which only 1,200 were left in the evening, and in the Battle of Friedland he found further recognition. In 1808 he became governor of Madrid and took massive action against the uprising of May 2nd . In 1809 he fought in the Battle of the Piave in the " Italian Army " and was the first to arrive with his division in Graz and occupied the city, but did not take part in the subsequent siege of the Graz Schlossberg fortress, defeated Archduke Johann several times and took part in the battle at Wagram .

Russia and Napoleon's first end

In the Russian campaign he was the first to pass the Dnieper ; he fought near Smolensk and in the battle of the Moskva , but was badly wounded there. In further battles he distinguished himself so that Napoleon appointed him commander of the bataillon sacré , which consisted only of officers and was responsible for the personal protection of Napoleon. When he was not given command of a corps back from Russia , he resigned on April 1, 1813.

When the Allies threatened to invade France, he offered himself up to the emperor again and received his patent as “General en chef” of the cavalry on December 25th. After successes such as B. the pushing back of General von Kleist at Vauchamps , he was wounded so badly at Craonne on March 7, 1814 that he had to leave the army.

Waterloo

When Napoleon returned from Elba , Grouchy took over military commands again, was appointed peer of France , and after the battles at Charleroi and Gilly he received the right wing - 50,000 men - of the army that Napoleon led to Belgium.

He followed his mission to pursue and beat Blücher so strictly that he did not rush to Waterloo , where the thunder of cannons could be heard. So he did not support Napoleon and looked in vain for Blücher, who had long since arrived in Waterloo. He was with his 40,000 to 50,000 men in the battle of Wavre against the III. Army Corps of the Prussian Army , the resulting lack of relief for the Battle of Belle Alliance is considered jointly responsible for the decisive and final victory of the Seventh Coalition .

When Napoleon abdicated for the second time, Grouchy emigrated to Philadelphia , USA - he temporarily lost his title, but returned to France in 1821, where he died on May 29, 1847 in Saint-Étienne.

Honors

His name is entered on the triumphal arch in Paris in the 4th column.

Publications

• Observations on the relation de la campagne de 1815 publiée par le général Gourgaud . Philadelphia 1819.
• Memoires du maréchal de Grouchy . 5 vols. Paris 1873–75. (edited by his grandson)

literature

• Désiré Lacroix: The Marshals of Napoleon I ("Les maréchaux de Napoléon", 1896). Schmidt & Günther Verlag, Leipzig 1898 (transferred by Oskar Marschall von Bieberstein).
• Karl Bleibtreu : Marshals, generals, soldiers of Napoleon I. Edition VRZ, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-931482-63-4 (reprint of the Berlin 1899 edition).
• Stefan Zweig : The world minute from Waterloo. In: Ders .: Great moments of mankind . 12 historical miniatures . Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt / M. 2007 ,. ISBN 978-3-596-20595-0 .
• Jürgen Sternberger: The marshals of Napoleon . Pro Business, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86805-172-8 .