François-Étienne Damas

François-Étienne Damas (born June 22, 1764 in Paris ; † December 23, 1828 ibid) was a French Général de division .

Live and act

Damas was a son of the carpenter Étienne Damas and his wife Anne Elizabeth Courtois. General François-Auguste Damas was his younger brother.

Enthusiastic about the ideas of the revolution , Damas signed up for the National Guard on July 14, 1789 (the day the Bastille was stormed ) . He was soon able to distinguish himself and after a few promotions he came to General Jean-Baptiste Meusnier de la Place as an aide-de-camp in 1792 .

With his support Damas became Sous-lieutenant (October 1792) and Capitaine (February 1793). As such, he took part in all battles of the French Rhine Army under General Jean-Baptiste Kléber ; u. a. at the siege of Mainz (April / July 1793) in which he was seriously wounded. After his recovery Damas came to the staff of General Florent Joseph Duquesnoy and at the end of the same year he moved to the Armée de Sambre-et-Meuse in Göleicher position . He fought u. a. at Fleurus (June 26, 1794), forced the crossing over the Rhine at Neuwied (July 2, 1796) and before Amberg (August 26, 1796) he was seriously wounded.

Damas returned to Paris and after his recovery was entrusted with administrative tasks. When Napoleon Bonaparte was planning his invasion of Egypt in 1797 , Kléber proposed Damas as adjutant general and appointed him his chief of staff. Damas was able to excel in fights off Gemyleh (September 1798) and Jaffa (March 1799). He was wounded and was taken to Damiette's hospital .

In early March he returned to the General Staff and fought under General Jean-Louis-Ebenezer Reynier near Alexandria (March 8, 1801). After the lost battle, General Jacques-François Menou complained about Damas' incompetence and had Damas arrested on May 14, 1801 together with Reynier. The ship that was supposed to bring Damas back to France was intercepted by English ships off Crete and Damas was declared a prisoner of war.

In 1804 Damas was released “on my word of honor” and released to France. But since General Menous upheld his charges, Damas was arrested again on October 4th of the same year - he was also accused of complicity with Jean-Victor Moreau - and incarcerated in l'Abbaye . After the Treaty of Schönbrunn (December 15, 1805) Damas was released through the intercession of Marshal Joachim Murat . Murat appointed Damas military commander of his Grand Duchy of Berg in 1806 and promoted him to the State Council.

When Napoleon planned his invasion of Russia , Damas led a contingent of troops under Murat's command and fought a.o. a. next to General Herman Willem Daendels and Marshal Claude Victor-Perrin .

As the general de division of the 1st Division in Mainz , he remained until the Mainz fortress was handed over to the Allies in May 1814 . After the Treaty of Fontainebleau (April 11, 1814) he returned to France, became a partisan of the Bourbons and supported King Louis XVIII. This entrusted him with the reorganization and command of the Garde du corps du roi .

When Napoleon left the island of Elba and his reign of the Hundred Days began, Damas returned to the emperor and swore him another oath of allegiance. He took part in the Battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815), but took his leave shortly afterwards. Between 1816 and 1820 Damas served as inspector general of the gendarmerie .

He then resigned all of his offices and retired into private life. François-Étienne Damas died on December 23, 1828 at the age of 64 in Paris and found his final resting place on the Cimetière Montparnasse (1st Division).

Honors

• Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor
• His name is on the south pillar (26th column) of the triumphal arch on Place Charles de Gaulle (Paris).

literature

• Charles Mullié: Biographie de célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850, vol. 1 . Poignavant, Paris 1851.
• Georges Six: Dictionnaire biographique des généraux & amiraux français de la Revolution et de l'Émpire. 1792-1814 . Saffroy, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-901541-06-2 (2 vols.)
• Digby Smith : The Greenhill Napoleonic wars data book . Greenhill Books, London 1998, ISBN 1-85367-276-9 .
• Jean Tulard (Ed.): Dictionnaire Napoléon . Fayard, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-213-60485-1 (2 vols.)

Web links

• François-Étienne Damas at arcdetriomphe.info