François Jean Werlé

François Jean Werle , (born September 6, 1763 in Soultz-Haut-Rhin , † May 16, 1811 at La Albuera ) was a French général de brigade .

Life

In 1791 he joined the army and soon after became a lieutenant in the 1st battalion of the "Volontaires du Haut-Rhin". In the following year he was promoted to Capitaine and transferred to the "177 ^e demi-brigade" in the Moselle Army. In 1797 he was promoted to Chef de bataillon and assigned to Général François-Joseph Lefebvre as aide-de-camp . In 1800 he was transferred to the staff of General Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult of the Armée d'Italie . During the siege of Genoa (April / June 1800) he was able to distinguish himself, for example in the battle of Montebello (June 9, 1800). In 1804 he was promoted to the Général de brigade with the takeover of command of the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Division in the Hanover Army. In 1805 he commanded the 2nd Brigade of Général Drouet's division in the Grande Armée .

He took part in the Napoleonic Wars on the Iberian Peninsula and fought in the Battle of Valls (February 25, 1809) and Talavera (July 27/28, 1809). In the spring of the following year he took part in the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (April / July 1810). He was able to distinguish himself in the Battle of Gévora (February 19, 1811) as well as in the Battle of La Albuera (May 16, 1811). Werlé was killed in the process. He found his final resting place in a mass grave on the edge of the battlefield.

Honors

• 1804 Commandant de la Légion d'honneur Legion of Honor
• 1808 Baron de l'Émpire
• His name can be found on the western pillar (38th column) of the triumphal arch on Place Charles-de-Gaulle ( Paris )

literature

• Charles Mullié: Biography of the célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850 . Poignavant, Paris 1851 (2 vol.)
• Charles Oman : A history of the peninsular war . Greenhill, London 2004, ISBN 1-85367-214-9 (9 vols.).
• Digby Smith : The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book . Greenhill, London 1998, ISBN 1-85367-276-9 .