Jacques Pierre Abbatucci (General)

Jacques Pierre Abbatucci

Jacques Pierre Abbatucci (born September 7, 1723 in Zicavo , † March 17, 1813 in Ajaccio ) was a Corsican general .

Life

Jacques Pierre Abbatucci was the son of a Corsican colonel in Venetian service , Jean Séverin Antoine Abbatucci , and his wife Rose Paganelli, daughter of General Dominique Paganelli de Cozzano. He attended the Jesuit College in Brescia and then studied at the University of Padua , where he was awarded a doctorate in medicine in 1746 . In 1751, a year after his father's death, he settled in Zicavo and his first marriage was to Sabiano, daughter of the Podestà of Zicavo, with whom he had two daughters.

Abbatucci devoted himself to the military class and became advisor to Peretro and lieutenant general of the rebellious Corsican militias of the Pieven (provinces) Ornano, Istria, La after the assassination of Gian Pietro Gaffori (1753) during the war between Genoa and Corsica, which sought independence from Genoa Rocca and Talavu. In 1755 Pascal Paoli returned to Corsica and took over the position of general and governor of the nation at the head of his rebellious compatriots, although only 16 out of a total of 66 Pieven was elected to this position. Abbatucci now showed himself to be Paoli's competitor and political opponent, but in 1757 recognized his supreme authority at a meeting of representatives of the four Pieven of South Corsica, although a certain degree of autonomy for the southern parts of the island vis-à-vis the government of Paoli was decided. The latter had to accept his curtailment of power, but in November 1763 found the opportunity to have Abbatucci imprisoned in Corte .

In May 1764 Abbatucci was released on condition that he went into exile for three years, which condition he ignored. He lived in Zicavo and had secret connections with the French. After a military demonstration of force by Paolis, he finally had to leave Corsica in March 1765 and traveled via Livorno and Venice to Tuscany . Soon he reconciled himself with Paoli, returned and in 1766 became one of the commanders of South Corsica. After Genoa had sold Corsica to France in 1768, Abbatucci fought under Paoli's supreme command for the independence of his homeland against the new rulers and in October 1768 contributed to Paoli's victory against the Marquis François Claude Chauvelin in the battle of Borgo . When the French, under the Count of Vaux, decisively defeated the Corsicans in the Battle of Ponte Novu in May 1769 , Abbatucci covered Paoli's retreat. He then submitted to the French and was appointed by them in September 1769 as a dragoon officer with the rank of lieutenant in the Corsican Legion.

In 1770 Abbatucci was elected a member of the Corsican estates and was promoted to lieutenant colonel of Provincial Corsica. His relationship with Count Charles Louis de Marbeuf deteriorated noticeably. In the wake of a murder committed in early 1778, Marbeuf launched a political trial against Corsican patriots, in which Abbatucci was implicated on the basis of false testimony. Abbatucci had to be imprisoned, lost his office and was sentenced on June 5, 1779 by the Supreme Council of Corsica to nine years in the galley for alleged bribery of witnesses . He was serving three years in prison at the Bagno and was seeking a retrial. The Corsican estates also protested violently against this approach. In 1782 the judgment was overturned by the Parisian court and Abbatucci on the orders of King Louis XVI. released. The Parlement d'Aix , a higher court, declared him totally innocent on July 17, 1786. Since January 1, 1787, he was able to hold his previous military rank of lieutenant colonel and received financial compensation. On September 6, 1789, he was made Knight of the Order of Saint-Louis .

Abbatucci returned from France to Corsica when the French Revolution broke out and received the rank of Maréchal de camp on March 1, 1791 . In 1793 he ran in vain for a member of the National Convention . When Paoli had become the leader of the Corsican revolt against France in the same year and had summoned English auxiliary troops to support him, Abbatucci led the defensive struggle of the French against Paoli and the English. The latter conquered Saint-Florent in February 1794 and Bastia in May 1794 . Abbatucci was finally forced to retreat to Calvi due to the hostile forces. He held out the defense of Calvi for about a month and a half and then negotiated the surrender modalities of the place with the English general Charles Stuart . In August 1794 he left Corsica and sailed with his people on English ships to Toulon , but had already been declared a traitor by the party of his Corsican opponents.

Abbatucci's promotion to Général de division in the Rhine and Moselle Army (April 6, 1795) failed; for this he received the same rank in the French Italian army on April 16, 1796 , but was no longer able to take part in campaigns due to his age and disappointed the commander-in-chief Napoleon . Until the end of 1796 he then exercised a command in Aix-en-Provence . On September 23, 1800 he was finally allowed to retire and returned to his homeland. At the old age of 89 he died in Ajaccio in 1813. From his second marriage to Maria Angéla Costa in 1769, he had several sons, including three who died before him: Séverin († 1794), Jean Charles († 1796) and Antoine Dominique († 1798).

literature

• L. Hennet: Abbatucci (Jacques-Pierre). In: Dictionnaire de biographie française. Vol. 1, 1932, Col. 67f.
• Giuseppe Oreste: Abbatucci, Giacomo Pietro. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Vol. 1, 1960, pp. 35-37 ( online ).
• Jean de La Rocca: Biographie de la famille Abbatucci, illustrée par Janet-Lange , 1857 ( online )

Web links

• Abbatucci's biography from the Accademia Corsa