Jean-Baptiste Bessières

Bessières

Memorial stone for Marshal Bessières on the hill near Rippach

Memorial plaque for Marshal Bessières at the inn in Rippach

Jean-Baptiste Bessières (born August 6, 1768 in Prayssac ( Quercy ), † May 1, 1813 near Rippach ), Duke of Istria, Maréchal d'Empire .

Life

Bessières came from not well off parents, his father was a barber in Prayssac (Département Lot). Béssieres himself was originally supposed to be a surgeon, but in 1790 he joined the “Garde constitutionnelle du Roi” (Constitutional Guard of the King) of Louis XVI. a and served in the Legion of the Pyrenees in 1792 . He was promoted to Capitaine in 1794 in the 22 ^e régiment de chasseurs à cheval and fought with distinction in Italy from 1796 to 1797. Bessières won Napoleon Bonaparte's favor, who in 1796 gave him the organization and command of the Guideneskadron . In 1798 he made the expedition to Egypt and fought in front of St. Jean d'Acre and in the Battle of Abukir . On July 18, 1800 he was promoted to Général de brigade .

Returned to France with Bonaparte, he assisted him in the coup d'état of 18th Brumaire VIII . He then organized the newly created Armée d'Italie and forced the Austrians to retreat in the battle of Marengo with a brilliant cavalry attack. In 1802 he was promoted to Général de division and after Napoleon I's accession to the throne in 1804 appointed Maréchal d'Empire .

From 1804 until his death in 1813 he was the Colonel General of the Guard Cavalry . In 1805 he distinguished himself in the battle of Austerlitz and in 1806 led a cavalry corps near Jena and fought successfully near Friedland . In 1808 he was the envoy of Napoleon I in Stuttgart when Jérômes of Westphalia married Princess Katharina. Raised Duke of Istria , he commanded the 1st Army Corps in Spain from 1808 to 1809 and achieved significant successes. In the war against Austria he led the reserve cavalry, at whose head he was victorious at Landshut and Eggmühl . At Aspern and Wagram he had to carry out decisive cavalry attacks, but without the desired success. He was wounded at Wagram.

After the Peace of Schönbrunn he received the supreme command in Holland , in 1811 the governorate of Old Castile and León and followed the emperor with the guard and a strong cavalry corps on the Russian campaign in 1812 , where he showed the greatest level-headedness and coolness during the retreat. At the opening of the campaign in Germany in 1813 , Bessières was in command of the entire French cavalry. When he was on a reconnaissance ride on May 1st near Rippach between Weißenfels and Lützen with an Escadron des 1er régiment de chevau-légers lanciers polonais , a cannonball smashed his chest and killed him. He was buried in the Invalides Cathedral. Napoleon I bequeathed 100,000 francs to his son on St. Helena , as Bessières had died poor.

Honors

Bust in the Battle Gallery of Versailles Palace

• Bessières was Colonel général de la Cavalerie de la Garde
• His name is entered on the triumphal arch in Paris in the 13th column.
• His bust was placed in the Battle Gallery of the Palace of Versailles , which opened in 1837 .
• Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor
• Commander of the Order of the Iron Crown ( Italy )
• Grand Cross of the Leopold Order ( Austria )
• Grand Cross of the Order of Christ ( Portugal )
• Grand Cross of the Military Order of St. Heinrich ( Saxony )
• Knight of the Order of the Golden Eagle ( Württemberg )

literature

• Désiré Lacroix: The marshals of Napoleon I. Transferred by Oskar Marschall von Bieberstein; Published by Heinrich Schmidt & Carl Günther, 1898
• Carl Bleibtreu : Marshals, generals, soldiers of Napoleon I. 2nd edition, Alfred Schall publishing house, Berlin, before 1911
• Louis Chardigny: Les maréchaux de Napoléon . Tallandier, Paris 1977
• Jürgen Sternberger: The marshals of Napoleon . Pro Business Berlin 2008
• Norbert Faust, Siegfried Hoche, Wolfram Seyfert: The battle at Großgörschen: la bataille de Lützen, May 2, 1813 , Verlag Fach-und-Werk-Projektentwicklung, Berlin, ISBN 3-933491-00-2
• Georges Six: Dictionnaire biographique des généraux & amiraux français de la Révolution et de l'Émpire (1792–1814 ), two volumes, Saffroy, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-901541-06-2 , unaltered reprint of the 1934 edition of Paris (PDF / Text file volume 1 and volume 2 )
• Almanach impérial pour l'année 1810, Testu et cie, Paris 1810 ( PDF / text file )