Jean-Baptiste Dalesme

Jean-Baptiste Dalesme

Jean-Baptiste Dalesme (born June 20, 1763 in Limoges , † April 13, 1832 in Paris ) was a French Général de division of the infantry .

Life

Dalesme was a son of the printing house owner François Dalesme and his second wife Catherine Leyssère. On May 23, 1780, Dalesme joined the royal army. He fought in Spain in 1782/83 and was able to distinguish himself several times through bravery. On October 11, 1791 he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel .

Together with Jean-Baptiste Jourdan he fought under the leadership of General Mathieu Joseph d'Arbonneau . In 1792 Dalesme moved to the staff of General Charles-François Dumouriez and fought at Jemappes (November 6, 1792) and Neerzüge (March 18, 1793). During the siege of Le Quesnoy (September 1793) he was taken prisoner in Austria on September 9, 1793, where he remained until 1795.

Upon his return, Dalesme was promoted to Général de brigade and transferred to the Sambre and Maas Army . With effect from March 30, 1796, he led his own command in the Grenier division . Dalesme was wounded during a battle near Giessen on the day of the Battle of Limburg (September 16, 1796).

After his recovery, Dalesme moved on the orders of Napoleon to the Italian Army in the staff of General Antoine Guillaume Delmas . He fought in several battles; He was wounded in the Battle of Magnano (April 5, 1799) and was again taken prisoner by Austria. He was only able to return to France in the summer of 1800.

On April 22, 1804 Dalesme married Mlle Marie-Françoise Dumas in Paris, with whom he already had a daughter: Aurore-Alexandrine Marie (* 1801). His son Jean-Baptiste Alfred was born in the year of the wedding, 1804.

On July 20, 1807 Dalesme took over command of the National Guard with the rank of Général de division . In 1809 he moved to the staff of General Claude Carra-Saint-Cyr . In the same year he fought near Aspern (April 21/22, 1809) and was seriously wounded. After his recovery, Dalesme took on some more administrative duties.

Elisa Bonaparte , the princess of Lucca and Piombino , and her husband Félix Baciocchi wrote a letter to Henri Clarke d'Hunebourg, Minister of War , on September 14, 1810, asking him to appoint Dalesme as military governor of the island of Elba . This request was granted and Dalesme held this office until 1814.

After the Battle of Paris (March 30, 1814) and the abdication of Napoleon (→ Treaty of Fontainebleau ) Dalesme had to resign from this office. On April 18, 1814, Minister of War Pierre Dupont de l'Étang referred to King Louis XVIII. for Dalesme to arrange a meeting with Napoleon on the island of Elba.

On November 15, 1815, Jean-Baptiste Dalesme was adopted into retirement. He settled on his estate Petit Charat near Cieux near Limoges . When after the July Revolution of 1830 , the July Monarchy had been constituted, took King Louis-Philippe I Dalesme to Paris and entrusted him with the leadership of the Hôtel des Invalides . When a cholera epidemic broke out in March 1832 , Dalesme was also infected after a few weeks. He died on April 13, 1832 and found his final resting place on April 15, 1832 on the Cimetière de Vaugirard in the 15th arrondissement .

Honors

• June 23, 1810 Baron de l'Émpire
• Chevalier des Ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Louis
• May 1, 1831 Grand Officier of the Legion of Honor
• The sculptor Henri Couteilhas (1862-1927) created a monument to Dalesmes, which was erected in Limoges (Place de Tanneries) in 1911
• His name can be found on the north pillar (10th column) of the Triumphal Arch on Place Charles-de-Gaulle (Paris)
• The Rue Dalesme in Limoges was named after him.

literature

• Philip J. Haythornthwaite: Who was who in the Napleonic Wars . Arms & Armor, London 1998, ISBN 1-85409-391-6 .
• Charles Mullié: Biography of the célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850 . Poignavant, Paris 1851 (2 vols.).
• Adolphe Robert and Gaston Cougny: Dictionnaire des parlementaires français, vol. 2 . Slatkine, Geneva 2000, ISBN 2-05-101711-5 (reprint of the Paris 1889 edition).
• Georges Six: Dictionnaire biographique des généraux & amiraux français de la Révolution et de l'Émpire. 1792-1814 . Saffroy, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-901541-06-2 (reprint of the Paris 1934 edition).

Web links

• Monument to General Dalesme in Limoges