Jean-Melchior d'Abadie

Gravestone in the Pere Lachaise cemetery

Jean-Melchior d'Abadie , called Dabadie de Bernet during the French Revolution (born January 6, 1748 in Castelnau-Magnoac ( Hautes-Pyrénées ), † March 8, 1820 in Paris ) was a French military man.

Life

Jean-Melchior d'Abadie came from an old, respected family in the south of France and was the eldest son of Joseph d'Abadie, knight of the Order of Saint-Louis , and his wife Anne Marie de Santis d'Auban. He studied war sciences in Mézières and entered the Genie Corps , where he spent his entire military career. After completing his training he became a lieutenant in 1770 and held the position of captain in the engineering troops from 1777 to 1789 . Following a deployment in important border towns, he served in Martinique and from 1780 to 1782 during the American War of Independence with the French auxiliary troops of General Rochambeau , who supported the American insurgents. In 1783 he returned to France. In the year of the outbreak of the French Revolution (1789) he was elected as a deputy of the nobility of Guyenne to the Estates-General , there was initially deputy of Count Joseph-Marie de Ségur-Cabanac and, when he resigned soon afterwards, took his seat in August 1789 a. Among other things, he rendered important services as a member of the war committee.

From 1792 Abadie was again active in the army and initially served in the Northern Army during the first year of the war of revolutionary France against European powers. He then commanded the pioneer troops of the Western Army in 1793 and distinguished himself in the conquest of the castle of Chemillé and in the defense of that of Saumur , where he fell into the hands of the royalist insurgents of the Vendée . On December 16, 1793, he was promoted to chief de bataillon , and was tasked with restoring the fortifications of Nieuwpoort . By decision of the board of directors he moved up on February 27, 1796 to the chef de brigade (from 1793 to 1803 used in place of "Colonel") and was then also a member of a commission responsible for developing the plans for coastal defense. In 1800 he went to the Italian theater of war, was involved in the assault on the castle of Bard (May 1800), fought in the Battle of Marengo (June 14, 1800) and then took part in the siege of Peschiera del Garda . After the French Marshal François de Chasseloup-Laubat had assumed the supreme command there on January 1, 1801, he gave Abadie a leading role in the preparations for the conquest of the fortress, which surrendered on January 19 without attack.

As a result, Abadie was employed by the War Ministry from 1801 to 1804 and served in the campaigns of the Grande Armée in 1805/06 . He led the siege work in front of Thorn and on March 8, 1807 Général de brigade . Then he went to Spain as leader of the Genie Corps of General Pierre Dupont de l'Étang and designed the defenses on the left bank of the Guadalquivir to protect the bridgehead near the city of Andújar . After Dupont's surrender in Bailén (July 22, 1808), he was taken prisoner, but was released in September 1808.

Napoleon appointed Abadie Baron d'Empire on May 17, 1810, and in 1812 sent him to head the defense work of the northern Spanish coastal city of Santoña , where General Charles de Lameth was in command. Thanks to Abadie's skill, the French were able to maintain Santoña for two years against the enemy superiority. In the meantime, he was called back to Paris in April 1813 to take over the position of inspector general of the engineering troops, but then went back to Spain. He was involved in the defense of Paris in March 1814 and was after the Restoration of Louis XVIII. appointed Commander of the Legion of Honor on August 23, 1814 . During Napoleon's reign of the Hundred Days (March to June 1815) he commanded the Genie Corps under Jean Maximilien Lamarque . After the second restoration, he was allowed to retire on October 6, 1815. He died in Paris in 1820 at the age of 72 and was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery.

literature

• L. Ricaud: Abadie 17). In: Dictionnaire de biographie française , vol. 1 (1932), col. 12 f.