Jean Gabriel Marchand

Jean Gabriel Marchand

Jean Gabriel Marchand (born December 10, 1765 in L'Albenc , † November 12, 1851 in Saint-Ismier ) was a French division general during the Napoleonic Coalition Wars .

Life

Jean Gabriel was born in 1765 to Jacques Marchand (born May 3, 1731 - August 30, 1808) and Catherine Clement (October 26, 1736 - March 17, 1800) in the Dauphiné province. He became a lawyer and practiced in Grenoble , where he became a member of the local council . As the son of a well-off family, he came into contact with Barnave , a future head of the Jacobin Club . When the French Revolution began, he enlisted in the 4th Battalion of Isère Volunteers in late 1791 and was elected captain .

Fight in Italy

In the First Coalition War he first fought in the Italian Army in Savoy , took part in the siege of Toulon in 1793 and became a staff officer of General Cervoni . During the Battle of Loano (November 23 and 24, 1795) he and Colonel Lannes led 200 grenadiers against the enemy redoubt with six cannons. They stormed it successfully and drove out the Hungarian grenadiers. For this success, General Schérer appointed him chief of a battalion. After General Bonaparte had taken command of the army, he accompanied the new army commander in the Cossaria area on April 11, 1796 as NCO from Laharpe to explore the area. He took part in the battles of Ceva and Caldiero in 1796 . He switched to General Joubert's staff . In June 1796, while he was leading 300 men of the 3rd Light Carabiniers Regiment, he surprised an Austrian encampment and brought back over 400 prisoners. In July 1796 he fought under Joubert in the Masséna division . At the end of July he was wounded and shot in the chest during the fighting in the Castiglione area near Bocchetta di Campion. After his recovery he took over the 3rd Battalion and fought on the Brenta and Saint-Martin. On June 14, 1797, he was captured by the Austrians near Madona della Corona. Fifteen days later he was released during a prisoner exchange, was promoted to colonel and was given command of a brigade by Joubert. In September 1798 Marchand served under Gouvion Saint-Cyr as commander of Rome and was appointed by Joubert as aide-de-camp (wing adjutant) before leaving for Italy . The next year he fought in the Battle of Novi (August 15, 1799), where Joubert was fatally wounded in his immediate vicinity. On October 13th he was promoted to Brigadier General and in December 1799 he joined the Rhine Army.

Third and Fourth Coalition War

After some administrative positions Marchand first took command of the Isère , came to Boulogne at the end of 1803 and was given command of the 2nd Brigade of the Dupont Division in the camp of Montreuil , which in the following campaign on the Danube to the 1st Division of Neys VI. Corps was. During the 1805 campaign, Marchand distinguished himself in the battles of Haslach-Jungingen and Albeck. During the pursuit of the Austrian corps von Werneck , his troops fought out on October 17 and 18 at Herbrechtingen and Neresheim . After participating in the Battle of Dürnstein (November 11), he was promoted to General de division on December 24 . The next year he took over in the Association of VI. Corps under Marshal Ney in command of Loison's division. His brigades were led by Villatte (6th Light Infantry Regiment and 39th Line Infantry Regiment) and François Roguet (69th and 76th Line Infantry Regiment). With this division he fought in the battle of Jena (October 14, 1806) and took part in the siege of Magdeburg from October 22 to November 11, 1806 . After taking part in the Battle of Czarnowo (December 23 and 24, 1806) Marchand's troops pursued the enemy to Soldau and Mława . Marchand led his division in the Battle of Eylau on February 8, 1807, in the Battle of Guttstadt , before his troops withdrew behind the Passarge at Deppen and then contributed to the success of the Battle of Friedland on June 14 . On July 13, 1807, Napoleon awarded him the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor and on October 26, 1808 he was appointed Count of the Empire. During Ney's absence he was made interim commander of the VI. Corps appointed and led the corps to Mainz .

Wars in Spain

After the VI. Corps had been relocated to Spain, he took command of the 1st Division and fought in the Majorga area. During the pursuit of the English army under General Moore , his units stood at Puebla de la Tribe. In mid-1809 he again took command of the VI. Corps and then distinguished himself at the passage of the Tagus (August 8, 1809) and at the Battle of Torres (November 29). In between, the Spanish army under Vicente de Cañas y Portocarrero had an offensive against the VI. Corps initiated and Marchand's troops suffered a serious setback at Tamames on October 18, 1809. In 1810 he took part in the sieges of Ciudad-Rodrigo and Almeida . At the Battle of Bussaco on September 27, 1810, Loison's division led an attack on the top of the ridge. Too late to assist Loison, one of Marchand's brigades approached the ridge, but got lost to the left of the road. Marchand's subsequent attack was repulsed by General Pack's Portuguese Brigade . The next year, 1811, he fought at Redinha, Chao de Lamas and at the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro (May 3, 1811) before returning to France.

Wars of Liberation and Restoration

In March 1812 General Marchand was appointed Chief of Staff of the right wing of the newly forming Grande Armée under Jerome Bonaparte . Napoleon had appointed the experienced Marchand to this position in the hope that he could advise the little experienced Jerome. After Jerome left the army, Marchand took command of the 25th division of the Württembergians and fought with them in the Battle of Smolensk (1812) , Walutino and Borodino . After defending the Kovno fortress during the retreat from Russia in December 1812 , Marchand temporarily assumed command of the Viceroy's IV Corps . In March 1813 he took command of the 39th Division under Ney and fought in the battles near Weißenfels, Großgörschen and Bautzen . In August 1813 his division was the XI. Corps assigned under Macdonald and took part in the Battle of Leipzig . In early 1814 Marchand commanded the newly dug up units in Isère and took over the 7th Military Division in Grenoble. The Austrians initially drove his troops out of Chambéry , but then had to evacuate the Fort of Ecluse and return to Grenoble before the overwhelming force.

After Napoleon's abdication, he defected during the Restoration of the Bourbons and continued to be accepted as commander of the Grenoble Military Division. After Napoleon's return from Elba , Marchand's troops tried in vain to stop Napoleon in Grenoble. When it failed, he retired to Bar and, until Napoleon's second abdication, to the interior of his department. On January 4, 1816, he was deposed, the Bourbons took him to court in Besançon for high treason (Grenoble left to Napoleon without a fight), but was acquitted of all charges. He was discharged from active service in 1818, left the army in 1825 and died in Saint-Ismier in the Isère department in 1851.

literature

• Georges Six: Dictionnaire Biographique des Généraux & Amiraux Français de la Révolution et de l'Empire (1792-1814). Paris: Gaston Saffroy, 2003.
• Philip Haythornthwaite: Who Was Who in the Napoleonic Wars. London: Arms & Armor, 1998
• Charles Mullié: Biography of the célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850 . Paris 1851