Jean Léchelle

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Jean Léchelle , or Jean Leschelle (born April 2, 1760 in Puyréaux (today Département Charente ) † November 11, 1793 in Nantes ) ( Loire-Atlantique ), was a French Général de division of the French Revolutionary Army who was involved in fighting the uprising in the Vendée was used.

Career

He served from 1778 to 1788 as an armorer (Maître d'armes) in the Régiment de Rouergue in Saintes . When the French Revolution broke out, he was enrolled in the Garde nationale of Charente-Inférieure , where on October 17, 1791 he became "Lieutenant-colonel en premier" (First Lieutenant Colonel) in the "1er bataillon de volontaires de la Charente" (1. Charente Volunteer Battalion). Although he had only a low level of education, he was promoted to Général de brigade on August 17, 1793 .

Protected by the Minister of War Jean Baptiste Noël Bouchotte , he was promoted to Général de division on September 30, 1793 . At the same time he was given high command of the merged “Western Army” (Armée de l'Ouest) and the “Army of the Coast of La Rochelle” (Armée des côtes de La Rochelle), the Mainz Army (Armée de Mayence) and the Armed Forces of Loire- Inférieure transferred to the “Army of the Brest Coast” (Armée des côtes de Brest).

His troops, which included generals Jean-Baptiste Kléber and François Séverin Marceau , won the Second Battle of Cholet on October 17, 1793 . According to the instructions of the Welfare Committee and the decrees of the National Convention , it completely destroyed the areas they crossed. While the Virée de Galerne was passing north of the Loire, he was defeated on October 26 at the Battle of Entrammes near Laval , losing more than four thousand men in the process. Insulted by his own soldiers, he was charged by the political commissars ( Représentants en mission ). Merlin de Thionville had him arrested and taken to Nantes . Arrested there, he died on November 11, 1793 from unknown circumstances (possibly suicide by poison).

Contemporary views

“The Welfare Committee felt that Léchelle was able to muster the audacity and talent necessary to end this long and cruel war. However, there is, without exaggeration, a testimony given to him by those who can truly confirm it. He was the most cowardly soldier, the worst officer, and the most ignorant leader we had ever seen. He didn't know the map, could barely write his name, and hadn't even approached the rebel cannons; in a word, nothing could be compared to his cowardice and clumsiness, his arrogance, his brutality and his stubbornness.

Jean-Baptiste Kléber "

.

(According to Pierre Gréau, Kléber was complicit in the defeat in the Battle of Entrammes; he had carried out Léchelles' orders only incompletely or too late and thus contributed significantly to the defeat.)

literature

  • Jules Michelet: Histoire de la Révolution française
  • Pierre Gréau La bataille d'Entrammes Éditions Siloë Nantes / Laval 2007, ISBN 9782842314132
  • Pierre Gréau La Virée de Galerne Éditions Pays & Terroirs Cholet 2012, ISBN 9782751602863
  • Georges Six Dictionnaire biographique des généraux & amiraux français de la Révolution et de l'Empire (1792–1814) Paris Éditeur Librairie G. Saffroy, 1934, Volume 2, p. 110

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Six 1934 p. 110
  2. ↑ The officers were elected in the volunteer battalions
  3. ↑ These were the troops that had been assigned to the Vendée from the besieged Mainz . They had to commit themselves not to fight the coalition troops for at least a year. It had nothing to do with the later “Armée de Mayence” of 1797
  4. ^ Yves Gras "La Guerre de Vendée (1793-1796)" Éditeur Economica 1994, p. 81.
personal data
SURNAME Léchelle, Jean
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leschelle, Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French general
DATE OF BIRTH April 2, 1760
PLACE OF BIRTH Puyréaux
DATE OF DEATH November 11, 1793
Place of death Nantes