Joseph Barbanègre
Baron Joseph Antoine Barbanègre (born August 22, 1772 in Pontacq , † November 7, 1830 in Paris ) was the French général de brigade in the Napoleon era . He became famous as the defender of the Hüningen Fortress during the siege in 1815.
Military career
Barbanégre began his military career in the Navy, but in 1793 he joined the army and in 1794 became a captain in a battalion from the Pyrenees . He fought in the Battle of Marengo and in 1804 became the commander of a hunter battalion in the Consuls' Guard . In 1805 he became Colonel of the 48th Infantry Regiment with which he took part in the battles at Austerlitz , Jena and Eylau . At Austerlitz he took the heights of Sokolnitz from the Russians and held this position, for which he received the Order of Commander of the Legion of Honor from Napoleon .
In 1809 he received the rank of Général de brigade and was assigned to the army corps of Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout . He distinguished himself in the battles of Eggmühl , Regensburg and Wagram . In 1810 he was in command of Cuxhaven and expelled the English from the island of Neuwerk . In 1811 he put together three infantry regiments and one cavalry regiment in northern Germany for the Russian campaign. Barbanègre himself took part in the Russian campaign and was successively commander of Minsk , Baryssau and Smolensk and took care of the replenishment of the large army. When he withdrew in 1813, he reached Szczecin, seriously injured, and after his recovery took command of the remains of the first army corps there. He held this fortress until the peace treaty in 1814.
During the first restoration of France under Louis XVIII. was the honored officer of Napoleon's deputy to Lieutenant-général Claude-Jacques Lecourbe and on August 20, 1814, was appointed Knight of the Ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Louis .
The siege of Hüningen in 1815
After Napoleon's return from the island of Elba , the new War Minister Louis-Nicolas Davout Barbanègre transferred command of Orléans on March 25, 1815 . On May 3, 1815 he became governor of the Hüningen fortress. Under Barbanègre, Colonel Jean Hugues Chancel still served as the fortress commander , who already held this post during the siege of 1814 and then by Louis XVIII. has been confirmed in this function. Barbanègre reached Hüningen on May 15th. The fortress belonged to the command area of the 5th Division, whose commander, Général de division Jean Rapp, had his headquarters in Strasbourg .
Even after Napoleon had abdicated for the second time on June 22nd, 1815, Barbanègre held the fortress against the Austrian troops advancing on June 26th near Basel in Alsace under Lieutenant Field Marshal Mariassy and Archduke Johann in command . Initially, the fortress was only enclosed by guards, as heavy siege artillery had to be brought in first. The attack began on the night of August 17th and 18th. The Austrian siege corps now numbered 12,000 men; together with the Swiss units 17,000 men and had 110 cannons , howitzers and mortars .
In the fortress there were initially about 2,400 men with about 100 guns.
Negotiations began on August 24, during which a ceasefire was in effect. On August 26th, however, the fighting resumed and the fortress was now under heavy fire all day, so that Barbanègre finally signed the deed of surrender at the end of the day, which included the surrender of the fortress and weapons with the honorable withdrawal of the garrison.
Hero on the siding
On September 1st, Barbanègre arrived in Paris. According to a decree of 1811, every commandant who gave up a place entrusted to him had to justify himself to a commission of inquiry. The commission was chaired by Lieutenant-général Jean-Louis Dubreton and met on September 14, 1815 in Strasbourg. On October 25th, the decision was communicated to Barbanègre - his conduct was approved unanimously and without any qualifications, thus establishing the fame of the defender of Hüningen.
In 1818/19 Barbanègre was still active in the army general staff and was responsible for inspecting the infantry in one district. Barbanègre then lived in seclusion in Paris, where he died in 1830. He found his final resting place in the Père Lachaise cemetery (Division 28).
Honors
On December 25, 1805 he received the Order of Commander of the Legion of Honor and on August 20, 1809 he was made Baron of the French Empire . His name can be found on the east side of the Paris Triumphal Arch . The sculptor Laurent Marqueste created a monument for him, which was ceremoniously unveiled in front of the town hall on August 16, 1896 in his birthplace, Pontacq.
Appreciation
The French heroic legend sees a brave general who for two months with 135 men resisted a siege army of 30,000 men.
The sober facts show an officer who, two months after Napoleon's abdication and after his direct superior, General Rapp, had agreed a ceasefire, continued the war on his own initiative and with no apparent goal. Barbanègre accepted that there were many dead and wounded among the military on both sides, but also among civilians.
If he wanted to save the fortress Hüningen for France, he sealed the end of the fortress with the multiple bombardments of Basel and Klein-Hüningen at the latest , since Switzerland could not tolerate the continued existence of this threat at the gates of Basel.
It can be doubted whether a rationally incomprehensible course of action that brings death and horror to others has something heroic about it.
literature
- Karl Tschamber : History of the city and former fortress Hüningen , St. Ludwig (Saint Louis) 1894 online in the Internet archive
- Abbé Casteig: La défense d'Huningue et le Général Barbanègre en 1815 , In: Études historiques et religieuses du Diocèse de Bayonne, 6th year, 1897, pp. 1-13; 51-60; 115-128; 16-168; 220-230; 269-277; 306-314; 349-358; 395-406; 471-478; 502-512; 551-561 online on Gallica (French)
- Joseph Louis Hippolyte Bellangé: The Generals of the French Republic and the Empire , Leipzig 1846, pp. 531-533 online at Google
- Karl Florentin Leidenfrost : French Heldensaal or the life, deeds and current fates of the most memorable heroes of the Republic and the Empire, in particular Napoleon's comrades in arms and marshals , Bernhard Friedrich Voigt , Ilmenau 1828, p. 23.
Web links
Individual references / comments
- ^ Charles Mullié: Biography of the célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850 [1] calls him Jean Baptist, although there is probably a mix-up with his brother
- ↑ s. Guard des consuls (French WP)
- ↑ including the 127th Line Regiment from Hamburg Archive link ( Memento from January 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ s. Tschamber p. 236; French sources speak of 20,000 to 30,000 men
- ↑ s. Tschamber p. 238; In the French legend there is talk of only 135 men who stood up against 30,000 attackers for 2 months.
- ↑ Tschamber's document of surrender is on p. 248ff. reproduced
- ↑ s. Casteig p. 557
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Barbanègre, Joseph |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Barbanègre, Joseph Antoine |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Brigade General |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 22, 1772 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pontacq |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 7, 1830 |
| Place of death | Paris |