Louis-René Levassor de Latouche Tréville
Louis-René Levassor de Latouche Tréville (born as Louis-René Levassor de Latouche ) (born June 3, 1745 in Rochefort (Charente-Maritime) ; † August 19, 1804 Toulon ) was a French admiral and a hero of the American Revolutionary War as well of the Napoleonic Wars .
Early life
Levassor de Latouche was born in Rochefort-sur-mer into a family of sailors ennobled in 1706. At the age of 13 he joined the Gardes Marines and took part in numerous battles of the Seven Years War. In 1759 his first fight on board the Dragon was under his father's command. Further stations brought him on board the ships Louise , Tonnant (1762), Garonne (1763), Hardi and Bricole (1765).
In September 1768 - at the age of 23 - he was put under pressure by his family that he left the Navy and became a cavalry officer. With the rank of captain, which he received in 1769, he served the governors of Martinique and Santo Domingo from 1770 to 1771.
In 1772 he switched back to the Navy as Brander Captain. From 1773 to 1776 he then served in Rochefort.
American War of Independence
In 1776 Levassor de Latouche transported ammunition from France to the USA. In May 1777 he was promoted to lieutenant and given command of the Corvette Rossignol , which was intended to convoy escort. During this time he was able to conquer two private and three merchant ships.
In the spring of 1780, as captain of the frigate Hermione , at the beginning of the American War of Independence he was commissioned to carry General Marie-Joseph Motier, Marquis de La Fayette as a passenger from France to Boston. He then took part in the American campaign under the command of Pierre Guillaume Gicquel des Touches (1770-1824) and was involved in various battles. In 1780 this included an intense battle against the 32-gun frigate HMS Iris (formerly USS Hancock ) under the command of James Hawker . In June 1781, Latouche Tréville was promoted to the rank of sea captain.
On July 21, 1781, together with the French frigate Astrée , which was under the command of La Pérouse, attacked a British convoy near the coast of Nova Scotia (in present-day Canada). The escorting ships HMS Jack and HMS Thorn were captured along with three merchant ships and brought to Boston . Then Latouche Tréville took part in the Battle of Yorktown .
Shortly thereafter, he was given command of the Aigle , which, together with the Gloire, carried French funds and equipment for Admiral Louis-Philippe de Vaudreuil's fleet . On September 5, 1782, Latouche Tréville sank the British ship HMS Hector , but ran aground in the mouth of the Delaware River and was then captured by the 12th English Division. With the signing of the peace treaties in 1783 he regained his freedom.
In 1784 he became vice director of the port and arsenal of Entrecasteaux . In 1787 he became Chancellor of the Duke of Orléans . In 1788 he added 'Tréville' to its original name, so that from then on it was called Levassor de Latouche-Tréville.
French Revolution
With the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789, Latouche Tréville was a member of the second class and thus represented the nobility. In addition, he was also a member of the Constituent Assembly , in which he took a liberal position and thus also took part in the establishment of the republic.
In September 1791, after King Louis XVI. the constitution was recognized and the constituent assembly was dissolved, Latouche-Tréville took over command of the Languedoc and a 4-ship division that sailed from Brest to Toulon . Here he joined Rear Admiral Laurent Truguet (1752-1839) and supported an operation by the Italian army. Latouche-Tréville also took part in combat operations against Sardinia in October 1792, which, however, were unsuccessful, so that he and Laurent Truguet went back to Toulon.
In January 1793 Latouche-Tréville was promoted to Rear Admiral - at the same time the war against the Kingdom of Great Britain broke out. He then began to work out invasion plans. On March 28, 1793, his plan for a landing was adopted: France began to build a fleet consisting of light troopships. At the same time, he was given command of the Brest naval forces. The moment he took up this new position, he was spied on by his subordinates as a member of the nobility. This spying culminated in his arrest as a "suspect" in the prime of the reign of terror . Thus he spent a year in the military prison and was only released when Maximilien de Robespierre fell victim to the Revolutionary Tribunal himself.
The board of directors rehabilitated him in 1795 and also returned him to his old rank - but gave him no command, so Latouche-Tréville went to Montargis . In 1799 he was so desperate that he offered his services in the newspaper "Moniteur" for a job on a ship owned by a privateer .
Napoleonic period
In 1801 Napoléon Bonaparte transferred the command of the fleet stationed in Brest to Latouche-Tréville. He even received command of the fleet at Boulogne after Bonaparte learned of the original plans to invade England he had developed. In this position Latouche-Tréville fought back the attacks of the British Admiral Nelson on August 4th and 5th, 1801 : The British lost 7 ships (6 of them sank) and had 44 dead and 126 wounded and 3 captured, while on the French side 1 ship was lost through capture, but only 8 dead, 34 wounded and 12 missing were mourned.
On October 30, 1801, with the Peace of Amiens , command of the Rochefort fleet passed to Latouche-Tréville. In this context, he received the order to transport the 23,000 soldiers of the Rhine Army under the command of Admiral Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse for the suppression of rebel slaves in the French colony of Saint-Domingue . Once there, he took the cities of Port-au-Prince and Léogâne together with General Jean Boudet . He also succeeded in arranging the peaceful surrender of General Laplume, while General Charles Leclerc d'Ostin in the south forced his opponents François-Dominique Toussaint L'Ouverture and Henri Christophe to surrender.
While Admiral Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse left the island in April 1802, Latouche-Tréville remained with 4 ships of the line , 9 frigates and 5 corvettes on Saint-Domingue . After the reintroduction of slavery on May 20, 1802, another rebellion broke out, which the troops of General Charles Victoire Emmanuel Leclerc, plagued by yellow fever , had nothing to counter. Latouche-Tréville was able to defend the ports in the south and left the west to Admiral Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez . After the British entered the war, Latouche-Tréville was able to enforce the right of free retreat because of his poor health, so that he returned to France in October 1803.
In December 1803 he was promoted to Vice Admiral and was given command of the French Mediterranean Fleet . He hoisted his flag on the Bucentaure , which at that time was used as a blockade breaker .
At the same time there was a new invasion plan, which called for a crossing with 2500 ships. Napoléon Bonaparte envisaged Latouche-Tréville to command this invasion fleet and to hold the English Channel after landing . However, he could no longer fulfill this mission: On August 19, 1804, the vice admiral died on board the Bucentaure at the age of 59 of an illness. He previously refused to leave his ship and announced that “an admiral is only happy if he dies under the flag of his ship!” He was eventually replaced by Admiral Pierre de Villeneuve after his death .
Honors
His name is entered on the triumphal arch in Paris in the 3rd column (LATOUCHE).
Trivia
- Three warships of the French Navy bore the name Latouche-Tréville in his honor - currently a frigate of the type F70.
- In connection with Latouche-Tréville, the battle against the Chesapeake in March 1781 is incorrectly cited. In fact, he took part in the Battle of Chesapeake Bay. This error is attributed to the source "George Six's Dictionnaire Biographique des Généraux et Amiraux Français de la Révolution et de l'Empire 1792-1814", which was often cited.
Quote
"I have no doubt that as soon as he will receive a mission, he would be the kind of man who, to accomplish it and execute his orders, would risk encountering and fighting us"
swell
- Rémi Monaque: Latouche-Tréville, 1745–1804. L'amiral qui défiait Nelson . Éditions SPM, Paris 2000, ISBN 2-901952-36-4 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Latouche Tréville, Louis-René Levassor de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French admiral |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 3, 1745 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rochefort-sur-mer |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 19, 1804 |
| Place of death | on board the "Bucentaure" |