Paul Grenier

Paul Grenier

Paul Grenier (from 1809 Comte de l'Empire ; born January 29, 1768 in Saarlouis , Saarland , † April 17, 1827 in Dammartin-Marpain , Département Jura ) was a French general during the coalition wars .

Life

His father was Louis Grenier, an official in Saarland , his mother was Apoline Guichard. In 1806 he married Anna Maria Weber and in 1816 his second marriage was Emilie Madeleine Georgette de Lasalle.

In 1784 he joined the French Régiment de Nassau and subsequently rose slowly. In 1789 he was a sergent . After the beginning of the French Revolution , he became Sous-lieutenant in the First Coalition War in 1792 and shortly thereafter adjudant-major . In the same year he took part in the cannonade at Valmy and the battle at Jemappes . At the end of the year he was promoted to captain . The following year he took part in the Battle of Hondschoote and the Battle of Wattignies . A short time later he was promoted to Chef de bataillon and appointed Adjudant-général in the Moselle Army.

At the beginning of 1794 he was Général de brigade and a little later Général de division and thus commander of a division under Jean-Baptiste Kléber . He took part in the Battle of Fleurus in June . During the campaign of 1795 he commanded a division of the center of the Sambre-Maas Army under General Jourdan against the imperial army, which consisted primarily of Austrian troops. With his division he crossed the Rhine near Uerdingen on September 8, 1795 without being involved in major combat operations. A year later, in June 1796, Jourdan pushed the Sambre-Maas Army again across the Rhine and pushed the Austrians back via the Westerwald and Mainfranken to Upper Franconia. Grenier and his division played a decisive role in the victory over Feldzeugmeister Graf von Wartensleben in the battle of Friedberg on July 10 and was involved in the clashes at Sulzbach-Rosenberg and the defeats of Amberg and Würzburg . At Gießen he defended the Lahn crossing in the fighting on the Lahn for several days . At the end of 1797 he commanded various divisions in the "Armée d'Allemagne" formed from the Sambre-Maas and Rhine-Moselle armies in the eastern theater of war.

At the beginning of the Second Coalition War , he took over a division in Italy in 1798. In the spring of 1799 he fought near Verona and against Kray near Magnano , then unhappy against the Russians in the Battle of the Adda (April 27). He defeated the Russian troops on May 12 at Bassignano , later at San Giuliano and at the Passo della Bocchetta and at the siege of Tortona . In June his troops occupied the pass over the Little St. Bernhard . At the beginning of September 1799 he commanded the left wing of the Italian Army and was given the command of the left wing of the independent Corpes des Alpes . Grenier defeated the Austrians in September at Fossano and in October at Centallo . On November 4th, under the command of Championnet , he suffered a defeat against the Austrian General Ott in the Battle of Genola , had to withdraw from the fortified camp near Limone and defended the Colle di Tenda pass .

In 1800 he was appointed commander of the Armée d'Allemagne center . He defeated the Austrians under Kray on June 5, 1800 at Erolzheim and Ochsenhausen, occupied Günzburg and crossed the Danube . In December he led the battle near Haun and had to retreat to Haag . He then fought in the Battle of Höchstädt and the Battle of Ampfing . As commander of the left wing, he took part in the Battle of Hohenlinden under Moreau in December 1800 . After the Treaty of Luneville , he fell out of favor with Napoleon Bonaparte because of his close relationship with General Moreau and was demoted to Inspector General of Infantry in Piedmont and Liguria in 1801 . In 1802 he received the award "Commander of the Legion of Honor ". Between 1805 and 1806 he was provisional commander of the 3rd Military Division. Then he was governor of Mantua until 1809 . In 1807 he was awarded the "Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor".

During the Fifth Coalition War of 1809 he commanded the 3rd Division of the Italian Army. In April he took part in the Battle of Sacile and became the commandant of the Central Army Corps of the Italian Army. He subsequently took part in the Battle of the Piave , the battle at San Daniele del Friuli , the storming of Fort Hensel in Malborghetto and the Battle of Raab and the Battle of Wagram .

In August he was awarded the "Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor" and made Comte de l'Empire . In 1810 he became "Inspecteur général d'infanterie" (Inspector General of the Infantry) in the Italian Army. A year later he became commander of the Corps d'observation de l'Italie méridionale .

In 1812 he became commander of the 35th Division and served in the corps of Charles Pierre François Augereau . He protected the withdrawal of Eugène de Beauharnais from Vitebsk in the course of the Russian campaign .

During the Wars of Liberation he took part in the occupation of Berlin from January to March 1813 . For a short time he took over the 11th Army Corps. He was wounded in the battle near Möckern . A short time later, however, he again commanded the 35th Division and took Merseburg . Then he commanded an observation corps on the Adige . He was victorious in Feistritz an der Drau on September 6, 1813 and was then commander of the left army corps of the Italian army. He was temporarily forced to withdraw, but won in October in the battles at Casoni , Bassano, Caldiero and San Michele on the Adige .

In February 1814 he took part in the Battle of Mincio , at the end of the war in April 1814, as successor to Beauharnais, he briefly commanded the French troops retreating from northern Italy. During the first restoration phase, Louis XVIII awarded him . the "Knight's Cross of the Ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Louis " and he was given command of the 8th Division.

In June 1814 he became Inspector General of the Infantry in Toulon and Marseille . During the reign of the Hundred Days , he was a member of the Moselle department and at times vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies ( Chambre des représentants ). Finally, he defended Paris on the right bank of the Seine against the victorious powers of the coalition wars.

After the second restoration phase, he received his military farewell. Between 1818 and 1823 he was again a member of parliament for the Moselle department, this time in the National Assembly . His name is immortalized on the east side of the triumphal arch of Paris.

Count Paul Grenier is not listed with extraordinary deeds in military literature. But contemporaries emphasize his cleverness, unconditional loyalty and steadfastness, even in critical situations.

literature

• Pierer's Universal Lexicon. Volume 7. Altenburg 1859, p. 582. Online version
• Alain Pigeard, Les étoiles de Napoléon. Editions Quatuor Paris 1996
• Abel Hugo (Ed.), France militaire. Histoire des armées francaises de terre et de mer. 1792–1837 , Tome 2, Paris 1838, complete edition online: gallica.bnf.fr

Individual evidence

1. ↑ A. Hugo, France militaire ... , Vol. 2, pp. 50-56
2. ↑ Alain Pigeard, Les étoiles de Napoléon ... , p. 381

Web links

• Entry on saarland-biografien.de
• Entry on assemblee-nationale.fr