Sextius Alexandre François de Miollis

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Sextius Alexandre François de Miollis (1759–1828)
South pillar of the triumphal arch, column 25

Sextius Alexandre François de Miollis (born September 18, 1759 in Aix-en-Provence ; † June 18, 1828 there ) was a French general and most recently in command of Metz. But he gained notoriety as the commandant of Rome. His name can be found on the south pillar of the triumphal arch , column 25.

origin

His parents were Laurent Joseph de Miollis (1715–1792) and his wife Marie Thérèse Delphine Boyer de Fonscolombe (1716–1792). He had several brothers:

  • Charles Francois Melchior Bienvenu (1753–1843), author and prelat
  • Honore Gabriel Henri (1758–1830), Prefect of Finistre
  • Balthazar (1749-1827), French general

Life

He joined the army in 1772 and was placed in the Régiment de Soissonnais . In 1779 he became a sous-lieutenant and came to America with the French auxiliary corps to support the rebels there. He was seriously injured by a grenade in the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 and also left a scar on his face. In 1782 he was promoted to lieutenant . With the beginning of the French Revolution he was promoted to Capitaine in the Régiment de Béarn in September 1789 . As early as May 1792 he was commanded as a lieutenant colonel in the 3rd battalion of the Bouches-du-Rhône Volunteer Regiment.

Service in the Italian Army

It belonged to the Southern Army and later to the Army du Var, which stood on the Var River in Piedmont . There he also took part in the battle near Nice. He then fought in Italy, where he captured the fortress of Isola, and was still involved in fighting a rebellion in Antibes in 1793 . In September 1793 he took over a brigade command and was promoted to Général de brigade in February 1794 . In 1795 he joined the Sérurier Division and then the Laharpe Division . That year he took part in the battles at Garessio and Finale. When Napoleon took over the Italian army in 1796, he was assigned to the Sérurier division. He then fought under Meynier at Mondovi and became the commander of Ceva . He later took part in the siege of Mantua . There he was able to excel in the defense of St.Georges. After the battle of La Favorita (September 15), the Austrians had to withdraw for the time being. Miollis was briefly in command of Alessandria , but in October 1796 he was again at the siege of Mantua. On January 25, 1797, he was able to repel the Austrians under the Lombard general Giovanni Provera at St. Georges again and even capture a division under Hohenzollern-Hechingen . After the surrender of Mantua, he became the city's governor. He was then transferred to Delmas Division, the First Coalition War ended with the Peace of Campo Formio .

At the end of 1798 he took part in the campaign in Tuscany . In March 1799 his troops occupied Livorno and disarmed the armed forces there. He arrested the British and Russian consuls, creating diplomatic tension, and seized the ships in port. He then came to Paul Louis Gaultier de Kervéguen in Tuscany, where he was promoted to Général de division in July 1799 . He fought at Recco and defeated Johann von Klenau in Rapallo . In March 1800 he was given command of the 1st Division and formed the right wing of the Italian Army under Soult . He defended Genoa under the command of André Masséna . After the Allies had captured Monte Cornua and Monte Faccio, he was able to recapture Monte Faccio just two days later. On April 9, 1800 he was appointed governor of Genoa, but had to hand over the fortress in June 1800. In July 1800 he was then commander of the 1st Division of the Reserve Corps under Guillaume Philibert Duhesme . In November he became the commander of Tuscany. He had to evacuate Florence, but was able to occupy Arezzo and then Florence and Siena as a result .

When Napoleon wanted to be elected consul for life in 1802, Moillis voted against it. As a result, he was unemployed until August 1803, when he became governor of Belle-Isle-en-Mer . From there he was recalled in February 1805 to become commander of the troops in Holland, in July he was then commander of Utrecht and Walcheren , but in June he was transferred to Italy, where he was again governor of Mantua. He ordered the construction of an obelisk in honor of Virgil and a column in Ferrara in memory of Ludovico Ariosto , and he arranged for the ashes of Ariosto to be transferred to the University of Ferrara . In Verona he ordered the restoration of the Roman circus.

During the Third Coalition War , he became commander of French troops in Italy in October 1805. After the war he commanded a division. which occupied Veneto under the command of Eugène-Rose de Beauharnais . He then commanded the army in Dalmatia from December 1806 and on August 29, 1807 confiscated English merchandise in the port of Livorno . He received several medals, was Grand Officier de la Légion d'Honneur , on September 16, 1808 Count of the First Empire , then also commander of the Order of the Two Sicilies .

Military commander in Rome

On February 2, 1808, he became commander of the French troops, which occupied Rome until January 21, 1809. As the French lieutenant governor in Rome, he initially granted Pope Pius VII the greatest possible respect. He became the commandant of the 30th Division and received the title of Governor General of the Roman States.

On May 16, 1809, Napoleon ordered Rome to be incorporated into French territory, and on June 10, Miollis hoisted the French flag on Castel Sant'Angelo . After the Pope excommunicated Napoleon for this breach of the law, Miollis had the Pope arrested by the commander of his gendarmerie, General Radet, on the night of July 5th and brought into exile in France. Miollis remained in this position until the beginning of 1814, then the King of Naples, Joachim Murat , made a pact with the Austrians on January 8th and had his troops deployed in Rome on January 19th. Miollis was locked up with his garrison in St. Ange, after several weeks of siege, an agreement was concluded in March 1814 on the mediation of Joseph Fouché , which granted him free retreat and honors after the fall of Napoleon.

Time after the restoration

The French King Louis XVIII. made Miollis first commander of the 1st subdivision of the 9th division in Marseille, and he was also a knight of the Order of Saint Louis. When Napoleon returned from Elba in March 1815, Miollis was to cut him off with the 58 e régiment d'infanterie and the 83 e régiment d'infanterie . But he missed it and Napoleon reached Paris. This transferred the veteran general to the Metz fortress as commander . There he immediately began to put the fortress in a state of defense. He commanded 9,000 men there and in September 1815 he had even erected a lunette on the island of Chambieres. Already on June 29, 1815 troops of the Russian III. Corps under General Langeron . He set up his headquarters in Peltre and surrounded the fortress with 6,000 men. Miollis could only react with bigger and smaller failures, as his teams were outnumbered, but far too inexperienced. The Russian general then wrote a letter to Miollis, pointing out that there was no decisive battle to be fought here and that he would allow the surrounding area to be devastated if the general continued. This then stopped his operations. But on July 11th a small corps of 1,400 men and 16 artillery under General Meriage was able to set out towards the besieged Longwy fortress. This broke the blockade of Thionville, where 400 customs officers joined the force. They then attacked the surprised Longwy Blockade Corps. The 2300 men under Ludwig von Hessen-Homburg fought back, but then had to leave the battlefield because the crew of Longwy under Colonel Ducos also made a sortie. On June 18, Napoleon lost the war and on the 24th the white flag was flying over Metz,

After the war he left the military and retired to Aix-en-Provence, where he died on June 18, 1828.

family

He was married twice. He married the Comtesse Novaro de Castelvecchio in 1772 . On March 24, 1798 he married Marie Rosalie Louise Boutte (* 1758). No children are known.

literature

  • Susan Vandiver Nicassio: Imperial City: Rome under Napoleon. ISBN 0-226-57974-3 , pp. 178ff. (closely.)
  • Obituary. In: Revue encyclopédique. P. 796ff. (books.google.de) (French)
  • Lawrence Barnell Phillips, "The" Dictionary of Biographical Reference. P. 654. (books.google.de)
  • Biography universal. Volume 4, p. 200. (books.google.de)
  • Modern biographies. Volume 4, pp. 202f. (books.google.de)
  • History of the city of Metz. P. 19f. (books.google.de)
  • Heinrich Leo: History of the Italian States. P. 921f. (books.google.de)
  • Marie-Antoinette de Miollis: Un compagnon de La Fayette: le général de Miollis. Editions Beauchesne, 1960.
  • Henri Auréas: Un général de Napoléon: Miollis. (= Publications de la Faculté des lettres de l'Université de Strasbourg. Volume 143).
  • Charles Mullié: Sextius Alexandre François de Miollis. In: Biographie des célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850. Paris 1852 (digitized version)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pavia, Piacenza, Parma, Modena, Mantua, Cremona and some other old Lombard cities. Volume 2, 1825, pp. 533f. (books.google.de)
personal data
SURNAME Miollis, Sextius Alexandre François de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French lieutenant general and finally in command of Metz
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1759
PLACE OF BIRTH Aix-en-Provence
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 1828
Place of death Aix-en-Provence