Amédée Emmanuel François Laharpe

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Amédée Emmanuel François Laharpe
Frédéric-César de la Harpe
(cousin)

Amédée Emmanuel François Laharpe (born de La Harpe; French:

Napoleon Bonaparte until his death in battle after being hit by friendly fire. He was a cousin of the Swiss political leader Frédéric-César de La Harpe
.

Early life and career

Amédée de La Harpe was born into a noble family in Rolle, Vaud, Switzerland on 27 September 1754. He was the son of Louis Philippe de La Harpe, Seigneur des Uttins and member of Lausanne's Council of Sixty, and Sophie Hugonin.[1] He attended a philanthropinist school in Haldenstein along with his cousin Frédéric-César de La Harpe,[1] who would become the leader of the successful movement for the independence of Vaud from the canton of Bern.[2]

As a young man La Harpe served as a

Netherlands.[1] After returning home he commanded a Vaud militia company, and between 1780 and 1791 sat at the Council of Two Hundred of Lausanne.[1] When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, he renounced his seigneurial privileges. On 15 July 1791, La Harpe held a banquet in Rolle to celebrate the two-year anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille.[1] As the Bernese authorities persecuted those involved, La Harpe fled to France while others were already being arrested and imprisoned in Chillon Castle.[3] He was then sentenced to death in absentia by Bern, and his property in Switzerland was confiscated.[3]

In 1792, in accordance with the laws of revolutionary France and his own beliefs, La Harpe dropped the nobiliary particle "de" from his surname and changed it to Laharpe.[4]

French Revolutionary Wars

In late 1791, Laharpe joined the French Army as a

brigade general in December of that year.[5] This rank was confirmed when Laharpe was assigned to the Army of Italy in August 1794, and in the following month he fought at the First Battle of Dego.[5]

His promotion to

Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont to sue for peace. Laharpe fought at the battles of Montenotte and, once again, at Dego.[3]
Thereafter, his troops guarded the east flank of the army against a possible Austrian counterattack.

With the Sardinians subdued, Bonaparte moved against

Po River, Laharpe's division crossed near Piacenza and thrust north to turn Beaulieu's left flank. Laharpe, with his own division and the army's advance guard, defeated Anton Lipthay's Austrians at the Battle of Fombio during the day on 8 May. After this action, the French pursued as far as Codogno, and that evening another Austrian unit blundered into the French units in the area. Amid a night of confused clashes and low visibility, Laharpe was accidentally shot by his own troops as he returned to camp from a reconnaissance.[6]

Legacy

During his exile in Saint Helena, Napoleon described Laharpe as "an officer of distinguished bravery. A grenadier in heart and stature. Beloved by his troops whom he led with intelligence".[7] He is honored on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, where the name LAHARPE is inscribed on column 24, right below that of fellow Vaudois volunteer Jean Reynier.

Family

In 1775, during his mercenary service in the Netherlands, La Harpe married Baroness Charlotte d'Auvin de Burdinne, from the County of Namur.[1] Two of their sons, Sigismond (1779–1858) and Emmanuel de La Harpe (1782–1842), went on to briefly serve in the French Army during the Revolutionary Wars.[8][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Fabienne Abetel-Béguelin: Amédée de La Harpe in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
  2. ISBN 9781787201385
    .
  3. ^
    doi:10.5169/seals-337509
    .
  4. ^ Chateauneuf, A. (1807). Le nepos français (in French). Vol. 11. Paris. p. 132.
  5. ^ a b c d e Chavaray, Jacques (1893). Les généraux morts pour la patrie: 1792-1871 (in French). Paris. p. 34.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ^ Chandler, p 80
  7. ^ Fiebeger, G. J. (1911). The Campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte of 1796–1797. West Point, New York: US Military Academy Printing Office. p. 17.
  8. ^ Fabienne Taric Zumsteg: Sigismond de La Harpe in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
  9. ^ Olivier Meuwly: Emmanuel de La Harpe in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
  • Chandler, David. The Campaigns of Napoleon. New York: Macmillan, 1966.
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