François Antoine Louis Bourcier

This is a good article. Click here for more information.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
François Antoine Louis Bourcier
General of Division
Battles/wars
AwardsGrand Officer,
Chamber of Deputies of France

François Antoine Louis Bourcier (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa ɑ̃twan lwi buʁsje]; 23 February 1760 – 8 May 1828) was a French cavalry officer and divisional general of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.

Bourcier was a cavalry lieutenant when the

French Invasion of Russia
in 1812. Following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, he retained his titles and honours.

Career

Bourcier was born in

Army of the Rhine, and was raised the following year to the rank of major general.[3]

Bourcier commanded a division of cavalry under General

Jean Baptiste Jourdan formed the Army of the Danube, he appointed Bourcier as inspector of cavalry for both his force and the Army of Switzerland, under command of André Masséna. With command of a brigade, and as inspector of cavalry, Bourcier participated in the campaigns of the War of the Second Coalition in southwestern Germany, Switzerland, and northern Italy.[4] In Italy, he also commanded a column of cavalry that routed a group of rebels near Andrea[clarification needed].[3]

In the 1805 War of the Third Coalition, as commander of a division of dragoons, he participated in the Battle of Elchingen and later the Battle of Ulm. Six weeks later, at the Battle of Austerlitz, he made several brilliant and timely charges,[3] including one observed by several parishioners of the town of Mönitz, who had climbed the church tower to watch the action. The French infantry had been surrounded by Austrian cavalry, which pursued them down the road. Bourcier approached from the other direction with three regiments of dragoons, having left the rest of his division behind to preserve his communication lines in Raigern. Seeing the infantry beleaguered by cavalry, he led his men in a charge, giving the infantry time to escape. His own dragoons were fired upon with cannon and grapeshot, killing or wounding several men and horses, but, as he wrote later, "[the Russian cannon fire] would have done more harm had they been directed better, being within half range."[5]

After the French victory at the

Battle of Jena-Auerstadt, Bourcier was placed in charge of the several thousands of horses confiscated from the Prussians.[3] This influx of horses improved the capacity of the French cavalry, as Joachim Murat's 11,000-strong cavalry reserve demonstrated later at the Battle of Eylau in February 1807.[6]

After the defeat of Prussia in 1807, Bourcier was sent to Spain to support the French efforts

Russian campaign, but escaped the rigors of the retreat from Moscow, having been previously sent back to Berlin to reorganize the French cavalry.[3]

The

Cross of St. Louis. He retired in 1816, but the following year he was recalled to the State Council and served as commissioner for the management of military supply depots.[2]

Family and post-military life

In 1809, he acquired the

Chamber of Deputies by the Department of the Meurthe. He married Marie Isabelle Van Oldencel (died in Nancy, 13 June 1855). They had a daughter, Adelaide Ernestine Josephine, born 11 October 1805, who married to Louis Henry Gau, the son of Charles Louis Joseph Gau of Frégeville.[3]

Bourcier died in 1828 in

Arc d'Triumph.[3]

Notes

  1. ^ (in French) Jacques Baquol and Paul Ristelhuber. L'Alsace ancienne et moderne ou Dictionnaire topographique, historique et statistique du Haut et du Bas Rhin. Strasbourg, Umschl. Paris: [s.n.], 1865, pp. 336–337.
  2. ^ a b c d (in French) Jean Baptiste Pierre Jullien de Courcelles, et al. Dictionnaire historique et biographique des généraux français. 1822, vol. iii, p. 134.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Mullié, Charles (1852). "Bourcier (François Antoine Louis, comte)" . Biographie des célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850  (in French). Paris: Poignavant et Compagnie.
  4. ^ Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, A Memoir of the operations of the army of the Danube under the command of General Jourdan, taken from the manuscripts of that officer, London: Debrett, 1799, pp. 12–15, p. 88.
  5. ISBN 1-85367-644-6
    , pp. 135–136.
  6. ^ Smith, Databook. pp. 241-242.

References

This article incorporates text from the French Wikipedia and from the following sources:

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=François_Antoine_Louis_Bourcier&oldid=1231466099"