François Christophe de Kellermann

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Kingdom of the French
 French Republic
 First French Empire
Kingdom of France
Service/branchArmy
RankMarshal of the Empire
AwardsGrand Cross of the Legion of Honour
Order of the Red Eagle
Grand Cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown
Grand Dignitary of the House Order of Fidelity
Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Louis[1]

François-Étienne-Christophe Kellermann or de Kellermann, 1st Duke of

Général d'Armée, a Marshal of the Empire and freemason. Marshal Kellermann served in varying roles throughout the entirety of two epochal conflicts, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. Kellermann is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe
, on Column 3.

Early life

François Christophe de Kellermann came from a Saxon family, which was long settled in Strasbourg and ennobled.[3] He was the only son of a family living in the French province of Alsace. His father was François de Kellermann (or Johann Christoph Edler von Kellermann) and his mother, Baroness Marie Magdalene von Dyhrn.[4][5]

Military career prior to the Revolution

The fifteen-year-old François Kellermann entered the French Army as a cadet volunteer

brigadier-general in 1784, and in the following year marechal-de-camp.[3] While a number of Napoleon's marshals served in the Royal army prior to the Revolution, Kellermann was the only one to have reached such senior rank under the former regime.[6]

Revolutionary career

In 1789 Kellermann enthusiastically embraced the cause of the

lieutenant-general, and in August of the same year there came to him the opportunity of his lifetime. He rose to the occasion, and his victory over the Prussians at the Battle of Valmy, in Goethe's words, "opened a new era in the history of the world".[3] Napoleon later commented that: "I think I'm the boldest general that ever lived, but I daren't take post on that ridge with windmill at Valmy (where Kellermann took position) in 1793".[citation needed
]

Transferred to the army on the

Adam Custine of neglecting to support his operations on the Rhine; but he was acquitted at the bar of the National Convention in Paris, and placed at the head of the army of the Alps and of Italy, in which position he showed himself a careful commander and excellent administrator.[3]

Shortly afterwards he received instructions to reduce

south-eastern border against the Austrians until his army was merged into that of General Napoleon Bonaparte in Italy.[3]

Imperial career

Heraldic achievement of Kellermann as Duke of Valmy

Kellermann was then sixty-two years of age, still physically equal to his work, but the young generals who had come to the front in the previous two years represented the new spirit and the new

Duke of Valmy (1808).[7]

Kellermann's tomb in Père Lachaise Cemetery

In his service to the First French Empire, Kellermann was frequently employed in the administration and training of the army.[8][9] He also took control of the line of communications and the command of reserve troops, and his long and wide experience made him one of Napoleon's most valuable assistants.[8]

In 1814 he voted for the deposition of the

Louis XVIII. After the "Hundred Days" he sat in the Chamber of Peers and voted with the Liberals.[8]

Marshal Kellermann died in Paris on 23 September 1820,[8] and is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.[10]

His son François Étienne de Kellermann, 2nd Duke of Valmy,[8] also fought for Napoleon and was promoted to cavalry general after the Battle of Marengo.[9] Kellermann's grandson was the politician François Christophe Edmond de Kellermann[8] and his sister Magdalena married Moorish courtier Angelo Soliman.[11]

Notes

  1. ^ Paris, Louis (1869). Dictionnaire des anoblissements (in French). Paris: Bachelin-Deflorenne.
  2. Edle
    .
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Chisholm 1911, p. 718.
  4. ^ Genealogy reference – parents of Marshal Kellermann
  5. ^ Kellermann, Franz Christoph
  6. ^ Jean-Claude Banc, p. 154 Dictionnaire des Maréchaux de Napoléon, Paris, Pygmalion, 2007
  7. ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 718–719.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Chisholm 1911, p. 719.
  9. ^ a b Kielland 1908, p. 45.
  10. ^ Brown 1973, p. 61.
  11. ^ Wilhelm. A. Bauer, A. Soliman, Hochfürstlische Der Mohr, W. Sauer (Hg), 1922.

Sources

External links

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