François Pierre Joseph Amey

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François Pierre Joseph Amey
Born2 October 1768 (1768-10-02)
General of Division
Battles/wars
Awards
Baron of the Empire
, 1810
Mayor of Sélestat, 1820–30

François Pierre Joseph Amey (2 October 1768 – 16 November 1850) became a French division commander during the

Jena, Golymin and Eylau
where he was wounded.

Sent to Spain in 1808 in command of German troops, Amey fought at the

general of division and fought at the Berezina. He fought at Arnhem in the fall of 1813. While leading a division of recruits, he was wounded and captured after a heroic defence in the Battle of Fère-Champenoise in 1814. After rallying to Napoleon during the Hundred Days he retired in 1815. He served as mayor of Sélestat for ten years then returned to military service in 1830–1833. His surname is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe
, on Column 1.

Revolution

Amey was born in

general of brigade.[4] He distinguished himself at the Battle of Le Mans on 12–13 December where he had a horse killed under him.[3]

Louis Marie Turreau took over the direction of the conflict on 30 December. Turreau started a campaign of savage repression against the Vendeans by "infernal columns" on 24 January 1794. The columns roamed the countryside burning farms and killing any rebels they caught, including in many cases, women and children. Instead of ending the revolt, the severity of the repression provoked a fresh uprising. The heavy hand of the undisciplined Republican armies sometimes fell on those citizens who were loyal and, for this, the government suspended Turreau on 13 May.[5] During the operation Amey commanded a garrison at Les Herbiers.[6] According to one account his troops were guilty of some of the worst excesses.[7] He was suspended for a month beginning in August 1794.[3] Few generals who served in the Vendée during the first half of 1794 had successful careers; Amey and Georges Joseph Dufour became the exceptions.[7]

After his suspension, Amey served in the

Légion d'Honneur on 11 December 1803. He became a Commander of the Légion d'Honneur on 14 June 1804.[2]

Empire

Painting shows Napoleon and his staff mounted on horses. In the foreground is a pile of dead and wounded soldiers.
VII Corps suffered very heavy losses at Eylau.

Amey was put in command of the

Elbing and later took command of a brigade in Claude Carra Saint-Cyr's division of Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult's IV Corps.[3]

On 19 March 1808, Napoleon named Amey a

Third Siege of Gerona.[3] In Jean-Antoine Verdier's 4th Division, he led the German brigade which consisted of the Würzburg and the 1st and 2nd Berg Regiments.[11] The Spanish defenders resisted heroically and losses were horrific. During the siege the Würzburgers lost 870 casualties out of 1,519, the 1st Berg lost 605 out of 1,310 and the 2nd Berg lost 709 out of 1,313 men.[12] After months of siege the French-Allied besiegers captured the key City Redoubt and on 7 December 1809, the Spanish garrison mounted an all-out attack to recapture the work. This completely failed and resulted in the additional loss of the Calvary and Chapter redoubts. The disaster led to the garrison's final surrender on 11 December.[13] From his position near Montjuich, Amey launched the counterattack which took the Spanish in flank and overran the two redoubts.[2]

Black and white print shows Russian cavalrymen in tall helmets. In the centre General Saint-Cyr's carriage is overturned while in the background there is a melee between horsemen and foot soldiers.
First Battle of Polotsk, 18–19 August 1812

He transferred to

general of division on 19 November 1812[2] and was wounded at the Battle of Berezina two weeks later. In 1813 he was appointed to command the camp of Utrecht in Holland and was awarded the Grand Cross of the Légion d'Honneur.[3]

With a Prussian corps under

Don Cossacks. On 25 November, his column bumped into a Prussian force and was driven back to Arnhem after a running skirmish. The Prussians attempted to rush Arnhem's entrenched camp but were repulsed.[16] On 28 November, MacDonald reinforced Arnhem to a strength of 4,000 and put Henri François Marie Charpentier in command. The next day, Charpentier pushed back the Prussian outposts, but MacDonald realized the danger and ordered him to retreat. Charpentier disregarded his instructions and was defeated on 30 November in the Battle of Arnhem. During the action Charpentier was wounded so Amey took command of the withdrawing French forces.[17]

Map shows the strategic situation on 25 March 1814.
Strategic situation 25 March 1814 - Battle of Fere-Champenoise

While Napoleon defeated

Six Days Campaign, Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg's Army of Bohemia forced its way across the Seine River. With the French forces falling back to the Yerres River, Napoleon sent MacDonald's XI Corps south to Guignes which it reached late on 14 February 1814.[18] This was followed by a French victory in the Battle of Montereau on 18 February.[19] At this time the 8,000-man XI Corps included the divisions of Michel Sylvestre Brayer, Joseph Jean Baptiste Albert and Amey.[20] On 17–18 February Amey's division only included the 2nd Brigade which was made up of two battalions each of the 149th Line and Calvados National Guard and one battalion of the Manche National Guard.[21] On 28 February, Napoleon ordered Amey's division withdrawn to Troyes to guard the army's wagon train and artillery parks.[22] On 1 March the division counted only 772 infantry and a 70-man horse artillery company with four 8-pounders and one howitzer.[23]

Schwarzenberg's 100,000-strong army defeated Napoleon's 30,000 troops at the

Édouard Mortier, duc de Trévise were following Napoleon's orders to move east toward Vitry. The evening of 23 March found the two marshals at Vertus and Étoges.[28] At Sézanne, Amey's 1,800 men found Michel-Marie Pacthod's 4,000-man division and a food convoy with 80 wagons. Hearing that a French corps was nearby, Pacthod and Amey decided to join forces with it. Their force reached Étoges on the evening of 24 March and sent messengers to Marmont and Mortier requesting instructions.[29]

Painting shows a body of foot soldiers surrounded by cavalry, with fighting going on in the distance.
Battle of Fère-Champenoise, 25 March 1814

In the

Peter Petrovich Pahlen's cavalry corps. At the same time, Czar Alexander I of Russia directed the fire of 30 cannons from the south.[32]

When the badly beaten troops under Marmont and Mortier heard the approaching gunfire from Pacthod's fight, they believed that Napoleon was coming to save them. Though it was not true, this allowed the two marshals to rally their defeated troops. The Allies turned their attention away from the two marshals and focused on the destruction of Pacthod's command. This probably saved Marmont and Mortier from total disaster.[34] At the end, 78 guns were blasting Pacthod's soldiers and the Allied cavalry finally broke all the French infantry squares.[35] With his troops still in a single square, Amey tried to get away into the Saint-Gond Marshes, but only a small handful of men escaped being killed, wounded or taken prisoner.[36] Pacthod, Amey and several brigadiers were captured and the czar released them on parole in recognition of their bravery.[35]

Restoration

Under the

Order of Saint-Louis in 1814 and appointed to command the 2nd Subdivision of the 2nd Military Division. On 4 March 1815, he attended a reception for Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême and his wife. A little over two weeks later he went over to Napoleon during the Hundred Days.[2] For this decision he was pushed into retirement on 9 September 1815. He returned to his hometown, serving as mayor of Sélestat in 1820–1830 and a member of the district council in 1826–1830.[1] He returned to the active list on 7 February 1831 and retired permanently from the army in 1833.[2] He died on 16 November 1850 at Strasbourg.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Kubler 1982.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Mullié 1852.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Jensen 2003.
  4. ^ Broughton 2006.
  5. ^ Phipps 2011, pp. 31–34.
  6. ^ Clénet 1993, p. 152.
  7. ^ a b Couteau-Bégarie & Doré-Graslin 2010, pp. 480–486.
  8. ^ Chandler 2005, p. 237.
  9. ^ Smith 1998, p. 224.
  10. ^ Smith 1998, pp. 241–243.
  11. ^ Smith 1998, p. 337.
  12. ^ Oman 1996, p. 525.
  13. ^ Oman 1996, pp. 57–58.
  14. ^ Nafziger 1993.
  15. ^ Leggiere 2007, pp. 102–103.
  16. ^ Leggiere 2007, pp. 149–152.
  17. ^ Leggiere 2007, pp. 153–156.
  18. ^ Petre 1994, pp. 77–78.
  19. ^ Smith 1998, p. 498.
  20. ^ Nafziger 2015, p. 193.
  21. ^ Nafziger 2015, pp. 617–618.
  22. ^ Nafziger 2015, p. 289.
  23. ^ Nafziger 2015, p. 629.
  24. ^ Smith 1998, pp. 512–513.
  25. ^ Petre 1994, p. 172.
  26. ^ Petre 1994, p. 176.
  27. ^ Petre 1994, p. 181.
  28. ^ Petre 1994, pp. 185–186.
  29. ^ Nafziger 2015, p. 335.
  30. ^ Smith 1998, pp. 513–515.
  31. ^ Nafziger 2015, p. 414.
  32. ^ a b Petre 1994, p. 191.
  33. ^ Nafziger 2015, p. 411.
  34. ^ Nafziger 2015, pp. 409–410.
  35. ^ a b Nafziger 2015, p. 413.
  36. ^ Petre 1994, p. 192.

References

  • Broughton, Tony (2006). "Generals Who Served in the French Army during the Period 1789-1815: Abbatucci to Azemar". The Napoleon Series. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  • ISBN 0-275-98612-8
    .
  • Clénet, Louis-Marie (1993). Les colonnes infernales (in French). Perrin collection Vérités et Légendes.
  • Couteau-Bégarie, Hervé; Doré-Graslin, Charles (2010). Histoire militaire des guerres de Vendée (in French). Economica.
  • Jensen, Nathan D. (2003). "François-Pierre-Joseph Amey". FrenchEmpire.net. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  • Kubler, Maurice (1982). "AMEY François Pierre Joseph". Nouveau Dictionnaire de Biographie Alsacienne (in French). Fédération des Sociétés d'Histoire et d'Archéologie d'Alsace. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  • Leggiere, Michael V. (2007). The Fall of Napoleon: The Allied Invasion of France 1813-1814. Vol. 1. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.
    ISBN 978-0-521-87542-4
    .
  • Mullié, Charles (1852). Biographie des célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 a 1850 (in French). Paris.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Nafziger, George (1993). "French Grande Armée, 1 August 1812" (PDF). United States Army Combined Arms Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 December 2011. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
  • ISBN 978-1-909982-96-3
    .
  • ISBN 1-85367-223-8
    .
  • ISBN 1-85367-163-0
    .
  • ISBN 978-1-908692-26-9
    .
  • ISBN 1-85367-276-9
    .
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