François Séverin Marceau

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François Séverin Marceau
Minister of War

François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa sevəʁɛ̃ maʁso degʁavje]; 1 March 1769 – 21 September 1796) was a French general of the Revolutionary Wars.

Early life

Desgraviers was born on 1 March 1769 in Chartres, in the province of Orléanais, the son of a prosecutor. On December 1785, at the age of 16, he enlisted in the Angoulême Infantry Regiment, which later became the 34th Infantry Regiment of the French Army. While on furlough in Paris, Marceau participated in the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789.[1] After that event he took his discharge from the regular army and returned to Chartres, but the opposition of his family soon compelled him to seek new military employment.[2]

Portrait by Marceau's brother-in-law, Antoine Sergent, 1798 (Musée de la Révolution française)

Revolutionary Wars

In July 1792, Marceau was appointed captain of the Revolutionary Army's 2nd Battalion of Volunteers of Eure-et-Loir.[1] He took part in the defence of Verdun later in the year, and it was his troop that was ordered to bear the proposals of capitulation to the Prussian camp. The defenders' lack of morale provoked the anger of the revolutionary authorities, and Marceau was fortunate to find re-employment as a captain in the regular service. However, early in 1793, he along with other officers under suspicion was arrested and imprisoned for a period.[3]

Vendée

On his release, Marceau hurried to take part in the defence of

Jean Baptiste Kléber while on the field of battle.[3]

Kléber was made a

general of division, and Marceau confirmed as general of brigade. Marceau in turn became a général de division on 10 November; then succeeded to the commander-in-chief ad interim. With Kléber, he crushed the Vendean rebels at the Battle of Le Mans on 12–13 December and at the Battle of Savenay
on 23 December 1793.

In the wake of Le Mans, Marceau had rescued and protected a young

Royalist lady, Angélique des Mesliers, with whom it has been supposed Marceau fell in love – however, even his help could not save her from the guillotine.[3]

He and Kléber themselves were saved from arrest and execution only by the intervention of Bourbotte. Around this time Marceau became engaged to Agathe Leprêtre de Châteaugiron, but the marriage was prevented by his constant military employment, his broken health and the opposition of both Auguste-Félicité Le Prestre de Châteaugiron and Marceau's devoted half-sister Emira, wife of the Republican politician Antoine Joseph Sergent.[3]

Battles of 1795–96

After spending the winter of 1793–94 in Paris, Marceau accepted a command in the army under Jean-Baptiste Jourdan alongside Kléber and took part in the various battles near Charleroi. During the battle of Fleurus on 26 June 1794 he had a horse shot from under him. He distinguished himself at Jülich, at Aldenhoven and at Koblenz, where he stormed the enemy lines on 23 October.[3]

He took part in the

Sulzbach.[3]

He became a close companion of

Jean Baptiste Bernadotte and they shared many victories, often working together as an effective duo. At Neuwied he held Kléber and Bernadotte's rear, going so far as to threaten to "shoot himself from mortification" if his men were to fail to hold. It was effective, and the retreat was successful.[4]

Death

Tomb of Desgraviers-Marceau in Koblenz
Tomb of Desgraviers-Marceau in the Panthéon, Paris

After Jourdan and

Battle of Limburg on the Lahn River (16–19 September 1796). While conducting a successful rear guard action near Altenkirchen on 19 September, he received a mortal wound. He died two days later in the early morning, aged only twenty-seven.[3]

The

Panthéon in 1889.[3]

Marceau was immortalized in

Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
:

LVI
By Coblentz, on a rise of gentle ground,
There is a small and simple pyramid,
Crowning the summit of the verdant mound;
Beneath its base are heroes' ashes hid,
Our enemy's – but let not that forbid
Honour to Marceau! o'er whose early tomb
Tears, big tears, gush'd from the rough soldier's lid,
Lamenting and yet envying such a doom,
Falling for France, whose rights he battled to resume.
LVII
Brief, brave, and glorious was his young career, —
His mourners were two hosts, his friends and foes;
And fitly may the stranger lingering here
Pray for his gallant spirit's bright repose;
For he was Freedom's champion, one of those,
The few in number, who had not o'erstept
The charter to chastise which she bestows
On such as wield her weapons; he had kept
The whiteness of his soul, and thus men o'er him wept.

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Marceau-Desgraviers, François Séverin". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 683–684. The 1911 Britannica, in turn, gives the following references:

  • Maze, Le Général Marceau (1889)
  • Parfait, Le Général Marceau (1892)
  • T. C. Johnson, Marceau (London, 1896)

Citations

  1. ^ a b Doublet de Boisthibault, Jules (1851). Marceau (in French). Chartres.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 683.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Chisholm 1911, p. 684.
  4. ISBN 978-0-7195-4703-4
    .
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