Guillaume Joseph Nicolas de Lafon-Blaniac
Guillaume Joseph Nicolas de Lafon-Blaniac | |
---|---|
Service/ | French Army Spanish Army |
Years of service | 1792–1815, 1818-1825, 1830–1833 |
Rank | General de division |
Battles/wars | French Revolutionary Wars |
Awards | Order of St. Louis Inscription on the Arc de Triomphe |
Guillaume Joseph Nicolas de Lafon-Blaniac (1773–1833) was a French military commander.
Biography
Early career
Lafon-Blaniac enlisted as a second lieutenant in the 5th Regiment of chasseurs à cheval (French light cavalry), in 1792.[1]
After seeing action in Italy, he saw further action in Napoleon's Egypt, and was equerry to Joseph Bonaparte in Austria, Prusia and Naples.[2]
He was promoted to brigadier general in 1806.[3]
Peninsular War
When Joseph Bonaparte became King of Spain in 1808 Lafon-Blaniac entered Spanish service as his aide-de-camp, with the rank of major general.[2] In 1810 he was appointed governor of Madrid.[1]
In March 1812, Lafon-Blaniac was named governor of La Mancha and given command of the vanguard for the Army of the Centre.[1]
Appointed Captain-General of New Castille, he was left in command of the garrison when King Joseph marched from Madrid on 21 July, too late to help
At the beginning of August, with Wellington's vanguard rapidly approaching, Lafon-Blaniac was given the order to defend the
Although the double enceinte and the star fort in the interior would have been effective against guerrilleros or insurgents, the place could not hold out against siege-guns,[4] and following the Battle of Majadahonda (11 August), fought on the outskirts of the city, on 14 August 1812 Lafon-Blaniac surrendered.[4] Wellington himself had entered the city two days previously;[5] an initial attack on the citadel had forced its defenders into the inner enceinte which, although formidably palisaded, with a ditch twelve feet deep and twenty-four wide, had only one well left. An additional danger was that the huge arsenal was vulnerable to shell-fire.[4]
In June 1813 Lafon-Blaniac was wounded at Vitoria.
Later career
Afterwards he re-entered French service, with the rank of general de division. In January 1814 he was given command of the Cavalry of the Reserve of the
After the
Notes
- ^ The garrison was also responsible for the 500 non-transportable sick of the Army of the Centre, who were not in the Retiro citadel, but at the military hospital in the Prado, outside the fortifications. (Oman, 1914: p. 508.)
References
- ^ a b c (in French). Liévyns, A. (1844). Fastes de la Légion-d'honneur, p. 302. Google Books. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
- ^ a b c d (in French). Hoefer, Ferdinand (1855). Nouvelle biographie générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours: Koch-Lal, p. 556. Firmin-Didot et Cie. Google Books. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
- ISBN 9780199685561, Google Books. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f Oman, Charles (1914). A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. V, pp. 484–488, 507–508, 516–517. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
- ^ Lipscombe, Nick (2013). Wellington's Guns, p. 246. Bloomsbury Publishing. Google Books. Retrieved 27 April 2023.