Jean-Jacques Ambert

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Jean-Jacques Ambert
General of Division
Battles/wars
Awards
Baron of the Empire
, 1813

Jean-Jacques Ambert (30 September 1765 – 20 November 1851) commanded a French division in several engagements during the

Kehl in 1796. His career later suffered an eclipse because of his association with two French army commanders suspected of treason. He spent much of the Napoleonic Wars commanding a Caribbean island, clearing his name, and filling interior posts. His surname is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe
.

Early career

Ambert was born on 30 September 1765[1] at Saint-Céré in what later became the department of Lot.[2] His parents were Jacques Ambert and Marianne Rouchon.

Louis-Philippe de Vaudreuil's squadron which fought at the Battle of the Saintes in April 1782. The Pluton survived that defeat because it called at Portsmouth, New Hampshire on 10 October 1782.[4] Ambert returned to France in 1783.[2]

French Revolution

At the beginning of the

Jean Baptiste Kléber, Louis Desaix, Jean-Charles Pichegru, and Jean Victor Marie Moreau.[2]

Black and white print of an 18th-century battle. Austrian cavalry and infantry advancing from left to right are routing French soldiers.
Ambert's division was on the wrong side of the Neckar River when Dufour's division was crushed at the Battle of Handschuhsheim.

Ambert's 5,000-man division was defeated at the second

Army of Sambre-et-Meuse under Jacques Maurice Hatry replaced the blockading force. At this time Ambert returned to the command of his division in the Army of the Rhine and Moselle.[8]

His 6th Division of Pichegru's Army of the Rhine and Moselle fought at the

Battle of Mannheim. The French forces were driven from their camp into the city with losses of 2,000 men and three guns. The Austrians sustained only 709 casualties in the affair.[11]

Ambert married Amable Sophie de Maurès de Malartic (d. 1855) on 18 June 1796.

Siege of Kehl[12] which lasted from 10 November 1796 to 9 January 1797 and ended in an Austrian victory.[13] Ambert's division consisted of two brigades under Davout and Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen. Davout led the 3rd, 10th, and 31st Line Infantry Demi Brigades while Decaen commanded the 44th and 62nd Line Infantry Demi Brigades. Each demi-brigade comprised three battalions.[12] Kehl was a fortified bridgehead that Moreau constructed on the east bank of the Rhine. In October 1796, the Austrian commander Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen ordered Maximilian Anton Karl, Count Baillet de Latour to reduce the bridgehead and placed 52 infantry battalions and 46 squadrons of cavalry under his command. After weeks of bitter fighting, the Austrians eventually captured most of the French fortifications. After negotiations, the French evacuated Kehl and retired to the west bank of the Rhine.[14]

Empire

Photo shows a large tombstone with the name Jean Jacques Ambert.
The tomb of Ambert is at Fort Delgrès in Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe

His association with disgraced generals Pichegru and Moreau caused the decline of Ambert's career. He was shipped off to

Baron of the Empire on 6 November 1813.[3]

After

Ourcq Canal. He soon retired from the army.[2]

He died on 20 November 1851 on

Basse-Terre Island in Guadeloupe. He received the Grand Cross of the Légion d'Honneur on 29 July, a few months before his death. He and his wife had three children. They were Joachim (1804-1890) who married Julie Hopkins (d. 1882), Marie-Anne who married Baron François-Bertrand Dufour (1765-1832), and Jean-Marie-Gustave (1810-1890) who married Catherine Léontine de Lagarde (d. 1900).[3] AMBERT is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe, on Column 5.[15]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Broughton, Tony (2006). "Generals Who Served in the French Army during the Period 1789-1815: Abbatucci to Azemar". The Napoleon Series. Retrieved 24 January 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Mullié, Charles (1852). Biographie des célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 a 1850. Paris.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ a b c d e "Jean-Jacques AMBERT". Geneanet. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  4. ^ Gardiner, Asa Bird (1905). The Order of the Cincinnati in France. The Rhode Island Society of the Cincinnati. p. 127. Retrieved 26 January 2014. Pluton.
  5. ISBN 1-85367-276-9
    .
  6. ^ Smith (1998), p. 81
  7. ^ Lefort, Alfred (1905). Publications de la Section Historique: De l'Institut G.-D. de Luxembourg. Vol. 50. Luxembourg: Worré-Mertens. pp. 19–21. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  8. ^ Lefort (1905), pp. 68-69
  9. ^ Smith (1998), p. 105
  10. ^ Rickard, J. "Combat of Heidelberg, 23-25 September 1795". historyofwar.org. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  11. ^ Smith (1998), p. 107
  12. ^ a b Philippart, John (1814). Memoires etc. of General Moreau. London: A. J. Valpy. p. 279.
  13. ^ Smith (1998), p. 131
  14. ^ Rickard, J. (2009). "Siege of Kehl, 28 October 1796-10 January 1797". historyofwar.com. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  15. ^ Divry, Arnauld. "Les 660 noms inscrits sur l'Arc de Triomphe de Paris". Retrieved 25 January 2014.

References

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