Louis Marie Turreau

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Louis-Marie Turreau
Belle-Île
French Ambassador to the United States

Louis-Marie Turreau (French pronunciation:

colonnes infernales during the war in the Vendée, which massacred tens of thousands of Vendéens and ravaged the countryside. He attained army command, but without notable military accomplishments. Under the First French Empire, he pursued a career as a high functionary, becoming ambassador to the United States then a Baron of the Empire
.

Life

Early life

Louis-Marie Turreau's father was fiscal procurator for waters and forests to the

comté d'Évreux, before becoming mayor of Évreux. This situation imparted certain privileges to the Turreau family, even though they were not nobles. Turreau was nevertheless a fervent revolutionary from 1789, profiting like many others, especially the bourgeois of that era. Elected mayor of Aviron, he bought several clerical estates (such as that of the Abbaye Saint-Pierre et Saint-Paul de Châtillon-lès-Conches [fr
].

Career to 1794

Before the Revolution, he had not had any real military activity, having entered the guards corps of the comte d’Artois but only been inscribed for supernumerary roles (he was only a reservist). On the Revolution, he entered the National Guard of Conches, and took over as its leader in July 1792. In September he was elected captain of a company of volunteers from Eure and set out to fight on the northern frontiers. Made a colonel in November, he was integrated into the Army of the Moselle.

In June 1793, Turreau was brought into the

Armée catholique et royale were erased by Jean-Baptiste Kléber and François Séverin Marceau at the Battle of Savenay
on 23 December.

The colonnes infernales

Main article:
Colonnes infernales
Stained glass depicting massacres by the Colonnes Infernales under Turreau

In the spring of 1794, the government with the approval of Lazare Carnot sent the Infernal columns, under the direction of General Turreau through the Vendée to suppress counter-revolutionary forces. It cost the lives of 1% of the French population.

Later career

On 20 May Turreau was named governor of

United States of America
, then commander of several military strongholds.

In 1814, he submitted to

cross of Saint-Louis
, but died before being able to attend an official ceremony of the order to receive it.

Distinctions

  • Baron de Linières (1812)
  • Chevalier de Saint-Louis (1814)
  • His name is engraved on the 15th column of the Arc de Triomphe colonne (the Arch shows TURREAU).

Footnotes

  1. ^ Prats, Turreau
  2. ^ Prats, Banyuls
  3. ^ Arnold, p 118 and 130

Sources

Books

  • Arnold, James R. Marengo & Hohenlinden. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Pen & Sword, 2005.
    ISBN 1-84415-279-0

External links
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