Charles-Pierre Augereau
Battle of Jena-Auerstedt Ulm campaign | |
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Awards | Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III of Spain Knight of the Order of Saint Louis Peer of France |
Signature |
Charles Pierre François Augereau, 1st Duke of
Early years
Augereau was born in Faubourg Saint-Marceau, Paris, as the son of a
In 1781, King
French Revolutionary Wars
Augereau's unit was sent to put down the
It is not clear when, or if, Augereau was promoted to
After the Peace of Basel ended the War of the Pyrenees in July 1795, Augereau and his division were transferred to the Army of Italy. On 23 November 1795, Augereau fought at the Battle of Loano against the Austrians and Piedmontese. During the fighting, his troops attacked on the right near the coast, while General André Masséna's division pierced the Allied center. The following April, his close association with Napoleon Bonaparte began when Bonaparte took command of the army and launched the Montenotte campaign.[9] Augereau fought at the Battle of Millesimo on 13 April 1796, and accepted the surrender of the castle of Cosseria the next morning. He led his troops at the Battle of Ceva on the 16th, before serving in the Lodi campaign in early May and at the Battle of Borghetto on 30 May.
But it was at the
Shortly after Castiglione, Bonaparte tersely summed up Augereau's military qualities: "Much character, courage, steadiness, activity; is used to war, liked by the soldiers, lucky in his operations."[11]
In 1797, Bonaparte sent Augereau to Paris to encourage the Jacobin Directors. Augereau and the troops led by him coerced the "moderates" in the councils and carried through the coup d'état of 18 Fructidor (4 September 1797). He was then sent to command French forces in Germany.
Augereau took little part in the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire in November 1799, and did not distinguish himself in the Rhenish campaign which followed. Nevertheless, owing to his final adhesion to Bonaparte's fortunes, Augereau received a Marshal's baton at the beginning of the First French Empire on 19 May 1804.
Napoleonic Wars
Augereau commanded a camp in
During the
Augereau became Duke of Castiglione on 19 March 1808, a hereditary victory title (i.e. not in chief of an actual fief, but a hollow title), in honour of the 1796 victory. In 1809, he married the 19-year-old Adélaïde Josephine Bourlon de Chavange (1789 – 1869) whom he had become infatuated with.[14] Adélaïde, the daughter of Gilles Bernard Bourlon de Chavange and wife Jeanne Françoise Launuy, had no children with Augereau and the ducal title became extinct upon his death. His wife later remarried Camille de Sainte-Aldegonde (1787 – 1853), by whom she had a daughter Valentine de Sainte-Aldegonde (1820 – 1891), who married the 3rd Duke of Dino.
While serving in Catalonia during the Peninsular War from February to May 1810, Augereau gained some successes but tarnished his name with cruelty. It was Augereau's brother Jean-Pierre, serving under Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers, who was taken prisoner by the Russian vanguard near Smolensk.[15] He sat out the German campaign in spring 1813 due to illness. Before the Battle of Leipzig in October, Napoleon reproached him with not being the Augereau of Castiglione; to which he replied, "Give me back the old soldiers of Italy, and I will show you that I am."[16] Yet, he led the IX Corps at Leipzig with skill and brought off his command in good order.[14]
In 1814, Augereau was given command of the army of
After being re-restored to the throne in 1815 following Napoleon's defeat, King Louis XVIII deprived Augereau of his military title and pension. Augereau died at his estate of La Houssaye only a year later.[17] He is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Footnotes
- ISBN 9782908866414)
- ISBN 978-0-8160-7477-8.
- )
- ^ Elting-Chandler, pp 2–3
- ^ Elting-Chandler, pp 3–4
- ^ Elting-Chandler, pp 4–5
- ^ Elting-Chandler, pp 5–6
- ^ Smith, p 88
- ^ Elting-Chandler, p 6
- ^ Boycott-Brown, pp 396–397
- ^ Boycott-Brown, p 412
- ^ Elting-Chandler, p 11
- ^ Elting-Chandler, pp 11–12
- ^ a b Elting-Chandler, p 12
- ^ Mémoires du général de Caulaincourt, duc de Vicence, grand écuyer de l'Empereur, p. 61, 133
- ISBN 978-3-86741-429-6.
- ^ Castle of La Houssaye on Napoleon & Empire website
References
- Andreossi, Baron A. F. La Campagne sur le ..., 1800–1801
- Bouvier, Bonaparte en Italie
- Boycott-Brown, Martin. The Road to Rivoli. London: Cassell & Co., 2001. ISBN 0-304-35305-1
- Michel Cadé, « Augereau (Charles, Pierre, François) », in Nouveau Dictionnaire de biographies roussillonnaises 1789–2011, vol. 1 Pouvoirs et société, t. 1 (A-L), Perpignan, Publications de l'olivier, 2011, 699 p. (ISBN 9782908866414)
- Ducasse, Baron A. Précis de la campagne de ... de Lyon en 1814
- Elting, Colonel John R. "The Proud Bandit". ISBN 0-02-905930-5
- Koch, Mémoires de Masséna
- Marbot, Mémoires
- public domain: Rose, John Holland (1911). "Augereau, Pierre François Charles". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). pp. 900–901. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ISBN 1-85367-276-9