Pierre Cambronne
Pierre Jacques Étienne Cambronne Viscount Cambronne | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Cambronne, 1815 | |
| Born | 26 December 1770 Nantes, France |
| Died | 29 January 1842 (aged 71) Nantes, France |
| Allegiance | French First Republic First French Empire Kingdom of France |
| Service/ | French Army |
| Years of service | 1792–1823 |
| Rank | Brigadier General |
| Battles/wars | French Revolutionary Wars Napoleonic Wars |
| Awards |  Officer of the Legion of Honour |
Pierre Jacques Étienne Cambronne, later Pierre, 1st Viscount Cambronne (26 December 1770 – 29 January 1842), was a general of the First French Empire. A main strategist of the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars, he was wounded at the Battle of Waterloo.
Military career
Cambronne was born in
In 1800, he commanded a company under
Cambronne then fought in
The hundred days and Waterloo
He became
The exact circumstances of his surrender to the British are disputed. At the battle's conclusion, Cambronne was commanding the last carré (section) of the
Other sources reported that Colville insisted and ultimately Cambronne replied with one word: "Merde!" (literally, "Shit!", figuratively, "Go to hell!")[2] This version of the reply became famous in its own right, becoming known as le mot de Cambronne ("the word of Cambronne") and repeated in Victor Hugo's account of Waterloo in his novel Les Misérables[3] and in Edmond Rostand's play L'Aiglon. The name Cambronne was later used as a polite euphemism ("What a load of old Cambronne!") and sometimes even as a verb, "cambronniser".
Cambronne always denied both Rougement's account and the one-word response, stating that he could not have said such a thing and remained alive. A series of letters to The Times claimed that British Colonel Hugh Halkett, commanding the 3rd Hanoverian Brigade, captured Cambronne before he made any reply.[4]
"The Guard dies ..." statement has also been ascribed to General Claude-Étienne Michel. In July 1845 the sons of General Michel requested a royal decree stating that the words attributed to General Cambronne had in fact been said by their father, producing a number of witnesses and published historical works as evidence.[5] The attribution was left undecided.[4]
Further career
Cambronne was tried for
In 1820,
He was buried in Cemetery Miséricorde, Nantes.
He makes a fictional appearance in C. S. Forester's Hornblower short story "St. Elizabeth of Hungary". Hornblower discovers Cambronne in the West Indies engaged in an attempt to rescue Napoleon from Saint Helena. Cambronne's exact words at Waterloo are discussed.
References
- ^ William Sérieyx (1931). Cambronne (in French). Paris: Jules Tallandier Éditions.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-505541-2.
- ^ Brombert, Victor (1988). Bloom, Harold (ed.). "Les Misérables: Salvation from Below". Modern Critical Views: Victor Hugo: 212–215.
- ^ a b White, John (2011). "Cambronne's Words". The Napoleon Series. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
- ^ de Saint-Hilaire, Emile Marco (1845). "Chapter V: The Guard during the Belgian Campaign in 1815". Histoire anecdotique, politique et militaire de la Garde impériale [History anecdotal, political and military of the Imperial Guard]. Gorsuch, Greg (trans.). Paris: Penaud.
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