Henri Delaborde

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For the Olympic competitor, see Henri Delaborde (fencer).

Henri François Delaborde (1764 - 1833) was a French general of the Napoleonic Wars.

He was the son of a baker of Dijon. At the outbreak of the French Revolution he joined the "Volunteers of the Côte-d'Or," and passing rapidly through all the junior grades, was made general of brigade after the combat of Rhein-Zabern (1793).

As chief of the staff he was present at the siege of Toulon in the same year, and, promoted general of division, he was for a time governor of Corsica. In 1794 Delaborde served on the Spanish frontier, distinguishing himself at the Bidassoa (25 July) and Misquiriz (16 October).

His next command was on the Rhine. At the head of a division he took part in the celebrated campaigns of 1795-1797, and in 1796 covered Moreau's right when that general invaded Bavaria. Delaborde was in constant military employment during the Consulate and the early Empire. Made commander of the Legion of Honour in 1804, he received the dignity of count in 1808. In that year he was serving in Portugal under Junot. Against Sir Arthur Wellesley's English army he fought the skilful and brilliant rear-guard battle of Roliça.

In 1812 he was one of Mortier's divisional leaders in the Russian campaign, and in the following year was grand cross and governor of the Castle of Compiègne. Joining Napoleon in the Hundred Days, he was marked for punishment by the returning Bourbons, sent before a court martial, and only escaped condemnation through a technical flaw in the wording of the charge. The rest of his life was spent in retirement.