Charles Pichegru
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Jean-Charles Pichegru (February 16, 1761—April 5, 1804) was a French general and political figure of the French Revolution and Revolutionary Wars.
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[edit] Early life and career
Born at Arbois (or, according to Charles Nodier, at Les Planches, near Lons-le-Saulnier), he was the son of a peasant. The friars of Arbois were entrusted with his education, and sent him to the military school of Brienne-le-Château. In 1783 he entered the 1st regiment of artillery, where he rapidly rose to the rank of Adjutant-Second Lieutenant, and briefly served in the American Revolutionary War.
When the Revolution erupted in 1789, he became leader of the Jacobin Club in Besançon, and, when a regiment of volunteers of the départment of the Gard marched through the city, he was elected Lieutenant Colonel.
[edit] Rhine front
The fine condition of his regiment was noticed in the French Revolutionary Army section of the Rhine, and his organizing ability got him appointed in the headquarters, and then promoted Général de brigade.
In 1793 Lazare Carnot and Louis de Saint-Just were sent to find roturier (non-aristocratic) generals who could prove successful (see: French Revolutionary Wars: Campaigns of 1793). Carnot discovered Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, and Saint-Just discovered Louis Lazare Hoche and Pichegru. In co-operation with Hoche and the army of the Moselle, Pichegru, as Général de division and in command of the army of the Rhine, had to reconquer Alsace and to reorganize the defeated troops of the French Republic. They succeeded, as Pichegru made use of the morale of his soldiers to win numerous skirmishes, and Hoche forced the lines at Haguenau and relieved Landau.
[edit] Northern front
In December 1793 Hoche was arrested, probably owing to his colleague's denounciations, and Pichegru became commander-in-chief of the army of the Rhine-and-Moselle, and then he was summoned to succeed Jourdan in the army of the North in February 1794, subsequently fighting three major campaigns of one year (see: French Revolutionary Wars: Campaigns of 1794). The forces of the Kingdom of Great Britain and Habsburg Austria held a strong position along the Sambre to the North Sea.
After attempting to break the Austrian center, Pichegru suddenly turned their left, and defeated the Count of Clerfayt at Cassel, Menen and Kortrijk, while Jean Victor Moreau, his second-in-command, defeated Prince Josias of Coburg in the battle of Tourcoing in May 1794. After a pause, during which Pichegru feigned a siege of Ypres, he again attacked Clerfayt, and defeated him at Rousselaer and Hooglede, while Jourdan came up with the new army of the Sambre-and-Meuse, and routed the Austrians in the battle of Fleurus (June 27, 1794).
Pichegru began his second campaign by crossing the Meuse on October 18, and, after taking Nijmegen, drove the Austrians beyond the Rhine. Then, instead of going into winter quarters, he prepared his army for a winter campaign. On December 28 he crossed the Meuse on the ice, and stormed the island of Bommel, then crossed the Waal, and, driving the British out, entered Utrecht on January 19, and Amsterdam on January 20, and soon occupied the whole of the Netherlands.
This major victory was marked by unique episodes, such as the capture of the Dutch fleet, which was frozen in Den Helder, by the French hussars, and exceptional discipline of the French battalions in Amsterdam, who, although faced with the opportunity of plundering the richest city in Europe, showed self-restraint.
[edit] Thermidor and Directory
Although a former associate of Saint-Just, Pichegru offered his services to the Thermidorian Reaction, and, after having received the title of Sauveur de la Patrie ("Saviour of the Motherland") from the National Convention, subdued the sans-culottes of Paris, when they rose in insurrection against the Convention on 12 Germinal (April 1).
Pichegru then took command of the armies of the North, the Sambre-and-Meuse, and the Rhine, and, crossing the Rhine in force, took Mannheim in May 1795. Although he had become a hero of the Revolution, he allowed his colleague Jourdan to be defeated, betrayed all his plans to the enemy, and took part in organizing a conspiracy for the return and crowning of Louis XVIII as King of France. The plans were suspected, and, when he offered his resignation to the Directory in October 1795, it promptly accepted (much to his surprise). He retired in disgrace, but secured his election to the Council of Five Hundred in May 1797 as a leader of the Royalists.
[edit] Coup attempts and death
He planned a coup d'état known as the 18 Fructidor, but was arrested, and with fourteen others deported to Cayenne, French Guiana, in 1797. He escaped and fled to London in 1798, serving on General Aleksandr Rimsky-Korsakov's staff in the campaign of 1799.
He went to Paris in August 1803 with Georges Cadoudal to head a Royalist rising against the First Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte. Betrayed by a friend, he was arrested on February 28, 1804, and was later found strangled in prison. It has often been asserted that he was murdered by the orders of Bonaparte, but there is no foundation for the story.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. In turn, it cites as references:
- Louis Fauche-Borel, Mémoires
- J.M. Gassier, Vie du général Pichegru, Paris, 1815
- Comte de Montgaillard, Mémoires concernant la trahison de Pichegru, 1804
- G. Pierret, Pichegru, son prods et sa mon, 1826
- Anne Jean Marie René Savary, Mémoires sur la mort de Pichegru, Paris, 1825
