Pierre Augereau
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Charles Pierre François Augereau, 1st Duc de Castiglione (October 21, 1757 – June 12, 1816) was a French soldier and military commander during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He was a Marshal of France.
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[edit] Early life
Pierre Augereau was born in Faubourg Saint-Marceau, Paris, as the son of a Parisian fruit seller; he enlisted in the army at seventeen in the carabiniers. He became a noted swordsman and duellist, but he had to flee France after killing an officer in a quarrel. He served in the Russian army against the Ottoman Empire; but afterwards escaped into Prussia and enlisted in the guards. He deserted and reached the border of Saxony. Service in the Neapolitan army and a sojourn in Portugal took up the years 1788–1791; but the events of the French Revolution brought Augereau back to France.
[edit] General during the French Revolutionary Wars
He served with credit against the revolt in the Vendée and then joined the troops opposing the Spaniards in the south. There he rose rapidly, becoming general of division on December 23, 1793. His division distinguished itself even more when transferred to the army of Italy; and under Napoleon Bonaparte he participated in the Battle of Millesimo (1796) and in taking the castle of Cosseria (April 14, 1796).
But it was at the Battle of Castiglione (August 5, 1796) that he rendered the most signal services. General de Marbot described him as encouraging even Bonaparte himself in the confused situation that prevailed before that battle, though Marbot's memoirs are hardly the most reliable source, and in any case it was Bonaparte's undoubted superiority as a strategist that made the victory at Castiglione a possibility. Bonaparte summed up Augereau's military qualities: "Has plenty of character, courage, firmness, activity; is inured to war; is well liked by the soldiery; is fortunate in his operations."
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 (September 4) 1797. He was then sent to command French forces in Germany.
Augereau took little part in the coup d'état of Brumaire (November 1799), and did not distinguish himself in the Rhenish campaign which ensued. Nevertheless, owing to his final adhesion to Bonaparte's fortunes, he received a marshal's baton at the beginning of the First French Empire (May 19, 1804).
[edit] Marshal during the Napoleonic Wars
Augereau commanded a camp in Brest, Brittany, during the preparations for the invasion of England. When Napoleon called off the invasion, because of the growing threat from Austria and Russia, the camp became the VII Corps of the Grande Armée.
Augereau and his corps were charged with protecting the army’s lines of communications during the War of the Third Coalition. He also fought actions at Konstanz and Bregenz,
In the War of the Fourth Coalition he was again at the head of the VII Corps, it and he distinguished itself at Jena where it made up the left flank.
Early in 1807 he fell ill with fever, and at the Battle of Eylau (February 7, 1807) he had to be supported on his horse, but directed the movements of his corps with his usual bravery. His corps was almost annihilated and the marshal himself received a wound from which he never quite recovered.
He became Duke of Castiglione on March 19, 1808, a hereditary victory title (i.e. not in chief of an actual fief, but a hollow title), in honour of his 1796 victory (see above), which granted his heirs ducal rank till the extinction in 1915. He was married without issue to Adélaïde Josephine Bourlon de Chavange (1789 – 1869), daughter of Gilles Bernard Bourlon de Chavange and wife Jeanne Françoise Launuy ?, but his nephews had become heirs of that title. 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.
When transferred to Catalonia, Augereau gained some successes but tarnished his name by cruelty. In the campaign of 1812 in Russia and in the Saxon campaign of 1813 his conduct was little more than mediocre. Before the Battle of Leipzig (October 1813), 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".
In 1814 Augereau had command of the army of Lyon, and his slackness exposed him to the charge of having come to an understanding with the Austrian invaders.
Thereafter he served the restored Bourbon King Louis XVIII, but, after reviling Napoleon, went over to him during the Hundred Days. The Emperor repulsed him and charged him with being a traitor to France in 1814.
Louis XVIII, when re-restored to the royal throne, deprived him of his military title and pension. Augereau died at his estate of La Houssaye. He is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery.
[edit] Sources and references
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- Koch, Mémoires de Masséna
- Bouvier, Bonaparte en Italie
- Count A. F. Andreossi, La Campagne sur le ..., 1800 - 1801
- Baron A. Ducasse, Précis de la campagne de ... de Lyon en 1814
- Marbot, Mémoires
- Elting, Colonel John R. Napoleon's Marshals. New York: Macmillan, 1987.
For the battle of Castiglione in particular, see: Boycott-Brown, M. "The Road to Rivoli, Napoleon's First Campaign", London, Cassell, 2001
- Heraldica.org- Napoleonic Victory titles
- Pierre Augereau at Find-A-Grave
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