Marshals and Generals

 FRENCH GENERAL

Portrait by Charles-Philippe Larviere, 1843

Jean-Baptiste Drouet, 

Comte d'Erlon

 Born: 29 July 1765 - Reims, 

Marne, France

Died: 25 January1844 - Paris, France

 Rank: General

 

D'Erlon was born in Reims on 29 July 1765. His father and grandfather were carpenters, and he trained to be a locksmith.

D'Erlon entered the army as a private in 1782 and was discharged after 5 years’ of service. He re-entered the army again in 1792 where he served as a corporal in the pre-revolutionary army, serving with the chasseurs from Reims and joined the Army of the North. In 1793 Drouet was with the Army of the Moselle when he finally elected to captain the following year. In 1794, in Reims, d'Erlon married Marie-Anne de Rousseau (died 1828), daughter of a banker, whom he got to know through Marie-Jeanne (Rousseau) the wife of his brother Jean-François Drouet. They had 3 children together.

From 1794 to 1796 he was aide-de-camp to General Lefebvre. In 1799 he was promoted to brigadier general, and fought under André Masséna in Switzerland.

He continued his service in many of the battles in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, including the Battle of Hohenlinden (3rd December 1800, in which he was wounded), the Hanover region (earning him promotion to major general in 1803). As a general of division, he took part in Napoleon's campaigns at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805 and Jena in 1806. 

On Napoleon’s return from exile he made him a peer of France, and gave him command of the 1st Corps, which formed part of the Army of the North. 

On 16 June during the first major engagements of  Waterloo campaign of 1815, due to conflicting orders his Corps spent most of the day on the Old Roman Road marching and counter-marching between the battles of Quatre Bras and Ligny  without taking part in either battles. Had Drouet d'Erlon's corps been present at either battle it might have changed the outcome of the following days and possibly the war.

Two days later at the Battle of Waterloo, his corps saw plenty of action in the battle, where he distinguished himself and his men taking the farm, La Haye Sainte.

It was his Corps in column formation which attacked the Allied centre right from La Haye Sainte to Papelotte at 13:30 and was stopped by Picton's Peninsular War veterans, and then attacked in the flanks by the British heavy cavalry. He retreated with the rest of the French army and fought in the closing operations around Paris. After the surrender of Napoleon, he was proscribed by the Bourbons, d'Erlon entered exile in Munich, before he finally settled down in Bayreuth in Germany, where he opened a café and inn. Back in France he was condemned to death by a trial in absentia. Finally in 1825 he was pardoned by Charles X and he returned to France but was retired. After Louis Philippe came to power in 1830, Drouet d'Erlon resumed his military career. In 1831 he became a Peer of France and in 1843 he was made a Marshal of France.

From 1837 he resumed his command of the 12th Division in Nantes, a position he held until 1843 when he moved to Paris to retire and was granted the title Marshal of France on 9 April 1843. He died on 25 January of the following year in Paris.

His monument in Reims, France