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

Marshals and Generals

 

     BRITISH GENERAL 

     Sir John Lambert 

     Born: 28 April 1772 - Hampshire, England 

     Died: 14 September 1847 - Thames Ditton, Surrey, England. 

     Rank: General

Lambert was the son of naval officer, Captain Robert Lambert and mother Catherine Byndloss. Before his 19^th birthday, Lambert entered the British Army on 27 January 1791, as an ensign in the 1st Foot Guards. He was promoted to lieutenant and captain on 9 October 1793. He served at the sieges of  Valenciennes and Dunkirk, and was in the Battle of Lincelles in 1793. He was adjutant of the third battalion in the campaign of 1794, served with it during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and in the expedition to Holland in 1799.

Lambert was promoted captain and lieutenant-colonel on 14 May 1801. He served in Portugal and Spain in 1808, and was present at Corunna, where he commanded the light companies of the guards in the Walcheren expedition of 1809. He became colonel in the army on 25 July 1810, and embarked for Cadiz in command of the third battalion on 30 May 1811. In January 1812, he was sent to Carthagena with two battalions. He remained there for three months, and in October he joined Wellington's army at Salamanca.

On 4 June 1813 he was promoted major-general, and was appointed to a brigade of the sixth division. He commanded at the battles of Nivelle, Nive, Orthez and Toulouse and was mentioned in despatches. He was awarded the Army Gold Cross and was made KCB on 2 January 1815.

Having been sent to America, he joined the army under Sir Edward Pakenham, at the Battle of New Orleans on 6 January 1815, with the 7th and 43rd regiments. In the unsuccessful attack on the American entrenchments, made two days afterwards, he commanded the reserve. Pakenham being killed, and General Gibbs mortally wounded, the chief command devolved on Lambert. He decided not to renew the attack, withdrew the troops which had been sent across the Mississippi, and retreating on the 18th, re-embarked his force on the 27th. He proceeded to Mobile Bay, where Fort Bowyer was taken on 12 February, and next day news arrived that a peace treaty had been signed. 

Lambert returned to Europe in time to command the 10^th brigade of British infantry at the Battle of Waterloo. The brigade joined the army from Ghent only on the morning of 18 June, and was at first posted in reserve at Mont St Jean. After 3 o’clock. it was moved up to the front line to support the 5^th (Picton's) John Lambert's 10th Brigade in the 6th Division. At about 6:30 PM, the French captured the key strongpoint of La Haye Sainte farm. After this success, they brought up several cannon and took the Anglo-Allied lines under fire at extremely close range. At this period, the 698-strong battalion was deployed in square at the point where the Ohain road crossed the Charleroi to Brussels highway. At a range of 300 yards, the French artillery caused the unit enormous casualties within a short time. At day's end, the 1st Battalion had lost 105 killed and 373 wounded, a total of 478 casualties, without breaking. The unit was described as "lying dead in a square" the 1/27^th (Inniskillings), suffered almost 500 out of a total of 747 killed and wounded, amongst the highest casualties of British regiments during the battle. In this number were sixteen out of the nineteen officers and twenty-three of the thrity-four Colour Sergeants and Sergeants, all killed or wounded. When, during the battle, only one officer remained standing. 

Lambert was mentioned in Wellington's dispatch, and received the thanks of parliament, the order of Order of St Valdimir, 3rd class and also the Military Order of Max Joseph (commander). He commanded the 8^th infantry brigade in the army of occupation in France. 

In October 1816, he married Jane Morant, a daughter of John Morant of Brockenhurst Park, New Forest, England in which they had four children, John, Harriet Frances, Robert and Mary Jane.

He was promoted lieutenant-general on 27 May 1825, and general on 23 November 1841. He was given the colonelcy of the 10th regiment on 18 January 1824, and the Grand Cross of the Bath (G. C. B) on 19 July 1838. 

Lambert was also an English amateur cricketer who made 12 known appearances in first-class cricket matches from 1794 to 1810. He was mainly associated with MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) 

Lambert died at Weston House, Thames Ditten, Surrey on 14 September 1847, aged 75. He is buried in the Holy Trinity Churchyard in Claygate Surrey.

Marshals and Generals

HANOVERIAN COLONEL

Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Von Ompteda

Born: 26 November 1765 – Ahlden an der Aller, Hanover

Died: 18 June 1815 – La Haye Sainte, Belgium

Rank: Colonel

In 1771 at the age of six, Ompteda was sent to his uncle Dietrich Heinrich Ludwig Von Ompteda to be educated and when he was 12 years old in 1777 he joined the Royal Corps of Pages at Hanover. In 1781 he became a lieutenant in the foot guards. In 1793 Ompteda rose to command a grenadier company in the French Revolutionary Wars and was badly wounded at Mont Cassel, and then in 1794 he sailed to England with Field Marshall Wilhelm Von Freytag.

By 1803 he was a major in a regiment of the Hanoverian guards, and when the Convention of Artlenburg dissolved the Hanoverian army on 5 July 1803, he was one of the first to join what was to become the King’s German Legion. In 1805 he led an unsuccessful expedition to northern Germany during the War of the Third Coalition. A year later he and his battalion was moved to Gilbraltar.

In 1807 his battalion was moved again and shipped out to Zeeland, where they fought against Denmark in the Gunboat War, known as the English Wars. On his return journey his ship sank off the coast of the Netherlands and he was taken prisoner in Borkum until being freed in a prisoner exchange in 1808.

In 1812 Ompteda was made lieutenant Colonel and in 1813 he was put in command of the Legion’s 1^st Light Battalion KGL. By 1815 he was a Colonel and a brigade commander in General Charles Alten’s division within Wellington’s army.

Ompteda was killed at Waterloo after being ordered by the Prince of Orange into a counter-attack in column with the 5^th Line Battalion to retake La Haye Sainte.

As the 5th Line Battalion under colonel Ompteda was on its way to reinforce the defenders of La Haye Sainte, the French cavalry attached to Jean-Baptiste Drouet, d'Erlon's Corp I rode them down; only a few of the intended relievers survived. Ompteda was shot at point blank range. He was 49 years of age.

After a six-hour defence, without ammunition, or reinforcements, the KGL were forced to abandon the farm, leaving the buildings in shambles and their dead behind. A total of over 4,000 cavalrymen and soldiers were said to have been buried in the communal grave opposite the farm after the battle.

There is a plaque to Baring , Von Ompteda and the KGL on the outer wall of La Haye Sainte.

Allessandro Barbero describes Ompteda's final moments as follows in his excellent re-narration of the battle of Waterloo:

"Suddenly, the order came to deploy in line and advance at a walk; when his men were some sixty yards away from the enemy, Ompteda had the bugler sound the charge and urged his horse into the midst of the thick line of French skirmishers. The tirailleurs scattered. Colonel von Ompteda was encircled by enemy infantry, and the French officers, amazed by his courage, shouted to their men to take him alive; but Ompteda, who was by then beside himself, started aiming sabre-strokes at the heads of the men surrounding him, and someone lost patience. When lieutenant Weatherly regained consciousness, the colonel lay dead two steps away from him, with his mouth open and a hole in his throat."

The Plaque at La Haye Sainte

Marshals and Generals

FRENCH COLONEL-IN-CHIEF

Louis Friant

Born: 18 September 1758 – Morlancourt, Somme, France

Died: 24 June 1829 – Seraincourt, France

Rank: Colonel-in-Chief

Louis Friant was born in the village of Morlancourt, 8 km south of Albert near the river Somme. He was a son of a wax-maker but not following in his father’s footsteps he enlisted in the Gardes Francaises in February 1781 at the age of 22.

Friant rose to the rank of Corporal before he left the service in 1787 but then volunteered for the Garde Nationale of Paris during the outbreak of the French Revolution in September 1789. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel of the 9e battalion de Paris in September 1792. Friant was wounded in the left leg on 16 December 1793 while leading his battalion on the German frontier under the Army of the Moselle.

On returning back to duty as Colonel of the 18e Demi-Brigade in March 1794, Friant took part in the great victory of Fleurus on 26 June 1974, a short distance from the future battlefield of Ligny/St-Amand. He was for a while acting-commander of a brigade in July and then a division in August in the same year. He was at the sieges of Maastricht in October 1894 and Luxemburg in April the following year. He was promoted to General de Brigade on 13 June 1795.

After serving as Military Governor of Luxemburg for a sort period, Friant served with the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse in 1796 along the Rhine. In January 1797 at the age of 39, he joined Bernadotte’s Division of the Army of Italy. He saw action at the Battle of the Tagliamento on the 16 March 1797 and assumed command of the 5^th Brigade, 3^rd Division with the 30e and 55e Ligne from June 1797.

In the Egypt campaign Friant commanded the 2^nd Brigade with the 61e and 88e Linge of General Desaix’s division in Egypt, taking part in the Battle of the Pyramids in July 1798. He was temporally promoted to General de Division on 4 September 1799 and succeeded Desaix as commander in Upper Egypt after Desaix returned to France. Friant took a lead role in the suppression of the great revolt in Cairo in March – April 1800 and was confirmed as General de Division and named Governor of Alexandria in September 1800. He fought the British at the Second Battle of Aboukir 8 March 1801 and defended Alexandria in August the same year. At the end of 1801, Friant returned to France and became the inspector general of infantry. By this time General Davout had married one of Leclerc's sister’s, and with Friant also being married to one of Leclerc's sisters and they had a son called Jean Francois Friant, the two generals became brothers-in-law.

In 1805 in the Ulm-Austerlitz campaign, Friant’s Division earned reputation for rapid and effective marching. This quality was put to excellent use when the Division was sent from Vienna to reinforce the Grande Armee at Austerlitz, marching 70 miles in 46 hours and arrived just in time to counterattack the Allies at Telnice and Sokolnice on the morning of 2 December 1805. In the fighting along the Goldbach stream, Friant had three horses killed under him. He was awarded the Grand Eagle of the Legion of Honor on 27 December 1805.

In October 1806 in at the Battle of Auerstadt where Davout was in command of the III Corps of 26,000 men and defeated the Prussian main body of 63,000. Friant’s Division advanced on the right, turning the Prussian left flank. The infantry of Friant and Gudin who were standing in square, withstood and shattered a large cavalry attack led by Blucher himself.

In the Polish campaign, Friant’s Division fought successfully at the Ukra River on 24 December 1806. At the Battle of Eylau, Friant’s Division arrived to reinforce the French right on the morning of 8 February 1807, helping to turn a near-defeat into a stalemate. Friant suffered a musket shot to his right side at Eylau. Friant was named Comte de I’Empire on 5 October 1808. 

In the 1809 campaign, Friant’s Division fought with distinction at the battles of Teugen-Hausen, Abensberg, Eckmuhl and Ratisbon in April of that year.

At the Battle of Wagram on 6 July 1809, Friant was wounded in the shoulder by a shell fragment during the successful storming of the Square Tower at Markgrafneusiedl.

In the Russian campaign of 1812, Friant commanded the 2e Division of Davout's I Corps. In August 1812, after General Dorsenne's death, he was nominated as commander of the Grenadiers à Pied de la Vieille Garde. Friant remained at the head of his Division. He was wounded yet again at the Battle of Smolensk 17 August and severely wounded during the capture of Semenovskaya village at the Battle of Borodino 7 September 1812. Incapacitated and left behind at Gzhatsk, he was still there with his wounds unhealed when the retreating army returned to Gzhatsk at the end of October.

Friant returned to France to recover from his wounds in January 1813. He returned to the front in June 1813, commanding the Old Guard Division at the Battles of Dresden 26 August, Leipzig 16–19 October, and Hanau 30 October 1813.

In the 1814 campaign in France, Friant and his 1st Division of the Old Guard fought a successful defensive action against Gyulai's Austrians at Bar-sur-Aube on 24 January. Friant took part in Napoleon's surprise counter-offensive against Blücher's Army of Silesia, gaining victories at Montmirail 11 February, Château-Thierry 12 February, and Vauchamps 14 February 1814. Friant's Old Guard was the core and reserve of the Emperor's masse de manoeuvre. They were committed to battle in the bloody and indecisive clash at Craonne 7 March 1814, the reverse at Laon 9–10 March, the recapture of Reims 13 March, and the defeat at Arcis-sur-Aube 20 March.

During Napoleon's exile, Friant was retained as commander of the Grenadiers à pied de France. In the campaign of the Hundred Days, he was appointed as Colonel-in-chief of the first Grenadiers à Pied of foot of the old guard. His men made the final assault on Ligny as darkness fell on 16 June 1815.

On 18 June, at Waterloo Friant led his 3800 Old Guard Grenadiers in the final, fateful attack on Wellington’s Allied center, where he was wounded once again. He was admitted to retirement on September 4, 1815, at the age of 57 years where he had served in 34 years of campaigns.

He died on 24 June 1829, aged 70. His name is on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Marshals and Generals

FRENCH MARSHAL 

Edouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier  

Born: 1768 LeCateau-Cambresis, France 

Died: 1835 Paris, France  

Rank: Marshal of France

Edouard Mortier was born at the Le Cateau-Cambresis on 13^thFebruary 1768, son of Charles Mortier and mother Marie Anne Joseph Bonnaire and at the age of 23 Mortier entered the army as a sub-lieutenant in 1791 after his job as a clerk to a merchant at Dunkirk. There he learned the Spanish language, and behaved remarkably well.

He served in the French Revolutionary Wars in the campaigns of 1792 and 1793 on the north-eastern frontier and in the Netherlands and on the Meuse and the Rhine. 

In the war against the Second Coalition in 1799, he was promoted successively general of brigade to general of division. During the Second Battle of Zurich, Mortier led a force of 8000 troops in the attack from Dieticon on Zurich. His conduct of the French occupation of Hanover, bringing about the Convention of Artlenburg, led Napoleon to include Mortier in the first list of marshals created in 1804.

Mortier commanded a corps of the Grande Armee in the Ulm campaign in which he distinguished himself. In the campaign of the middle Danube in the battle of Austerliz, Napoleon placed him in command of a newly-formed VIII Corps. He over-extended his line of march on the north shore of the Danube and failed to take napoleon’s advice to protect his north flank. A combined force of Russian and Austrians, under over-all command of Mikhail Kutuzov enticed Mortier to send his 2^nd Division into a trap where the French troops were caught in a valley between two Russian columns. They were rescued by the timely arrival of a second division, under commend of Pierre Dupont de L’Etang’s 1^st Division, which covered a day’s march in half a day.

On November 11^th in 1805 the Battle of Durrenstein fought well into the night. Both sides claimed a victory, the French lost more than a third of the participants, while Gazan’s division had over 40% losses. The Austrians and Russians also had heavy losses, close to 16%. After Austerliz, Napoleon dispersed the Corps and Gazan received the Legion of Honor, but Mortier was simply reassigned to a new position.

In 1806 Mortier was serving in Hanover and north-western Germany. In 1807 he then again served with the Grande Armee in the Friedland campaign, in the siege of both Stralsund and Kolberg.

In 1808, Napoleon created him Duke of Trevise in his own Kingdom of Italy, and shortly after he commended and army corps in Napoleon’s campaign for the recapture of Madrid.

Mortier remained in Spain for two campaigns, winning the victory of Ocana in November 1809. In 1812 and 1813 he commanded the Imperial Guard, and in the defensive campaigns of 1814 he rendered brilliant services in command of rearguards and covering detachments.

In 1815, after the flight of the Bourbon King Louis XVIII of France, he rejoined Napoleon during the 100 days and was given commend of the Imperial Guard once more. But at the opening of the Battle of Waterloo he was unable to continue his duties due to severe sciatica. 

After the second Bourbon Restoration he was for the first time in disgrace, but then in 1819 he was readmitted to the Chamber of Peers and in 1825 received the Order of the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom’s highest.

In 1830-31 he was Ambassador of France to Russia at St Petersburg, and in 1834-35 minster of war and president of the council of ministers.

It was on the 28th July 1835 in Paris while accompanying Louis-Philippe and his three sons to a review of the National Guard, a machine consisted of twenty-five barrels, charged with various species of missiles, which were fired simultaneously by a train of gunpowder with intent to destroy the French king. The king and his sons escaped but Marshal Mortier, was shot dead, and many more were dangerously wounded. Such were the circumstances under which one of after escaping the perils of the battle-field, perished in a time of peace, in the streets of the capital. It is said that the king bitterly mourned him, and wept openly at the marshal’s funeral. 

Mortier was Married to Eve Anne Hymmes on 26 January 1799 and is said that they had seven children.



Marshals and Generals

FRENCH MARSHAL

Francois Joseph Lefebvre

Born: 1755 Rouffach, Alsace, France

Died: 1820 Paris, France

Rank: Marshal of France

Francois Lefebvre was born in Rouffach, Alsace, on the 25^th October 1755. He was a son of a Hussar, Francois enlisted in the French army at the age of 18 and like his close friend Michel Ordener, he welcomed the French Revolution.

In 1783 he married Catherine Hubscher with whom he had 14 children with, although none living to survive him (His last son died in 1812 in battle).

In 1789 he was a Sergeant in the Gardes Francaises, and like most of the regiment, he joined the revolution. He was promoted to Brigadier General in 1793 where he took part in the Battle of Fleurus in June the following year. After the death of General Louis Lazare Hoche’s, Lefebvre commanded the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse in September of 1797. He then later commanded the vanguard of the Army of the Danube under Jourdan in March 1799, although for the first week of the campaign he was incapacitated with ringworm and Dominique Vandamme replaced him temporarily. He was later injured at the Battle of Ostrach where the Advance Guard bore the brunt of the early fighting. In November 1799, Lefebvre commanded the Paris troops and reluctantly agreed to support Napoleon in his coup d’etat.

In 1800 Napoleon appointed him senator and by 1804, Napoleon made him a Marshal of the Empire. Lefebvre commanded a division of the Old Guard in the German campaign of 1805.At the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt in 14^th October 1806, Lefebvre commanded the infantry of the Imperial Guard. He besieged and took Danzig in 1807, which won him the title of Duc de Danzig (Duke of Danzig).

In 1808 he took part in the Peninsula War and in 1809 he commanded the Bavarian army at the battles of Eckmuhl and Wagram. Defeated by Tyrolean patriot Andreas Hofer in the same year, he was replaced. He later commanded the Old Guard in the French invasion of Russia in 1812 and in the German 1813 and French campaigns of 1814, with the War of the Sixth Coalition.

He voted for the Emperor’s deposition at the Senate and during the First Restoration in June 1814, he was made Peer of France by Louis XVIII, but rallied to Napoleon for the Hundred Days and survived the Battle of Waterloo.

Lefebvre was excluded from the House of Peers during the Second Restoration. However, he retained his rank of Marshal. Louis XVIII restored his peerage on 5^th March 1819. He died on 14^th September 1820 at the age of 64 and was buried near Andre Massena at the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

He never forgot the hard work that brought him rank and wealth. When a friend expressed envy of his estate, Levebvre said “Come down in the courtyard, and I’ll have ten shots at you with a musket at 30 paces. If I miss, the whole estate is yours.”

The friend naturally declined his offer, and Lefebvre then added, “I had a thousand bullets shot at me from much closer range before I got all this.”

Marshals & Generals

BRITISH GENERAL

Alexander Cavalié Mercer

Born: 1783 Kingston-Upon-Hull, Yorkshire, England

Died: 1868 Cowley, Devon, England

Rank: General

Alexander Mercer was born in Kingston-Upon-Hull, Yorkshire in 1783. His father was General Alexander Mercer of the Royal Engineers. So following in his father’s footsteps, Mercer went to the Military Academy in Woolwich, SE London and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of Artillery in 1799 at the tender age of 16.

In 1798 he served in Ireland following the disastrous events of the Irish Rebellion. In 1806 Mercer was promoted to second captain (a rank unique to the Ordnance). In the same year, Mercer was posted to G Troop of the Royal Horse Artillery and joined Whitelocke’s ill-fated Buenos Aires expedition in 1807.

Mercer did not see any action in the Peninsular War and had to wait till 1815 before he saw action again in the Waterloo Campaign.

In 1815 Mercer was acting commander of what was officially known as G (Dickson’s) Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, but is usually referred to as Mercer’s Troop or Mercer’s Battery.

G Troop served on the 1807 Buenos Aires expedition, but the G Troop of Waterloo was formed from the amalgamation of two other RHA troops before leaving Colchester for Belgium. It picked the best horses from each and was regarded as an exceptionally fine unit. When reviewing the cavalry at Grammont on 29^th May 1815, Blucher is supposed to have said “there is not one horse in this battery that is not fit for a field marshal”.

The troop had five 9-pounder guns, to replace the 6-pounders and a 51/2” howitzer. The troop had 80 gunners and 86 drivers with 226 horses.

Mercer’s Troop embarked for Belgium on the 11^th April 1815, a few days after hearing of Napoleon’s escape from Elba. From the 1^st May until the French invasion on the 15^th June it led a quiet life in a small village of Strijtem, west of Brussels.

G Troop rode all day on the 16^th June and arrived too late to take part in the Battle of Quatre Bras. On the 17^th it covered the retreat from Quatre Bras, narrowly escaping capture by French cavalry. It was in action later that day at Genappe with the cavalry rearguard.

When G Troop arrived on the field of Waterloo, Mercer’s Troop briefly took up a firing position on the famous knoll behind the sandpit, which would feature in the fighting the following day. Mercer was still acting as rearguard for Wellington’s army, not realising that the entire army had halted on the ridge immediately behind him. His troop exchanged fire with arriving French batteries before he pulled back.

After a wet and sodden night, Mercer found himself without orders in the opening phase of the battle, as d’Erlon’s infantry attacked Wellington’s left. He was about to lead his troop into action on his own initiative when he was ordered to move to the right of Wellington’s line. Being in a quite sector, Mercer disobeyed orders to refrain from counter-battery fire. He engaged the French guns, attracting heavy fire from the superior French artillery in return. By mid-afternoon Mercer’s Troop was suddenly ordered into the hottest part of Wellington’s line, between the crossroads and Hougoumont. It deployed immediately behind the ridge road, which was on a low embankment. The bank gave them excellent cover from French artillery and increased the effectiveness of Mercer’s case-shot. The troop was between two squares of Brunswick infantry, whom Mercer regarded as unsteady. He was ordered to lead him men into the squares as cavalry closed in, but decided they would be safer at their guns. Unlike all the other batteries in the sector, the troop’s gunners never abandoned their guns to take refuge in the infantry squares.

From about 3.15 pm, after many massed French cavalry attacks, Mercer’s Troop caused terrible casualties amongst them with case-shot. Between these attacks to steady his troop’s Mercer rode in front of his troop on horseback. In one attack they came in columns, led by cuirassiers. Mercer’s Troop waited for them, double-loaded with case-shot over ball, and fired at 50 or 60 years. Mercer reported that the whole front rank fell with the round-shot tearing through the ranks behind. The ground became virtually impassable with the dead and wounded horses and men. In their final charge, the French cavalry stood little chance of reaching the guns. Shortly afterwards Wellington’s infantry advanced, leaving the guns on the ridge to engage masses of French troops in the valley below.

Towards the end of the action a battery of French guns established itself on the ridge to Mercer’s left and fired into their flank, causing devastating casualties amongst the limber-hoses. This battry was eventually driven off by fire from a newly-arrived Belgian battery. Due to its shortage of horses, the troop was unable to move when the general advance was ordered, ans Mercer slept under a limber, amongst the dead and wounded.

The Troop had 5 killed and 15 wounded and lost a total of 69 horses at Waterloo. It expended 700 rounds of ammunition. Sir Augustus Frazer said after the battle, “I could plainly distinguish the position of G Troop from the opposite height by the dark mass of dead French cavalry which, even at that distance, formed a remarkable feature on the field.”

Mercer’s Troop stayed on the battlefield until 3 pm the following day and when the ammunition and supply wagons rejoined him, the troop moved off towards Nivelles, leaving some guns and carriages behind for lack of horses. Mercer rejoined the army near Mons on 21^st June, and marched with it to the gates of Paris without seeing any further action.

Apart from two months of leave in England, Mercer spent much of the rest of the year enjoying tourist pursuits in Paris.

Mercer was transferred to command D Troop RHA at Stains, also near Paris, in July 1815 and he returned with it to England in January 1816.

After the campaign Mercer was put on half-pay from 31^st July 1816 until 1821. He was recalled to the peacetime army, he served twice in British North America, first as commander of the 6^th company of the 5^th battalion Royal Artillery at Quebec from 1823. He was breveted major in 1824, backdated to 1819. He returned to England in 1829 and held commends at Woolwich and Devonport. On 5^th June 1835 Mercer was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. He once again served in British North America from 1837 to 1842, commanding the artillery in Nova Scotia during the 1837 border dispute with the United Sates. He was promoted to colonel on 2^nd April 1846, to major-general on 20^th June 1854 and then to lieutenant-general on 29^th August 1857.

Mercer was Commandant of the Dover garrison before he retired from active service, but he was appointed Colonel Commandant 9^th brigade Royal Artillery on 16^th January1859, and as such Mercer never officially placed on the retired list. He was promoted to full General on 9^th February 1865. He became an Author and artist.

Mercer married Frances Rice on 10^th November 1813 at Bourton on the Water, Gloucestershire, while he was stationed in Woodbridge Suffolk. She travelled with him to France after his leave in November 1815. They had one son Cavalié A. Mercer, who edited the Journel after his father’s death. Mercer and Frances lived in Berkshire at the time of the Waterloo campaign, but in later life Mercer lived at Cowley Hill near Exeter. He died there on 9^th November 1868 and is buried at St David’s Church in Exeter.

Mercer wrote a Journal from April 1815 to January 1816. His journal of the Waterloo Campaign was published in 1870 after his death from original notes Mercer made at that time.

A Brittish 9 Pounder

Marshals and Generals

BRITISH GENERAL

Lord Edward Somerset

Born: 19 December 1776 England

Died: 1 September 1842 England

Rank: General

Lord Robert Edward Henry Somerset was the third son of the 5^th Duke of Beaufort, and elder brother of Lord Raglan.

Edward joined the 15^th Light Dragoons in 1793 and was made captain in the following year, and received a majority after serving as aide-de-camp to the duke of York in the Dutch expedition of 1799.

At the end of 1800 he became a lieutenant-colonel, and in 1801 received the command of the 4^th Light Dragoons. From 1799 to 1802 he represented the Monmouth Boroughs in the House of Commons, from 1803 to 1823 he sat for Gloucestershire and from 1834 to 1837 was MP for Cirencester.

On the 17^th October 1805, at the age of 28, Edward married Louisa Augusta Courtenay, daughter of William Courtenay, 8^th Earl of Devon. In 1817 they had a son called Edward Arthur Somerset (1817-1886).

In the Peninsular War, he commanded his regiment at the battles of Talavera (27/28th July 1809) and Bucaco (27th Sept 1810). In 1810 Edward received a colonelcy and was appointed as a ADC to the King.

In 1811, along with the 3^rd Dragoon Guards the 4^th Light Dragoon fought a notable cavalry action at Usagre, and in July 1812 Lord Edward Somerset was engaged in the great charge of Le Marchant’s heavy cavalry at Salamanca.

Edward’s conduct on this occasion won him further promotion (he captured five guns at the head of a single squadron) and was made a major-general at the head of the 7^th, 10^th and 15^th Hussars for the remaining campaigns.

At Orthes he won further distinction by his pursuit of the enemy, being made KCB, and received the thanks of parliament.

In 1815 at Waterloo, he was in command of the Household Cavalry Brigade, which distinguished itself not less by its stern and patient endurance of the enemy’s fire than by its celebrated charge on the cuirassiers of Milhaud’s corps.

The brigadier was particularly mentioned in Wellington’s despatches, and once again he received the thanks of parliament as well as the Army Gold Cross with one clasp for his services at Talavera, Salamanca, Vitoria, Orthes and Toulouse.

Edward died a general and GCB in 1842. Four years later in 1846, a Monument was erected to Lord Somerset on the Cotswold Edge at Hawkesbury, Gloucestershire.

Marshals and Generals

 

BRITISH GENERAL

Sir James Kempt

Born: 1765 Scotland

Died: 20 December 1854 London

Rank: General

James Kempt was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. At the age of 18 he was gazetted to the 101^st Foot in India in 1783, but on its disbandment two years later he was placed on half-pay. He then took a clerkship in Greenwoods, the army agents and then with Cox & Co. Kempt attracted the notice of the Duke of York, through whom he obtained a captaincy and then, soon after a majority, in the newly raised 113^th Foot. But it was long before this regiment suffered the same fate of the old 101^st, but Kempt was retained on full pay in the recruiting service.

In 1799 he accompanied Sir Ralph Abercromby to Holland and later to Egypt as an aide-de-camp.

After Abercromby’s death, Kempt remained on his successor’s staff until the end of the campaign in Egypt. In April 1803 Kempt joined the staff of Sir David Dundas, but in the following month he returned to regimental duty, and a little later received a lieutenant-colonelcy in the 81^st Foot.

With this new regiment Kempt went under Craig, to the Mediterranean theatre of operations, and at the Battle of Maida on 4^th July 1806, Kempt led the light infantry brigade which bore the brunt of the battle.

Kempt was employed from 1807 to 1811 on the staff in North America, temporary-colonel. By the end of 1811, he joined Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington’s army in Spain with the local rank of major-general, which was on 1^st January 1812, made substantive. As one of Thomas Picton’s brigadiers of the fighting Third Division, kempt took part in the attack on la Picaruna fort at Badajoz and was severely wounded in April of that year.

On recovery he was given command of a light brigade of the 43^rd and 2 battalions of the 95^th Rifles including the 3^rd Portuguese light infantry, just in time to fight the Battle of Vitoria on 21^st June 1813. Kempt also led his brigade at the Battle of the Pyrenees at the end of July, and at the Battle of the Bidassoa, where his troops stormed French defences near Mont La Rhune on 7^th October. He was again wounded while commanding his brigade at the Battle of Nivelle on 10^th November.

In 1814, he led his brigade at the battles of Orthez and Toulouse.

After the first abdication of Napoleon, Kempt was transferred once again to North America, where the Anglo-American War of 1812 was still being fought. He commanded a brigade which was intended to attack the vital American post of Sackets Harbour in New York, but logistic problems prevented the attack being made before winter brought an end to campaigning in Canada. News of peace between Britain and America reached Canada in early 1815, and Kempt returned to Europe.

Kempt was appointed to lead the 8^th British Brigade in the army Wellington assembled in Belgium to invade France in 1815. The 8^th Brigade consisted of the 1/28^th, 1/32^nd, 2/79^th Highland and 1/95^th Rifles in Sir Thomas Picton’s 5^th Division/

At the Battle of Quatre Bras, Kempt’s brigade was involved in heavy fighting and suffered 638 killed and wounded. At the Battle of Waterloo 18^th June, his brigade was again in the thick of it and lost 681 killed and wounded. On Picton’s death, Kempt succeeded to the command of the division. Being a small man, he was quiet and unassuming but proved and excellent and popular officer.

Early in 1815 he was made K.C.B and in July for his services at Waterloo, G.C.B.

In 1828 to 1830 Kempt was Governor of British North America, and at a critical time displayed firmness and moderation. He was afterwards Master-General of the Ordnance. At the time of his death in 1854 he had been for some years a full General.

Marshals and Generals

FRENCH MARSHAL

Jean-Baptiste Jourdan

Born: 29 April 1762 France

Died: 23 November 1833 France

Rank: Marshal of France
 

Jourdan was born in Limoges, France into a surgeon’s family. He enlisted in the French royal army in 1778 as a private just before his sixteenth birthday.

Assigned to the Regiment of Auxerrois, he took part in the ill-fated assault at the Siege of Savannah on 9^th October 1779 during the American War of Independence.
In 1782 Jourdan sick with fever, returned home from the West Indes, where he was serving. Bouts of illness with malaria gave him great trouble for the rest of his life.

In 1784 he was discharged from the army and set up a shop in the haberdashery business in his home town of Limoges. In 1788 he married a dressmaker in which they had five daughters.

When the National Assembly asked for volunteers, Jourdan was elected Chef de bataillon of the 2^nd Haute-Vienne Battalion. He led his troops in the French victory at the Battle of Jemappes on 6^th November 1792 and in defeat at the Battle of Neerwinden on the 18^th March in the following year. Jourdan’s leadership skills were beginning to be noticed and it led to his promotion to general of brigade on 27^th May 1973 and then to general of division two months later.

On 8^th September at the Battle of Hondshoote, he led his division in which he was wounded in the chest. On 22^nd September he was named to lead the Army of the North.

His first assignment was to relieve General of Division Jacques Ferrand’s 20, 000 troops in the garrison of Maubeuge, which was besieged by an Austrian-Dutch army commanded by Prince Josias of Coburg. This Jourdan archived on 15-16^th October at the Battle of Wattignies and broke the siege.

In May 1794, Jourdan lead the Army of the Moselle north. This force was combined with the Army of the Ardennes and the right wing of the Army of the North to form an army which did not officially become the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse until 29^th June 1794. With 70,000 men of the new army, Jourdan laid siege to Charleroi on 12^th June. The 41,000 Austrian-Dutch army under William V Prince of Orange, defeated the French at Lambusart on 16^th June and drove them south of the Sambre River.

Casualties numbered 3,000 for each army. Undeterred, Jourdan immediately marched on Namur to the east-northeast of Charleroi. Instead of attacking Namur, he suddenly swung west and appeared to the north of Charleroi. After a quick siege, the 3,000 Austrian garrison of Charleroi surrendered on 25^th June. Too late to save Charleroi, Coburg’s 46,000 men attacked Jourdan’s 75,000 French the next day. The Battle of Fleurus proved to be a decisive French victory when Coburg called off his attacks and retreated

After Fleurus, the Allied position in the Austrian Netherlands collapsed. The Austrian army evacuated Belgium and the Dutch Republic was extinguished by the advancing French armies in 1795. On 7^th June 1795, Jourdan’s army concluded the long but successful Siege of Luxembourg. Operations east of the Rhine were less successful that year, with the French capturing, then losing Mannheim.

In 1796 Jourdan’s Army of Sambre-et-Meuse formed the left wing of the advance into Bavaria. The whole of the French forces were ordered to advance on Vienna, Jourdan on the extreme left and MG Jean Moreau in the centre by the Danube valley, MG Napoleon Bonaparte on the right in Italy. The campaign began brilliantly, the Austrians under Archduke Charles being driven back by Moreau and Jourdan almost to the Austrian frontier. But the archduke, slipping away from Moreau, threw his whole weight on Jourdan, who was defeated at the Battle of Amberg in August.

Jourdan failed to retrieve the situation at the Battle of Wurzburg and was forced over the Rhine after a severe rear-guard action, which cost the life of MG Francois Marceau. Moreau had to fall back in turn, and the operations of the year in Germany were a failure.
The chief cause of the defeat was the plan of campaign imposed upon the generals by their government. Jourdan was nevertheless made the scapegoat and was not employed for two years. In those years he became prominent as a politician and above all as the brains behind the famous conscription law of 1798, which came to be known as the Jourdan Law.

When the War of the Second Coalition broke out in 1799, Jourdan was at the head of the army on the Rhine, but again underwent defeat at the hands of the Archduke Charles at the battles of Ostrach and Stockach in late March of that year.

Disappointed and broken in health, he handed over the command to MG Andre Massena. Jourdan went back to his political duties, and was a prominent opponent of the coup d’etat of 18 Brumaire, after which he was expelled from Council of the Five Hundred. However, he became formally reconciled to the new regime and accepted from Napoleon fresh military and civil employment.

In 1800 he became inspector-general of cavalry and infantry and representative of French interests in the Cisalpine Republic.

In 1804, Napoleon appointed Jourdan a marshal of France. He remained in the new kingdom of Italy until 1806, when Joseph Bonaparte, whom his brother Napoleon, made him king of Naples in that year, selected Jourdan as his military adviser.
In 1808, Jourdan followed Joseph into Spain, but Joseph’s throne had to be maintained by the French army, and throughout the Peninsular War the other marshals, who depended directly upon Napoleon, pain little attention either to Joseph or Jourdan.
Jourdan was blamed for the defeat at the Battle of Talavera in 1809 and was replaced by Marshal Soult. He was reinstated as Joseph’s chief of staff in September 1811, but was given few troops. After the disastrous French defeat at the Battle of Salamanca in July 1812, Joseph and Jourdan were forced to abandon Madrid and retreat to Valencia. Joined by Soult’s army, which evacuated Andalusia, the French were able to recapture Madrid during the Siege of Burgos campaign and push Wellington’s Anglo-Portuguese army back to Portugal.

In 1813, Wellington advanced again with a large, well-organized army. Repeatedly outmanoeuvring the French, the Anglo-Allied army forced Joseph and Jourdan to fight at the Battle of Vitoria on 21^st June.

After the decisive French defeat, Jourdan held no important command up to the fall of the Empire. He adhered to the Bourbon Restoration of 1814, and though he re-joined Napoleon in the Hundred Days and commanded a minor army, he submitted to the Bourbons again after the Battle of Waterloo.

When Marshal Nay was sentenced to death, to give Jourdan credit, he refused to be a member of the court. He was made a count, a peer of France in 1819, and governor of Grenoble in 1816. In politics he was a prominent opponent of the royalist reactionaries and supported the revolution of 1830. After this event he was then to become governor of the Invalides, where his last years were spent. Jourdan died in Paris on 23^rd November 1833 and was buried in Les Invalides.

Napoleon while in exile on Saint Helena he wrote,

I certainly used that man very ill, I have learned with pleasure that since my fall he invariably acted in the best manner. He has thus afforded an example of that praiseworthy elevation of mind which distinguished men one from another. Jourdan is a true patriot and that is the answer to many things that have been said of him.

Marshals and Generals

PRUSSIAN

Friedrich Wilhelm Baron von Bulow, Count von Dennewitz

Born: 16 February 1755 Prussia

Died: 25 February 1816 Prussia

Rank: General

Bulow was born in Falkenberg (Wische) in the Altmark and was the elder brother of two to Freiherr Dietrich von Bulow. He received and excellent education and then entered the Prussian army in 1768, becoming ensign in 1722. Bulow was then made second lieutenant in 1755.
He took part in the Potato War of 1778 and subsequently devoted himself to the study of his profession and of the sciences and arts.
Throughout his life Bulow was devoted to music, his great musical ability bringing him to the notice of King Frederick William II of Prussian he then became well known in fashionable circles of Berlin. During this period he never neglected his military studies, and in 1792 he was made military instructor to the young Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, becoming at the same time full captain.

Bulow took part in the campaigns of 1792-94 on the Rhine, and received for signal courage during the siege of Mainz the order Pour le Merite and promotion to the rank of major. After his promotion, Bulow went to garrison duty at Soldau.
In 1802 he married the daughter of Colonel von Auer, and in the following year he became lieutenant-colonel, remaining at Soldau with his corps.
With the misfortunes of his younger brother Dietrich, Bulow’s fortune and happiness was in turmoil. With the loss of two of his children was then followed by the death of his wife in 1806, and a further source of disappointment was the exclusion of his regiment from the field army sent against Napoleon in the same year.
The disasters of the campaign aroused his energies. He did excellent service under Anton Wilhelm von L’Estocq’s command in the latter part of the war, was wounded in action, and finally designated for a brigade command in Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher’s force.

In 1808 Bulow married the younger sister of his first wife, a girl of eighteen. He was made a major-general in the same year, and he then devoted himself wholly to the regeneration of Prussia. The intensity of his patriotism threw him into conflict even with Blucher and led to his temporary retirement in 1811, however, he was again employed.
In the build up to the War of Liberation, Bulow kept his troops in hand without committing himself to any irrevocable step until the decision was made. On 14 March 1813 he was made lieutenant-general. He fought against Oudinot in defence of Berlin, and in the summer came under the command of Bernadotte, crown prince of Sweden.
At the head of an army corps Bulow distinguished himself greatly in the Battle of Grossbeeren, a victory which was attributed almost entirely to his leadership. Later he won another victory at the Battle of Dennewitz, which for the second time checked Napoleon’s army in their advance to Berlin. This inspired the greatest enthusiasm in Prussia, as being won by mainly Prussian forces, and rendered Bulow’s popularity almost equal to that of Blucher. Bulow’s corps played a conspicuous part in the final overthrow of Napoleon at Leipzig, and he was then entrusted with the task of evicting the French from Holland and Belgium.
In an successful campaign he won a signal victory at Hoogstraten although he was fortunate to be supported, often very significantly, by the British General Thomas Graham, second in command to Wellington.

In the campaign of 1814 he invaded France from the north-west to join Blucher, and took part in the brilliant victory of Laon in March. He was made general of infantry and received the title of Count Bulow von Dennewitz. He also took part in the Allied sovereigns’ visit to England in June 1814.
For a short time, from 1814-1815, there was peace in Europe. Bulow was at Konigsberg as commander-in-chief in Prussia proper. He was soon called to the field again, and in the Waterloo campaign commanded the IV Corps of Blucher’s army.
He was not present at Lingny, but his corps headed the flank attack upon Napoleon Guard at the Battle of Waterloo, and bore the heaviest part in the fighting of the Prussian troops around Plancenoit which he captured. He took part in the invasion of France once again, but died suddenly on 25 February 1816, a month after returning to the Konigsberg command.
The King declared that the generals and officers would observe 3 days of mourning for Bulow. A statue of the victor of Dennewitz was erected in Berlin in 1822.

“Bulow was a stubborn and defiant man with a ferocious temper”.

Marshals and Generals

FRENCH MARSHAL

Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult

Born: 29 March 1769 France

Died: 26 November 1851 France

Rank: Major-General (Chief of Staff)



Soult was born at saint-Arnans-la-Bastide (now Saint-Amans-Soult near Castres in the Tarn) in March of 1769. The son of a country notary Jean Soult and his mother Jeanne de Calvet.
Soult had the best of education and wanted to become a lawyer, but due to his father’s death in 1779 when he was still a boy, it was necessary for him to seek his fortune, so he enlisted as a private in the French infantry in 1785.
His education ensured his promotion to the rank of sergeant after six year’s of service.
In July 1791 Soult became instructor to the first battalion of volunteers of the Bas-Rhin. He served with this battalion in 1792.
By 1794, Soult became adjutant-general (with rank of Chef de brigade). After the battle of Fleurne in 1974, in which he greatly distinguished himself for coolness, he was promoted to general of brigade.
On 26 April 1796, Soult married Jeanne Louise Berg and had three children. (One boy and two girls)

For the next five years, Soult was constantly employed in Germany under Jourdan, Moreau, Kleber and Lefebvre, and in 1799 he was promoted general of division and ordered to proceed to Switzerland. It was here that Soult laid the foundations of his military fame, and he particularly distinguished himself in Massena’s great Swiss campaign, and even more so at the Second Battle of Zurich. He went with Massena to Genoa and acted as his principal lieutenant throughout the siege of that city, during which he operated with a detached force without the walls, and after many successful actions he was wounded and taken prisoner at Monte Cretto on 13 April 1800.

The French victory at Marengo gave Soult his freedom, and he received the command of the southern part of the Kingdom of Naples. In 1802 he was appointed one of the four generals commanding the consular guard.
It is said that Soult disliked and despised Napoleon, but he had the wisdom to show his devotion to the ruling power. In August 1803, he was appointed to the command-in-chief of the camp of Boulogne, and in May 1804 he was made one of the first marshals of the Empire. He commanded a corps in the advance on Ulm, and at Austerlitz he led the decisive attack on the allied centre.
Soult played a great part in all the famous battles of the Grande Armee, including the Battle of Jena in 1806. But he missed the Battle of Friedland because on that day he forced his way into Konigsberg.
After the conclusion of the Peace of Tilsit, Soult returned to France and was made Duke of Dalmatia in 1808. The title displeased him, for he felt that his proper title would be Duke of Austerlitz, a title Napoleon had reserved for himself. In the following year he was appointed to the command of the II corps of the army with Napoleon intended to conquer Spain, and after winning the Battle of Gamonal he was ordered by the emperor to pursue Sir John Moore’s British army. At the Battle of Corunna, in which Moore was killed, Soult was defeated and the British escaped by sea.
For the next four years Soult remained in Spain and played a big part in the Peninsular War. In 1908, he invaded Portugal and took Oporto, but isolated and unable to move, Soult was eventually driven from Portugal in the Second battle of Porto by Wellesley, making a painful and almost disastrous retreat over the mountains, pursued by Beresford and Silveria.
After the Battle of Talavera in 1809, he was made chief-of-staff of the French troops in Spain with extended powers, and on 19 November 1809, Soul won a great victory at the Battle of Ocana.

In 1810 he invaded Andalusia, but he turned aside to seize Seville, the capture of Cadiz eluded him. This led to the prolonged and futile Siege of Cadiz, a strategic disaster for the French. In 1811 he marched north into Extremadura and took Badajoz. When the Anglo-Portuguese army laid siege to the city he marched to its rescue, and fought and nearly won the famous and very bloody Battle of Albuera on 16 May.
In 1812, after the Duke of Wellington’s victory of Salamanca, he was obliged to evacuate Andalusia. In the subsequent Siege of Burgos campaign, Soult was able to drive Wellington’s army back to Salamanca. There, Soult failed to attack Wellington despite a 80,000 to 65,000 superiority of numbers, and the British army retired to the Portuguese frontier. Not long after, he was recalled from Spain at the request of Joseph Bonaparte, with whom, as with the other marshals, he had always disagreed.

In March 1813 he assumed the command of IV Corps of the Grand Armee and commanded the centre at Lutzen and Bautzen, but he was soon sent, with limited powers, to the South of France to repair the damage done by the great defeat of Vitoria. It is to Soult’s credit that he was able to reorganise the demoralised French forces with a rapidity that even took Wellington by surprise.
Although often found wanting tactically – even some of his own aides queried his inability to amend a plan to take into account altered circumstances on the battlefield his performance in the closing months of the Peninsular War is the finest proof of his talents as a general. Although he was repeatedly defeated in these campaigns by the Allies under Wellington, many of his soldiers were raw conscripts, while the Allies could count greater numbers of veterans among their ranks. His last offensives into Spain were turned back by Wellington in the Battle of the Pyrenees and by Freire’s Spaniards at San Marcial. Persued into France soil, Soult was maneuvered out of several positions at Nivelle, Nive and Orthez, before dealing Wellington a final bloody nose at the Battle of Toulouse.

After the first abdication of Napoleon in 1814, Soult declared himself a Royalist, received the order of St. Louis, and acted as minister of war from December 1814- March 1815. When Napoleon returned from Elba, Soult at once declared himself a Bonapartist and was made a peer of France and acted as major-general (Chief of staff)
to the emperor in the campaign of Waterloo, in which role he distinguished himself far less than he had done as commander of an over-matched army.

At the second Restoration in 1815 he was exiled, but not for long, for in 1819 he was recalled and in 1820 again made a marshal of France. With the rest of his political career, Soult served as minister of war from 1830 to 1834, as Prime Minister from 1832 to 1834. He then became Prime Minister from 1839 to 1840 and 1840 to 1847, and again as minister of war from 1840 to 1844. In 1851 Soult died at his castle of Soultberg, near his birthplace.