Augustin Daniel Belliard ( Fr. Augustin Daniel Belliard ; May 25, 1769 , Fontenay - January 28, 1832 , Brussels ) - Colonel-General Cuirassier (from December 5, 1812 to April 22, 1814 ), divisional general ( since 1800), Count of the Empire (1810), an associate of Napoleon. He was considered by his contemporaries one of the best generals of the emperor [1] .
Augustin Daniel Belliard | |
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fr Augustin Daniel Belliard | |
General Augustin Daniel Belliard | |
Date of Birth | May 25, 1769 |
Place of Birth | Fontenay-le-comte |
Date of death | January 28, 1832 (62 years) |
Place of death | Brussels |
Affiliation | France |
Rank | Colonel-General Cuirassier , Divisional general |
Battles / Wars | War of the First Coalition , Italian Campaign (1796) , Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign , War of the Third Coalition , War of the Fourth Coalition , Napoleon's Spanish Campaign, Napoleon 's Russian Campaign , War of the Sixth Coalition . |
Awards and prizes | |
Retired | French Ambassador to Belgium. Memoirist. |
Content
Youth
Augustin Daniel Belliard was born on May 25, 1769 in the town of Fontenay-le-Comte, in the region of Vendee , in the historical region of Poitou , in the family of the royal prosecutor Fontenay Augustin Bellaard (1734–1811) and his wife, Angelica Robert-Morinier (1731–1773), from a family of merchants. Had three sisters.
During the Great French Revolution he joined the revolutionary movement and was chosen as the captain of the 1st battalion of volunteers from Fontenay.
Joining the Northern Army, Belliard served in the headquarters of General Dumouriez . He participated in the battles of Valmi and near Neerinden . He distinguished himself in the battle of Jemappes , where, at the head of the hussar regiment, broke into the Austrian redoubts. In the middle of 1793, after the betrayal, Dumouriez, as an ally of the traitor, was arrested, taken to Paris, and demoted. Proving his devotion to the revolution, he entered the service of a simple soldier, and after a short time was restored to the rank.
Italy and Egypt
In 1796, Belliard served in the Italian army of General Bonaparte , participating in military operations in Italy as the chief of staff of the division of General Seryurye . He fought at Castiglione , especially distinguished himself in the battle of Arcola , where he was near Bonaparte, at a crucial moment he protected his body from fire and was hit by a bullet. For the courage of Napoleon on the same day made him a brigadier generals [2] . The commander of the brigade in the division Joubert .
Active member of the Egyptian expedition of Napoleon. The commander of the infantry brigade in the division of General Deze . On the way to Egypt, Belliard is involved in the capture of Malta. In Egypt itself, he distinguished himself in the battle of the Pyramids , the capture of Cairo , in the battle of Heliopolis . Built in the square , the infantrymen of Beliera successfully fought off the attacks of irregular Turkish and Mameluke cavalry in many battles and skirmishes. Belliard received the rank of divisional general from General Kleber , who led the army after Bonaparte returned to France. Appointed by the governor of Cairo, Belliard, having exhausted the possibilities of resistance to the superior Anglo-Turkish-Mamluk forces, and fearing the numerous hostile population of the city itself, in the middle of 1801 signed a capitulation with the British on honorable conditions and returned to France with his troops on British ships.
Napoleon, however, was unhappy about it. Belliard kept the troops, banners, works of ancient Egyptian art collected by French scientists, and got the opportunity to return to France (he had no other way for this, since the French fleet on the Mediterranean Sea was broken by that time, and the sea itself was patrolled by English squadrons). But the immediate superior of Beliera, Kleber's successor, General Menou, continued to hold Alexandria . Belliard and his subordinate generals signed a surrender without the permission of their direct superior (who, by the way, soon followed suit). In addition, the British forces were not so numerous, and Napoleon believed that Belyar, who had 10,000 combat-ready soldiers, was able to beat the British and the Turks one by one, without waiting for their forces to unite [3] . At the same time, Napoleon did not take into account the low morale of the army, caused in particular by the flight of Napoleon himself to France. Ultimately, Napoleon found responsible for all the incompetent command of General Men, and no longer entrusted him with serious posts. Beliera continued his career, but he, unlike many of his combat comrades, never received a marshal's baton.
Empire Wars
In 1805-1808, Belliard was chief of staff of Marshal Murat , who commanded, as a rule, large cavalry formations. In this position, Belliard took part in the campaigns of 1805–1806 in Prussia and Austria , played an important role in the victory at Ulm , and was awarded to the Grand Officers of the Legion of Honor for the distinction at Austerlitz .
In the campaigns of 1806–1807, he distinguished himself in battles at Jena , Heilsberg , Preussisch-Eylau and Friedland . For some time he was the commandant of Berlin .
Then Belliard was transferred to Spain and, after the capture of Madrid , became its governor. Count of the Empire (1810). During the governorship of Bellear, Madrid was nearly captured by Anglo-Spanish troops. King of Spain Joseph Bonaparte , brother and protege of Napoleon, marched from the city with the bulk of the troops to participate in the battle of Talavera . Beliera had only one French brigade from the Dessol division and weak Spanish units of Joseph’s supporters. Meanwhile, Anglo-Portuguese units attacked the city, on the other hand the Spaniards approached, and in the city itself there were fears of uprising of the inhabitants. In addition, the battle of Talavera was lost by the French. However, due to poor coordination of the actions of the enemy, the crisis was over, and Madrid remained under French control.
In 1812, Napoleon called him into the Great Army and re-appointed him Chief of Staff of the Reserve Cavalry [4] Marshal Murat .
In the first part of the campaign in Russia, Belyar was in the battles of Ostrovno , Vitebsk , Smolensk and Dorogobuzh . Under Borodino , two horses were killed under him. The next day, he was wounded in the avant-garde battle near Mozhaisk , easily [1] or, according to other sources, hard [5] . At the end of the year, he was granted the rank of Colonel General Cuirassier [6] .
In early 1813, engaged in the reconstruction of the French cavalry, which suffered great losses in Russia. In the campaign of 1813 - Assistant Marshal Berthier - Chief of Staff of the Great Army. In the battle of Leipzig he was seriously wounded in the arm, but remained in the ranks, and distinguished himself in the battle of Hanau , where he again killed two horses.
Active participant in the campaign of 1814 in France . At the head of large cavalry formations, Belliard took part in the battles of the Six Days , the battles of Craon and Laon , Fere-Champenoise .
Napoleon's First Renunciation and Further Events
After the abdication of Napoleon and the Restoration, he received the title of Peer from Louis XVIII , and became a Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Legion of Honor [7] , commandant of Metz .
However, during the “One Hundred Days”, Belliard, having initially led King Louis half way to the border with Belgium as part of his retinue, went over to Napoleon. He was sent as an ambassador to his former chief - the King of Naples, Joachim Murat, who, having changed Napoleon, tried (unsuccessfully) to pursue an independent policy. Upon his return from this mission, he was appointed commander of the Third and Fourth Military Districts (border, with the center in Metz ) and the corps of the local National Guard.
During the secondary return of the Bourbon Belliard was arrested and was in prison for some time. A few years later he was pardoned, and after Louis-Philippe I took the throne, he became the French ambassador to Belgium , which had just emerged, and was at that post at a difficult time, following the Belgian revolution , which France actively supported.
He died on January 28, 1832 in Brussels from apoplexy and was buried at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris . In Brussels, he, shortly after death, a monument was erected.
The name of General Bellaard is written on the south side of the Paris Arc de Triomphe .
Titles
- Count Belliard and the Empire ( Fr. comte Belliard et de l'Empire ; decree of March 19, 1808, patent confirmed March 9, 1810) [8] .
Photo Gallery
Statue of General Bellaard in Brussels (Art. Geth )
Bellaire Palace in his hometown of Fontenay-le-Comte
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Patriotic War of 1812. encyclopedia. Moscow, Rosspan, 2004
- ↑ In revolutionary France, there was a practice in which the general’s ranks were awarded by the army commander and then subject to approval in Paris
- ↑ Napoleon Bonaparte. Egyptian campaign - SPb .: Alphabet-classic, 2007
- ↑ Reserve cavalry, contrary to its name, actively participated in hostilities
- ↑ Military Encyclopedia / Ed. V.F. Novitsky and others. - SPb .: t. In. V. Sytin, 1911-1915. - T. 4.
- ↑ The honorary title of colonel general existed for each type of cavalry in a single copy. The rank of colonel-general cuirassier was released after Gouvion Saint-Cyr was promoted to marshal of France.
- ↑ The highest degree of the order. Such awards are related to the general policy of the Bourbons in 1814 to attract to their side the Napoleonic commanders.
- ↑ Imperial Nobility on B
Sources
- Belliar // Military Encyclopedia : [in 18 t.] / Ed. VF Novitsky [et al.]. - SPb. ; [ M. ]: Type. t-islands I. D. Sytin , 1911-1915.
- Charles Mullié . Biographie des célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850, 1852
- Patriotic War of 1812. encyclopedia. Moscow, Rosspan, 2004
- Napoleon's generals. Biographical dictionary. Shikanov V.N. "Reittar", 2004.