Espanje, Jean-Louis-Brigitte

Little is known about this person’s early life. He was born into a family of poor petty nobles. His father, Bertrand Espan ( fr. Bertrand Espagne ), dreamed of giving his son a decent education and was looking for a suitable college for him. Meanwhile, the young Jean-Louis had other thoughts about his future. He was barely 14 years old when he enrolled in the Royal Infantry Regiment without the permission of his parents. Mother hardly managed to persuade him to leave the service and return home. Espana Jr.’s “civilian” life did not last long, as his father soon lost his job and the family was on the verge of ruin. I had to part with illusions about studying in a prestigious institution, and Jean-Louis, without hesitation, returned to the army. On July 6, 1787, he was accepted into the regiment of dragoons of Her Majesty (after the Revolution, the regiment was renamed the 6th Dragoon), stationed in Laon .

In 1789, the command sent Espany to Reims , instructing him to recruit. During the trip, Jean-Louis met Marie-Sophie Parouascienne ( Fr. Marie-Sophie Paroissien ), the daughter of a wealthy carpenter, who later became his wife and bore him three sons and four daughters ^[1] . Around the same year, he met and became close friends with General Tom Alexander-Davie de la Payteri Dumas , father of the great French novelist , from whose pen the immortal Three Musketeers , The Count of Monte-Cristo, and other works came out.

On August 2, 1792, Espan received the captain's rank and was transferred to a hussar regiment with the pathetic title: "Defenders of Freedom and Equality." September 20, 1792, Jean-Louis distinguished himself in the battle of Valmy . With the assistance of General Dumas, as a reward for loyalty to the Republic, agitated by the betrayal of General Dumouriez , Espan with the rank of squadron commander was sent to the 5th Hussars.

On March 18, 1793, his unit fought valiantly at Neherinden , which did not go unnoticed by the command. In the same year, Jean-Louis was awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel ( November 30 ). The next increase took place only at the end of 1797 - he was given the rank of brigade commander and for the first time under his command turned out heavy cavalry . At the head of the 8th Cuirassier Regiment, he fought as part of the Sambro-Maas and Mainz armies.

On July 10, 1799, Espan became a brigadier general. He was briefly sent to the observational army of General Müller , and already on July 27 he entered the disposal of the Commander of the Rhine Army, General Lacombe , who was soon replaced by Moreau .

In 1800 Espan participated in the battles of Meskirche ( May 5 ), Hochstedt ( June 19 ), Neuburg ( June 27 ). The general's epaulettes did not prevent him, on occasion, from setting an example of personal courage, and in battle he was always ahead of his soldiers. Thus, during Neuburg Espané, standing at the head of the 1st and 3rd battalions of the 84th linear semi-brigade, under the most severe shelling, led infantrymen to storm the enemy fortifications under Unterhausen. After several attacks, the French took possession of the enemy redoubt , but at the same time the brave Gascon was wounded in the arm and was forced to leave the battlefield. Upon his return from the hospital, he was assigned to the division of General Montrichard as commander of one of the brigades. The campaign to crush the 2nd anti-French coalition for Jean-Louis Espanyus ended near Hohenlinden ( December 3, 1800). Shortly after this brilliant victory of General Moreau, the Luneville World was signed, and the cannonade, which lasted for almost ten years, was briefly silenced in Europe . During this period of calm, Espan was sent to Bourges , where he briefly commanded 21st military district.

On February 1, 1805, he was promoted to the rank of a divisional general and appointed to the post of commander of the light cavalry of the Italian army. He participated in the battle of Saint-Michel ( October 29, 1805), and then at Caldiero ( October 30 ), where Marshal Massena waged an exhausting battle with the troops of the Archduke Charles .

In the same year he proved himself in the battles of Laibach and Gradiski . In February 1806, Jean-Louis Espanyu, whose division was included in the 1st Corps of the Neapolitan Army, was instructed to liquidate a gang of Calabrian royalist robbers, led by the bloodthirsty Fra-Devillo . Gascon brilliantly coped with a difficult task: in October 1806, the Italian thug was caught and executed. His death deprived the Bourbons of the last hope of regaining the Neapolitan throne .

Meanwhile, Espan was recalled to the Great Army, and on November 22, 1806, he headed the new 3rd division of heavy cavalry .

In March 1807, his “iron men” in the 10th Army Corps of Marshal Lefebvre participated in the siege of Danzig , and on 10 June of the same year they distinguished themselves in the battle of Heilsberg . On that day, by the will of Marshal Murat, his division formed the first line of cavalry reserve, designed to break through enemy positions. The desperate attacks of the French cuirassiers against the Russian troops entrenched by the river Alle under the command of Bennigsen were not successful: the Espany unit with heavy losses was thrown back to its original positions. The general himself was seriously wounded: he received 7 (!) Blows with a pike and was out of action for a month.

The Emperor deservedly awarded the brave man: On July 11, 1807, Espan was included in the cohort of Higher Officers of the Legion of Honor, and in the spring of 1808 Napoleon elevated the general to the count's dignity (with the right to transfer the title by inheritance) and endowed him with martial arts in Prussia .

The Austro-French War of 1809 found Espanius near Augsburg . His division, which was part of the 2nd Army Corps of Marshal Lannes, was hastily thrown into battle already on April 19 at Pfafenhofen . Then there was Ekmühl ( April 22 ) and the capture of Regensburg ( April 23 ). On May 21, 1809, in the battle near the village of Essling, the enemy core tore off the tip of the general’s hat. Without being embarrassed at all, Espané turned it with its disfigured side back and, standing at the head of the 4th Cuirassier Regiment, rushed into the attack on the Austrian artillery . At the very positions of the enemy, the general suddenly fell from the horse. Adjutants Shentseville and Kauffer, who had run up to him, saw that their commander was seriously wounded by his canister in the stomach. In a state of shock, feeling no pain, Espan managed to rise and take a few steps, then fell again and, without regaining consciousness, died ^[2] . The officers of the 6th Cuirassier Regiment wrapped the body in a raincoat and carried it to Lobau Island, where on the same day, after a short farewell ceremony, they buried the remains of the general on the left bank of the Danube .

On January 1, 1810 , in accordance with the decree of Emperor Napoleon, the equestrian statue of Jean-Louis Espany adorned the Concord Bridge in Paris . However, after 6 years, she was transferred to the Museum House of Invalids and is still there. The name of the gallant general from Gascony is engraved on the inner wall of the Arc de Triomphe .

• Captain (September 2, 1792);
• Lieutenant colonel (November 30, 1792);
• Colonel (September 23, 1793);
• Brigadier General (July 10, 1799);
• Divisional General (February 1, 1805).

• Earl of Espany and Empire ( French comte d'Espagne et de l'Empire ; decree of March 19, 1808, patent confirmed April 26, 1808) ^[3] .

  Legionnaire of the Legion of Honor (December 11, 1803)

  Commander of the Legion of Honor (June 14, 1804)

  Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor (July 11, 1807)

• Information about the general on the site base Léonore
• The twenty best cavalry generals of Napoleon (eng.)
• Muhlier S. Biographies of famous military figures of the land and naval forces of France 1789-1850 . (fr.)