Junot, Jean Andos

“Hurricane” or “Junet Storm,” as Napoleon Bonaparte later called it, was born and raised in the tiny town of Bussy-le-Gran, 60 kilometers from Dijon , the capital of old Burgundy . His father was a wealthy merchant and marketed wood. He wanted his youngest son (there were three children in the family, and Jean Andos was the third in a row) to receive a good education, preferably a legal one, and become a well-known and respected person.

Military service for the children of the philistine estate before the Revolution of 1789 was not mandatory, and therefore nothing prevented Junior Sr. from realizing his plan for his son. After a short training at home, he sent Jean Andos to the college of the town of Chatillon-sur-Seine , where he was to study history, antique and French literature and other subjects. In the same college, Junot met Muiron (who later became Napoleon's adjutant and died in the battle on Arkolsky bridge in 1796 , where he was mortally wounded with buckshot, covering his general with the body) and the future Marshal of the Empire Marmont . Junot and Muiron, filled with revolutionary fervor, having left school, enrolled on September 1, 1791 as volunteers in the battalion of the National Guard, formed in the department of Côte d'Or.

On April 20, 1792, France declared war on Austria , which two months earlier had united in a military alliance with Prussia . Juno's battalion was sent to the Northern Army in July of the same year, where a burgundy with a strange name Andosh very soon gained the fame of a desperate brave man. Less than two months after arriving at the front line, his comrades-in-arms elected him first as a sergeant and then as a senior sergeant.

Everything went well until Junot was seriously injured in the battle of Glisuel ( June 11, 1792 ) - an Austrian cavalry saber almost cut his skull open. At the hospital, however, the restless Junot did not stay long. As soon as his wound healed, he immediately went to the front.

At the end of 1792 - the first half of 1793, fortune turned its back on the French: the Northern Army was forced out to the Belgian border and, ultimately, forced to surrender. Junot's battalion was first transferred to the army of the Eastern Pyrenees, and then sent under Toulon .

The first meeting of the future conqueror of Europe with Junot happened during the siege of Toulon , when Napoleon needed a clerk, and he was recommended a brave Burgundian named Junot, who had a calligraphic handwriting. Immediately after he finished writing the dictated order, the core fired from an enemy position hit the battery shaft and covered him and the paper that he composed. Shaking off, Junot allegedly exclaimed: “We are lucky! Now you don’t need to sprinkle ink on the sand. ” Bonaparte, admired by the courage of the "clerk", made him his adjutant.

After Toulon, Junot, promoted to lieutenant, accompanied the Great Corsican during the first Italian campaign of 1796, supported him in 1795 with Marmont , and participated in the glorious Italian campaign of 1796 - 1797 . Junot became the first messenger of victory, which Napoleon sent to Paris with banners captured from the enemy. It was he who accompanied the general’s wife, Josephine , from the French capital to Milan . On a trip with Junot, an affair began with a companion of Josephine, but Josephine interrupted their relationship ^[1] .

On August 3, 1796, during the battle of Lonato Junot, pursuing a detachment of Lancer under the command of Colonel Bender, he was surrounded by enemy horsemen, knocked off his horse and struck by six saber blows to the head, which subsequently caused his tragic death. Having recovered from the wound, he participated in the battles of Arcole and Tagliamento .

In 1797, he was sent on a responsible mission to Venice , where the anti-French uprising began. On June 3, 1797, the "Storm of June " fell upon the troops of Pope Pius VI , who dared to challenge France, and defeated them at the Sengno River.

From 1798 - 1799, Junot participated in the Egyptian campaign . On January 9, 1799, Bonaparte promoted him to brigadier generals (he was finally confirmed in this rank only on June 27, 1800 ), and the next day he was appointed commander of the French forces in Suez . It was Junot who informed Napoleon about the infidelity of his wife Josephine, which, according to historians, Bonaparte could not forgive his best friend.

At the battle of Nazareth on June 30, 1799, at the head of 300 soldiers, Junot repelled the attack of the 10,000th vanguard of the Turkish army and personally killed the son of Murad Bey (the so-called "second battle of Nazareth"). He also fearlessly crushed the enemy under Abukir , Alexandria , Jaffa .

In addition to the battles, Junot "distinguished himself" in that he challenged General Lanuss to a duel, allowing himself a disrespectful statement to Napoleon. During this duel, "The Tempest" suffered for a friend, having been seriously wounded in the stomach.

In early January 1800, Junot left the shores of North Africa , but his hopes for an early return to France were not destined to come true. The ship on which he sailed to his homeland was captured by the British, and Junot himself and his adjutant Lalleman were captured. Only on June 14, while the First Consul was fighting at Marengo , Junot arrived in Marseille .

In 1801, he became commandant of Paris.

In December 1803, he was appointed commander of the Grenadier Corps, which was forming in Arras . June 6, 1804 Junot received the honorary rank of Colonel General of the Hussars .

In March 1805, Bonaparte sent him as ambassador to Portugal . One of the reasons for sending Junot from Paris was Napoleon's discontent with his wife, Laura Permon , who led an extremely wasteful lifestyle and actively participated in court intrigues. “Link” did not last long, for already on December 1 , on the eve of the battle of Austerlitz , Junot arrived at Napoleon’s headquarters in Moravia . During the “Battle of the Three Emperors”, Jean Andosz was next to Bonaparte, serving as his first adjutant.

On January 19, 1806, Junot was appointed governor of Parma and Piacenza . On this territory Junot had to put an end to the flashing peasant uprisings now and then, which was done in the most decisive way.

On July 19, 1806 he was transferred to Paris as governor of the French capital, and a little later (from July 29 ) - and commander of the 1st military district.

On August 2, 1807, Napoleon sent the Storm to Bayonne in order to stop Junot’s romance with his sister Caroline Murat, where he was to become the head of the 1st Gironde Observational Corps. On September 18, on the orders of the emperor, he crossed the Bidassoa River with his 25,000th corps and entered Spain (without even notifying the government of Godoy about this). Already on November 12, Junot reached Salamanca , on November 19th passed through Alcantara, and, finally, on November 30th, his vanguard entered the streets of Lisbon , abandoned by King Juan VI , who fled to Brazil. On June 23, Junot officially became the commander in chief of the Portuguese Army. On February 1, 1808, Napoleon appointed the Duke d'Abrantes the Governor-General of Portugal, effectively making him ruler of the new vassal territory of the French Empire.

However, Junot's quiet life did not last long. Portuguese sympathy for the French very soon gave way to discontent, which gradually spilled over into a guerrilla war, which began to cause a lot of trouble to the French occupation authorities. The news of the upcoming landing of British troops on the Iberian Peninsula served as a conditional signal for a general uprising, which broke out in June 1808 in the north of the country and swept cities such as Oporto , Aveiro , Viseu and Guarda . On August 6 of the same year, the 20,000th expeditionary force under the command of A. Wellsley (the future Duke of Wellington) actually landed on the Portuguese coast at the mouth of the Mondegu River.

On August 21, 1808, the British and French clashed in a decisive battle at Vimeiro . Junot resolutely attacked the British position, but was defeated (the shrapnel was first used by the British for this attack) and retreated to Torrish Vedras . On August 30 , seeing the hopelessness of the situation, he signed a convention in Sintra, according to which he was required to free Portugal, and in return the British pledged to transport his troops with all weapons, banners and baggage to France. Military history has not yet known such “surrenders”.

However, having arrived in Paris, Junot resigned, which was not accepted. Napoleon sent the general to command the 8th corps, formed for a new campaign in Portugal. On December 17, the Duke d'Abrantes, who was appointed commander of the now 3rd Corps of the Spanish Army, was given a new task: he was to capture Zaragoza . This city was ultimately taken by Marshal Lann , who, unhappy with the delay, Napoleon appointed to lead the siege instead of Junot. The Tempest retained the post of commander of the 3rd Corps until April 5, 1809 . Already on April 7, he returned to France, where until June he restored his strength and was treated in Tivoli , and then went to his native Burgundy.

June 17, 1809 Junot received the post of commander of the reserve army in Nuremberg . Units of this army, on Napoleon’s order, carried out various tasks, and Junot, who remained virtually with one division and was not supported by Jerome Bonaparte’s troops, could not stop the advance of General Kinmeier’s troops in the battles of Hephres and Bernek. On November 9, he was recalled to Paris.

On February 2, 1810, Junot returned to Spain, to his 8th corps, at the head of which he won a landslide victory over the Spaniards, taking the fortress of Astorga . From April 17, 1810, he, along with Marshal Ney and General Rainier, was subordinate to Marshal Massena , appointed to command the French forces at the Pyrenees theater of operations. September 16 of the same year, after a series of battles in Spain (the largest of which was the battle of Ciudad Rodrigo ), Junot's corps crossed the Portuguese border. The divisions of Generals Solignac and Klozel , who were part of the 8th Corps, participated in the persecution of the British troops retreating after the battle of Busako ( September 27, 1810), and also distinguished themselves in the capture of the Sobral Fortress ( October 11, 1810). Until the end of the year, Massena’s army “stomped” near Torrish Vedras, where the Duke of Wellington managed to dig in well and did not give the French the slightest chance to get him out of his position.

On January 19, 1811, General Junot was wounded at Rio Mayor during a shootout at outposts: one of the bullets hit him directly in the face, breaking his nose and breaking his cheek.

By the spring of 1811 it became clear that the campaign in Portugal and Spain was finally and irrevocably lost. Junot's corps was dissolved, and he himself, at the end of March, was finally able to return to France.

On February 12, 1812, Junot was appointed commander of the 2nd Italian Observational Corps stationed in Milan (under the general command of Eugene Bogarne ). The campaign in Russia , which became the last of his career, began for Junot on July 28, 1812 , near Orsha , when, after the “desertion” of King Jerome Bonaparte , he was appointed commander of the 8th (Westphalian) corps of the Great Army .

In the battle of Smolensk, he was tasked with making a roundabout maneuver, crossing the Dnieper and cutting off the Russian troops remaining in the area of ​​the city, but, having encountered an impenetrable swamp on the way, Junot could not perform this operation. Learning about this, Napoleon exclaimed in his hearts: “ Juno missed the Russians. Because of him, I’m losing the campaign . ” The enraged emperor even wanted to transfer the command of the corps to General Rapp , but after talking with General Duroc he returned it to Junot.

In the battle of Borodino, the Westphalians were initially located in a reserve, north of the village of Shevardino , and then were transferred to Marshal Ney . The 8th Corps participated in the detour of the left flank of the Russian army, but was driven back by General K.F. Baggovut to the Utitsky Forest, and then unsuccessfully stormed the Bagration Flushes .

After the occupation of Moscow, the remains of Junot's corps were left in Mozhaisk . On October 10, Junot received an order to begin a retreat to Vyazma .

After the battle of Krasnoye ( November 15-18 ), the 8th Corps virtually ceased to exist. At the end of January 1813, the duke d'Abrantes , mentally and physically defeated , returned to France.

On February 13, 1813, Junot received the post of Governor General of the Illyrian Provinces , which included Istria , Dalmatia and Ragusa . At the same time, he served as governor of Venice .

By July, Junot's state of health was completely upset, and Napoleon had no choice but to send his friend on a well-deserved rest. July 22, 1813 "The Tempest" was officially dismissed from service, and his position went to J. Foucher, who was in disfavor.

Junot returned home to Burgundy, to his father’s house in Montbard, where during one of the attacks of a terrible headache caused by wounds, he threw himself out of the window. Death did not come immediately, and a few days later Jean Andos suffered indescribably (after the amputation of his injured leg, he began gangrene ). He died on July 29, 1813.

According to eyewitnesses (in particular, Madame d'Abrantes), when Napoleon was informed of the death of his "adjutant," he said: "He was a brave guy, this Junot. He went to the fire like a ball. "

J. A. Junot served the motherland for 21 years, 10 months and 28 days, and was seriously wounded three times in the head. His name is carved in the stone of the Arc de Triomphe and immortalized in the name of one of the streets of Paris.

• Junior Lieutenant (1793);
• Lieutenant (January 17, 1794);
• Captain (February 13, 1795);
• Squadron Commander (December 24, 1795);
• Colonel (May 10, 1796);
• Brigadier General (January 9, 1799, approved June 27, 1800);
• Division General (November 20, 1801);
• Colonel General Hussar (July 6, 1804).

• Duke of Abrantes and the Empire ( fr. Duc d'Abrantès et de l'Empire ; decree of March 19, 1808, patent confirmed January 15, 1809) ^[2] .

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

  Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor (June 14, 1804)

  Badge of the Great Eagle of the Legion of Honor (February 2, 1805)

  Commander of the Order of the Iron Crown (February 25, 1806)

  Grand Cross of the Portuguese Order of Christ (February 28, 1806)

• Napoleon the Great . - Penguin, 2014 .-- 976 p. - ISBN 978-0-241-01919-1 .
• Chartrand, René. Vimeiro 1808. London: Osprey Publishing, 2001. ISBN 1-84176-309-8
• Haythornthwaite, Philip. Napoleon's Commanders (1) c. 1792-1809. London: Osprey Publishing, 2001. ISBN 1-84176-055-2
• Réflexions sur les notes du Moniteur des 16, 23, 29 et 30 novembre , suivies des notes biographiques des Généraux Junot, Massena et Ney, et d'une notice historique sur le Géneral Régnier ", Vogel et Schulze, Londres, 1810, 68 pages .

• Biography of General Junot in K. A. Zalessky .
• Sa généalogie sur Geneanet (link not available)