Eugène-Casimir Villatte, Comte d'Oultremont (14 April 1770 - 14 May 1834) fought in the French army during the Wars of the French Revolution and the
Napoleonic WarsThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. He rose to command a division at many of the important battles in the
Peninsular WarThe Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
. His is one of the
names inscribed under the Arc de TriompheThe following is the list of the names of the 660 persons inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris. Most of them are generals who served during the First French Empire with additional figures from the French Revolution ....
.
Early career
Born in
LongwyLongwy is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.The inhabitants are known as Longoviciens.-Economy:Longwy has historically been an industrial center of the Lorraine iron mining district. The town is known for its artistic glazed pottery.-History:Longwy initially...
, Villatte joined the army and was a sous-lieutenant (second lieutenant) at the beginning of the
French RevolutionThe French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. In 1795 he served as an aide to
Jean-Baptiste BernadotteCharles XIV & III John, also Carl John, Swedish and Norwegian: Karl Johan was King of Sweden and King of Norway from 1818 until his death...
and later as an adjutant-commandant. He rose to the rank of general of brigade in 1803.
Empire
During the
Ulm CampaignThe Ulm Campaign consisted of a series of French and Bavarian military maneuvers and battles to outflank and capture an Austrian army in 1805 during the War of the Third Coalition. It took place in the vicinity of and inside the Swabian city of Ulm...
in 1805, he commanded a brigade under Marshal
Michel NeyMichel Ney , 1st Duc d'Elchingen, 1st Prince de la Moskowa was a French soldier and military commander during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was one of the original 18 Marshals of France created by Napoleon I...
at the
Battle of ElchingenThe Battle of Elchingen, fought on October 14, 1805, saw French forces under Michel Ney rout an Austrian corps led by Johann Sigismund Riesch. This defeat led to a large part of the Austrian army being invested in the fortress of Ulm by the army of Emperor Napoleon I of France while other...
. Still under Ney, he fought at the Battle of Jena and the capture of
MagdeburgMagdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....
in 1806. After leading his brigade at the combat of Waltersdorf and the
Battle of EylauThe Battle of Eylau or Battle of Preussisch-Eylau, 7 and 8 February 1807, was a bloody and inconclusive battle between Napoléon's Grande Armée and a Russian Empire army under Levin August, Count von Bennigsen near the town of Preußisch Eylau in East Prussia. Late in the battle, the Russians...
in February 1807, Villatte was promoted to general of division. He led his troops in a successful defense of the bridge over the Pasłęka (Passarge) River at
Spędy (Spanden)Spędy is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Wilczęta, within Braniewo County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland.Before 1945 the area was part of Germany .The village has a population of 160....
on 5 June 1807. In this action, part of the
Battle of Guttstadt-DeppenIn the Battle of Guttstadt-Deppen on 5 and 6 June 1807, troops of the Russian Empire led by General Levin August, Count von Bennigsen attacked the First French Empire corps of Marshal Michel Ney. The Russians pressed back their opponents in an action that saw Ney fight a brilliant rear guard action...
, Villatte defeated Michael Szabszinski von Rembow's Prussian-Russian division belonging to
Anton Wilhelm von L'EstocqAnton Wilhelm von L'Estocq was a Prussian cavalry general best known for his command of the Prussian troops at the Battle of Eylau.-Biography:...
corps.
On 5 November 1808, while commanding the 12,000-man 3rd Division of the IV Corps, Villatte was attacked by Joaquin Blake's 24,000-strong Army of Galicia. In the
Battle of ValmasedaThe Battle of Valmaseda took place on November 5, 1808, during Lieutenant-General Blake's retreat from superior French armies in Cantabria. Reinforced by veteran regular infantry from General La Romana's Division of the North , Blake suddenly turned on his pursuers to rescue a trapped detachment...
, he was defeated and lost his baggage, but managed to extricate his soldiers with the loss of only 500 men and one cannon. After his division transferred into Marshal
Claude VictorClaude Victor-Perrin, First Duc de Belluno was a French soldier and military commander during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars...
's I Corps, Villatte fought at the
Battle of EspinosaThe Battle of Espinosa was a battle of the Napoleonic Wars, fought on November 10 and November 11, 1808 at the township of Espinosa de los Monteros in the Cantabrian Mountains...
. Still under Victor, he led his division at the battles of
Battle of UclésThe Battle of Uclés was a minor skirmish during the Peninsular War that resulted in a French victory under Marshal Claude Victor-Perrin against the Spanish under General Francisco Javier Venegas....
,
MedellinIn the Peninsular War, the Battle of Medellín was fought on March 28, 1809 and resulted in a victory of the French under Marshal Victor against the Spanish under General Don Gregorio Garcia de la Cuesta...
and Talavera in 1809.
In 1813, Villatte led a division in the Army of the South at the
Battle of VitoriaAt the Battle of Vitoria an allied British, Portuguese, and Spanish army under General the Marquess of Wellington broke the French army under Joseph Bonaparte and Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan near Vitoria in Spain, leading to eventual victory in the Peninsular War.-Background:In July 1812, after...
. In Marshal
Nicolas SoultNicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult, 1st Duke of Dalmatia , the Hand of Iron, was a French general and statesman, named Marshal of the Empire in 1804. He was one of only six officers in French history to receive the distinction of Marshal General of France...
's reorganized army, he commanded the Reserve Division for the rest of the war. His division was present and/or engaged at the battles of
the PyreneesThe Battle of the Pyrenees was a large-scale offensive launched on 25 July 1813 by Marshal Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult from the Pyrénées region on Emperor Napoleon’s order, in the hope of relieving French garrisons under siege at Pamplona and San Sebastián...
,
the BidassoaIn the Battle of the Bidassoa on 7 October 1813 the Allied army of Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington wrested a foothold on French soil from Nicolas Soult's French army. The Allied troops overran the French lines behind the Bidassoa River on the coast and along the Pyrenees crest between the...
,
the NivelleThe Battle of Nivelle took place in front of the River Nivelle near the end of the Peninsular War . After the Allied siege of San Sebastian, Wellington's 80,000 British, Portuguese and Spanish troops were in hot pursuit of Marshal Soult who only had 60,000 men to place in a 20-mile perimeter...
,
the NiveThe Battles of the Nive were fought towards the end of the Peninsular War. Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish army defeated Marshal Nicolas Soult's French army in a series of battles near the city of Bayonne.Unusually, for most of the battle, Wellington...
,
OrthezThe Battle of Orthez saw the Anglo-Portuguese Army under Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington defeat a French army led by Marshal Nicolas Soult in southern France near the end of the Peninsular War.-Preliminaries:...
and
ToulouseThe Battle of Toulouse was one of the final battles of the Napoleonic Wars, four days after Napoleon's surrender of the French Empire to the nations of the Sixth Coalition...
.
During the
Hundred DaysThe Hundred Days, sometimes known as the Hundred Days of Napoleon or Napoleon's Hundred Days for specificity, marked the period between Emperor Napoleon I of France's return from exile on Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815...
, Villatte remained loyal to the Bourbons. After the Restoration, he served as Inspector General of Infantry and as commander of various military divisions. He died at Nancy in 1834.
VILLATTE is etched on Column 2 of the
Arc de Triomphe-The design:The astylar design is by Jean Chalgrin , in the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture . Major academic sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the Arc de Triomphe: Jean-Pierre Cortot; François Rude; Antoine Étex; James Pradier and Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire...
.