Louis-Marie-Joseph Maximilian Caffarelli du Falga
Encyclopedia
Louis-Marie-Joseph-Maximilian Caffarelli du Falga (February 13, 1756, in the château de Falga, Haute-Garonne
Haute-Garonne
Haute-Garonne is a department in the southwest of France named after the Garonne river. Its main city is Toulouse.-History:Haute-Garonne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Languedoc.The...

 - 27 April 1799, Egypt) was a French commander and scholar. His younger brothers Marie-François Auguste de Caffarelli du Falga
Marie-François Auguste de Caffarelli du Falga
Marie-François Auguste de Caffarelli du Falga was a French général de division of Italian descent. Two of his brothers were also generals...

 (1766–1849) and Louis-Marie-Joseph Caffarelli
Louis-Marie-Joseph Caffarelli
Joseph Caffarelli, full name Louis Marie Joseph, comte de Caffarelli du Falga, was a French sailor, soldier and politician, who was a Conseiller d'État and maritime prefect of Brest...

 (1760–1845) were also generals.

Life

The oldest of ten children, he refused to exercise the right of the first-born-son to the majority of his parents' wealth. He served under Jean Baptiste Kléber
Jean Baptiste Kléber
Jean Baptiste Kléber was a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars. His military career started in Habsburg service, but his plebeian ancestry hindered his opportunities...

 in the army of Sambre-et-Meuse
Sambre-et-Meuse
Sambre-et-Meuse was the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Belgium. It was named after the rivers Sambre and Meuse. Its capital was Namur....

, losing his left leg to a cannonball on November 27, 1797 but continuing in the army with a wooden leg and joined Kléber on the Egyptian campaign.

Accompanying Napoleon on the French invasion of Egypt, he was present with him when he landed at Valletta
Valletta
Valletta is the capital of Malta, colloquially known as Il-Belt in Maltese. It is located in the central-eastern portion of the island of Malta, and the historical city has a population of 6,098. The name "Valletta" is traditionally reserved for the historic walled citadel that serves as Malta's...

 to occupy Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

 on 12 June 1798. Like the other French generals, he was impressed by its defences, saying to Napoleon "Upon my word, General, it is lucky there is someone in the town to open the gates for us!"http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=i5ns5LNtoiUC&pg=PA106&lpg=PA106&dq=general+caffarelli&source=web&ots=JHbh7cqHS4&sig=mlNA0GzXSyx1yi82Fyb9zxpa9pI&hl=en#PPA106,M1 A saying arose about him among the expeditionary troops in France - "Caffa doesn't give a damn what happens; he's always sure to have one foot in France." He was elected a member of the Institut d'Égypte
Institut d'Égypte
The Institut d’Égypte was a learned academy formed by Napoleon Bonaparte to carry out research during his Egyptian campaign.-Early work:It first met on 24 August 1798, with Gaspard Monge as president, Bonaparte himself as vice-president and Joseph Fourier and Costaz as secretaries...

's political economy section on February 13, 1796 in the class of moral and political sciences, and formed part of the commission for drafting the Institute's regulations. He also accompanied Napoleon on the surveys to trace the route of what later become the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...

.

He then had to have his right arm amputated when his elbow was smashed by a bullet during a new assault on Acre
Siege of Acre (1799)
The Siege of Acre of 1799 was an unsuccessful French siege of the Ottoman-defended, walled city of Acre and was the turning point of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and Syria.-Background:...

  on April 24. He was just starting to learn to write with his left hand when a gangrene
Gangrene
Gangrene is a serious and potentially life-threatening condition that arises when a considerable mass of body tissue dies . This may occur after an injury or infection, or in people suffering from any chronic health problem affecting blood circulation. The primary cause of gangrene is reduced blood...

 struck, causing a fever which killed him. Napoleon wrote of him in the order of the day: "Our universal regrets accompany General Caffarelli to the grave; the army is losing one of its bravest leaders. Egypt one of its legislators, France one of its best citizens, and science, an illustrious scholar." He is the hero of Youssef Chahine
Youssef Chahine
Youssef Chahine was an Egyptian film director active in the Egyptian film industry since 1950. He was credited with launching the career of actor Omar Sharif...

's film Adieu Bonaparte
Adieu Bonaparte
Adieu Bonaparte is a 1985 French-Egyptian historical drama film directed by Youssef Chahine. It was entered into the 1985 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Michel Piccoli - Cafarelli* Mohsen Mohieddin - Ali* Patrice Chéreau - Napoléon Bonaparte...

.

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