Étienne Marie Antoine Champion de Nansouty
Encyclopedia
Count Étienne-Marie-Antoine-Champion de Nansouty (30 May 1768 – 12 February 1815) was a French cavalry commander during the French Revolutionary Wars
who rose to the rank of General of Division in 1803 and subsequently held important military commands during the Napoleonic Wars
.
Of noble Burgundian
descent, he was a student at the Brienne
military school, then was a graduate of the Paris military school
. Nansouty began his military career in 1785, as a sub-lieutenant
in the regiment Bourgogne-Infanterie, where his father had served during the wars of Louis XV. A cavalry
officer at the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792, Nansouty was commissioned as an aide-de-camp
to Marshal
Nicolas Luckner
. During the First Coalition, he saw service as a lieutenant-colonel and squadron commander in the 9th (heavy) Cavalry Regiment, campaigning with the French armies on the Rhine and in Germany
. Promoted to Colonel
in 1793 and given the command of the 9th Cavalry, he was noted for several well-led cavalry actions. Finally made a Brigadier General in 1799, after he had refused the promotion several times in the past, Nansouty fought the next year under General Jean Victor Moreau in southern Germany, in a decisive campaign of the Second Coalition
.
Promoted to the top military rank of General of Division in 1803, Nansouty was called to the command of the 1st Heavy Cavalry Division in Emperor
Napoleon I
's newly created Grande Armée. Commanding this division from 1804 to 1809, Nansouty was present at some of the most significant battles of the Third, Fourth
and Fifth
coalitions, leading cavalry actions at the battles of Austerlitz
, Friedland
, Eckmühl
, Aspern-Essling
and Wagram
. In 1812, during the campaign in Russia
, Nansouty commanded the I Cavalry Corps
, which he led with distinction at such battles as Ostrovno and Borodino
, where he received a severe knee wound. The next year, he commanded the Imperial Guard cavalry, which he led at Dresden
, Leipzig
and Hanau
, where he was again wounded. In 1814 he led his men in several engagements, including La Rothière
, Montmirail
, Vauchamps
and Craonne
until his incapacitation from wounds that year.
A member of the military elite of the First French Empire
and a recipient of the Grand Aigle de la Légion d'Honneur, Comte de Nansouty was a member of the Military Household of the Emperor
as First Squire of the Emperor, and also held the position of Colonel-General
of Dragoon
s. During the Bourbon Restoration
, Louis XVIII awarded him additional honours and commands, including one in the Military Household of the King of France
. Nansouty died in February 1815 and is buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery
in Paris
. His name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe
and a street in the 14th arrondissement of Paris is named after him.
. His father had served France for fifty years in Louis XV
's wars of the Polish Succession
and Austrian Succession
and the Seven Years' War
, and had subsequently been appointed "major" (commander) of the Château-Trompette fortress in Bordeaux
. Typically for a member of the minor nobility of the Ancien Régime, young Étienne de Nansouty chose to follow his father's footsteps in the military. He was admitted at the military school of Brienne-le-Château
in 1779, aged ten, where he was noted for being a well-behaved and assiduous student. On 21 October 1782, he transferred to the École Militaire
in Paris, where he obtained excellent grades. Two years later, Nansouty became a Chevalier (Knight) of the Order Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel and had the honour of being decorated by Monsieur, the future King Louis XVIII, in person. Upon his graduation on 30 May 1783, he was appointed sub-lieutenant
and, on 26 May 1785, Nansouty was sent to the Bourgogne-Infanterie regiment, where his father had served with distinction.
Throughout his childhood and youth, the Nansouty family led a tranquil yet modest life in Bordeaux, where his father held the position of commander of Château-Trompette, in which he lived with his family, additionally receiving a pension of 1000 livres. He was still holding the position as commander when he died suddenly in 1785, after more than 60 years of active service. His widow had no revenue with which to raise their son and two daughters. However, influential people such as the Duchess of Brancas and the wife of Marshal
Beauvau
contacted the Minister of War, Marshal de Ségur
, regarding the situation of the young Nansouty. As a result, in 1788, Nansouty was named interim captain in the light cavalry
Franche-Comté Cavalerie Regiment (later rebaptised 4th Chasseurs à Cheval). He was soon transferred to the Lauzun Hussar
Regiment (which became the 6th Hussars in 1791, then the 5th Hussars in 1793). In 1791, Nansouty then left the regiment to fill two consecutive military staff positions, first as deputy aid to Adjutant General Poncet de la Cour Maupas in the Army of the Centre on 20 December, then as aide-de-camp
of Marshal Luckner
at the beginning of 1792. He was then promoted to lieutenant-colonel and took up the command of a squadron of the 2nd Chasseurs à Cheval (on 5 March), before being transferred to the command of a squadron of the 9th Cavalry Regiment on 4 April, a regiment in which he would serve for the next seven and a half years.
broke out, Nansouty soon found himself in the position of having to take provisional command of the whole 9th Cavalry Regiment, as he was the most senior chef d'escadron (Lieutenant-Colonel) of the regiment when the commander, Colonel Badda de Bodosalva, fell ill at the end of May 1792. His regiment was a part of the "Army of the Rhine" and was integrated in General Custine's Corps, which was to march towards the Palatinate, where the first military manoeuvres took place. As Colonel Badda de Bodosalva died at the end of October that year, Nansouty naturally expected to be appointed commander of the regiment in his place. However, Custine appointed the more senior Lieutenant-Colonel Loubat de Bohan as commander of the 9th Cavalry and, despite Nansouty's protestations, maintained his decision. With Loubat in command, the 9th saw action against the Prussia
ns in an engagement at Ober-Flörsheim
on 30 March 1793. After a first successful charge, Nansouty's 1st squadron was counter-charged by enemy hussars; the remaining squadrons under Loubat quickly caught up with Nansouty's squadron and together they broke the enemy. Corps commander Custine was then called up to command the Army of the North
but, before leaving his command, he attempted a last daunting move against the Habsburg army. This required a night march, not usually undertaken by cavalry, and poorly coordinated manoeuvres of cavalry, infantry and artillery. This led to total failure of the action of May 17. During this action, though, the initial charge of the corps cavalry, which included the 9th, successfully took a number of enemy guns. However, a Habsburg
counter-charge forced them back in disorder, which spread panic among the ranks of oncoming infantry.
Despite this setback, a few days later, Lobat de Bohan was promoted to the rank of General and Nansouty again took provisional command of the regiment. When General Alexandre de Beauharnais
took command of the Army of the Rhine, he directed his troops towards Mainz
. Some fighting took place near Landau
and the 9th Cavalry charged several times. Just after this event, the commander of the 2nd Squadron of the regiment invoked the provision of an equivocal new law, demanding that he be given command of the regiment instead of Nansouty. His request was rejected and Nansouty's provisional command was confirmed.
) in command of the 9th Cavalry Regiment, Nansouty took part in several successful cavalry skirmishes around Strasbourg
in November and December of 1793. He then participated to the Battle of Geisberg, at the end of December. Following this battle, General of Division Donnadieu, who had commanded the cavalry division of which Nansouty's regiment was a part, was tried and executed for alleged cowardice in front of the enemy. Nansouty was not involved in the incident. Furthermore, despite being a member of the Ancien Régime nobility, he was not harassed at any time during the radical phase of the French Revolution
.
During the campaigns of 1794, war continued in the Rhineland
, with General Louis Desaix pushing back the Coalition
forces. Nansouty's 9th Cavalry was brigaded together with the 17th Dragoon
Regiment, with General Delmas de La Coste as commander. The brigade performed well against Austrian cavalry in two distinct actions at the end of May of that year. General of Division Michaud, the commander-in-chief of France's Army of the Rhine, noted in his report that Delmas's two regiments showed bravery and intrepidity every time they faced the enemy. In July, the 9th Cavalry was involved in several well-led cavalry actions and Nansouty acquired an excellent reputation, recognised as a disciplinarian and a commander who knew how to drill his men effectively.
Beginning in December 1794, the French forces on the Rhine experienced a difficult period, marked by General Charles Pichegru
's inability to take Mainz
. General Jean Victor Marie Moreau
replaced him as commander-in-chief. Moreau reorganised the army into three corps, plus a reserve, of which the 9th Cavalry was a part. The Reserve Cavalry, under Bourcier
, intervened at the Battle of Ettlingen
, with two squadrons of the 9th being committed and behaving most honourably. The next significant moment of this campaign was the incident that occurred at dawn on 11 August 1796, while Nansouty and his men were temporarily attached to the "Corps of the Centre", under General Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr. Gouvion Saint-Cyr's cavalry exhausted after several days of continuous marching, it was decided that a squadron of the fresher Carabiniers-à-Cheval
would be posted as sentry, an unusual duty for such an elite heavy cavalry
unit. At daybreak, as the Battle of Neresheim opened, Austrian cavalry charged the carabiniers, stunning the unprepared cavalrymen, who fled in panic. Their precipitate flight spread alarm among the ranks of the other cavalry regiments, who were used to seeing the Carabiniers-à-Cheval triumph against the enemy on every occasion. Nansouty did his best to stop the rout of the cavalrymen and to reorganise the other panic-stricken regiments, but the morale of the cavalrymen remained very low throughout the day and Nansouty was forced to give ground in front of the enemy rather than attempt a risky charge with his demoralised troops. This elicited criticism from the Corps commander, General Gouvion Saint-Cyr, who sent his aide-de-camp to Nansouty with orders to charge, which the latter did after taking the necessary time to deploy his men. Under his direction, the four cavalry regiments (2nd and 20th Chasseurs à Cheval and 2nd and 9th Cavalry Regiments), executed a superb charge, which halted the advance of the Austrian first infantry line. The next day, Archduke Charles of Austria retreated from the field. Nansouty's 9th Cavalry had numerous other opportunities to shine during the campaign of 1796 and rose to the occasion every time. He became very fond of his regiment and refused the promotion to brigadier general
several times, preferring to remain colonel
of the 9th cavalry.
in October 1797 marked the end of the War of the First Coalition but the fleeting period of peace ended in 1798, with the formation of the Second Coalition against the French Republic. Nansouty's 9th Cavalry Regiment was successively attached to the Armies "of Germany", "of Mainz
" and then to the "Army of the Danube
", under the command of Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
. In 1799, the regiment, with Nansouty commanding it, was integrated into General of Division Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul
's Cavalry Reserve of the "Army of the Danube". This army was sharply defeated at the Battle of Stockach
and most of its units merged with General André Masséna
's "Army of Switzerland"; the cavalry was sent to the newly formed "Army of the Rhine".
In 1799, France's political and military situation seemed perilous, especially after the losses in southwestern Germany culminating in the Battle at Stockach. By then a colonel, Nansouty accepted the promotion to brigadier general
on 29 August and was given the command of a heavy cavalry brigade formed by the 8th and 9th Cavalry Regiments. Later, Nansouty's brigade was provisionally augmented to four regiments, which, alongside Brigadier General Jean-Louis-Brigitte Espagne
's four regiments, was included in a 3,000-man-strong Cavalry Reserve (the 1st and 2nd Carabiniers-à-Cheval
and the 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 19th and 23rd Cavalry Regiments, with 14 cannons), under command of the 45-year-old General d'Hautpoul. Overall command of the "Army of the Rhine" was given to the promising General Claude Lecourbe
. Lecourbe believed his forces to be insufficient for offensive action, so he decided to fall back. During the retreat, a cavalry combat took place during the Battle of Wiesloch
, where d'Hautpoul's men, and Nansouty's brigade in particular, were heavily engaged. With operations on the Rhine coming to an end, Lecourbe was replaced at the head of the army by Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers
, who reorganised d'Hautpoul's Cavalry Reserve, reducing Nansouty's brigade to its initial strength of two regiments (the 8th and 9th Cavalry).
and installed the French Consulate
. Then, First Consul Bonaparte immediately drew up campaign plans against France's only remaining continental enemy, Austria
. Nansouty was first called to serve in the First Consul's "Army of the Reserve" that was to operate in Italy, but General Jean Victor Marie Moreau
insisted on retaining him in his own "Army of the Rhine", which was to operate in central Germany. Consequently, Nansouty received command of the cavalry (15th Cavalry, 11th Dragoons and 12th Chasseurs à Cheval) of Lecourbe's "Right Wing Corps" of the "Army of the Rhine".
Nansouty's cavalry took part in several actions, beginning with the Battle of Engen
, where the commander was noted for his able and daring manoeuvres, subsequently leading a successful charge against enemy infantry, whom he chased through the streets of the nearby city of Stockach
, the locale of the French Army of the Danube's defeat a year earlier. He patrolled the Tyrol
and there repulsed Prince Reuss-Plauen's forces in an action fought on 14 June 1800, the day when First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte was winning at Marengo further to the south. Nansouty served as a commander of an autonomous unit in the Tyrol until the end of the War of the Second Coalition
, then under the successive command of Generals Molitor
and Gudin
. Nansouty's command included as many as five regiments, after the 6th and 8th Hussars were attached to his force. During this time, he enhanced his solid reputation as an able and adept cavalry commander; General Lecourbe stated that he wanted nobody else at the helm of his cavalry.
initiated a period of peace on the European continent. Meanwhile, however, with the Kingdom of Portugal
allied to the Kingdom of Great Britain
, First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte decided to make a military demonstration against the Lusitanian nation. He ordered the creation of the "Observation Corps of the Gironde". Chosen from a short list of nine men, Nansouty was named commander of the Corps cavalry. With orders to invade Portugal the "Observation Corps of the Gironde" entered Spanish territory, but it soon returned to France, after a treaty of peace was agreed with the Portuguese government. Nansouty then held various commands, before being named general of division on 24 March 1803. He was 35 years old. A military commander in the department of Seine-et-Oise
, he was then sent to command the cavalry (5th Chasseurs à Cheval, 2nd, 4th and 5th Hussar
Regiments) of General Édouard Mortier's "Army of Hanover", a position that he held until the Hanover
ian army was disarmed and the French occupied the city.
On 1 February 1804, Nansouty was called to a command in the cavalry reserve of the "Army of the Ocean coast". The reform of the French cavalry arm had already begun in September 1803, reorganising the first twelve regiments of heavy cavalry
of the French Revolutionary army into regiments of cuirassier
s. The reforms also established a powerful 6-regiment heavy cavalry division, comprising the 1st and 2nd Carabiniers-à-Cheval
, 2nd, 3rd, 9th and 12th Cuirassiers, with command given to Nansouty. On 29 August 1805 this division was renamed the 1st heavy cavalry division of the newly-created Grande Armée. Nansouty was also named Commander of the Legion of Honour on 14 June 1804. In 1805, Napoleon appointed him as First Chamberlain of the Empress, but Nansouty disliked Court life and resigned from the position as soon as he was able to find an acceptable excuse.
. This cavalry reserve included Nansouty's heavy cavalry
division, another heavy cavalry division under Jean-Joseph d'Hautpoul
, three dragoon
divisions, a foot dragoon division and a light cavalry brigade. Nansouty's six-regiment division soon acquired the reputation of being the best administered and most exact in its manoeuvres.
During the initial phase of the campaign, Nansouty's division was at first attached to Marshal Louis Nicolas Davout
's III Corps, with which it crossed the Rhine and then the Danube
, before rejoining Murat's cavalry reserve. Nansouty had a first opportunity to lead his men into combat at the Battle of Wertingen
, where his men were noted for their excellent manoeuvring. Detaching his two Carabiniers-à-Cheval regiments, which he had to leave with Murat, Nansouty and his reduced division followed the Emperor at Augsburg
, where he was attached to Marshal Jean Lannes
's V Corps. In this capacity, they supported Walther's division at the Battle of Schöngrabern
. Then, at the Battle of Wischau
on 25 November 1805, the 9th Cuirassier
s participated in a major cavalry action, alongside d'Hautpoul's cuirassier division, Walther's dragoons and Bessières
's Grenadiers à Cheval
and Chasseurs à Cheval of the Guard cavalry.
territory, Napoleon faced a massed enemy army of some 85,000 men in the vicinity of the town of Austerlitz
. Combat began before dawn on 2 December 1805, and Nansouty had his entire division reunited under his command and again placed in the Cavalry Reserve, under Murat. Nansouty was positioned on the left wing of the army and his command included his usual six regiments of three-squadrons each: Brigadier General
Piston
's 1st and 2nd Carabiniers-à-Cheval (205 and 181 men respectively), Brigadier General La Housaye's 2nd and 9th Cuirassiers (304 and 280 men respectively) and Brigadier General Saint-Germain's 3rd and 12th Cuirassiers (333 and 277 men respectively). Additionally, a horse battery from the 4th company of the 2nd horse artillery regiment was also a part of his division. These men were at first positioned on two lines, behind Caffarelli
's infantry division of Lannes's V Corps.
At around 10:00, after battle had been joined all along the front, Russian General Pyotr Bagration
, who had won the cavalry action a few days earlier at Wissau, pulled his forces back from the advancing enemy infantry from the V Corps. Meanwhile, the Austrian Prince Johann I Joseph, Prince of Liechtenstein threw his 4,000-sabre Austro-Russian cavalry reserve into combat against Murat's 6,000 sabres. The Austro-Russians did not provide infantry or artillery support to the cavalry attack, while Murat's cavalrymen were able to cooperate with Lannes's infantry and artillery. Taking immense casualties after a first series of actions against Lannes's infantry, elements of the Coalition cavalry withdrew and were reformed by their commanders. Joined by Bagration's own cavalry, they set off again, this time aiming directly at Murat's command centre. As the Austro-Russian cavalry was closing in on its target, they were steadily met by four of Nansouty's regiments (the two Carabiniers regiments and the 2nd and 3rd Cuirassiers). The sounds of the two massed cavalries colliding could be heard some distance away. After a brief combat, the Austro-Russian horsemen broke and were driven off. However, Liechtenstein soon reformed his men and, seeing that all the French cavalry was positioned on the left of Caffarelli's infantry division, he launched his men against the right wing of this division, but was instantly met with sustained musket
volleys that disorganised his cavalrymen. Seeing this development, Nansouty wheeled right with his men and crossed the infantry intervals by platoon
s, and then formed his men on two battle lines in front of the infantry. Three charges ensued in brief succession, with Nansouty skilfully committing the 1st and 2nd Carabiniers-à-Cheval and the 2nd Cuirassiers from his first line, then the 9th Cuirassiers and Saint-Germain's brigade from his second line. The Austro-Russian cavalry was finally broken and repulsed for good. After another series of well-coordinated cavalry and infantry actions, Murat and Lannes were able to force Bagration's entire force to withdraw, with a loss 2,000 men (approximately half of the force) and 16 guns.
On the French side, despite their repeated charges on this day, the 1st heavy cavalry division registered only relatively minor casualties, a testament to the skill of its commanders. Piston's 1st Brigade registered 2 killed and 41 wounded, La Houssaye's 2nd Brigade registered 1 man killed and 25 wounded, while Saint-Germain's 3rd Brigade registered 47 killed and 28 wounded. The regiment that suffered the highest casualty rate was by far the 3rd cuirassiers, with 44 killed and 27 wounded, for a casualty rate of 21 per cent. Nansouty's charge was rated "superb and brilliant" in the report drawn up by General Augustin Daniel Belliard
, Murat's chief of staff, and Nansouty was subsequently mentioned in the army bulletin for this action and named Grand Officier de la Légion d'honneur on 25 December. Additionally, of the six colonels in his division, three were promoted to Brigadier General and three received the cross of Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur. Following the peace of Pressburg
with the Austrian Empire
in late December 1805, Nansouty's division was stationed in Bavaria
, where they took winter quarters.
As the War of the Fourth Coalition
broke out in September 1806, Emperor
Napoleon I
took his Grande Armée into the heart of Germany
in a memorable campaign against Prussia
. Comprising the same regiments as the year before (1st and 2nd Carabiniers-à-Cheval
, 2nd, 3rd, 9th and 12th cuirassiers), Nansouty's 1st heavy cavalry
division was again a part of Joachim Murat
's cavalry reserve. At first, due to the extraordinary speed of Napoleon's operations, the 1st heavy cavalry division and one of the two cuirassier brigades of d'Hautpoul's
2nd heavy cavalry division did not arrive at the front line in time to participate in the Battle of Jena. Beginning with the evening of 14 October, Nansouty's cavalry pursued the routed Prussia
n army, following an enemy corps of 10,000 infantrymen and 3 cavalry regiments into the streets of Erfurt
on 15 October. With the enemy trapped in the city, Colonel Préval of the 3rd cuirassiers negotiated the capitulation of Erfurt
by nightfall, which resulted in the capture of 12,000 prisoners of war
(including 6,000 wounded) and 65 cannons.
Resuming its pursuit of the Prussian army, Nansouty's division was at Potsdam
beginning on 25 October, and two days later they participated to the triumphant parade of the Grande Armée in Berlin
, before being reviewed by the Emperor on 30 October. Beginning on 7 November, Nansouty and his division were with Murat, heading for the river Vistula
, which they crossed on 22 December with the rest of the cavalry reserve. After a brief and successful cavalry action at the Lapazin bridge, they tried to get to the Battle of Golymin
in time in time for the action, but were delayed by the thick mud and by the slower dragoon division that preceded them; they arrived after the battle. The division then took winter quarters in Warsaw
, but with Murat on sick leave, Nansouty was soon called to replace him, taking command of Lasalle's light cavalry division and the dragoon divisions of Klein
and Milhaud
. These divisions were placed in the first line of the army, and Nansouty, although formally placed under the overall command of Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult, had orders to act independently and report directly to the Emperor if any unforeseen and extraordinary events should occur. Nansouty handled this new mission with care, personally patrolling the front line and deciding where to place the picket
s of light cavalry that were to cover the infantry outposts.
and too late to take part in any action. On 14 February, Nansouty learned of the death of his comrade and former commander during the Revolutionary Wars
, General d'Hautpoul, who had been fatally wounded during the heroic cavalry charges at Eylau. After the battle, the Emperor decided that the army was to take winter quarters. To ensure the safety of his outposts, he sent Murat with a powerful column, including Nansouty's men, with the mission of pushing back any enemy they might find. A short skirmish involving the 1st heavy cavalry division occurred at Wolfsdorf on 10 March, before it was decided that all the heavy cavalry would be sent to the lower Vistula, where they were to rest and be reinforced.
With its ranks replenished after the winter actions, the six-regiment division under Nansouty numbered, on 1 June 1807, no less than 3,257 men. It was by far the most powerful heavy cavalry division of the Cavalry Reserve, which then included two other such divisions, the 2nd under Saint-Sulpice
and a newly added 3rd, under Espagne
. As military operation resumed later in 1807, Nasouty's division was hastily directed towards the town of Deppen, where Marshal Michel Ney
had managed to retreat with his Corps, after energetically extricating himself from a dangerous situation
, with surprisingly few losses. With Ney's Corps, the Cavalry Reserve and the Guard, Napoleon moved towards Guttstadt, where on 9 June he found a large combined-arms enemy force. Murat took Lasalle's light horse and Nansouty's heavy cavalry and launched a series of charges that drove back the enemy force. Murat continued to press on and pushed the enemy into the streets of Guttstadt, where he penetrated with the cavalry at nightfall. Having fought well with his men, Nansouty was rested the next day, leaving all the action at the Battle of Heilsberg
to Espagne's 3rd Heavy Cavalry division.
At the beginning of June 1807, the Emperor reassessed his strategic situation and decided that he needed to move northeast, in order to prevent Bennigsen
's Russian army from using the bridge at Friedland
to cross the Alle
river. If the Russians managed to cross the Alle
river at Friedland, they could then move closer to their Prussian allies, who were based in Königsberg
. Napoleon drew up a plan, giving Marshal Murat two army corps and a powerful cavalry reserve, with orders to march on Königsberg, while sending the rest of the troops towards Friedland. Leading the thrust towards Friedland was Marshal Jean Lannes
's Reserve Corps (two infantry divisions and one cavalry brigade), with Grouchy's dragoons and Nansouty's horse carabiniers and cuirassiers temporarily attached. In Murat's absence, Grouchy was the senior cavalry commander and was to take overall command of all the cavalry that remained with the Emperor.
after the first engagements and was directed towards the strategic village of Heinrichsdorf. This village needed to be held, as it protected Lannes's communications with the rest of Napoleon's army. Grouchy also directed his dragoon division towards the village and was shocked to find it in enemy hands and Nansouty's men retreating at a trot, without even attempting to contain the enemy or to cover the route that represented the corps' communication line. In fact, Nansouty had arrived not long before and had been instructed to place himself at Heinrichsdorf, without further instructions and without being informed of what was happening on the right. As Russian infantry and cavalry were boldly pressing him, he became concerned with his own lines of communication and thus ordered his men back, to avoid being cut off.
However, Nansouty's move compromised Lannes's entire plan, which counted on powerful reinforcements arriving through Heinrichsdorf. An alarmed Lannes immediately sent one of his aides de camp to Grouchy urging him to stop the enemy from cutting his communications with the Emperor, whatever the cost. Grouchy duly took command of Nansouty's leading squadrons, ordering them back to their initial position, then launched a desperate but successful charge with his own dragoons, arriving in the streets of the village and cutting off its Russian defenders. Grouchy's dragoons became disorganised and were badly positioned following this sudden charge, and the Russian cavalry countercharged them, but Nansouty arrived just in time and the French repulsed the Russian cavalry, momentarily securing the position. A lively argument ensued between the two cavalry commanders. Grouchy invoked his seniority and position as commander of the cavalry and criticised Nansouty's earlier decision to withdraw. Nansouty countered by saying that he had superior experience at handling cavalry. When combat resumed, the quarrel did not prevent Nansouty from performing brilliantly under Grouchy's command during the dramatic series of events that followed. Having been repulsed earlier, the Russians decided to force the position at Heinrichsdorf, and they assembled a strong infantry force preceded by no less than 60 cavalry squadrons, plus around 2,000 Cossacks. To counter this move, Grouchy opted for deception, luring some of the enemy cavalry away from the infantry. Then, Grouchy charged the enemy horse from the front; simultaneously Nansouty hit them from the flank and together Grouchy and Nansouty repulsed them. Despite numerous charges and countercharges, the French cavalry maintained the upper hand.
After the arrival of the Emperor with significant reinforcements, the time was right for a general counterattack. The Emperor planned his main attack against the Russian left and he wanted to prevent the enemy from transferring reinforcements from their right wing to their battered left. To that effect, Grouchy received orders to incessantly harass the enemy before him, in order to prevent Bennigsen from redeploying them on the left wing. Orders also required Grouchy to silence the enemy guns pounding the French left. In this difficult task, Grouchy was perfectly seconded by Nansouty, and together they ended to the Russian cannonade in this sector. Later, Grouchy's report expressed admiration for Nansouty's actions, adding that the latter had "gloriously repaired" his earlier error. Nansouty was also mentioned in the 79th Bulletin of the Grande Armée. After the battle, the 1st heavy cavalry division joined in the pursuit of the Russian army to the Nieman river, but the Treaties of Tilsit
in July soon ended hostilities.
. On 23 September, he received another 5,882 Francs on the Empire's Grand Livre. A count of the Empire from 10 March 1808, Nansouty was offered two additional endowments, one of 25,000 Francs, paid by the Kingdom of Westphalia
, and the second of 10,000 Francs, paid by the Zeven domain in Hannover. He also received an endowment of 100,000 Francs for the acquisition of a Paris
ian Hôtel particulier
; Nansouty bought the Hôtel du Président Duret in the Faubourg Saint-Germain
, a neighbourhood inhabited by the new elite of Imperial France. Indeed, first-rate military figures such as the Viceroy of Italy
Eugène
, Marshals Davout
and Lannes
and Generals Rapp
and Legrand also acquired residences in Faubourg Saint-Germain.
Additionally, in 1808, he was offered the position of First Squire of the Emperor in Napoleon's Military Household
, a dignity that offered an annual revenue of 30,000 Francs and which gained importance when the Grand Squire, General Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt
, was sent to Saint-Petersburg as ambassador. Napoleon allegedly chose Nansouty for his elegant manners and education, aristocratic posture and talent for administration. In his capacity as First Squire, Nansouty thus had to accompany the Emperor during the latter's short campaign in Spain (from November 1808 to early January 1809). There, he was in charge of several administrative tasks linked with managing the Emperor's stable services and suite and commanding his orderly officers. The Emperor's aides-de-camp had their own aides-de-camp, who were also placed under the command of the First Squire. Although never very far away from the Emperor in a campaign that included many battles, Nansouty himself never exercised a field command during this campaign, and in January 1809, he accompanied his master back to France, as the outbreak of the War of the Fifth Coalition
was imminent.
's forces now entangled in the bloody Peninsular War
, the Austrian Empire
believed that its best opportunity to avenge the humiliating defeat of 1805 had finally come. The Austrians were looking to defeat France and regain their former influence in Italy and Germany. In early 1809, the Austrian war preparations were so intense that Napoleon was forced to leave Spain and head back to Paris
to reorganise his main army in Germany. In spring, Nansouty was therefore recalled to the command of 1st of the three heavy cavalry
divisions of the Cavalry Reserve, placed this time under the command of Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bessières
. As the War of the Fifth Coalition
broke out, Nansouty's division was soon detached from the Reserve and temporarily attached to Marshal Louis Nicolas Davout
's III Corps, the force that was assigned the most difficult tasks during the early military operations of this war. As Napoleon then ordered a concentration of the army at Ratisbon
, Nansouty's division was once again put under the command of Bessières and sent to serve with the Bavarian
army. After his initial victories at Abensberg
and Landshut
, Napoleon concentrated the bulk of his army, including Nansouty's men, at Eckmühl
, where Davout was waiting.
Napoleon faced Archduke Charles
's Austrian army at the Battle of Eckmühl
, on 21–22 April 1809. On 22 April, the second day of the battle, Nansouty was at first sent to the Schierling plain, in support of Bavarian General Deroy
, who, after several failed attempts, managed to take the town of Eckmühl
from the enemy. Apart from the Schierling plain, the terrain at Eckmühl was very uneven and hilly, with dangerously steep slopes, which made cavalry action here improper. Yet, it was here that one of the most memorable cavalry actions of the entire Napoleonic Wars
was to take place. It all began on the slopes next to Eckmühl, where a first brief cavalry engagement occurred, as Bavarian and Württemberger
cavalry encountered and charged Austrian cavalry. The Austrians won out and the Bavarians and Württembergers retreated and reformed in the vicinity of the two French heavy cavalry divisions present. These two divisions, the 1st under Nansouty (1st and 2nd Carabiniers-à-cheval
, 2nd, 3rd, 9th and 12th Cuirassiers) and the 2nd under Saint-Sulpice
(four regiments strong), were placed next to one another, forming five lines, with their regiments in column, one in front of the other. These men were ordered forward, up the slope and onto the plateau where the light cavalry had been repulsed moments earlier. Arriving on the plateau at a gallop, the cavalry overtook Marshal Lannes
's infantry, who admiringly cheered "Vive les cuirassiers" ("Long live the cuirassiers") and applauded as the cavalry galloped past them,. With their two frontline regiments now deployed in line and with the German light cavalry protecting their flanks, the two heavy cavalry divisions clashed into whatever Austrian cavalry they could find on the plateau, repulsing them with ease. This was, however, only the prelude of a much larger cavalry combat.
In order to protect his retreat, Archduke Charles of Austria reunited his entire cavalry reserve, 44 squadrons in all, on either side of the Ratisbon road, next to the village of Eggolsheim
. Between 19:00 20:00 in the evening, Napoleon ordered his cavalry to disperse the enemy horse from this position. In preparation of the charge, Nansouty formed five of his regiments in two lines: three regiments in the first line and two in the second line, leaving his remaining regiment with Saint-Sulpice. Saint-Sulpice's division was on Nansouty's right and it remained formed in regiment column formations, while the light cavalry was protecting the flanks of the whole. In all, the French had 48 squadrons, and, as they advanced, they were met by intense artillery fire from the Austrian batteries and then vigorously charged by the Gottesheim cuirassier regiment. Seeing the enemy charging, Nansouty ordered his squadrons forward towards the enemy, but at a gentle trot
. Then, as soon as the Austrians were at about one hundred paces, the frontline regiment of Carabiniers-à-Cheval
halted, loaded their carbine
s and fired a salvo from thirty or forty paces, then drew their swords and joined their fellow cuirassier
s in an energetic charge. As Nansouty led, Saint-Sulpice followed and, despite the vigour and determination of the Austrian cavalry, they were repulsed after a brief hand-to-hand combat. Coming in support of the Gottesheim cuirassiers, the Kaiser cuirassier regiment shared the same fate, with Sitpsicz's hussar
s and Vincent's chevaulegers also repulsed. A generalised and bloody mêlée then occurred under the moonlight, with the sabre hits on the steel cuirass
es producing sparkles in the night. Austrian General Scnheller was wounded during this action and General Suterheim, commanding the entire Austrian cavalry, only just escaped capture. The Austrian cavalry was repulsed and pushed into the marshes beyond, subsequently retreating towards Köfering
, with the bulk of Archduke Charles's forces retreating towards Ratisbon.
The pursuit resumed the next day at dawn, and was followed by yet another action at the Battle of Ratisbon
, where the Austrians tried to delay the French pursuit. After fierce fighting, during which Nansouty's and Saint-Sulpice's men successfully charged the enemy cavalry three times, the French captured the citadel at Ratisbon, but saw the Austrians skilfully retreating. Nansouty was left at Ratisbon with Davout, to observe the retreat of Archduke Charles.
not far from Vienna
and attacked Archduke Charles's Austrian army, situated on the northern bank of the river, in what became known as the Battle of Aspern-Essling
. The French were nonetheless critically outnumbered and it soon became obvious that they would have a hard time just holding out. Nansouty could only get one of his brigades, Saint-Germain's 3rd and 12th cuirassiers, across the Danube for the action on 21 May. He found the heroic cuirassiers of General Jean-Louis-Brigitte Espagne
charging, as they had done all day long, in a desperate attempt to stop Austrian attacks on the thin French battle line. Espagne had just been killed in action and his exhausted and depleted squadrons needed to be relieved. Nansouty at once brought forward Saint-Germain's squadrons and charged the enemy infantry, allowing the army to maintain itself on the position.
On the second day of the battle, 22 May, Nansouty received his second cuirassier brigade, Doumerc
's 2nd and 9th regiments. During the morning, having received some reinforcements, Napoleon sent Marshal Lannes's Corps forward, in an attack against the enemy line. Nansouty's and Lasalle's cavalry protected the infantry columns, charging the enemy cavalry to clear their path. However, at around 21:00 in the morning, news that the great bridge over the Danube had broken, making the arrival of further reinforcements virtually impossible, forced Napoleon to call off his attack and order a phased retreat. The situation of the French army was critical, with Marshal Lannes fatally wounded, and a great number of losses in men. It took all the skill of Nansouty and the other cavalry commanders to contain the formidable Austrian onslaught in order to allow the rest of the army to gradually disengage. After most of the army had safely crossed an arm of the Danube onto the island of Lobau
, Nansouty's men were also withdrawn from the battlefield during the night, with the French cavalry subsequently celebrated for their role in preventing a catastrophic defeat that day.
and at night they camped behind the Imperial Guard. The next day, 6 July, Nansouty was at first directed to support Davout, on the French right, but when it became clear that the latter's sector was not threatened by the arrival of enemy reinforcements, they were ordered back into reserve in a central position on the battlefield, not far from the village of Aderklaa
. Then, as the situation on the French left rapidly deteriorated, they were called into action, when Napoleon ordered Marshal Bessières
, commander of the Cavalry Reserve, to launch his men in a charge against the Austrians menacing his left. With time at the essence, Bessières opted not to wait for the Guard cavalry and, with his other two heavy cavalry divisions assigned to other sectors of the battlefield, he decided to lead forward only Nansouty's men. This division was indeed very strong: 24 squadrons, more than 4,000 men, including Brigadier General
Defrance
's 1st and 2nd carabiniers-à-cheval, Brigadier General Doumerc's 2nd and 9th cuirassiers and Brigadier General Berckheim's 3rd and 12th cuirassiers.
Bessières and Nansouty led these men forward, through a hail of cannonball
s and case-shot, with the carabiniers-à-cheval at the front. Finding a weaker spot in the Austrian line, they pierced it and stormed past the enemy infantry formed in squares, sabering the Georger Grenzer
battalion as they went along their way. However, many of the French cavalry did not manage to penetrate through the formidable masses of Austrian infantry, so Nansouty was now commanding a much diminished force. Showing great skill in handling his men, Nansouty then wheeled right and charged Liechtenstein's artillery line. However, the Austrian cavalry promptly intervened, spearheaded by the Rosenberg chevaulegers and the Kronprinz cuirassier regiments, which caught the carabiniers-à-cheval in flank and repulsed them, pursuing them back to their lines. The costly repulse of Nansouty's division did not dishearten Bessières, who was preparing another rapid charge, now with the support of elements of the Guard cavalry. This charge never came, as the Marshal's horse was killed by a cannonball, with Bessières also hit and carried unconscious behind the lines. With his commander presumed dead, Nansouty did not know what the Emperor's orders were and thus promptly decided to pull back his men, to avoid further damage to his already battered division.
This however was not to be the end of General Nansouty's action at the great Battle of Wagram. Although the great cavalry attack had done much to ease the pressure on Napoleon's left-centre, the latter's situation remained critical. The Emperor thus launched the Corps of General Jacques MacDonald in an attack against the Austrian right-centre. MacDonald's attack formation, formed by chance more than by any tactical forethought, was a huge infantry attack column or square, comprising all his divisions in a deep formation that was highly unusual for Napoleonic warfare. Four squadrons of Nansouty's carabiniers-à-cheval were sent to support the flank of this attack, with the rest of his division further back. Realising that his advance is hampered by intense Austrian artillery fire, MacDonald aimed to clear the enemy guns before him, asking for a cavalry charge from Walther
's Guard cavalry on his right and Nansouty's 1st heavy cavalry division on his left. With no direct orders from the Emperor and his commander, Marshal Bessières, out of action, Walther opted not to move, while Nansouty did send his men forward but, having been positioned too far back, he arrived only after the enemy guns had moved away.
Nansouty's division suffered a very high casualty rate at the Battle of Wagram, with more men and horses lost than the other two heavy cavalry divisions combined. Losses in horses were extremely high, with 1,141 animals killed or injured, while losses in men were also significant, despite the fact that only the carabiniers-à-cheval really came into contact with the enemy. Overall, Nansouty's division lost 164 men killed and 436 wounded. Foremost of all, the highly-battered two carabiniers-à-cheval regiments had no more than 300 horses standing between themselves by the end of the day, for an equine casualty rate of 77 percent, with the 9th and 12th cuirassiers also suffering high casualties. Bessières's charge, hastily organised with only the division of Nansouty, through murderous artillery fire and against masses of infantry prepared to receive them, had less tactical effect than at Aspern-Essling, but it did win Napoleon valuable time, allowing him to retake the initiative in this battle.
be given the steel cuirass
, in a bid to cancel out what he saw as being a state of inferiority of these troops vis-à-vis their fellow cuirassiers. Nansouty's initiative was approved and was enforced in 1810.
With the peace of Vienna
signed between the French Empire
and the Austrian Empire
in October, Nansouty was ordered to leave the command of his division to General Bruyères and retake his position of First Squire alongside the Emperor (17 October 1809). However, with the return of the Grand Squire Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt
, the role of the First Squire was much diminished. As a result, in 1811 Nansouty was given an additional function, that of General Inspector of cavalry. Very active in exercising this function, he soon became reputed for his strictness and for his detailed knowledge and invaluable experience that he had of this arm. Nonetheless, war was, once more, not far away and, on 19 October 1811, Nansouty was called to the command of the 2nd and 4th cuirassier
divisions of the "Observation Corps of the Elba
", under the command of Marshal Louis Nicolas Davout
. Then, with the reorganisation of the Grande Armée in April 1812, Nansouty was named at the command of the I Cavalry Corps
.
in 1812, the Grande Armée included, alongside the usual combined-arms Army Corps, four large Cavalry Reserve Corps, commanded respectively by Generals Nansouty (Ist), Montbrun (IInd), Grouchy (IIIrd) and La Tour Maubourg
(IVth Corps). This innovation has been much criticised after this campaign and, in the words of Marshal Marmont, it had the only merit of "presenting an extraordinary spectacle that astonished the eye."
During this campaign, Nansouty's I Cavalry Corps
was composed of:
Having crossed the Niemen river with his Corps, Nansouty would continuously march under the command of Joachim Murat
during this campaign, preceding the advance of the army and taking Wilna as they advanced. Despite marching constantly alongside Murat and Emperor Napoleon, Nansouty's Ist Corps of cavalry reserve saw little action, combating brilliantly in a vanguard action at Ostrovno and then briefly at Vitebsk
. An incident involving some of Nansouty's light cavalry occurred during the combat at Vitebsk, when the 8th Hussars and 16th Chasseurs à cheval turned and fled before the Russian light horse. This was evidence that the division of Bruyères, of which they were a part, had been much used by always being placed at the vanguard of the army, resulting in the loss many of the best and bravest troopers. Despite Nansouty's best efforts, the extremely long and exhausting marches, the torrential rains and the absence of proper fodder took their toll on the Ist Cavalry Corps, with numbers reduced to half by this time. Additionally, just like the other Cavalry Corps commanders, Nansouty rarely had all his troops under direct control, which led to cavalry being used improperly at times.
With his three divisions reunited on 7 September 1812, Nansouty's Ist Cavalry Corps saw action at the Battle of Borodino
. He was placed on the French right, in second line, behind the Corps of Marshal Davout and, after Murat managed to take two of the redoubt
s on the Russian left, Nansouty placed his men on the right of this position and then supported the advance of the right wing of the army. With the Russians making an offensive comeback, Nansouty placed himself at the head of the heavy divisions of Saint-Germain and Valence and charged and while doing so a bullet pierced one of his knees. This was Nansouty's first battle wound and it was serious enough to end his active role during this campaign. He was transported to Moscow
following the battle and although still wounded, on 10 October, he was entrusted with the mission of commanding the convoy that was to take the wounded generals and colonels, as well as the main trophies captured, behind the lines. During this mission, he was exposed to great danger, to famine and extreme cold, which impacted his already frail health. He was then allowed to return to France and recover from his injury.
joined the Russians, forming a Sixth Coalition. Hostilities thus continued in early 1813 but Nansouty's wound did not yet allow him to return to action, so he was offered the prestigious position of Colonel-General
of dragoon
s (16 January), in replacement of General Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers
, who had just died of exhaustion. Nansouty's wound was very serious but he had been very lucky: the bullet that pierced his knee only tore through flesh, leaving his kneecap intact. Having missed the first part of the campaign, General Nansouty was recalled to a field command once his knee wound was cured, towards mid-1813. He accepted to take the helm of the Guard cavalry, with a complement of 5,000 sabres, and including Guyot
's Grenadiers-à-cheval
, Letort
's Dragons, Lefebvre-Desnouettes
Chasseurs-à-cheval
and Édouard Colbert
's Chevau-légers lanciers.
, with the Chasseurs-à-cheval and Colbert
's Chevau-légers lanciers encountering the enemy in several isolated cavalry actions, but the first serious action came only at the Battle of Dresden
, where Nansouty's Guard cavalry supported Marshal Michel Ney
's attack on the extreme left, in conjunction with Marshal Édouard Mortier
's "Young Guard" infantry divisions.
However, the Guard cavalry was not needed as a whole before the epic "Battle of Nations" at Leipzig
. Placed in reserve at first, the Guard cavalry and artillery had to spring into action at once, after Napoleon received news of the Saxon defection
. With the Saxons now in the Coalition camp and firing at the soldiers who moments before had been their allies, the situation of some of the French troops became desperate. The position of General Durutte
's division, placed close to Saxon lines, was particularly tenuous and Napoleon soon came to its aid, with Nansouty in command of the Guard cavalry and horse artillery. Nansouty launched an impetuous charge with some of his regiments, the Grenadiers-à-cheval, Dragons and Chevau-légers and the Saxons were unable to hold out in this sector. However, the situation changed on 19 October, with the untimely explosion of a bridge over the Elster, the main retreat line for the French rearguard, which was now blocked in the city of Leipzig. The Guard cavalry extricated itself from the field of battle and was very useful in covering the retreat of the remaining French forces.
With the Grande Armée in full retreat, another dangerous situation occurred on 29 October. With Bavaria
now also in the camp of the Coalition, an Austro
-Bavarian army of some 45,000 men, under General Karl Philipp von Wrede
, who had fought under the command of the Emperor during the previous campaigns, tried to block the French retreat and delay the French force until the arrival of the rest of the Coalition forces. Wrede had the means necessary to achieve his goal, as he possessed a numerous artillery of about one hundred pieces and a powerful cavalry of 50 squadrons. In comparison, the French forces were much dispersed and only a few units remained cohesive and combat-capable. During the ensuing Battle of Hanau
, Wrede placed his troops in front of the forest of Lamboi, through which he expected that the French would retreat. He also positioned almost all of his cavalry on the left, placing it under the command of Field Marshal-Lieutenant Spleny. Despite his numeric inferiority, Napoleon sent forward a part of his men against Bavarians deployed in the forest before him, but the intervention of the Foot Guards was soon required. The Bavarians had fought alongside the French in the past and the sight of the fearsome Bearskin
s of French Guardsmen shook their morale and they abandoned their position in the forest after a brief fight. But, with the fire of a Bavarian grand battery
upon them, the French infantry soon had to stop. Napoleon positioned General Le Noury
's artillery in battery and brought in support General Drouot
with the horse artillery of the Guard, as well as other pieces, constituting a grand battery of some 50 pieces that was soon able to respond adequately to the Austro-Bavarian cannonade. Nansouty, with the Guard Dragoons and Lancers, was instructed to protect this battery from the enemy and thus positioned his men behind the guns.
Seeing this inauspicious development, Wrede sent his cavalry, no less than 7,000 men, to charge Drouot's grand battery. The steady French canister
fire was devastating and many Coalition squadrons turned back to safety. Some of them did manage to get to the French guns and crossed the battery, with the Guard cavalry immediately countercharging and driving them off. With the gun line now out of danger, Nansouty, with the aid of Sebastiani's cuirassiers launched a pursuit of the repulsed enemy horse, encountering and breaking an Austrian cuirassier regiment, Knesevich's Dragoon regiment and two Bavarian chevaulegers regiments, all under the personal command of Field Marshal-Lieutenant Spleny. Then, with a manoeuvre resembling that of Kellermann
at Marengo, Nansouty wheeled his men left and rushed onto the enemy infantry, breaking them. The Grenadiers-à-Cheval were in the thick of the fighting and, with an offensive comeback of the Bavarian cavalry, they were momentarily in a dangerous situation, but were duly rescued by the Gardes d'Honneur regiment. Nansouty then took his entire cavalry and broke the remaining enemy squares and cavalry, pushing some of these men into the Kinzig
river. Meanwhile, Nansouty's action left Sebastiani free to silence the Bavarian grand battery, skilfully using Saint-Germain's cuirassier division and Exelmans
's light division of his Corps. Nansouty received a light wound during this battle, but his role at Hanau is compared by a Russian author to that of Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz
at the Battle of Zorndorf
.
and 2nd Chevau-légers Lanciers regiments, under General Édouard Colbert
, the Chasseurs à Cheval
, under General Laferrière, the Grenadiers à Cheval
under General Guyot
, the Dragons, under General Letort
, as well as the entire Guard horse artillery.
These men soon saw action on 27 January, at the Battle of Brienne
. Here, two companies of horse artillery, under an officer called Marin, a veteran of the campaigns in Italy and Egypt and personal favourite of the Emperor, were almost completely destroyed, with their guns and commander captured by the enemy. Napoleon was extremely irritated about the failure of the heavy cavalry
of the Guard to protect these gunners. A further loss of cannon of the Guard artillery occurred at the Battle of La Rothière
, a rare battlefield defeat for Napoleon. Here, a part of the Guard cavalry charged and was initially successful against enemy cavalry but, faced by steady ranks of the Russian and Prussian Guardsmen and with its flank threatened by enemy dragoon
s, it soon had to withdraw, leaving behind some of its cannon.
After rejoining the Emperor at Champaubert
, Nansouty took part to the Battle of Montmirail
, where he was at first instructed to protect the artillery. He then joined in the attack of the Guard infantry on the farm of Ėpine-au-Bois, where he suddenly wheeled left with his men and fell upon unprepared enemy infantry, charging home, routing these troops and subsequently pursuing the fugitives. This combined attack of the Guard resulted in a great number of prisoners and captured enemy guns, with Nansouty receiving a light wound in the process. A part of his men then took part to the Battle of Château-Thierry
, where the Emperor ordered the Guard cavalry to make a turning move against the enemy left, and where Nansouty's subordinates General Letort and Colonel Curély
brilliantly broke several enemy squares. Then, on 14 February, Nansouty personally led a brilliant charge at the Battle of Vauchamps
, where he supported Grouchy in a cavalry action that decided the battle. Charging Blücher
's men from the front, Nansouty allowed Grouchy to magnificently fall behind the enemy columns, which they both then sabred and crushed, with the Guard cavalry subsequently participating to a highly successful pursuit. Enemy losses reached a staggering 9,000-10,000 casualties, with 25 cannons lost. The Emperor was radiant following this battle, but, by nightfall, his mood changed when he found out of the loss of some Guard horse artillerymen. These men had been captured during their march and it was reported that their capture resulted from General Guyot (one of Nansouty's subordinates) failing to provide an escort and a guide for them. In Nansouty's presence, a fuming Napoleon summoned Guyot and then chastised him for the repeated losses in cannon during the previous battles, as well as for various other shortcomings, such as failing to properly escort the Emperor. After an angry tirade, Napoleon promptly axed Guyot and announced Nansouty that General Exelmans
would replace Guyot at the helm of his Old Guard heavy cavalry. This episode apparently strained relations between Emperor Napoleon and General Nansouty.
Always in the thick of the action during this campaign, on 24 February, Nansouty was present near the city of Troyes
. Negotiations for an armistice
were ongoing in a village nearby and, despite formal orders to continue the fighting, the two armies had ceased the combat. Nansouty then took his men and attacked enemy troops, charging into the streets of the village where the negotiations were taking place. The French envoy to the armistice talks, Monsieur de Flahaut
saw this development and found Nansouty, bitterly protesting against the latter's action. Nansouty responded that the Emperor was doubtlessly aware that negotiations were indeed taking place there, but that he had orders to capture the position without further delay. On 27 February, the Emperor again moved against Blücher's Prussians, leaving a part of his forces near Troyes to observe the movement of Prince of Schwarzenberg
's Austrian army. Nansouty, with the Guard cavalry, accompanied the Emperor, ensuring his protection and clearing his way after a bloody cavalry skirmish at Château-Thierry on 3 March. Another cavalry skirmish occurred on 5 March, with Nansouty repulsing a numerous enemy cavalry, 3,000-4,000 troopers, and capturing the bridge of Berry-au-Bac
, over the Aisne, despite the enemy cannonade. Once across the Aisne with a few Polish lancer platoons, Nansouty launched a heroic pursuit, capturing enemy cannons and munitions, and taking a significant number of prisoners, among whom was the teenage Russian Prince Gagarin
.
On 7 March, at the Battle of Craonne
, another incident occurred, seemingly indicating that there had been some sort of disagreement between the General and the Emperor. As the battle was raging, General Belliard
from the Emperor's staff, came to Nansouty and told him that he had orders to relieve him of command, should his health prevent him from exercising his duties. Nansouty responded that he was indeed ill, but that he was able to retrain command. Although in unusually and noted bad humour after this incident, Nansouty subsequently led a most brilliant action at Craonne. He was ordered to cross bogged and broken terrain, climb a steep incline, with his cavalry and artillery, in order to fall on the enemy's right flank. Managing to bring his cavalrymen on the ridge, Nansouty formed them in line
and launched them against the enemy, pushing back in disorder two Russian battalions. Nansouty was again wounded during this action, but this injury was not very serious and he continued to energetically lead his men. Napoleon then allegedly ordered Nansouty to assault a redoubt
, under the most murderous fire. Nonetheless, Nansouty ordered his men to halt and advanced alone towards the position. Asked to explain his behaviour, he replied that he would not send his men to die in vain and that he would be attacking alone. Napoleon at once revoked his order.
This was to be the last military engagement of Nansouty's long career. On 8 March, on the eve of the Battle of Laon
, Nansouty was at Chavignon
, nine kilometres from Laon
, where the Emperor was also present and, although the circumstances of Nansouty's departure are unclear, it is certain that he left this village, and his command, that very day. Two days later, Napoleon wrote to his War Minister to inform him that General Nansouty's health did not allow him to exercise his military duties and that he was authorised to take sick leave in Paris. General Belliard had taken interim command of the Guard cavalry during the battle of Laon, with General Sébastiani subsequently given permanent command.
on 8 March, three days later, Nansouty was a part of a convoy of several officers, heading to Paris. On the road to the capital, they were attacked by a pulk of Cossacks, which managed to disperse the convoy's escort. Nansouty and his officers fought their way out sabre in hand and made a run for it towards the river Aisne. Reaching the riverbanks, the General got isolated and, as he was preparing to cross the river on horseback, his horse was shot under him, throwing the General to the ground. Nevertheless, he stood up and swam to the other bank of the river and safety. This event, as well as his tireless activity during the campaign, seem to suggest that his health was not the main reason of his departure from the army. It is also unlikely that the Emperor himself decided to replace him, given Belliard's tentative approach at the Battle of Craonne
and this General's subsequent provisional status as commander, after Nansouty's departure. It is thus more likely that Nansouty resigned, following his disputes with the Emperor.
General Nansouty arrived in Paris and there he remained during the Bourbon Restoration
that followed Napoleon's abdication. He was one of the first general officers to swear allegiance to the new King of France, Louis XVIII, who would bestow a number of honours upon the General. His gesture encouraged many other generals to also swear allegiance to the new regime. On 12 April 1814, Nansouty was named extraordinary commissioner of the King in the 2nd military division, then, on 20 April, became a member of the commission that was in charge of the dissolution of Napoleon's Imperial Guard. He was given the distinction of Knight of the Order of Saint Louis
on 1 June and on 6 July he was called to a command in the Military Household of the King of France
, as captain-lieutenant of the 1st company of musketeers
(grey musketeers). Despite these positions, Nansouty's financial situation declined severely under the Restoration. The General had had a highly honourable behaviour during the Napoleonic Wars
and, unlike some of his fellow Napoleonic Generals, had drawn no revenues from pillaging. He had also been living a lofty and very costly lifestyle, which he considered normal for a nobleman such as himself. Nansouty had been earning a high revenue from his various positions during the Empire
and additionally Napoleon was constantly paying high endowments to his best generals. Napoleonic endowments aside, Nansouty's salaries during the first four months of 1814 had brought him no less than 104,000 Francs, but, under the Bourbons, his dignity as Colonel-General
of dragoons had been suppressed and transformed into a honorific title of Inspector of dragoons, leaving him with only a 25,000 Francs salary as captain-lieutenant in the King's Military Household.
faith and to have asked that his son be recommended for the King's protection, as a favour for his services. Just before passing away, he told his son that his heritage would be to follow his example and live an honourable and blameless life. General Count Étienne-Marie-Antoine-Champion de Nansouty died on 12 February 1815 in Paris
, leaving behind his wife and their only son. A pension of 6,000 Francs per year was granted to the General's widow by the King of France. His final resting place is at the Père Lachaise Cemetery
in Paris, division 27. The engraving on his tombstone reads:
The name NANSOUTY is inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe
in Paris
.
nobility and it was intimately linked to the history of this region, to which it gave several esteemed magistrates and soldiers throughout the centuries. One of its illustrious members, Seigneur de Nansouty was instrumental in ensuring the allegiance of Burgundy to King Henri IV and was rewarded by the monarch for his fidelity by being named state counselor.
General Count de Nansouty was the first child of Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Charles Champion de Nansouty (born 1718 in Dijon
, died 1785 in Bordeaux
) and his wife Antoinette Hélène Harpailler (born ca. 1740), who also had Pierrette-Adélaïde Champion de Nansouty (1771–1849). On 27 September 1802, General Nansouty married Jeanne-Françoise Adélaïde Gravier de Vergennes (1781–1849), the niece of a former minister of Louis XVI, Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes
. Her parents were: Charles Xavier Gravier de Vergennes, 1751–1794, and Elisabeth Adélaïde Françoise de Bastard, 1763–1808. General Count de Nansouty and his wife had only one child, Étienne Champion de Nansouty (1803–1865), who, having followed his father's and grandfather's footsteps in the military, rose to the rank of squadron commander, but then resigned from the army. General Count Nansouty also had a nephew, Charles-Étienne Champion de Nansouty, who saw a successful military career and who later rose to the rank of general of division.
, seem to have acquired him an unwanted reputation for mockery on the service, to such a point that one of his subordinates reported that "no one ever knew when he was joking and when he was serious." When it came to military matters though, Nansouty's posture became extremely imposing, concise and tough. A perfectionist, with a keen eye and impeccable knowledge of his arm, he was shocked whenever he saw his cavalry manoeuvres mishandled and then he became sarcastic, at times even insulting his subordinates. However, whenever he went too far with his reprimands, he was noticeably displeased with himself and remorseful, trying to offer reparation to the person he had insulted. This behaviour seems to have been recurrent. His mood seems to have been particularly bad during his last days of service, in 1814, after he had received a number of light wounds in a short period of time, and foremost, after he had fallen out with the Emperor. During this period, he severely mistreated one of his squadron commanders for not executing his order fast enough, and even sacked his chief of staff, Colonel de la Loyère, for a minor fault.
Nansouty's character as a proud and independent commander was apparent throughout his career and his conceitedly assertive nature, quite typical of the great cavalry commanders of the time, led to several clashes with his peers. At least one such incident almost led to a duel with another senior cavalry commander, in front of their men. It occurred on 11 July 1809, a few days after the Battle of Wagram
, and opposed him to General Arrighi de Casanova
, the commander of the 3rd heavy cavalry division. Both Nansouty and Arrighi adamantly claimed for their respective troops exclusive rights to use a small farm pond that they had found. Both men refused to give way and engaged in a heated argument, to such a point that they almost came to a duel in order to settle the matter. In the end, the more senior Nansouty won out and just after the incident, one of Arrighi's cuirassier
s erected a sign sarcastically saying "Nansouty's pond".
Indeed, at times, his sarcasm was directed even at his superiors, with Nansouty clashing with the more senior Grouchy at the Battle of Friedland
. Nevertheless, Grouchy later recognised that the actions of Nansouty's division throughout the battle were "glorious". In 1809, Nansouty famously responded to Napoleon's criticism after the Battle of Wagram by saying: "It is not Your Majesty at any rate who can teach me how to handle cavalry." Three years later, during the campaign in Russia
, when Murat, King of Naples
complained to him about the lack of resistance of the horses, Nansouty retorted: "Oh yes, Sire, this is because they lack patriotism." At the Battle of Craonne
, in 1814, one day before resigning, he was recorded to have refused to execute Napoleon's order to assault a redoubt, a move which he saw as a death sentence to his men. Instead, Nansouty told the Emperor: "I am going alone. There is nothing but death there and I will not lead these brave soldiers to it."
His behaviour on campaign can only be described as perfectly honourable and at times humane, a trait which was illustrated during the French Revolutionary Wars
, when he spared no effort to protect captured émigrés
from the wrath of the Revolutionary radicals in the army. He also showed respect for occupied populations and never tolerated pillaging nor violence from his men. As a sign a gratitude, he was offered gifts several times but he was often seen refusing and sending them back. While on campaign in Tyrol
, he was recorded to have accepted a large sum of money but he immediately distributed it to the local hospitals. Further evidence of his humanity was the care that he displayed for the lives and well-being of his men, whom he was always reluctant to sacrifice for the sake of glory.
Overall as a heavy cavalry
commander, Nansouty was one of the best men available during the Napoleonic Wars
. Precise, methodical, with perfect knowledge of cavalry tactics, he was better than any other in preparing his attack dispositions. He was however less daring than the likes of Lasalle, Montbrun or Kellermann
, which did not prevent him from leading some of the most memorable cavalry charges of the Napoleonic Wars
. It has also been said that he reacted with "calculated slowness" when placed under the command of Murat. His talents for up-keeping and training his troops seemed to surpass that of his peers. This was illustrated right from the start of the Napoleonic Wars
, with the organisation of the cavalry reserve in the Grande Armée, under Marshal Murat. The command of the various units of this reserve was given to some of the best cavalry commanders available, including Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul
, Louis Klein
, Marc Antoine de Beaumont
, Frédéric Henri Walther
, Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers
and Édouard Jean Baptiste Milhaud
. Despite the fame and quality of these commanders, it was Nansouty's six-regiment division that acquired the reputation of being the best serviced and most exact in its manoeuvres. He was also a commander who had his men continually manoeuvre during a battle, believing that this would distract them from the danger that they were facing.
Nansouty's battlefield talents were demonstrated through superb charges at Austerlitz
, Friedland
, Eckmühl
, Essling
, Borodino
, Hanau
, Montmirail
, Vauchamps
or Craonne
, thus contributing to some of the most glorious victories of the French Empire and eliciting comparisons with the superb Prussia
n cavalry commander Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz
.
(General Editor), Campaign Series 33, Osprey Military, 1994, ISBN 1-85532-366-4 Courcelles, Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Jullien de (Chevalier de Courcelles): Dictionnaire historique et biographique des généraux Français depuis le 11ème siècle jusqu'en 1823, 8th volume, L'Auteur, 1823 1 Fierro, Alfredo; Palluel-Guillard, André; Tulard, Jean
: Histoire et Dictionnaire du Consulat et de l'Empire, Éditions Robert Laffont, 2002, ISBN 2-221-05858-5 Garnier, Jacques: Friedland, une victoire pour la paix, Éditions Napoléon Ier, 2009 Gotteri, Nicole: Grands dignitaires du Premier Empire, NEL, 1990, ISBN 2-7233-0411-6 Hourtoulle, François-Guy: Wagram, L'apogée de l'Empire, Histoire & Collections, 2002, ISBN 2-913903-32-0 La Grande Armée, Collection Trésor du Patrimoine, 2004, ISBN 2-912511-40-2 Mir, Jean-Pierre: Hanau et Montmirail, La Garde donne et vainc, Histoire et Collections, 2009, ISBN 978-2-35250-086-5 Naulet, Frédéric: Wagram, 5–6 juillet 1809, Une victoire chèrement acquise, Collections Grandes Batailles, Napoléon Ier Éditions, 2009. Pigeard, Alain: Dictionnaire de la Grande Armée, Tallandier, Bibliothèque Napoléonienne, 2004, ISBN 2-84734-009-2 Pigeard, Alain: Dictionnaire des batailles de Napoléon, Tallandier, Bibliothèque Napoléonienne, 2004, ISBN 2-84734-073-4 Pigeard, Alain: La Garde Impériale, Tallandier, Bibliothèque Napoléonienne, 2005, ISBN 2-84734-177-3 Rothenberg, Gunther Erich: The Emperor's last victory, Napoleon and the battle of Wagram, Cassel, 2004, ISBN 0-304-36711-7 Smith, Digby G.
: Great Cavalry Charges of the Napoleonic Wars, Greenhill Books London, 2003, ISBN 1-85367-541-5 Sokolov, Oleg: L'armée de Napoléon, Éditions Commios, 2005, ISBN 2-9518364-1-4 Thoumas, Charles A.: Les grands cavaliers du Premier Empire, Série II, Ellibron Classics, 2006, ISBN 0-543-96047-1 http://books.google.com/books?id=awjgNbikpnsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Les+grands+cavaliers+du+Premier+Empire+-+nansouty&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false Tulard, Jean: Dictionnaire Napoléon; Librairie Artème Fayard, 1999, ISBN 2-213-60485-1
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
who rose to the rank of General of Division in 1803 and subsequently held important military commands during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The 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...
.
Of noble Burgundian
County of Burgundy
The Free County of Burgundy , was a medieval county , within the traditional province and modern French region Franche-Comté, whose very French name is still reminiscent of the unusual title of its count: Freigraf...
descent, he was a student at the Brienne
Brienne-le-Château
Brienne-le-Château is a commune in the Aube department in north-central France. It is located from the right bank of the Aube River and 26 m. northeast of Troyes....
military school, then was a graduate of the Paris military school
École Militaire
The École Militaire is a vast complex of buildings housing various military training facilities located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, southeast of the Champ de Mars....
. Nansouty began his military career in 1785, as a sub-lieutenant
Sub-Lieutenant
Sub-lieutenant is a military rank. It is normally a junior officer rank.In many navies, a sub-lieutenant is a naval commissioned or subordinate officer, ranking below a lieutenant. In the Royal Navy the rank of sub-lieutenant is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant in the British Army and of...
in the regiment Bourgogne-Infanterie, where his father had served during the wars of Louis XV. A cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
officer at the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792, Nansouty was commissioned as an aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
to Marshal
Marshal of France
The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...
Nicolas Luckner
Nicolas Luckner
Nikolaus, Count Luckner was a German in French service who rose to become a Marshal of France. ....
. During the First Coalition, he saw service as a lieutenant-colonel and squadron commander in the 9th (heavy) Cavalry Regiment, campaigning with the French armies on the Rhine and in Germany
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
. Promoted to Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
in 1793 and given the command of the 9th Cavalry, he was noted for several well-led cavalry actions. Finally made a Brigadier General in 1799, after he had refused the promotion several times in the past, Nansouty fought the next year under General Jean Victor Moreau in southern Germany, in a decisive campaign of the Second Coalition
War of the Second Coalition
The "Second Coalition" was the second attempt by European monarchs, led by the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria and the Russian Empire, to contain or eliminate Revolutionary France. They formed a new alliance and attempted to roll back France's previous military conquests...
.
Promoted to the top military rank of General of Division in 1803, Nansouty was called to the command of the 1st Heavy Cavalry Division in Emperor
Emperor of the French
The Emperor of the French was the title used by the Bonaparte Dynasty starting when Napoleon Bonaparte was given the title Emperor on 18 May 1804 by the French Senate and was crowned emperor of the French on 02 December 1804 at the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, in Paris with the Crown of...
Napoleon I
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
's newly created Grande Armée. Commanding this division from 1804 to 1809, Nansouty was present at some of the most significant battles of the Third, Fourth
War of the Fourth Coalition
The Fourth Coalition against Napoleon's French Empire was defeated in a war spanning 1806–1807. Coalition partners included Prussia, Russia, Saxony, Sweden, and the United Kingdom....
and Fifth
War of the Fifth Coalition
The War of the Fifth Coalition, fought in the year 1809, pitted a coalition of the Austrian Empire and the United Kingdom against Napoleon's French Empire and Bavaria. Major engagements between France and Austria, the main participants, unfolded over much of Central Europe from April to July, with...
coalitions, leading cavalry actions at the battles of Austerlitz
Battle of Austerlitz
The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of Napoleon's greatest victories, where the French Empire effectively crushed the Third Coalition...
, Friedland
Battle of Friedland
The Battle of Friedland saw Napoleon I's French army decisively defeat Count von Bennigsen's Russian army about twenty-seven miles southeast of Königsberg...
, Eckmühl
Battle of Eckmühl
The Battle of Eckmühl fought on 21 April – 22 April 1809, was the turning point of the 1809 Campaign, also known as the War of the Fifth Coalition...
, Aspern-Essling
Battle of Aspern-Essling
In the Battle of Aspern-Essling , Napoleon attempted a forced crossing of the Danube near Vienna, but the French and their allies were driven back by the Austrians under Archduke Charles...
and Wagram
Battle of Wagram
The Battle of Wagram was the decisive military engagement of the War of the Fifth Coalition. It took place on the Marchfeld plain, on the north bank of the Danube. An important site of the battle was the village of Deutsch-Wagram, 10 kilometres northeast of Vienna, which would give its name to the...
. In 1812, during the campaign in Russia
French invasion of Russia
The French invasion of Russia of 1812 was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. It reduced the French and allied invasion forces to a tiny fraction of their initial strength and triggered a major shift in European politics as it dramatically weakened French hegemony in Europe...
, Nansouty commanded the I Cavalry Corps
I Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée)
I Cavalry Corps was a French military formation during the later stage of the Napoleonic Wars. Created in 1812 as a part of the Grande Armée that was intended to invade Russia, I Cavalry Corps took part to the French invasion of Russia and the to the 1813-1814 War of the Sixth Coalition, which...
, which he led with distinction at such battles as Ostrovno and Borodino
Battle of Borodino
The Battle of Borodino , fought on September 7, 1812, was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the French invasion of Russia and all Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 troops and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties...
, where he received a severe knee wound. The next year, he commanded the Imperial Guard cavalry, which he led at Dresden
Battle of Dresden
The Battle of Dresden was fought on 26–27 August 1813 around Dresden, Germany, resulting in a French victory under Napoleon I against forces of the Sixth Coalition of Austrians, Russians and Prussians under Field Marshal Schwartzenberg. However, Napoleon's victory was not as complete as it could...
, Leipzig
Battle of Leipzig
The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations, on 16–19 October 1813, was fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against the French army of Napoleon. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine...
and Hanau
Battle of Hanau
The Battle of Hanau was fought on between Karl Philipp von Wrede’s Austro-Bavarian corps and Napoleon's retreating French during the War of the Sixth Coalition....
, where he was again wounded. In 1814 he led his men in several engagements, including La Rothière
Battle of La Rothiere
The Battle of La Rothière was fought on 1 February 1814 between the French Empire and allied army of Austria, Prussia, Russia, and German States previously allies with France. The French were led by Emperor Napoleon and the coalition army was under the command of Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher...
, Montmirail
Battle of Montmirail
The Battle of Montmirail was a battle fought near Montmirail, France, during the Six Days Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars. It was fought on February 11, 1814, and resulted in the victory of the French under Emperor Napoleon I over the Russians under General Fabian Wilhelm von Osten-Sacken and the...
, Vauchamps
Battle of Vauchamps
The Battle of Vauchamps, the final major engagement of the Six Days Campaign of the War of the Sixth Coalition, was fought on 14 February 1814...
and Craonne
Battle of Craonne
The Battle of Craonne was fought on March 7, 1814, and resulted in a French victory under Napoleon I against Russians and Prussians under General Blücher.Craonne is a village on the Chemin des Dames, in the département of Aisne....
until his incapacitation from wounds that year.
A member of the military elite of the First French Empire
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
and a recipient of the Grand Aigle de la Légion d'Honneur, Comte de Nansouty was a member of the Military Household of the Emperor
Military Household of the Emperor
The Military Household of the Emperor was the immediate entourage of the Emperor of the French during the First French Empire. At the end of december 1806, no less than 800 men were members of the Military Household...
as First Squire of the Emperor, and also held the position of Colonel-General
Colonel General (France)
A Colonel General was an officer of the French army during the Ancien Régime, Napoleonic era and the Bourbon Restoration.The positions were not military ranks, but rather offices of the crown. The position was first created under François I. The Colonels General served directly below the Marshals...
of Dragoon
Dragoon
The word dragoon originally meant mounted infantry, who were trained in horse riding as well as infantry fighting skills. However, usage altered over time and during the 18th century, dragoons evolved into conventional light cavalry units and personnel...
s. During the Bourbon Restoration
Bourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
, Louis XVIII awarded him additional honours and commands, including one in the Military Household of the King of France
Maison militaire du roi de France
The maison militaire du roi de France was the military part of the royal household or Maison du Roi in France under the Ancien Régime. The term only appeared in 1671, though such a gathering of units pre-dates this...
. Nansouty died in February 1815 and is buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris, France , though there are larger cemeteries in the city's suburbs.Père Lachaise is in the 20th arrondissement, and is reputed to be the world's most-visited cemetery, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. His name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe
Names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe
The 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 ....
and a street in the 14th arrondissement of Paris is named after him.
Early life
Étienne de Nansouty was born on 30 May 1768 in BordeauxBordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
. His father had served France for fifty years in Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
's wars of the Polish Succession
War of the Polish Succession
The War of the Polish Succession was a major European war for princes' possessions sparked by a Polish civil war over the succession to Augustus II, King of Poland that other European powers widened in pursuit of their own national interests...
and Austrian Succession
War of the Austrian Succession
The War of the Austrian Succession – including King George's War in North America, the Anglo-Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear, and two of the three Silesian wars – involved most of the powers of Europe over the question of Maria Theresa's succession to the realms of the House of Habsburg.The...
and the Seven Years' War
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...
, and had subsequently been appointed "major" (commander) of the Château-Trompette fortress in Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
. Typically for a member of the minor nobility of the Ancien Régime, young Étienne de Nansouty chose to follow his father's footsteps in the military. He was admitted at the military school of Brienne-le-Château
Brienne-le-Château
Brienne-le-Château is a commune in the Aube department in north-central France. It is located from the right bank of the Aube River and 26 m. northeast of Troyes....
in 1779, aged ten, where he was noted for being a well-behaved and assiduous student. On 21 October 1782, he transferred to the École Militaire
École Militaire
The École Militaire is a vast complex of buildings housing various military training facilities located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, southeast of the Champ de Mars....
in Paris, where he obtained excellent grades. Two years later, Nansouty became a Chevalier (Knight) of the Order Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel and had the honour of being decorated by Monsieur, the future King Louis XVIII, in person. Upon his graduation on 30 May 1783, he was appointed sub-lieutenant
Sub-Lieutenant
Sub-lieutenant is a military rank. It is normally a junior officer rank.In many navies, a sub-lieutenant is a naval commissioned or subordinate officer, ranking below a lieutenant. In the Royal Navy the rank of sub-lieutenant is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant in the British Army and of...
and, on 26 May 1785, Nansouty was sent to the Bourgogne-Infanterie regiment, where his father had served with distinction.
Throughout his childhood and youth, the Nansouty family led a tranquil yet modest life in Bordeaux, where his father held the position of commander of Château-Trompette, in which he lived with his family, additionally receiving a pension of 1000 livres. He was still holding the position as commander when he died suddenly in 1785, after more than 60 years of active service. His widow had no revenue with which to raise their son and two daughters. However, influential people such as the Duchess of Brancas and the wife of Marshal
Marshal of France
The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...
Beauvau
Charles-Just de Beauvau
Charles Juste de Beauvau , 2nd Prince of Beauvau , Marshal of France was a French scholar, nobleman and general...
contacted the Minister of War, Marshal de Ségur
Philippe Henri, marquis de Ségur
Philippe Henri, marquis de Ségur was a marshal of France.Born in Paris, son of Henri François, comte de Ségur, and his wife Philippe Angélique de Froissy, he was appointed to the command of an infantry regiment at eighteen, and served under his father in Italy and Bohemia...
, regarding the situation of the young Nansouty. As a result, in 1788, Nansouty was named interim captain in the light cavalry
Light cavalry
Light cavalry refers to lightly armed and lightly armored troops mounted on horses, as opposed to heavy cavalry, where the riders are heavily armored...
Franche-Comté Cavalerie Regiment (later rebaptised 4th Chasseurs à Cheval). He was soon transferred to the Lauzun Hussar
Hussar
Hussar refers to a number of types of light cavalry which originated in Hungary in the 14th century, tracing its roots from Serbian medieval cavalry tradition, brought to Hungary in the course of the Serb migrations, which began in the late 14th century....
Regiment (which became the 6th Hussars in 1791, then the 5th Hussars in 1793). In 1791, Nansouty then left the regiment to fill two consecutive military staff positions, first as deputy aid to Adjutant General Poncet de la Cour Maupas in the Army of the Centre on 20 December, then as aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
of Marshal Luckner
Nicolas Luckner
Nikolaus, Count Luckner was a German in French service who rose to become a Marshal of France. ....
at the beginning of 1792. He was then promoted to lieutenant-colonel and took up the command of a squadron of the 2nd Chasseurs à Cheval (on 5 March), before being transferred to the command of a squadron of the 9th Cavalry Regiment on 4 April, a regiment in which he would serve for the next seven and a half years.
An officer in the 9th Cavalry
As the French Revolutionary WarsFrench Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
broke out, Nansouty soon found himself in the position of having to take provisional command of the whole 9th Cavalry Regiment, as he was the most senior chef d'escadron (Lieutenant-Colonel) of the regiment when the commander, Colonel Badda de Bodosalva, fell ill at the end of May 1792. His regiment was a part of the "Army of the Rhine" and was integrated in General Custine's Corps, which was to march towards the Palatinate, where the first military manoeuvres took place. As Colonel Badda de Bodosalva died at the end of October that year, Nansouty naturally expected to be appointed commander of the regiment in his place. However, Custine appointed the more senior Lieutenant-Colonel Loubat de Bohan as commander of the 9th Cavalry and, despite Nansouty's protestations, maintained his decision. With Loubat in command, the 9th saw action against the Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
ns in an engagement at Ober-Flörsheim
Ober-Flörsheim
Ober-Flörsheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
on 30 March 1793. After a first successful charge, Nansouty's 1st squadron was counter-charged by enemy hussars; the remaining squadrons under Loubat quickly caught up with Nansouty's squadron and together they broke the enemy. Corps commander Custine was then called up to command the Army of the North
Army of the North
The Army of the North , contemporaneously called Army of Peru, was one of the armies deployed by the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in the Spanish American wars of independence. Its objective was freeing the Argentine Northwest and the Upper Peru from the royalist troops of the Spanish...
but, before leaving his command, he attempted a last daunting move against the Habsburg army. This required a night march, not usually undertaken by cavalry, and poorly coordinated manoeuvres of cavalry, infantry and artillery. This led to total failure of the action of May 17. During this action, though, the initial charge of the corps cavalry, which included the 9th, successfully took a number of enemy guns. However, a Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
counter-charge forced them back in disorder, which spread panic among the ranks of oncoming infantry.
Despite this setback, a few days later, Lobat de Bohan was promoted to the rank of General and Nansouty again took provisional command of the regiment. When General Alexandre de Beauharnais
Alexandre, vicomte de Beauharnais
Alexandre François Marie de Beauharnais, Vicomte de Beauharnais was a French political figure and general during the French Revolution...
took command of the Army of the Rhine, he directed his troops towards Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
. Some fighting took place near Landau
Landau
Landau or Landau in der Pfalz is an autonomous city surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town , a long-standing cultural centre, and a market and shopping town, surrounded by vineyards and wine-growing villages of the...
and the 9th Cavalry charged several times. Just after this event, the commander of the 2nd Squadron of the regiment invoked the provision of an equivocal new law, demanding that he be given command of the regiment instead of Nansouty. His request was rejected and Nansouty's provisional command was confirmed.
Commander of the 9th Cavalry
Now holding the rank of chef de brigade (colonelColonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
) in command of the 9th Cavalry Regiment, Nansouty took part in several successful cavalry skirmishes around Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
in November and December of 1793. He then participated to the Battle of Geisberg, at the end of December. Following this battle, General of Division Donnadieu, who had commanded the cavalry division of which Nansouty's regiment was a part, was tried and executed for alleged cowardice in front of the enemy. Nansouty was not involved in the incident. Furthermore, despite being a member of the Ancien Régime nobility, he was not harassed at any time during the radical phase of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The 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...
.
During the campaigns of 1794, war continued in the Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
, with General Louis Desaix pushing back the Coalition
First Coalition
The War of the First Coalition was the first major effort of multiple European monarchies to contain Revolutionary France. France declared war on the Habsburg monarchy of Austria on 20 April 1792, and the Kingdom of Prussia joined the Austrian side a few weeks later.These powers initiated a series...
forces. Nansouty's 9th Cavalry was brigaded together with the 17th Dragoon
Dragoon
The word dragoon originally meant mounted infantry, who were trained in horse riding as well as infantry fighting skills. However, usage altered over time and during the 18th century, dragoons evolved into conventional light cavalry units and personnel...
Regiment, with General Delmas de La Coste as commander. The brigade performed well against Austrian cavalry in two distinct actions at the end of May of that year. General of Division Michaud, the commander-in-chief of France's Army of the Rhine, noted in his report that Delmas's two regiments showed bravery and intrepidity every time they faced the enemy. In July, the 9th Cavalry was involved in several well-led cavalry actions and Nansouty acquired an excellent reputation, recognised as a disciplinarian and a commander who knew how to drill his men effectively.
Beginning in December 1794, the French forces on the Rhine experienced a difficult period, marked by General Charles Pichegru
Charles Pichegru
Jean-Charles Pichegru was a French general and political figure of the French Revolution and Revolutionary Wars.-Early life and career:...
's inability to take Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
. General Jean Victor Marie Moreau
Jean Victor Marie Moreau
Jean Victor Marie Moreau was a French general who helped Napoleon Bonaparte to power, but later became a rival and was banished to the United States.- Early life :Moreau was born at Morlaix in Brittany...
replaced him as commander-in-chief. Moreau reorganised the army into three corps, plus a reserve, of which the 9th Cavalry was a part. The Reserve Cavalry, under Bourcier
François Antoine Louis Bourcier
François Antoine Louis Bourcier was a French cavalry officer and divisional general of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars....
, intervened at the Battle of Ettlingen
Battle of Ettlingen
The Battle of Ettlingen on 9 July 1796 was fought during the French Revolutionary Wars between the armies of the First French Republic and Habsburg Austria near the town of Malsch, 9 km southwest of Ettlingen. The Austrians under Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen tried to halt the eastward...
, with two squadrons of the 9th being committed and behaving most honourably. The next significant moment of this campaign was the incident that occurred at dawn on 11 August 1796, while Nansouty and his men were temporarily attached to the "Corps of the Centre", under General Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr. Gouvion Saint-Cyr's cavalry exhausted after several days of continuous marching, it was decided that a squadron of the fresher Carabiniers-à-Cheval
Carabiniers-à-Cheval
The Carabiniers-à-Cheval were mounted troops in the service of France.Their origins date back to the mid-16th century, when they were created as elite elements of the French light cavalry, armed with carbines but then gradually evolved towards semi-independent status during the XVIIIth century...
would be posted as sentry, an unusual duty for such an elite heavy cavalry
Heavy cavalry
Heavy cavalry is a class of cavalry whose primary role was to engage in direct combat with enemy forces . Although their equipment differed greatly depending on the region and historical period, they were generally mounted on large powerful horses, and were often equipped with some form of scale,...
unit. At daybreak, as the Battle of Neresheim opened, Austrian cavalry charged the carabiniers, stunning the unprepared cavalrymen, who fled in panic. Their precipitate flight spread alarm among the ranks of the other cavalry regiments, who were used to seeing the Carabiniers-à-Cheval triumph against the enemy on every occasion. Nansouty did his best to stop the rout of the cavalrymen and to reorganise the other panic-stricken regiments, but the morale of the cavalrymen remained very low throughout the day and Nansouty was forced to give ground in front of the enemy rather than attempt a risky charge with his demoralised troops. This elicited criticism from the Corps commander, General Gouvion Saint-Cyr, who sent his aide-de-camp to Nansouty with orders to charge, which the latter did after taking the necessary time to deploy his men. Under his direction, the four cavalry regiments (2nd and 20th Chasseurs à Cheval and 2nd and 9th Cavalry Regiments), executed a superb charge, which halted the advance of the Austrian first infantry line. The next day, Archduke Charles of Austria retreated from the field. Nansouty's 9th Cavalry had numerous other opportunities to shine during the campaign of 1796 and rose to the occasion every time. He became very fond of his regiment and refused the promotion to brigadier general
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
several times, preferring to remain colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
of the 9th cavalry.
War of the Second Coalition
The signature of the Treaty of Campo FormioTreaty of Campo Formio
The Treaty of Campo Formio was signed on 18 October 1797 by Napoleon Bonaparte and Count Philipp von Cobenzl as representatives of revolutionary France and the Austrian monarchy...
in October 1797 marked the end of the War of the First Coalition but the fleeting period of peace ended in 1798, with the formation of the Second Coalition against the French Republic. Nansouty's 9th Cavalry Regiment was successively attached to the Armies "of Germany", "of Mainz
Army of Mainz
The Army of Mainz was a French Revolutionary Army set up on 9 December 1797 by splitting the Armée d'Allemagne into the Armée de Mayence and the Armée du Rhin...
" and then to the "Army of the Danube
Army of the Danube
The Army of the Danube was a field army of the French Directory in the 1799 southwestern campaign in the Upper Danube valley. It was formed on 2 March 1799 by the simple expedient of renaming the Army of Observation, which had been observing Austrian movements on the border between First...
", under the command of Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, 1st Comte Jourdan , enlisted as a private in the French royal army and rose to command armies during the French Revolutionary Wars. Emperor Napoleon I of France named him a Marshal of France in 1804 and he also fought in the Napoleonic Wars. After 1815, he became reconciled...
. In 1799, the regiment, with Nansouty commanding it, was integrated into General of Division Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul
Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul
Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul was a French cavalry general of the Napoleonic wars. He came from an old noble family of France whose military tradition extended for several centuries....
's Cavalry Reserve of the "Army of the Danube". This army was sharply defeated at the Battle of Stockach
Battle of Stockach (1799)
On 25 March 1799, French and Austrian armies fought for control of the geographically strategic Hegau region in present day Baden-Württemberg. The battle has been called by various names: First Battle of Stockach, the Battle by Stockach, and, in French chronicles, the Battle of Liptingen...
and most of its units merged with General André Masséna
André Masséna
André Masséna 1st Duc de Rivoli, 1st Prince d'Essling was a French military commander during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars....
's "Army of Switzerland"; the cavalry was sent to the newly formed "Army of the Rhine".
In 1799, France's political and military situation seemed perilous, especially after the losses in southwestern Germany culminating in the Battle at Stockach. By then a colonel, Nansouty accepted the promotion to brigadier general
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
on 29 August and was given the command of a heavy cavalry brigade formed by the 8th and 9th Cavalry Regiments. Later, Nansouty's brigade was provisionally augmented to four regiments, which, alongside Brigadier General Jean-Louis-Brigitte Espagne
Jean-Louis-Brigitte Espagne
Jean-Louis-Brigitte Espagne, Count d'Espagne and of the Empire was a French cavalry commander of the French Revolutionary Wars, who rose to the top military rank of General of Division and took part to the Napoleonic Wars.- Revolutionary Wars :Born in Auch in a modest family, Jean-Louis-Brigitte...
's four regiments, was included in a 3,000-man-strong Cavalry Reserve (the 1st and 2nd Carabiniers-à-Cheval
Carabiniers-à-Cheval
The Carabiniers-à-Cheval were mounted troops in the service of France.Their origins date back to the mid-16th century, when they were created as elite elements of the French light cavalry, armed with carbines but then gradually evolved towards semi-independent status during the XVIIIth century...
and the 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 19th and 23rd Cavalry Regiments, with 14 cannons), under command of the 45-year-old General d'Hautpoul. Overall command of the "Army of the Rhine" was given to the promising General Claude Lecourbe
Claude Lecourbe
Claude Jacques Lecourbe , born in Besançon, was a French general during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars....
. Lecourbe believed his forces to be insufficient for offensive action, so he decided to fall back. During the retreat, a cavalry combat took place during the Battle of Wiesloch
Battle of Wiesloch (1799)
The Battle of Wiesloch occurred on 3 December 1799, during the War of the Second Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. Lieutenant Field Marshal Anton Count Sztáray de Nagy-Mihaly commanded the far right wing protecting the main Austrian army in Swabia, under the command of Archduke...
, where d'Hautpoul's men, and Nansouty's brigade in particular, were heavily engaged. With operations on the Rhine coming to an end, Lecourbe was replaced at the head of the army by Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers
Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers
thumbLouis Baraguey d'Hilliers was a French Army general who fought in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was the father of Achille Baraguey d'Hilliers, a Marshal of France.-French Revolution:...
, who reorganised d'Hautpoul's Cavalry Reserve, reducing Nansouty's brigade to its initial strength of two regiments (the 8th and 9th Cavalry).
Campaign in Germany
Despite the improvement of the military situation on its borders, France remained in political turmoil. Upon his return from ill-fated Egypt, General Napoleon Bonaparte received a hero's welcome, and regarded by many as the saviour of France. Enjoying wide popular support and political backing, Bonaparte and his followers staged a coup18 Brumaire
The coup of 18 Brumaire was the coup d'état by which General Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the French Directory, replacing it with the French Consulate...
and installed the French Consulate
French Consulate
The Consulate was the government of France between the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire in 1804...
. Then, First Consul Bonaparte immediately drew up campaign plans against France's only remaining continental enemy, Austria
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
. Nansouty was first called to serve in the First Consul's "Army of the Reserve" that was to operate in Italy, but General Jean Victor Marie Moreau
Jean Victor Marie Moreau
Jean Victor Marie Moreau was a French general who helped Napoleon Bonaparte to power, but later became a rival and was banished to the United States.- Early life :Moreau was born at Morlaix in Brittany...
insisted on retaining him in his own "Army of the Rhine", which was to operate in central Germany. Consequently, Nansouty received command of the cavalry (15th Cavalry, 11th Dragoons and 12th Chasseurs à Cheval) of Lecourbe's "Right Wing Corps" of the "Army of the Rhine".
Nansouty's cavalry took part in several actions, beginning with the Battle of Engen
Battle of Engen (1800)
The Battle of Engen was fought between France and Austria on May 3, 1800 as a part of the 1800 campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars. It resulted in a French victory under General Jean Victor Marie Moreau against the Austrians under General Kray....
, where the commander was noted for his able and daring manoeuvres, subsequently leading a successful charge against enemy infantry, whom he chased through the streets of the nearby city of Stockach
Stockach
Stockach is a town in the district of Konstanz, in southern Baden-Württemberg, Germany.-Location:It is situated in the Hegau region, about 5 km northwest of Lake Constance, 13 km north of Radolfzell and 25 km northwest of Konstanz....
, the locale of the French Army of the Danube's defeat a year earlier. He patrolled the Tyrol
County of Tyrol
The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...
and there repulsed Prince Reuss-Plauen's forces in an action fought on 14 June 1800, the day when First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte was winning at Marengo further to the south. Nansouty served as a commander of an autonomous unit in the Tyrol until the end of the War of the Second Coalition
War of the Second Coalition
The "Second Coalition" was the second attempt by European monarchs, led by the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria and the Russian Empire, to contain or eliminate Revolutionary France. They formed a new alliance and attempted to roll back France's previous military conquests...
, then under the successive command of Generals Molitor
Gabriel Jean Joseph Molitor
Gabriel-Jean-Joseph, comte Molitor , was a Marshal of France, born in Hayingen in Lorraine.Upon the outbreak of the French Revolution, Molitor joined the French revolutionary armies as a captain in a battalion of militia. In 1793 he was given command of a brigade and served under Hoche under whom...
and Gudin
Charles-Étienne Gudin de La Sablonnière
Charles-Étienne Gudin de La Sablonnière, count, was a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars.-Early career and Revolutionary Wars:...
. Nansouty's command included as many as five regiments, after the 6th and 8th Hussars were attached to his force. During this time, he enhanced his solid reputation as an able and adept cavalry commander; General Lecourbe stated that he wanted nobody else at the helm of his cavalry.
Years of peace
The signing of the Treaty of LunévilleTreaty of Lunéville
The Treaty of Lunéville was signed on 9 February 1801 between the French Republic and the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, negotiating both on behalf of his own domains and of the Holy Roman Empire...
initiated a period of peace on the European continent. Meanwhile, however, with the Kingdom of Portugal
Kingdom of Portugal
The Kingdom of Portugal was Portugal's general designation under the monarchy. The kingdom was located in the west of the Iberian Peninsula, Europe and existed from 1139 to 1910...
allied to the Kingdom of Great Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
, First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte decided to make a military demonstration against the Lusitanian nation. He ordered the creation of the "Observation Corps of the Gironde". Chosen from a short list of nine men, Nansouty was named commander of the Corps cavalry. With orders to invade Portugal the "Observation Corps of the Gironde" entered Spanish territory, but it soon returned to France, after a treaty of peace was agreed with the Portuguese government. Nansouty then held various commands, before being named general of division on 24 March 1803. He was 35 years old. A military commander in the department of Seine-et-Oise
Seine-et-Oise
Seine-et-Oise was a département of France encompassing the western, northern, and southern parts of the metropolitan area of Paris. Its préfecture was Versailles and its official number was 78. Seine-et-Oise was abolished in 1968....
, he was then sent to command the cavalry (5th Chasseurs à Cheval, 2nd, 4th and 5th Hussar
Hussar
Hussar refers to a number of types of light cavalry which originated in Hungary in the 14th century, tracing its roots from Serbian medieval cavalry tradition, brought to Hungary in the course of the Serb migrations, which began in the late 14th century....
Regiments) of General Édouard Mortier's "Army of Hanover", a position that he held until the Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
ian army was disarmed and the French occupied the city.
On 1 February 1804, Nansouty was called to a command in the cavalry reserve of the "Army of the Ocean coast". The reform of the French cavalry arm had already begun in September 1803, reorganising the first twelve regiments of heavy cavalry
Heavy cavalry
Heavy cavalry is a class of cavalry whose primary role was to engage in direct combat with enemy forces . Although their equipment differed greatly depending on the region and historical period, they were generally mounted on large powerful horses, and were often equipped with some form of scale,...
of the French Revolutionary army into regiments of cuirassier
Cuirassier
Cuirassiers were mounted cavalry soldiers equipped with armour and firearms, first appearing in late 15th-century Europe. They were the successors of the medieval armoured knights...
s. The reforms also established a powerful 6-regiment heavy cavalry division, comprising the 1st and 2nd Carabiniers-à-Cheval
Carabiniers-à-Cheval
The Carabiniers-à-Cheval were mounted troops in the service of France.Their origins date back to the mid-16th century, when they were created as elite elements of the French light cavalry, armed with carbines but then gradually evolved towards semi-independent status during the XVIIIth century...
, 2nd, 3rd, 9th and 12th Cuirassiers, with command given to Nansouty. On 29 August 1805 this division was renamed the 1st heavy cavalry division of the newly-created Grande Armée. Nansouty was also named Commander of the Legion of Honour on 14 June 1804. In 1805, Napoleon appointed him as First Chamberlain of the Empress, but Nansouty disliked Court life and resigned from the position as soon as he was able to find an acceptable excuse.
War of the Third Coalition
At the outbreak of the War of the Third Coalition, a cavalry reserve corps was organised in the Grande Armée, with command given to Marshal Joachim MuratJoachim Murat
Joachim-Napoléon Murat , Marshal of France and Grand Admiral or Admiral of France, 1st Prince Murat, was Grand Duke of Berg from 1806 to 1808 and then King of Naples from 1808 to 1815...
. This cavalry reserve included Nansouty's heavy cavalry
Heavy cavalry
Heavy cavalry is a class of cavalry whose primary role was to engage in direct combat with enemy forces . Although their equipment differed greatly depending on the region and historical period, they were generally mounted on large powerful horses, and were often equipped with some form of scale,...
division, another heavy cavalry division under Jean-Joseph d'Hautpoul
Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul
Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul was a French cavalry general of the Napoleonic wars. He came from an old noble family of France whose military tradition extended for several centuries....
, three dragoon
Dragoon
The word dragoon originally meant mounted infantry, who were trained in horse riding as well as infantry fighting skills. However, usage altered over time and during the 18th century, dragoons evolved into conventional light cavalry units and personnel...
divisions, a foot dragoon division and a light cavalry brigade. Nansouty's six-regiment division soon acquired the reputation of being the best administered and most exact in its manoeuvres.
During the initial phase of the campaign, Nansouty's division was at first attached to Marshal Louis Nicolas Davout
Louis Nicolas Davout
Louis-Nicolas d'Avout , better known as Davout, 1st Duke of Auerstaedt, 1st Prince of Eckmühl, was a Marshal of France during the Napoleonic Era. His prodigious talent for war along with his reputation as a stern disciplinarian, earned him the title "The Iron Marshal"...
's III Corps, with which it crossed the Rhine and then the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
, before rejoining Murat's cavalry reserve. Nansouty had a first opportunity to lead his men into combat at the Battle of Wertingen
Battle of Wertingen
In the Battle of Wertingen on October 8, 1805, French forces led by Marshals Joachim Murat and Jean Lannes mauled a small Austrian corps commanded by Feldmarschall-Leutnant Franz Auffenberg. This was the opening battle of the Ulm Campaign.-Background:...
, where his men were noted for their excellent manoeuvring. Detaching his two Carabiniers-à-Cheval regiments, which he had to leave with Murat, Nansouty and his reduced division followed the Emperor at Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
, where he was attached to Marshal Jean Lannes
Jean Lannes
Jean Lannes, 1st Duc de Montebello, was a Marshal of France. He was one of Napoleon's most daring and talented generals. Napoleon once commented on Lannes: "I found him a pygmy and left him a giant"...
's V Corps. In this capacity, they supported Walther's division at the Battle of Schöngrabern
Battle of Schöngrabern
The Battle of Schöngrabern was an engagement in the Napoleonic Wars during the War of the Third Coalition, fought on 16 November 1805 near Hollabrunn in Lower Austria, four weeks after the Battle of Ulm and two weeks before the Battle of Austerlitz.The Russian army of Kutuzov was retiring north of...
. Then, at the Battle of Wischau
Battle of Wischau
The Battle of Wischau occurred on 25 November 1805, between the Russian and French armies. The conflict resulted in a minor Russian success. It followed the action at Hollabrun and Schöngrabern, and preceded the Battle of Austerlitz...
on 25 November 1805, the 9th Cuirassier
Cuirassier
Cuirassiers were mounted cavalry soldiers equipped with armour and firearms, first appearing in late 15th-century Europe. They were the successors of the medieval armoured knights...
s participated in a major cavalry action, alongside d'Hautpoul's cuirassier division, Walther's dragoons and Bessières
Jean-Baptiste Bessières
Jean-Baptiste Bessières, 1st Duc d' Istria was a Marshal of France of the Napoleonic Era. His younger brother, Bertrand, followed in his footsteps and eventually became a Divisional General...
's Grenadiers à Cheval
Grenadiers à Cheval de la Garde Impériale
The Grenadiers à Cheval de la Garde Impériale constituted a heavy cavalry regiment in the Consular, then Imperial Guard during the French Consulate and First French Empire respectively...
and Chasseurs à Cheval of the Guard cavalry.
Charge at Austerlitz
Having advanced the bulk of his army deep into AustrianAustrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
territory, Napoleon faced a massed enemy army of some 85,000 men in the vicinity of the town of Austerlitz
Slavkov u Brna
Slavkov u Brna is a country town east of Brno in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Population: 5,900. The town is widely known for giving its name to the Battle of Austerlitz which actually took place several kilometres to the west of the town....
. Combat began before dawn on 2 December 1805, and Nansouty had his entire division reunited under his command and again placed in the Cavalry Reserve, under Murat. Nansouty was positioned on the left wing of the army and his command included his usual six regiments of three-squadrons each: Brigadier General
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
Piston
Joseph Piston
Joseph Piston , baron of the Empire, was a French general who served during the Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars.The son of a merchant from Lyon, Piston joined the army and in 1793 rose to the rank of general of brigade, commanding cavalry in the French Revolutionary Army...
's 1st and 2nd Carabiniers-à-Cheval (205 and 181 men respectively), Brigadier General La Housaye's 2nd and 9th Cuirassiers (304 and 280 men respectively) and Brigadier General Saint-Germain's 3rd and 12th Cuirassiers (333 and 277 men respectively). Additionally, a horse battery from the 4th company of the 2nd horse artillery regiment was also a part of his division. These men were at first positioned on two lines, behind Caffarelli
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...
's infantry division of Lannes's V Corps.
At around 10:00, after battle had been joined all along the front, Russian General Pyotr Bagration
Pyotr Bagration
Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration was a general of the Russian army. He was a descendant of the Georgian royal family of the Bagrations.- Life :...
, who had won the cavalry action a few days earlier at Wissau, pulled his forces back from the advancing enemy infantry from the V Corps. Meanwhile, the Austrian Prince Johann I Joseph, Prince of Liechtenstein threw his 4,000-sabre Austro-Russian cavalry reserve into combat against Murat's 6,000 sabres. The Austro-Russians did not provide infantry or artillery support to the cavalry attack, while Murat's cavalrymen were able to cooperate with Lannes's infantry and artillery. Taking immense casualties after a first series of actions against Lannes's infantry, elements of the Coalition cavalry withdrew and were reformed by their commanders. Joined by Bagration's own cavalry, they set off again, this time aiming directly at Murat's command centre. As the Austro-Russian cavalry was closing in on its target, they were steadily met by four of Nansouty's regiments (the two Carabiniers regiments and the 2nd and 3rd Cuirassiers). The sounds of the two massed cavalries colliding could be heard some distance away. After a brief combat, the Austro-Russian horsemen broke and were driven off. However, Liechtenstein soon reformed his men and, seeing that all the French cavalry was positioned on the left of Caffarelli's infantry division, he launched his men against the right wing of this division, but was instantly met with sustained musket
Musket
A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth bore long gun, fired from the shoulder. Muskets were designed for use by infantry. A soldier armed with a musket had the designation musketman or musketeer....
volleys that disorganised his cavalrymen. Seeing this development, Nansouty wheeled right with his men and crossed the infantry intervals by platoon
Platoon
A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two to four sections or squads and containing 16 to 50 soldiers. Platoons are organized into a company, which typically consists of three, four or five platoons. A platoon is typically the smallest military unit led by a commissioned officer—the...
s, and then formed his men on two battle lines in front of the infantry. Three charges ensued in brief succession, with Nansouty skilfully committing the 1st and 2nd Carabiniers-à-Cheval and the 2nd Cuirassiers from his first line, then the 9th Cuirassiers and Saint-Germain's brigade from his second line. The Austro-Russian cavalry was finally broken and repulsed for good. After another series of well-coordinated cavalry and infantry actions, Murat and Lannes were able to force Bagration's entire force to withdraw, with a loss 2,000 men (approximately half of the force) and 16 guns.
On the French side, despite their repeated charges on this day, the 1st heavy cavalry division registered only relatively minor casualties, a testament to the skill of its commanders. Piston's 1st Brigade registered 2 killed and 41 wounded, La Houssaye's 2nd Brigade registered 1 man killed and 25 wounded, while Saint-Germain's 3rd Brigade registered 47 killed and 28 wounded. The regiment that suffered the highest casualty rate was by far the 3rd cuirassiers, with 44 killed and 27 wounded, for a casualty rate of 21 per cent. Nansouty's charge was rated "superb and brilliant" in the report drawn up by General Augustin Daniel Belliard
Augustin Daniel Belliard
Augustin Daniel Belliard, comte Belliard et de l'Empire was a French general.Belliard became an officer between 1792 and 1793 under Dumouriez in Belgium...
, Murat's chief of staff, and Nansouty was subsequently mentioned in the army bulletin for this action and named Grand Officier de la Légion d'honneur on 25 December. Additionally, of the six colonels in his division, three were promoted to Brigadier General and three received the cross of Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur. Following the peace of Pressburg
Peace of Pressburg
The Peace of Pressburg refers to four peace treaties concluded in Pressburg . The fourth Peace of Pressburg of 1805 during the Napoleonic Wars is the best-known.-First:...
with the Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
in late December 1805, Nansouty's division was stationed in Bavaria
Electorate of Bavaria
The Electorate of Bavaria was an independent hereditary electorate of the Holy Roman Empire from 1623 to 1806, when it was succeeded by the Kingdom of Bavaria....
, where they took winter quarters.
Campaign in Prussia
War of the Fourth Coalition
The Fourth Coalition against Napoleon's French Empire was defeated in a war spanning 1806–1807. Coalition partners included Prussia, Russia, Saxony, Sweden, and the United Kingdom....
broke out in September 1806, Emperor
Emperor of the French
The Emperor of the French was the title used by the Bonaparte Dynasty starting when Napoleon Bonaparte was given the title Emperor on 18 May 1804 by the French Senate and was crowned emperor of the French on 02 December 1804 at the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, in Paris with the Crown of...
Napoleon I
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
took his Grande Armée into the heart of Germany
Confederation of the Rhine
The Confederation of the Rhine was a confederation of client states of the First French Empire. It was formed initially from 16 German states by Napoleon after he defeated Austria's Francis II and Russia's Alexander I in the Battle of Austerlitz. The Treaty of Pressburg, in effect, led to the...
in a memorable campaign against Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
. Comprising the same regiments as the year before (1st and 2nd Carabiniers-à-Cheval
Carabiniers-à-Cheval
The Carabiniers-à-Cheval were mounted troops in the service of France.Their origins date back to the mid-16th century, when they were created as elite elements of the French light cavalry, armed with carbines but then gradually evolved towards semi-independent status during the XVIIIth century...
, 2nd, 3rd, 9th and 12th cuirassiers), Nansouty's 1st heavy cavalry
Heavy cavalry
Heavy cavalry is a class of cavalry whose primary role was to engage in direct combat with enemy forces . Although their equipment differed greatly depending on the region and historical period, they were generally mounted on large powerful horses, and were often equipped with some form of scale,...
division was again a part of Joachim Murat
Joachim Murat
Joachim-Napoléon Murat , Marshal of France and Grand Admiral or Admiral of France, 1st Prince Murat, was Grand Duke of Berg from 1806 to 1808 and then King of Naples from 1808 to 1815...
's cavalry reserve. At first, due to the extraordinary speed of Napoleon's operations, the 1st heavy cavalry division and one of the two cuirassier brigades of d'Hautpoul's
Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul
Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul was a French cavalry general of the Napoleonic wars. He came from an old noble family of France whose military tradition extended for several centuries....
2nd heavy cavalry division did not arrive at the front line in time to participate in the Battle of Jena. Beginning with the evening of 14 October, Nansouty's cavalry pursued the routed Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n army, following an enemy corps of 10,000 infantrymen and 3 cavalry regiments into the streets of Erfurt
Erfurt
Erfurt is the capital city of Thuringia and the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany, located 100 km SW of Leipzig, 150 km N of Nuremberg and 180 km SE of Hannover. Erfurt Airport can be reached by plane via Munich. It lies in the southern part of the Thuringian...
on 15 October. With the enemy trapped in the city, Colonel Préval of the 3rd cuirassiers negotiated the capitulation of Erfurt
Capitulation of Erfurt
In the Capitulation of Erfurt on 16 October 1806 a large body of troops from the Kingdom of Prussia under Lieutenant General the Prince of Orange surrendered to Marshal Joachim Murat at the city of Erfurt. The Prussian soldiers were demoralized by their shattering defeat at the Battle of...
by nightfall, which resulted in the capture of 12,000 prisoners of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
(including 6,000 wounded) and 65 cannons.
Resuming its pursuit of the Prussian army, Nansouty's division was at Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
beginning on 25 October, and two days later they participated to the triumphant parade of the Grande Armée in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, before being reviewed by the Emperor on 30 October. Beginning on 7 November, Nansouty and his division were with Murat, heading for the river Vistula
Vistula
The Vistula is the longest and the most important river in Poland, at 1,047 km in length. The watershed area of the Vistula is , of which lies within Poland ....
, which they crossed on 22 December with the rest of the cavalry reserve. After a brief and successful cavalry action at the Lapazin bridge, they tried to get to the Battle of Golymin
Battle of Golymin
The Battle of Golymin took place on 26 December 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars at Gołymin, Poland, between around 17,000 Russian soldiers with 28 guns under Prince Golitsyn and 38,000 French soldiers under Marshal Murat. The Russian forces disengaged successfully from the superior French forces...
in time in time for the action, but were delayed by the thick mud and by the slower dragoon division that preceded them; they arrived after the battle. The division then took winter quarters in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, but with Murat on sick leave, Nansouty was soon called to replace him, taking command of Lasalle's light cavalry division and the dragoon divisions of Klein
Louis Klein
Louis Klein served in the French military during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars as a general of cavalry....
and Milhaud
Édouard Jean Baptiste Milhaud
Édouard Jean-Baptiste Milhaud was a French politician, Général de Division, and comte d'Empire.-French Revolutionary wars:...
. These divisions were placed in the first line of the army, and Nansouty, although formally placed under the overall command of Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult, had orders to act independently and report directly to the Emperor if any unforeseen and extraordinary events should occur. Nansouty handled this new mission with care, personally patrolling the front line and deciding where to place the picket
Picket (military)
In military terminology, a picket refers to soldiers or troops placed on a line forward of a position to warn against an enemy advance. It can also refer to any unit performing a similar function...
s of light cavalry that were to cover the infantry outposts.
Campaign in Poland: early manoeuvres
With the news of the alarming Russian operations against the left wing of the army, Murat reassumed command of the cavalry reserve, ordering Nansouty to retake command of the 1st heavy cavalry division and follow the concentration of the army towards Eylau. Joining his men in Warsaw, Nansouty diligently led them towards his assigned destination, but did not arrive until 13 February 1807, five days after the Battle of EylauBattle of Eylau
The 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...
and too late to take part in any action. On 14 February, Nansouty learned of the death of his comrade and former commander during the Revolutionary Wars
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
, General d'Hautpoul, who had been fatally wounded during the heroic cavalry charges at Eylau. After the battle, the Emperor decided that the army was to take winter quarters. To ensure the safety of his outposts, he sent Murat with a powerful column, including Nansouty's men, with the mission of pushing back any enemy they might find. A short skirmish involving the 1st heavy cavalry division occurred at Wolfsdorf on 10 March, before it was decided that all the heavy cavalry would be sent to the lower Vistula, where they were to rest and be reinforced.
With its ranks replenished after the winter actions, the six-regiment division under Nansouty numbered, on 1 June 1807, no less than 3,257 men. It was by far the most powerful heavy cavalry division of the Cavalry Reserve, which then included two other such divisions, the 2nd under Saint-Sulpice
Raymond-Gaspard de Bonardi de Saint-Sulpice
Raymond-Gaspard de Bonardi comte de Saint-Sulpice was a French general of the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars, noted for his actions as a heavy cavalry commander and who became a Peer of France towards the end of his life.-Early life and Revolutionary Wars:A nobleman by birth,...
and a newly added 3rd, under Espagne
Jean-Louis-Brigitte Espagne
Jean-Louis-Brigitte Espagne, Count d'Espagne and of the Empire was a French cavalry commander of the French Revolutionary Wars, who rose to the top military rank of General of Division and took part to the Napoleonic Wars.- Revolutionary Wars :Born in Auch in a modest family, Jean-Louis-Brigitte...
. As military operation resumed later in 1807, Nasouty's division was hastily directed towards the town of Deppen, where Marshal Michel Ney
Michel Ney
Michel 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...
had managed to retreat with his Corps, after energetically extricating himself from a dangerous situation
Battle of Guttstadt-Deppen
In 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...
, with surprisingly few losses. With Ney's Corps, the Cavalry Reserve and the Guard, Napoleon moved towards Guttstadt, where on 9 June he found a large combined-arms enemy force. Murat took Lasalle's light horse and Nansouty's heavy cavalry and launched a series of charges that drove back the enemy force. Murat continued to press on and pushed the enemy into the streets of Guttstadt, where he penetrated with the cavalry at nightfall. Having fought well with his men, Nansouty was rested the next day, leaving all the action at the Battle of Heilsberg
Battle of Heilsberg
The Battle of Heilsberg took place on 10 June 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars.-Overview:On 24 May 1807, the Siege of Danzig ended when Prussian General Friedrich Adolf, Count von Kalckreuth capitulated to French Marshal Francois Joseph Lefebvre. With Gdansk secured, Napoleon was now free to turn...
to Espagne's 3rd Heavy Cavalry division.
At the beginning of June 1807, the Emperor reassessed his strategic situation and decided that he needed to move northeast, in order to prevent Bennigsen
Levin August, Count von Bennigsen
Levin August Gottlieb Theophil , Count von Bennigsen was a German general in the service of the Russian Empire....
's Russian army from using the bridge at Friedland
Pravdinsk
Pravdinsk is a town and the administrative center of Pravdinsky District of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Lava River, approximately east of Bagrationovsk...
to cross the Alle
Alle
Alle can refer to:*the German name for the Łyna , a river since 1945 in Poland and the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast*Alle, Switzerland, a community in the Swiss canton of Jura*Alle, Belgium in the province of Namur, Belgium...
river. If the Russians managed to cross the Alle
Alle
Alle can refer to:*the German name for the Łyna , a river since 1945 in Poland and the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast*Alle, Switzerland, a community in the Swiss canton of Jura*Alle, Belgium in the province of Namur, Belgium...
river at Friedland, they could then move closer to their Prussian allies, who were based in Königsberg
Königsberg
Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...
. Napoleon drew up a plan, giving Marshal Murat two army corps and a powerful cavalry reserve, with orders to march on Königsberg, while sending the rest of the troops towards Friedland. Leading the thrust towards Friedland was Marshal Jean Lannes
Jean Lannes
Jean Lannes, 1st Duc de Montebello, was a Marshal of France. He was one of Napoleon's most daring and talented generals. Napoleon once commented on Lannes: "I found him a pygmy and left him a giant"...
's Reserve Corps (two infantry divisions and one cavalry brigade), with Grouchy's dragoons and Nansouty's horse carabiniers and cuirassiers temporarily attached. In Murat's absence, Grouchy was the senior cavalry commander and was to take overall command of all the cavalry that remained with the Emperor.
Campaign in Poland: Friedland
Arriving with his corps at Friedland on 13 June after nightfall, Lannes found the position already occupied by Russian forces. Very early on 14 June, Lannes intrepidly attacked with an almost symbolic force (between 11,000 and 13,500 men) against the might of a massed enemy army of 85,000. His goal was to prevent the enemy from crossing the Alle and to give Napoleon enough time to arrive with the remainder of his forces. Nansouty's division arrived on the field of battle at FriedlandBattle of Friedland
The Battle of Friedland saw Napoleon I's French army decisively defeat Count von Bennigsen's Russian army about twenty-seven miles southeast of Königsberg...
after the first engagements and was directed towards the strategic village of Heinrichsdorf. This village needed to be held, as it protected Lannes's communications with the rest of Napoleon's army. Grouchy also directed his dragoon division towards the village and was shocked to find it in enemy hands and Nansouty's men retreating at a trot, without even attempting to contain the enemy or to cover the route that represented the corps' communication line. In fact, Nansouty had arrived not long before and had been instructed to place himself at Heinrichsdorf, without further instructions and without being informed of what was happening on the right. As Russian infantry and cavalry were boldly pressing him, he became concerned with his own lines of communication and thus ordered his men back, to avoid being cut off.
After the arrival of the Emperor with significant reinforcements, the time was right for a general counterattack. The Emperor planned his main attack against the Russian left and he wanted to prevent the enemy from transferring reinforcements from their right wing to their battered left. To that effect, Grouchy received orders to incessantly harass the enemy before him, in order to prevent Bennigsen from redeploying them on the left wing. Orders also required Grouchy to silence the enemy guns pounding the French left. In this difficult task, Grouchy was perfectly seconded by Nansouty, and together they ended to the Russian cannonade in this sector. Later, Grouchy's report expressed admiration for Nansouty's actions, adding that the latter had "gloriously repaired" his earlier error. Nansouty was also mentioned in the 79th Bulletin of the Grande Armée. After the battle, the 1st heavy cavalry division joined in the pursuit of the Russian army to the Nieman river, but the Treaties of Tilsit
Treaties of Tilsit
The Treaties of Tilsit were two agreements signed by Napoleon I of France in the town of Tilsit in July, 1807 in the aftermath of his victory at Friedland. The first was signed on 7 July, between Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon I of France, when they met on a raft in the middle of the Neman...
in July soon ended hostilities.
Count of the Empire, First Squire and the Peninsula
The numerous honours and endowments that General Nansouty received following the Battle of Friedland seem to suggest the Emperor's appreciation and the fact that Napoleon did not regard the early incident during this battle as Nansouty's fault. On 11 July 1807, General of Division Nansouty was named Grand Aigle de la Légion d'Honneur, the fifth and top rank of this order, reserved for the greatest general officers. This also brought an annual revenue of 20,000 Francs. His first endowment of 12,846 Francs was offered on 30 June 1807, and was paid by the Duchy of WarsawDuchy of Warsaw
The Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state established by Napoleon I in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit. The duchy was held in personal union by one of Napoleon's allies, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony...
. On 23 September, he received another 5,882 Francs on the Empire's Grand Livre. A count of the Empire from 10 March 1808, Nansouty was offered two additional endowments, one of 25,000 Francs, paid by the Kingdom of Westphalia
Kingdom of Westphalia
The Kingdom of Westphalia was a new country of 2.6 million Germans that existed from 1807-1813. It included of territory in Hesse and other parts of present-day Germany. While formally independent, it was a vassal state of the First French Empire, ruled by Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte...
, and the second of 10,000 Francs, paid by the Zeven domain in Hannover. He also received an endowment of 100,000 Francs for the acquisition of a Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
ian Hôtel particulier
Hôtel particulier
In French contexts an hôtel particulier is an urban "private house" of a grand sort. Whereas an ordinary maison was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a street, an hôtel particulier was often free-standing, and by the 18th century it...
; Nansouty bought the Hôtel du Président Duret in the Faubourg Saint-Germain
Faubourg Saint-Germain
The Faubourg Saint Germain is an historic district of Paris. The Faubourg has long been known as the favorite home of the French high nobility and hosts many aristocratic Hôtels particuliers...
, a neighbourhood inhabited by the new elite of Imperial France. Indeed, first-rate military figures such as the Viceroy of Italy
Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state founded in Northern Italy by Napoleon, fully influenced by revolutionary France, that ended with his defeat and fall.-Constitutional statutes:...
Eugène
Eugène de Beauharnais
Eugène Rose de Beauharnais, Prince Français, Prince of Venice, Viceroy of the Kingdom of Italy, Hereditary Grand Duke of Frankfurt, 1st Duke of Leuchtenberg and 1st Prince of Eichstätt ad personam was the first child and only son of Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais and Joséphine Tascher de la...
, Marshals Davout
Louis Nicolas Davout
Louis-Nicolas d'Avout , better known as Davout, 1st Duke of Auerstaedt, 1st Prince of Eckmühl, was a Marshal of France during the Napoleonic Era. His prodigious talent for war along with his reputation as a stern disciplinarian, earned him the title "The Iron Marshal"...
and Lannes
Jean Lannes
Jean Lannes, 1st Duc de Montebello, was a Marshal of France. He was one of Napoleon's most daring and talented generals. Napoleon once commented on Lannes: "I found him a pygmy and left him a giant"...
and Generals Rapp
Jean Rapp
Jean Rapp was a French Army general during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.Rapp was born the son of the janitor of the town-hall of Colmar. He began theological studies to became a clergy man, but with his build and heated character, he was better suited to the military,...
and Legrand also acquired residences in Faubourg Saint-Germain.
Additionally, in 1808, he was offered the position of First Squire of the Emperor in Napoleon's Military Household
Military Household of the Emperor
The Military Household of the Emperor was the immediate entourage of the Emperor of the French during the First French Empire. At the end of december 1806, no less than 800 men were members of the Military Household...
, a dignity that offered an annual revenue of 30,000 Francs and which gained importance when the Grand Squire, General Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt
Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt
Armand-Augustin-Louis, marquis de Caulaincourt, 1st Duc de Vicence was a French general and diplomat.-Biography:...
, was sent to Saint-Petersburg as ambassador. Napoleon allegedly chose Nansouty for his elegant manners and education, aristocratic posture and talent for administration. In his capacity as First Squire, Nansouty thus had to accompany the Emperor during the latter's short campaign in Spain (from November 1808 to early January 1809). There, he was in charge of several administrative tasks linked with managing the Emperor's stable services and suite and commanding his orderly officers. The Emperor's aides-de-camp had their own aides-de-camp, who were also placed under the command of the First Squire. Although never very far away from the Emperor in a campaign that included many battles, Nansouty himself never exercised a field command during this campaign, and in January 1809, he accompanied his master back to France, as the outbreak of the War of the Fifth Coalition
War of the Fifth Coalition
The War of the Fifth Coalition, fought in the year 1809, pitted a coalition of the Austrian Empire and the United Kingdom against Napoleon's French Empire and Bavaria. Major engagements between France and Austria, the main participants, unfolded over much of Central Europe from April to July, with...
was imminent.
War of the Fifth Coalition
With a large part of the French EmpireFirst French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
's forces now entangled in the bloody Peninsular War
Peninsular War
The 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...
, the Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
believed that its best opportunity to avenge the humiliating defeat of 1805 had finally come. The Austrians were looking to defeat France and regain their former influence in Italy and Germany. In early 1809, the Austrian war preparations were so intense that Napoleon was forced to leave Spain and head back to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to reorganise his main army in Germany. In spring, Nansouty was therefore recalled to the command of 1st of the three heavy cavalry
Heavy cavalry
Heavy cavalry is a class of cavalry whose primary role was to engage in direct combat with enemy forces . Although their equipment differed greatly depending on the region and historical period, they were generally mounted on large powerful horses, and were often equipped with some form of scale,...
divisions of the Cavalry Reserve, placed this time under the command of Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bessières
Jean-Baptiste Bessières
Jean-Baptiste Bessières, 1st Duc d' Istria was a Marshal of France of the Napoleonic Era. His younger brother, Bertrand, followed in his footsteps and eventually became a Divisional General...
. As the War of the Fifth Coalition
War of the Fifth Coalition
The War of the Fifth Coalition, fought in the year 1809, pitted a coalition of the Austrian Empire and the United Kingdom against Napoleon's French Empire and Bavaria. Major engagements between France and Austria, the main participants, unfolded over much of Central Europe from April to July, with...
broke out, Nansouty's division was soon detached from the Reserve and temporarily attached to Marshal Louis Nicolas Davout
Louis Nicolas Davout
Louis-Nicolas d'Avout , better known as Davout, 1st Duke of Auerstaedt, 1st Prince of Eckmühl, was a Marshal of France during the Napoleonic Era. His prodigious talent for war along with his reputation as a stern disciplinarian, earned him the title "The Iron Marshal"...
's III Corps, the force that was assigned the most difficult tasks during the early military operations of this war. As Napoleon then ordered a concentration of the army at Ratisbon
Regensburg
Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
, Nansouty's division was once again put under the command of Bessières and sent to serve with the Bavarian
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806 as Maximilian I Joseph. The monarchy would remain held by the Wittelsbachs until the kingdom's dissolution in 1918...
army. After his initial victories at Abensberg
Battle of Abensberg
The Battle of Abensberg took place on 20 April 1809, between a Franco-German force under the command of Emperor Napoleon I of France and a reinforced Austrian corps led by Feldmarschall-Leutnant Archduke Louis of Austria. As the day wore on, Feldmarschall-Leutnant Johann von Hiller arrived with...
and Landshut
Battle of Landshut (1809)
The Battle of Landshut took place on April 21, 1809, between the French, Württembergers and Bavarians under Napoleon which numbered about 77,000 strong, and 36,000 Austrians under the General Johann von Hiller...
, Napoleon concentrated the bulk of his army, including Nansouty's men, at Eckmühl
Eckmühl
Eckmühl is a village of Germany, in Bavaria, on the Große Laaber, 20 km S.E. of Regensburg...
, where Davout was waiting.
Eckmühl and Ratisbon
Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen
Archduke Charles of Austria, Duke of Teschen was an Austrian field-marshal, the third son of emperor Leopold II and his wife Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain...
's Austrian army at the Battle of Eckmühl
Battle of Eckmühl
The Battle of Eckmühl fought on 21 April – 22 April 1809, was the turning point of the 1809 Campaign, also known as the War of the Fifth Coalition...
, on 21–22 April 1809. On 22 April, the second day of the battle, Nansouty was at first sent to the Schierling plain, in support of Bavarian General Deroy
Bernhard Erasmus von Deroy
Bernhard Erasmus von Deroy became a noted general officer in the army of Bavaria. His military career began shortly after the start of the Seven Years War...
, who, after several failed attempts, managed to take the town of Eckmühl
Eckmühl
Eckmühl is a village of Germany, in Bavaria, on the Große Laaber, 20 km S.E. of Regensburg...
from the enemy. Apart from the Schierling plain, the terrain at Eckmühl was very uneven and hilly, with dangerously steep slopes, which made cavalry action here improper. Yet, it was here that one of the most memorable cavalry actions of the entire Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The 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...
was to take place. It all began on the slopes next to Eckmühl, where a first brief cavalry engagement occurred, as Bavarian and Württemberger
Kingdom of Württemberg
The Kingdom of Württemberg was a state that existed from 1806 to 1918, located in present-day Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was a continuation of the Duchy of Württemberg, which came into existence in 1495...
cavalry encountered and charged Austrian cavalry. The Austrians won out and the Bavarians and Württembergers retreated and reformed in the vicinity of the two French heavy cavalry divisions present. These two divisions, the 1st under Nansouty (1st and 2nd Carabiniers-à-cheval
Carabiniers-à-Cheval
The Carabiniers-à-Cheval were mounted troops in the service of France.Their origins date back to the mid-16th century, when they were created as elite elements of the French light cavalry, armed with carbines but then gradually evolved towards semi-independent status during the XVIIIth century...
, 2nd, 3rd, 9th and 12th Cuirassiers) and the 2nd under Saint-Sulpice
Raymond-Gaspard de Bonardi de Saint-Sulpice
Raymond-Gaspard de Bonardi comte de Saint-Sulpice was a French general of the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars, noted for his actions as a heavy cavalry commander and who became a Peer of France towards the end of his life.-Early life and Revolutionary Wars:A nobleman by birth,...
(four regiments strong), were placed next to one another, forming five lines, with their regiments in column, one in front of the other. These men were ordered forward, up the slope and onto the plateau where the light cavalry had been repulsed moments earlier. Arriving on the plateau at a gallop, the cavalry overtook Marshal Lannes
Jean Lannes
Jean Lannes, 1st Duc de Montebello, was a Marshal of France. He was one of Napoleon's most daring and talented generals. Napoleon once commented on Lannes: "I found him a pygmy and left him a giant"...
's infantry, who admiringly cheered "Vive les cuirassiers" ("Long live the cuirassiers") and applauded as the cavalry galloped past them,. With their two frontline regiments now deployed in line and with the German light cavalry protecting their flanks, the two heavy cavalry divisions clashed into whatever Austrian cavalry they could find on the plateau, repulsing them with ease. This was, however, only the prelude of a much larger cavalry combat.
In order to protect his retreat, Archduke Charles of Austria reunited his entire cavalry reserve, 44 squadrons in all, on either side of the Ratisbon road, next to the village of Eggolsheim
Eggolsheim
Eggolsheim is a municipality in the district of Forchheim in Bavaria in Germany....
. Between 19:00 20:00 in the evening, Napoleon ordered his cavalry to disperse the enemy horse from this position. In preparation of the charge, Nansouty formed five of his regiments in two lines: three regiments in the first line and two in the second line, leaving his remaining regiment with Saint-Sulpice. Saint-Sulpice's division was on Nansouty's right and it remained formed in regiment column formations, while the light cavalry was protecting the flanks of the whole. In all, the French had 48 squadrons, and, as they advanced, they were met by intense artillery fire from the Austrian batteries and then vigorously charged by the Gottesheim cuirassier regiment. Seeing the enemy charging, Nansouty ordered his squadrons forward towards the enemy, but at a gentle trot
Trot (horse gait)
The trot is a two-beat diagonal gait of the horse, where the diagonal pairs of legs move forward at the same time. There is a moment of suspension between each beat....
. Then, as soon as the Austrians were at about one hundred paces, the frontline regiment of Carabiniers-à-Cheval
Carabiniers-à-Cheval
The Carabiniers-à-Cheval were mounted troops in the service of France.Their origins date back to the mid-16th century, when they were created as elite elements of the French light cavalry, armed with carbines but then gradually evolved towards semi-independent status during the XVIIIth century...
halted, loaded their carbine
Carbine
A carbine , from French carabine, is a longarm similar to but shorter than a rifle or musket. Many carbines are shortened versions of full rifles, firing the same ammunition at a lower velocity due to a shorter barrel length....
s and fired a salvo from thirty or forty paces, then drew their swords and joined their fellow cuirassier
Cuirassier
Cuirassiers were mounted cavalry soldiers equipped with armour and firearms, first appearing in late 15th-century Europe. They were the successors of the medieval armoured knights...
s in an energetic charge. As Nansouty led, Saint-Sulpice followed and, despite the vigour and determination of the Austrian cavalry, they were repulsed after a brief hand-to-hand combat. Coming in support of the Gottesheim cuirassiers, the Kaiser cuirassier regiment shared the same fate, with Sitpsicz's hussar
Hussar
Hussar refers to a number of types of light cavalry which originated in Hungary in the 14th century, tracing its roots from Serbian medieval cavalry tradition, brought to Hungary in the course of the Serb migrations, which began in the late 14th century....
s and Vincent's chevaulegers also repulsed. A generalised and bloody mêlée then occurred under the moonlight, with the sabre hits on the steel cuirass
Cuirass
A cuirass is a piece of armour, formed of a single or multiple pieces of metal or other rigid material, which covers the front of the torso...
es producing sparkles in the night. Austrian General Scnheller was wounded during this action and General Suterheim, commanding the entire Austrian cavalry, only just escaped capture. The Austrian cavalry was repulsed and pushed into the marshes beyond, subsequently retreating towards Köfering
Köfering
Köfering is a municipality in the district of Regensburg in Bavaria in Germany....
, with the bulk of Archduke Charles's forces retreating towards Ratisbon.
The pursuit resumed the next day at dawn, and was followed by yet another action at the Battle of Ratisbon
Battle of Ratisbon
The Battle of Ratisbon, also called the Battle of Regensburg, of the Napoleonic Wars was fought on the 23 April 1809 between the army of the First French Empire, led by Napoleon I, and that of the Austrian Empire, led by Archduke Charles...
, where the Austrians tried to delay the French pursuit. After fierce fighting, during which Nansouty's and Saint-Sulpice's men successfully charged the enemy cavalry three times, the French captured the citadel at Ratisbon, but saw the Austrians skilfully retreating. Nansouty was left at Ratisbon with Davout, to observe the retreat of Archduke Charles.
Aspern-Essling
On 21 May 1809, Napoleon crossed the DanubeDanube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
not far from Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and attacked Archduke Charles's Austrian army, situated on the northern bank of the river, in what became known as the Battle of Aspern-Essling
Battle of Aspern-Essling
In the Battle of Aspern-Essling , Napoleon attempted a forced crossing of the Danube near Vienna, but the French and their allies were driven back by the Austrians under Archduke Charles...
. The French were nonetheless critically outnumbered and it soon became obvious that they would have a hard time just holding out. Nansouty could only get one of his brigades, Saint-Germain's 3rd and 12th cuirassiers, across the Danube for the action on 21 May. He found the heroic cuirassiers of General Jean-Louis-Brigitte Espagne
Jean-Louis-Brigitte Espagne
Jean-Louis-Brigitte Espagne, Count d'Espagne and of the Empire was a French cavalry commander of the French Revolutionary Wars, who rose to the top military rank of General of Division and took part to the Napoleonic Wars.- Revolutionary Wars :Born in Auch in a modest family, Jean-Louis-Brigitte...
charging, as they had done all day long, in a desperate attempt to stop Austrian attacks on the thin French battle line. Espagne had just been killed in action and his exhausted and depleted squadrons needed to be relieved. Nansouty at once brought forward Saint-Germain's squadrons and charged the enemy infantry, allowing the army to maintain itself on the position.
On the second day of the battle, 22 May, Nansouty received his second cuirassier brigade, Doumerc
Jean-Pierre Doumerc
Jean-Pierre Doumerc, born 7 October 1767 – died 29 March 1847, joined a French cavalry regiment at the beginning of the French Revolution and rose in rank to command a cuirassier regiment by the start of the First French Empire. During the Napoleonic Wars he first led cavalry brigades and...
's 2nd and 9th regiments. During the morning, having received some reinforcements, Napoleon sent Marshal Lannes's Corps forward, in an attack against the enemy line. Nansouty's and Lasalle's cavalry protected the infantry columns, charging the enemy cavalry to clear their path. However, at around 21:00 in the morning, news that the great bridge over the Danube had broken, making the arrival of further reinforcements virtually impossible, forced Napoleon to call off his attack and order a phased retreat. The situation of the French army was critical, with Marshal Lannes fatally wounded, and a great number of losses in men. It took all the skill of Nansouty and the other cavalry commanders to contain the formidable Austrian onslaught in order to allow the rest of the army to gradually disengage. After most of the army had safely crossed an arm of the Danube onto the island of Lobau
Lobau
The Lobau is a Vienna floodplain on the northern side of the Danube and partly in Großenzersdorf, Lower Austria. It has been part of the Danube-Auen National Park since 1996 and has been a protected area since 1978. It is used as a recreational area and is known as a site of nudism. There is...
, Nansouty's men were also withdrawn from the battlefield during the night, with the French cavalry subsequently celebrated for their role in preventing a catastrophic defeat that day.
Wagram
After the bloody setback at Aspern-Essling, Napoleon took six weeks to carefully plan another crossing of the Danube. He launched this operation late on 4 July and, by the early hours of the next day, he had managed to get a substantial force across the river. Nansouty's division did not see any action during the first day of the Battle at WagramBattle of Wagram
The Battle of Wagram was the decisive military engagement of the War of the Fifth Coalition. It took place on the Marchfeld plain, on the north bank of the Danube. An important site of the battle was the village of Deutsch-Wagram, 10 kilometres northeast of Vienna, which would give its name to the...
and at night they camped behind the Imperial Guard. The next day, 6 July, Nansouty was at first directed to support Davout, on the French right, but when it became clear that the latter's sector was not threatened by the arrival of enemy reinforcements, they were ordered back into reserve in a central position on the battlefield, not far from the village of Aderklaa
Aderklaa
Aderklaa is a town in the district of Gänserndorf in Lower Austria in Austria....
. Then, as the situation on the French left rapidly deteriorated, they were called into action, when Napoleon ordered Marshal Bessières
Jean-Baptiste Bessières
Jean-Baptiste Bessières, 1st Duc d' Istria was a Marshal of France of the Napoleonic Era. His younger brother, Bertrand, followed in his footsteps and eventually became a Divisional General...
, commander of the Cavalry Reserve, to launch his men in a charge against the Austrians menacing his left. With time at the essence, Bessières opted not to wait for the Guard cavalry and, with his other two heavy cavalry divisions assigned to other sectors of the battlefield, he decided to lead forward only Nansouty's men. This division was indeed very strong: 24 squadrons, more than 4,000 men, including Brigadier General
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
Defrance
Jean-Marie Defrance
Jean-Marie Defrance was a French General of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was also a member of the Council of Five Hundred , and a teacher at the military school of Rebais, Champagne.Defrance had an extensive and successful military career in the French...
's 1st and 2nd carabiniers-à-cheval, Brigadier General Doumerc's 2nd and 9th cuirassiers and Brigadier General Berckheim's 3rd and 12th cuirassiers.
Bessières and Nansouty led these men forward, through a hail of cannonball
Round shot
Round shot is a solid projectile without explosive charge, fired from a cannon. As the name implies, round shot is spherical; its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the gun it is fired from.Round shot was made in early times from dressed stone, but by the 17th century, from iron...
s and case-shot, with the carabiniers-à-cheval at the front. Finding a weaker spot in the Austrian line, they pierced it and stormed past the enemy infantry formed in squares, sabering the Georger Grenzer
Grenz infantry
Grenz infantry or Grenzers were light infantry troops who came from the Croatian and Transylvanian Military Frontier in Habsburg Monarchy . This borderland formed a buffer zone between Christian Europe and the Ottoman Empire, and the troops were originally raised to defend Austria against the...
battalion as they went along their way. However, many of the French cavalry did not manage to penetrate through the formidable masses of Austrian infantry, so Nansouty was now commanding a much diminished force. Showing great skill in handling his men, Nansouty then wheeled right and charged Liechtenstein's artillery line. However, the Austrian cavalry promptly intervened, spearheaded by the Rosenberg chevaulegers and the Kronprinz cuirassier regiments, which caught the carabiniers-à-cheval in flank and repulsed them, pursuing them back to their lines. The costly repulse of Nansouty's division did not dishearten Bessières, who was preparing another rapid charge, now with the support of elements of the Guard cavalry. This charge never came, as the Marshal's horse was killed by a cannonball, with Bessières also hit and carried unconscious behind the lines. With his commander presumed dead, Nansouty did not know what the Emperor's orders were and thus promptly decided to pull back his men, to avoid further damage to his already battered division.
This however was not to be the end of General Nansouty's action at the great Battle of Wagram. Although the great cavalry attack had done much to ease the pressure on Napoleon's left-centre, the latter's situation remained critical. The Emperor thus launched the Corps of General Jacques MacDonald in an attack against the Austrian right-centre. MacDonald's attack formation, formed by chance more than by any tactical forethought, was a huge infantry attack column or square, comprising all his divisions in a deep formation that was highly unusual for Napoleonic warfare. Four squadrons of Nansouty's carabiniers-à-cheval were sent to support the flank of this attack, with the rest of his division further back. Realising that his advance is hampered by intense Austrian artillery fire, MacDonald aimed to clear the enemy guns before him, asking for a cavalry charge from Walther
Frédéric Henri Walther
Frederic-Louis-Henri Walther , was an Alsatian-born general of division and a supporter of Napoleon Bonaparte. He fought for France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars....
's Guard cavalry on his right and Nansouty's 1st heavy cavalry division on his left. With no direct orders from the Emperor and his commander, Marshal Bessières, out of action, Walther opted not to move, while Nansouty did send his men forward but, having been positioned too far back, he arrived only after the enemy guns had moved away.
Nansouty's division suffered a very high casualty rate at the Battle of Wagram, with more men and horses lost than the other two heavy cavalry divisions combined. Losses in horses were extremely high, with 1,141 animals killed or injured, while losses in men were also significant, despite the fact that only the carabiniers-à-cheval really came into contact with the enemy. Overall, Nansouty's division lost 164 men killed and 436 wounded. Foremost of all, the highly-battered two carabiniers-à-cheval regiments had no more than 300 horses standing between themselves by the end of the day, for an equine casualty rate of 77 percent, with the 9th and 12th cuirassiers also suffering high casualties. Bessières's charge, hastily organised with only the division of Nansouty, through murderous artillery fire and against masses of infantry prepared to receive them, had less tactical effect than at Aspern-Essling, but it did win Napoleon valuable time, allowing him to retake the initiative in this battle.
Interlude between two campaigns
General MacDonald was very critical of both Walther and Nansouty, for their alleged failure to provide proper cavalry support during his attack. MacDonald went on to write in his memoirs that he was "taken aback by the slowness of General Nansouty [...] Nansouty did charge in the end, but too late to take advantage of the gaping hole that I had pierced in the centre of the Austrian army." A few days after the Battle of Wagram, Napoleon confronted Nansouty over what he saw as being a failure to cooperate with MacDonald. Nansouty responded to the Emperor's lively reproaches by offering categorical explanations, saying that he had not been consulted in the placement of his division, rendering manoeuvres impossible during that action. As Napoleon insisted, Nansouty stood up to him, finally retorting: "After all, it is not Your Majesty at any rate who can teach me to lead cavalry..." Despite this remark, Nansouty would continue to be given significant commands in the coming years. It was shortly after this bloody battle that Nansouty insisted that the Carabiniers-à-ChevalCarabiniers-à-Cheval
The Carabiniers-à-Cheval were mounted troops in the service of France.Their origins date back to the mid-16th century, when they were created as elite elements of the French light cavalry, armed with carbines but then gradually evolved towards semi-independent status during the XVIIIth century...
be given the steel cuirass
Cuirass
A cuirass is a piece of armour, formed of a single or multiple pieces of metal or other rigid material, which covers the front of the torso...
, in a bid to cancel out what he saw as being a state of inferiority of these troops vis-à-vis their fellow cuirassiers. Nansouty's initiative was approved and was enforced in 1810.
With the peace of Vienna
Treaty of Schönbrunn
The Treaty of Schönbrunn , sometimes known as the Treaty of Vienna, was signed between France and Austria at the Schönbrunn Palace of Vienna on 14 October 1809. This treaty ended the Fifth Coalition during the Napoleonic Wars...
signed between the French Empire
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
and the Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
in October, Nansouty was ordered to leave the command of his division to General Bruyères and retake his position of First Squire alongside the Emperor (17 October 1809). However, with the return of the Grand Squire Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt
Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt
Armand-Augustin-Louis, marquis de Caulaincourt, 1st Duc de Vicence was a French general and diplomat.-Biography:...
, the role of the First Squire was much diminished. As a result, in 1811 Nansouty was given an additional function, that of General Inspector of cavalry. Very active in exercising this function, he soon became reputed for his strictness and for his detailed knowledge and invaluable experience that he had of this arm. Nonetheless, war was, once more, not far away and, on 19 October 1811, Nansouty was called to the command of the 2nd and 4th cuirassier
Cuirassier
Cuirassiers were mounted cavalry soldiers equipped with armour and firearms, first appearing in late 15th-century Europe. They were the successors of the medieval armoured knights...
divisions of the "Observation Corps of the Elba
Elba
Elba is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino. The largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, Elba is also part of the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago and the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardinia...
", under the command of Marshal Louis Nicolas Davout
Louis Nicolas Davout
Louis-Nicolas d'Avout , better known as Davout, 1st Duke of Auerstaedt, 1st Prince of Eckmühl, was a Marshal of France during the Napoleonic Era. His prodigious talent for war along with his reputation as a stern disciplinarian, earned him the title "The Iron Marshal"...
. Then, with the reorganisation of the Grande Armée in April 1812, Nansouty was named at the command of the I Cavalry Corps
I Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée)
I Cavalry Corps was a French military formation during the later stage of the Napoleonic Wars. Created in 1812 as a part of the Grande Armée that was intended to invade Russia, I Cavalry Corps took part to the French invasion of Russia and the to the 1813-1814 War of the Sixth Coalition, which...
.
Campaign in Russia
With the outbreak of the war with RussiaRussian Campaign
The Russian campaign may refer to:* the Russian Campaign of Napoleon in 1812 * the World War II on the Eastern Front * The Russian Campaign, a strategic board wargame of the World War II on the Eastern Front 1941-1945....
in 1812, the Grande Armée included, alongside the usual combined-arms Army Corps, four large Cavalry Reserve Corps, commanded respectively by Generals Nansouty (Ist), Montbrun (IInd), Grouchy (IIIrd) and La Tour Maubourg
Marie Victor de Fay, marquis de Latour-Maubourg
Marie Victor Nicolas de Fay, marquis de Latour-Maubourg was a French cavalry commander starting under the Ancien Régime of France, and rising to prominence during the First French Empire...
(IVth Corps). This innovation has been much criticised after this campaign and, in the words of Marshal Marmont, it had the only merit of "presenting an extraordinary spectacle that astonished the eye."
During this campaign, Nansouty's I Cavalry Corps
I Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée)
I Cavalry Corps was a French military formation during the later stage of the Napoleonic Wars. Created in 1812 as a part of the Grande Armée that was intended to invade Russia, I Cavalry Corps took part to the French invasion of Russia and the to the 1813-1814 War of the Sixth Coalition, which...
was composed of:
- General Bruyères's 1st light cavalry division (7th, 8th Hussars, 16th Chasseurs à cheval, 9th Chevau-légers lanciers, one Prussian and one Polish light horse regiments),
- General Saint-Germain's 1st cuirassier division (2nd, 3rd, 9th Cuirassiers, 1st Chevau-légers lanciers regiments),
- General Valence's 5th cuirassier division (6th, 11th and 12th Cuirassiers, 5th Chevau-légers lanciers regiments),
- an artillery of 36 pieces.
Joachim Murat
Joachim-Napoléon Murat , Marshal of France and Grand Admiral or Admiral of France, 1st Prince Murat, was Grand Duke of Berg from 1806 to 1808 and then King of Naples from 1808 to 1815...
during this campaign, preceding the advance of the army and taking Wilna as they advanced. Despite marching constantly alongside Murat and Emperor Napoleon, Nansouty's Ist Corps of cavalry reserve saw little action, combating brilliantly in a vanguard action at Ostrovno and then briefly at Vitebsk
Battle of Vitebsk (1812)
The Battle of Vitebsk, sometimes spelled Witepsk, was a military engagement that took place on 26 and 27 July 1812 during the French invasion of Russia...
. An incident involving some of Nansouty's light cavalry occurred during the combat at Vitebsk, when the 8th Hussars and 16th Chasseurs à cheval turned and fled before the Russian light horse. This was evidence that the division of Bruyères, of which they were a part, had been much used by always being placed at the vanguard of the army, resulting in the loss many of the best and bravest troopers. Despite Nansouty's best efforts, the extremely long and exhausting marches, the torrential rains and the absence of proper fodder took their toll on the Ist Cavalry Corps, with numbers reduced to half by this time. Additionally, just like the other Cavalry Corps commanders, Nansouty rarely had all his troops under direct control, which led to cavalry being used improperly at times.
With his three divisions reunited on 7 September 1812, Nansouty's Ist Cavalry Corps saw action at the Battle of Borodino
Battle of Borodino
The Battle of Borodino , fought on September 7, 1812, was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the French invasion of Russia and all Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 troops and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties...
. He was placed on the French right, in second line, behind the Corps of Marshal Davout and, after Murat managed to take two of the redoubt
Redoubt
A redoubt is a fort or fort system usually consisting of an enclosed defensive emplacement outside a larger fort, usually relying on earthworks, though others are constructed of stone or brick. It is meant to protect soldiers outside the main defensive line and can be a permanent structure or a...
s on the Russian left, Nansouty placed his men on the right of this position and then supported the advance of the right wing of the army. With the Russians making an offensive comeback, Nansouty placed himself at the head of the heavy divisions of Saint-Germain and Valence and charged and while doing so a bullet pierced one of his knees. This was Nansouty's first battle wound and it was serious enough to end his active role during this campaign. He was transported to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
following the battle and although still wounded, on 10 October, he was entrusted with the mission of commanding the convoy that was to take the wounded generals and colonels, as well as the main trophies captured, behind the lines. During this mission, he was exposed to great danger, to famine and extreme cold, which impacted his already frail health. He was then allowed to return to France and recover from his injury.
War of the Sixth Coalition
The remains of the French army had completely evacuated Russian territory by December 1812 but their defeat sparked anti-French sentiments in Germany and PrussiaKingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
joined the Russians, forming a Sixth Coalition. Hostilities thus continued in early 1813 but Nansouty's wound did not yet allow him to return to action, so he was offered the prestigious position of Colonel-General
Colonel General (France)
A Colonel General was an officer of the French army during the Ancien Régime, Napoleonic era and the Bourbon Restoration.The positions were not military ranks, but rather offices of the crown. The position was first created under François I. The Colonels General served directly below the Marshals...
of dragoon
Dragoon
The word dragoon originally meant mounted infantry, who were trained in horse riding as well as infantry fighting skills. However, usage altered over time and during the 18th century, dragoons evolved into conventional light cavalry units and personnel...
s (16 January), in replacement of General Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers
Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers
thumbLouis Baraguey d'Hilliers was a French Army general who fought in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was the father of Achille Baraguey d'Hilliers, a Marshal of France.-French Revolution:...
, who had just died of exhaustion. Nansouty's wound was very serious but he had been very lucky: the bullet that pierced his knee only tore through flesh, leaving his kneecap intact. Having missed the first part of the campaign, General Nansouty was recalled to a field command once his knee wound was cured, towards mid-1813. He accepted to take the helm of the Guard cavalry, with a complement of 5,000 sabres, and including Guyot
Claude-Étienne Guyot
Claude-Étienne Guyot, count of the Empire, was a French general of the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars, noted for commanding cavalry.-Early career during the Revolutionary Wars:...
's Grenadiers-à-cheval
Grenadiers à Cheval de la Garde Impériale
The Grenadiers à Cheval de la Garde Impériale constituted a heavy cavalry regiment in the Consular, then Imperial Guard during the French Consulate and First French Empire respectively...
, Letort
Louis-Michel Letort de Lorville
Louis-Michel Letort de Lorville was a French general of the Napoleonic Wars. He was made a baron de l'Empire on 9 September 1810, général de brigade on 30 January 1813, and acted as aide de camp to Napoleon himself...
's Dragons, Lefebvre-Desnouettes
Charles, comte Lefebvre-Desnouettes
Charles, comte Lefebvre-Desnouettes or Lefèbvre-Desnoëttes became a French officer during the French Revolutionary Wars and a general during the Napoleonic Wars...
Chasseurs-à-cheval
Chasseurs à Cheval de la Garde Impériale
The Chasseurs à Cheval de la Garde Impériale constituted a light cavalry regiment in the Consular, then Imperial Guard during the French Consulate and First French Empire respectively. They were the second senior "Old Guard" cavalry regiment of the Imperial Guard, after the Grenadiers à Cheval...
and Édouard Colbert
Pierre David de Colbert-Chabanais
Pierre David Édouard de Colbert-Chabanais was a general of the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars, noted for his unbreakable loyalty to Napoleon I.-Revolution:...
's Chevau-légers lanciers.
Campaign in Saxony
In 1813, most military operations took part in SaxonyKingdom of Saxony
The Kingdom of Saxony , lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire. It became a Free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War...
, with the Chasseurs-à-cheval and Colbert
Pierre David de Colbert-Chabanais
Pierre David Édouard de Colbert-Chabanais was a general of the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars, noted for his unbreakable loyalty to Napoleon I.-Revolution:...
's Chevau-légers lanciers encountering the enemy in several isolated cavalry actions, but the first serious action came only at the Battle of Dresden
Battle of Dresden
The Battle of Dresden was fought on 26–27 August 1813 around Dresden, Germany, resulting in a French victory under Napoleon I against forces of the Sixth Coalition of Austrians, Russians and Prussians under Field Marshal Schwartzenberg. However, Napoleon's victory was not as complete as it could...
, where Nansouty's Guard cavalry supported Marshal Michel Ney
Michel Ney
Michel 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...
's attack on the extreme left, in conjunction with Marshal Édouard Mortier
Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier
Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, 1st Duc de Trévise was a French general and Marshal of France under Napoleon I.-Biography:...
's "Young Guard" infantry divisions.
However, the Guard cavalry was not needed as a whole before the epic "Battle of Nations" at Leipzig
Battle of Leipzig
The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations, on 16–19 October 1813, was fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against the French army of Napoleon. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine...
. Placed in reserve at first, the Guard cavalry and artillery had to spring into action at once, after Napoleon received news of the Saxon defection
Defection
In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another. More broadly, it involves abandoning a person, cause or doctrine to whom or to which one is bound by some tie, as of allegiance or duty.This term is also applied,...
. With the Saxons now in the Coalition camp and firing at the soldiers who moments before had been their allies, the situation of some of the French troops became desperate. The position of General Durutte
Pierre François Joseph Durutte
Pierre François Joseph Durutte joined the French army at the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars. Rapidly promoted for feats of bravery under fire at Jemappes in 1792 and Hondschoote in 1793, he found himself appointed to serve as a staff officer...
's division, placed close to Saxon lines, was particularly tenuous and Napoleon soon came to its aid, with Nansouty in command of the Guard cavalry and horse artillery. Nansouty launched an impetuous charge with some of his regiments, the Grenadiers-à-cheval, Dragons and Chevau-légers and the Saxons were unable to hold out in this sector. However, the situation changed on 19 October, with the untimely explosion of a bridge over the Elster, the main retreat line for the French rearguard, which was now blocked in the city of Leipzig. The Guard cavalry extricated itself from the field of battle and was very useful in covering the retreat of the remaining French forces.
With the Grande Armée in full retreat, another dangerous situation occurred on 29 October. With Bavaria
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806 as Maximilian I Joseph. The monarchy would remain held by the Wittelsbachs until the kingdom's dissolution in 1918...
now also in the camp of the Coalition, an Austro
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
-Bavarian army of some 45,000 men, under General Karl Philipp von Wrede
Karl Philipp von Wrede
Karl Philipp Josef Wrede, Freiherr von Wrede, 1st Fürst von Wrede , Bavarian field-marshal, was born at Heidelberg, the youngest of three children of Ferdinand Josef Wrede , created in 1791 1st Freiherr von Wrede, and wife, married on 21 March 1746, Anna Katharina Jünger , by whom he had two more...
, who had fought under the command of the Emperor during the previous campaigns, tried to block the French retreat and delay the French force until the arrival of the rest of the Coalition forces. Wrede had the means necessary to achieve his goal, as he possessed a numerous artillery of about one hundred pieces and a powerful cavalry of 50 squadrons. In comparison, the French forces were much dispersed and only a few units remained cohesive and combat-capable. During the ensuing Battle of Hanau
Battle of Hanau
The Battle of Hanau was fought on between Karl Philipp von Wrede’s Austro-Bavarian corps and Napoleon's retreating French during the War of the Sixth Coalition....
, Wrede placed his troops in front of the forest of Lamboi, through which he expected that the French would retreat. He also positioned almost all of his cavalry on the left, placing it under the command of Field Marshal-Lieutenant Spleny. Despite his numeric inferiority, Napoleon sent forward a part of his men against Bavarians deployed in the forest before him, but the intervention of the Foot Guards was soon required. The Bavarians had fought alongside the French in the past and the sight of the fearsome Bearskin
Bearskin
A bearskin is a tall fur cap, usually worn as part of a ceremonial military uniform. Traditionally, the bearskin was the headgear of grenadiers, and is still worn by grenadier and guards regiments in various armies.-Origins:...
s of French Guardsmen shook their morale and they abandoned their position in the forest after a brief fight. But, with the fire of a Bavarian grand battery
Grand Battery
Grand Battery was a French artillery tactic of the Napoleonic wars. It involved massing all available batteries into a single large, temporary one, and concentrating the firepower of their guns at a single point in the enemy's lines.Substituting volume of fire for accuracy, rate of fire and rapid...
upon them, the French infantry soon had to stop. Napoleon positioned General Le Noury
Henri Marie Lenoury
Henri Marie Lenoury , sometimes incorrectly called Noury, was a French general born in Craconville, France.-Early life:...
's artillery in battery and brought in support General Drouot
Antoine Drouot
Comte Antoine Drouot was one of Napoleon's generals.Born in Nancy, France, the son of a baker, he trained as an artilleryman and took part in the battles of the French Revolution where he rose through the ranks....
with the horse artillery of the Guard, as well as other pieces, constituting a grand battery of some 50 pieces that was soon able to respond adequately to the Austro-Bavarian cannonade. Nansouty, with the Guard Dragoons and Lancers, was instructed to protect this battery from the enemy and thus positioned his men behind the guns.
Seeing this inauspicious development, Wrede sent his cavalry, no less than 7,000 men, to charge Drouot's grand battery. The steady French canister
Canister shot
Canister shot is a kind of anti-personnel ammunition used in cannons. It was similar to the naval grapeshot, but fired smaller and more numerous balls, which did not have to punch through the wooden hull of a ship...
fire was devastating and many Coalition squadrons turned back to safety. Some of them did manage to get to the French guns and crossed the battery, with the Guard cavalry immediately countercharging and driving them off. With the gun line now out of danger, Nansouty, with the aid of Sebastiani's cuirassiers launched a pursuit of the repulsed enemy horse, encountering and breaking an Austrian cuirassier regiment, Knesevich's Dragoon regiment and two Bavarian chevaulegers regiments, all under the personal command of Field Marshal-Lieutenant Spleny. Then, with a manoeuvre resembling that of Kellermann
François Étienne de Kellermann
Francois Étienne de Kellermann, 2nd Duc de Valmy was a French cavalry general noted for his daring and skillful exploits during the Napoleonic Wars...
at Marengo, Nansouty wheeled his men left and rushed onto the enemy infantry, breaking them. The Grenadiers-à-Cheval were in the thick of the fighting and, with an offensive comeback of the Bavarian cavalry, they were momentarily in a dangerous situation, but were duly rescued by the Gardes d'Honneur regiment. Nansouty then took his entire cavalry and broke the remaining enemy squares and cavalry, pushing some of these men into the Kinzig
Kinzig (Rhine)
The Kinzig is a river in southwestern Germany, a right tributary of the Rhine.It runs for 95 km from the Black Forest through the Upper Rhine River Plains. The Kinzig valley and secondary valleys constitute the largest system of valleys in the Black Forest...
river. Meanwhile, Nansouty's action left Sebastiani free to silence the Bavarian grand battery, skilfully using Saint-Germain's cuirassier division and Exelmans
Rémi Joseph Isidore Exelmans
Rémi Joseph Isidore Exelmans, 1st Comte Exelmans was a distinguished French soldier of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, as well as a political figure of the following period.-Early career:...
's light division of his Corps. Nansouty received a light wound during this battle, but his role at Hanau is compared by a Russian author to that of Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz
Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz
Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Seydlitz was a Prussian soldier and one of the greatest German cavalry generals.-Early life:...
at the Battle of Zorndorf
Battle of Zorndorf
The Battle of Zorndorf was a battle fought on August 25, 1758 during the Seven Years' War, fought between the forces of the Russians troops under the command of Count William Fermor – and a Prussian army under King Frederick the Great...
.
Campaign in France
Nansouty's final campaign took place in 1814 on French soil, under bleak circumstances for the French, who saw huge Coalition armies invade France at the beginning of that year. During this campaign, his command, 5,000 Horse Guards, included the 1stPolish 1st Light Cavalry Regiment of the Imperial Guard
The [Polish] 1st Light Cavalry Lancer Regiment of the Imperial Guard was a formation of Polish light cavalry that served Emperor Napoleon during the Napoleonic Wars.The Regiment, as part of Napoleon's Imperial Guard, fought in many battles,...
and 2nd Chevau-légers Lanciers regiments, under General Édouard Colbert
Pierre David de Colbert-Chabanais
Pierre David Édouard de Colbert-Chabanais was a general of the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars, noted for his unbreakable loyalty to Napoleon I.-Revolution:...
, the Chasseurs à Cheval
Chasseurs à Cheval de la Garde Impériale
The Chasseurs à Cheval de la Garde Impériale constituted a light cavalry regiment in the Consular, then Imperial Guard during the French Consulate and First French Empire respectively. They were the second senior "Old Guard" cavalry regiment of the Imperial Guard, after the Grenadiers à Cheval...
, under General Laferrière, the Grenadiers à Cheval
Grenadiers à Cheval de la Garde Impériale
The Grenadiers à Cheval de la Garde Impériale constituted a heavy cavalry regiment in the Consular, then Imperial Guard during the French Consulate and First French Empire respectively...
under General Guyot
Claude-Étienne Guyot
Claude-Étienne Guyot, count of the Empire, was a French general of the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars, noted for commanding cavalry.-Early career during the Revolutionary Wars:...
, the Dragons, under General Letort
Louis-Michel Letort de Lorville
Louis-Michel Letort de Lorville was a French general of the Napoleonic Wars. He was made a baron de l'Empire on 9 September 1810, général de brigade on 30 January 1813, and acted as aide de camp to Napoleon himself...
, as well as the entire Guard horse artillery.
These men soon saw action on 27 January, at the Battle of Brienne
Battle of Brienne
The Battle of Brienne was fought on January 29, 1814, and resulted in the victory of Emperor Napoleon I's French forces over the Russian and Prussian forces commanded by the Prussian Generalfeldmarschall Prince von Blücher....
. Here, two companies of horse artillery, under an officer called Marin, a veteran of the campaigns in Italy and Egypt and personal favourite of the Emperor, were almost completely destroyed, with their guns and commander captured by the enemy. Napoleon was extremely irritated about the failure of the heavy cavalry
Heavy cavalry
Heavy cavalry is a class of cavalry whose primary role was to engage in direct combat with enemy forces . Although their equipment differed greatly depending on the region and historical period, they were generally mounted on large powerful horses, and were often equipped with some form of scale,...
of the Guard to protect these gunners. A further loss of cannon of the Guard artillery occurred at the Battle of La Rothière
Battle of La Rothiere
The Battle of La Rothière was fought on 1 February 1814 between the French Empire and allied army of Austria, Prussia, Russia, and German States previously allies with France. The French were led by Emperor Napoleon and the coalition army was under the command of Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher...
, a rare battlefield defeat for Napoleon. Here, a part of the Guard cavalry charged and was initially successful against enemy cavalry but, faced by steady ranks of the Russian and Prussian Guardsmen and with its flank threatened by enemy dragoon
Dragoon
The word dragoon originally meant mounted infantry, who were trained in horse riding as well as infantry fighting skills. However, usage altered over time and during the 18th century, dragoons evolved into conventional light cavalry units and personnel...
s, it soon had to withdraw, leaving behind some of its cannon.
After rejoining the Emperor at Champaubert
Champaubert
Champaubert is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France....
, Nansouty took part to the Battle of Montmirail
Battle of Montmirail
The Battle of Montmirail was a battle fought near Montmirail, France, during the Six Days Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars. It was fought on February 11, 1814, and resulted in the victory of the French under Emperor Napoleon I over the Russians under General Fabian Wilhelm von Osten-Sacken and the...
, where he was at first instructed to protect the artillery. He then joined in the attack of the Guard infantry on the farm of Ėpine-au-Bois, where he suddenly wheeled left with his men and fell upon unprepared enemy infantry, charging home, routing these troops and subsequently pursuing the fugitives. This combined attack of the Guard resulted in a great number of prisoners and captured enemy guns, with Nansouty receiving a light wound in the process. A part of his men then took part to the Battle of Château-Thierry
Battle of Château-Thierry (1814)
The Battle of Château-Thierry occurred on 12 February 1814 between a Prussian army under Marshal von Blücher and the French under Emperor Napoleon I...
, where the Emperor ordered the Guard cavalry to make a turning move against the enemy left, and where Nansouty's subordinates General Letort and Colonel Curély
Jean-Nicolas Curély
Jean-Nicolas Curély , French cavalry leader, was the son of a poor peasant of Lorraine.Joining, in 1793, a regiment of hussars, he served with great distinction as private and as sous-officier in the Rhine campaigns from 1794 to 1800...
brilliantly broke several enemy squares. Then, on 14 February, Nansouty personally led a brilliant charge at the Battle of Vauchamps
Battle of Vauchamps
The Battle of Vauchamps, the final major engagement of the Six Days Campaign of the War of the Sixth Coalition, was fought on 14 February 1814...
, where he supported Grouchy in a cavalry action that decided the battle. Charging Blücher
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Fürst von Wahlstatt , Graf , later elevated to Fürst von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall who led his army against Napoleon I at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1813 and at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 with the Duke of Wellington.He is...
's men from the front, Nansouty allowed Grouchy to magnificently fall behind the enemy columns, which they both then sabred and crushed, with the Guard cavalry subsequently participating to a highly successful pursuit. Enemy losses reached a staggering 9,000-10,000 casualties, with 25 cannons lost. The Emperor was radiant following this battle, but, by nightfall, his mood changed when he found out of the loss of some Guard horse artillerymen. These men had been captured during their march and it was reported that their capture resulted from General Guyot (one of Nansouty's subordinates) failing to provide an escort and a guide for them. In Nansouty's presence, a fuming Napoleon summoned Guyot and then chastised him for the repeated losses in cannon during the previous battles, as well as for various other shortcomings, such as failing to properly escort the Emperor. After an angry tirade, Napoleon promptly axed Guyot and announced Nansouty that General Exelmans
Rémi Joseph Isidore Exelmans
Rémi Joseph Isidore Exelmans, 1st Comte Exelmans was a distinguished French soldier of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, as well as a political figure of the following period.-Early career:...
would replace Guyot at the helm of his Old Guard heavy cavalry. This episode apparently strained relations between Emperor Napoleon and General Nansouty.
Troyes
Troyes is a commune and the capital of the Aube department in north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about southeast of Paris. Many half-timbered houses survive in the old town...
. Negotiations for an armistice
Armistice
An armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace...
were ongoing in a village nearby and, despite formal orders to continue the fighting, the two armies had ceased the combat. Nansouty then took his men and attacked enemy troops, charging into the streets of the village where the negotiations were taking place. The French envoy to the armistice talks, Monsieur de Flahaut
Charles Joseph, comte de Flahaut
Auguste Charles Joseph de Flahaut de La Billarderie, Comte de Flahaut de La Billarderie was a French general and statesman...
saw this development and found Nansouty, bitterly protesting against the latter's action. Nansouty responded that the Emperor was doubtlessly aware that negotiations were indeed taking place there, but that he had orders to capture the position without further delay. On 27 February, the Emperor again moved against Blücher's Prussians, leaving a part of his forces near Troyes to observe the movement of Prince of Schwarzenberg
Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg
Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg (or Charles Philip, Prince of Schwarzenberg (April 18, 1771 – October 15, 1820) was an Austrian field marshal.- Life :...
's Austrian army. Nansouty, with the Guard cavalry, accompanied the Emperor, ensuring his protection and clearing his way after a bloody cavalry skirmish at Château-Thierry on 3 March. Another cavalry skirmish occurred on 5 March, with Nansouty repulsing a numerous enemy cavalry, 3,000-4,000 troopers, and capturing the bridge of Berry-au-Bac
Berry-au-Bac
Berry-au-Bac is a commune in the department of Aisne in Picardy in northern France.-References:*...
, over the Aisne, despite the enemy cannonade. Once across the Aisne with a few Polish lancer platoons, Nansouty launched a heroic pursuit, capturing enemy cannons and munitions, and taking a significant number of prisoners, among whom was the teenage Russian Prince Gagarin
Nikolai Gagarin
Nikolai Sergeevich GagarinPrince Nikolai Sergeevich Gagarin...
.
On 7 March, at the Battle of Craonne
Battle of Craonne
The Battle of Craonne was fought on March 7, 1814, and resulted in a French victory under Napoleon I against Russians and Prussians under General Blücher.Craonne is a village on the Chemin des Dames, in the département of Aisne....
, another incident occurred, seemingly indicating that there had been some sort of disagreement between the General and the Emperor. As the battle was raging, General Belliard
Augustin Daniel Belliard
Augustin Daniel Belliard, comte Belliard et de l'Empire was a French general.Belliard became an officer between 1792 and 1793 under Dumouriez in Belgium...
from the Emperor's staff, came to Nansouty and told him that he had orders to relieve him of command, should his health prevent him from exercising his duties. Nansouty responded that he was indeed ill, but that he was able to retrain command. Although in unusually and noted bad humour after this incident, Nansouty subsequently led a most brilliant action at Craonne. He was ordered to cross bogged and broken terrain, climb a steep incline, with his cavalry and artillery, in order to fall on the enemy's right flank. Managing to bring his cavalrymen on the ridge, Nansouty formed them in line
Line (formation)
The line formation is a standard tactical formation which has been used in Early modern warfare.It continues the phalanx formation or shield wall of infantry armed with polearms in use during antiquity and the Middle Ages....
and launched them against the enemy, pushing back in disorder two Russian battalions. Nansouty was again wounded during this action, but this injury was not very serious and he continued to energetically lead his men. Napoleon then allegedly ordered Nansouty to assault a redoubt
Redoubt
A redoubt is a fort or fort system usually consisting of an enclosed defensive emplacement outside a larger fort, usually relying on earthworks, though others are constructed of stone or brick. It is meant to protect soldiers outside the main defensive line and can be a permanent structure or a...
, under the most murderous fire. Nonetheless, Nansouty ordered his men to halt and advanced alone towards the position. Asked to explain his behaviour, he replied that he would not send his men to die in vain and that he would be attacking alone. Napoleon at once revoked his order.
This was to be the last military engagement of Nansouty's long career. On 8 March, on the eve of the Battle of Laon
Battle of Laon
The Battle of Laon was the victory of Blücher's Prussian army over Napoleon's French army near Laon.-Prelude:An Allied coalition attempted to complete the destruction of Napoleon's French Empire in 1814. France had been defeated in Russia in 1812 and in Central Europe in 1813...
, Nansouty was at Chavignon
Chavignon
Chavignon is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France....
, nine kilometres from Laon
Laon
Laon is the capital city of the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France.-History:The hilly district of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held strategic importance...
, where the Emperor was also present and, although the circumstances of Nansouty's departure are unclear, it is certain that he left this village, and his command, that very day. Two days later, Napoleon wrote to his War Minister to inform him that General Nansouty's health did not allow him to exercise his military duties and that he was authorised to take sick leave in Paris. General Belliard had taken interim command of the Guard cavalry during the battle of Laon, with General Sébastiani subsequently given permanent command.
Bourbon Restoration
Having left his command to General BelliardAugustin Daniel Belliard
Augustin Daniel Belliard, comte Belliard et de l'Empire was a French general.Belliard became an officer between 1792 and 1793 under Dumouriez in Belgium...
on 8 March, three days later, Nansouty was a part of a convoy of several officers, heading to Paris. On the road to the capital, they were attacked by a pulk of Cossacks, which managed to disperse the convoy's escort. Nansouty and his officers fought their way out sabre in hand and made a run for it towards the river Aisne. Reaching the riverbanks, the General got isolated and, as he was preparing to cross the river on horseback, his horse was shot under him, throwing the General to the ground. Nevertheless, he stood up and swam to the other bank of the river and safety. This event, as well as his tireless activity during the campaign, seem to suggest that his health was not the main reason of his departure from the army. It is also unlikely that the Emperor himself decided to replace him, given Belliard's tentative approach at the Battle of Craonne
Battle of Craonne
The Battle of Craonne was fought on March 7, 1814, and resulted in a French victory under Napoleon I against Russians and Prussians under General Blücher.Craonne is a village on the Chemin des Dames, in the département of Aisne....
and this General's subsequent provisional status as commander, after Nansouty's departure. It is thus more likely that Nansouty resigned, following his disputes with the Emperor.
General Nansouty arrived in Paris and there he remained during the Bourbon Restoration
Bourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
that followed Napoleon's abdication. He was one of the first general officers to swear allegiance to the new King of France, Louis XVIII, who would bestow a number of honours upon the General. His gesture encouraged many other generals to also swear allegiance to the new regime. On 12 April 1814, Nansouty was named extraordinary commissioner of the King in the 2nd military division, then, on 20 April, became a member of the commission that was in charge of the dissolution of Napoleon's Imperial Guard. He was given the distinction of Knight of the Order of Saint Louis
Order of Saint Louis
The Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis was a military Order of Chivalry founded on 5 April 1693 by Louis XIV and named after Saint Louis . It was intended as a reward for exceptional officers, and is notable as the first decoration that could be granted to non-nobles...
on 1 June and on 6 July he was called to a command in the Military Household of the King of France
Maison militaire du roi de France
The maison militaire du roi de France was the military part of the royal household or Maison du Roi in France under the Ancien Régime. The term only appeared in 1671, though such a gathering of units pre-dates this...
, as captain-lieutenant of the 1st company of musketeers
Musketeers of the Guard
The Musketeers of the Guard were a fighting company of the military branch of the Maison du Roi, the Royal Household of the French monarchy.-History:...
(grey musketeers). Despite these positions, Nansouty's financial situation declined severely under the Restoration. The General had had a highly honourable behaviour during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The 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...
and, unlike some of his fellow Napoleonic Generals, had drawn no revenues from pillaging. He had also been living a lofty and very costly lifestyle, which he considered normal for a nobleman such as himself. Nansouty had been earning a high revenue from his various positions during the Empire
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
and additionally Napoleon was constantly paying high endowments to his best generals. Napoleonic endowments aside, Nansouty's salaries during the first four months of 1814 had brought him no less than 104,000 Francs, but, under the Bourbons, his dignity as Colonel-General
Colonel General (France)
A Colonel General was an officer of the French army during the Ancien Régime, Napoleonic era and the Bourbon Restoration.The positions were not military ranks, but rather offices of the crown. The position was first created under François I. The Colonels General served directly below the Marshals...
of dragoons had been suppressed and transformed into a honorific title of Inspector of dragoons, leaving him with only a 25,000 Francs salary as captain-lieutenant in the King's Military Household.
Death and resting place
By the second half of 1814, following his long and almost continuous campaigns throughout Europe during the last ten years, the health of General Nansouty badly deteriorated. He was suffering from his wounds, some of which were very recent, but, above all from war fatigue. On his death bed, he is recorded to have said: "I have carefully reflected upon all my action ever since I was born and in all my life, I have not done anyone wrong." He is also said to have reasserted his ChristianChristianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
faith and to have asked that his son be recommended for the King's protection, as a favour for his services. Just before passing away, he told his son that his heritage would be to follow his example and live an honourable and blameless life. General Count Étienne-Marie-Antoine-Champion de Nansouty died on 12 February 1815 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, leaving behind his wife and their only son. A pension of 6,000 Francs per year was granted to the General's widow by the King of France. His final resting place is at the Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris, France , though there are larger cemeteries in the city's suburbs.Père Lachaise is in the 20th arrondissement, and is reputed to be the world's most-visited cemetery, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the...
in Paris, division 27. The engraving on his tombstone reads:
The name NANSOUTY is inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe
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...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Family
The Nansouty familiy was ancient BurgundyCounty of Burgundy
The Free County of Burgundy , was a medieval county , within the traditional province and modern French region Franche-Comté, whose very French name is still reminiscent of the unusual title of its count: Freigraf...
nobility and it was intimately linked to the history of this region, to which it gave several esteemed magistrates and soldiers throughout the centuries. One of its illustrious members, Seigneur de Nansouty was instrumental in ensuring the allegiance of Burgundy to King Henri IV and was rewarded by the monarch for his fidelity by being named state counselor.
General Count de Nansouty was the first child of Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Charles Champion de Nansouty (born 1718 in Dijon
Dijon
Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....
, died 1785 in Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
) and his wife Antoinette Hélène Harpailler (born ca. 1740), who also had Pierrette-Adélaïde Champion de Nansouty (1771–1849). On 27 September 1802, General Nansouty married Jeanne-Françoise Adélaïde Gravier de Vergennes (1781–1849), the niece of a former minister of Louis XVI, Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes
Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes
Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes was a French statesman and diplomat. He served as Foreign Minister from 1774 during the reign of Louis XVI, notably during the American War of Independence....
. Her parents were: Charles Xavier Gravier de Vergennes, 1751–1794, and Elisabeth Adélaïde Françoise de Bastard, 1763–1808. General Count de Nansouty and his wife had only one child, Étienne Champion de Nansouty (1803–1865), who, having followed his father's and grandfather's footsteps in the military, rose to the rank of squadron commander, but then resigned from the army. General Count Nansouty also had a nephew, Charles-Étienne Champion de Nansouty, who saw a successful military career and who later rose to the rank of general of division.
Considerations
As a commander, General Nansouty is reported to have been a man of spirit but also to have had an excessive inclination towards sarcasm, which was damaging to his reputation and made him a number of enemies. His few months spent in Spain in 1808, where he commanded the orderly officers of the Emperor and the aides-de-camp of the senior generals of the General StaffGeneral Staff
A military staff, often referred to as General Staff, Army Staff, Navy Staff or Air Staff within the individual services, is a group of officers and enlisted personnel that provides a bi-directional flow of information between a commanding officer and subordinate military units...
, seem to have acquired him an unwanted reputation for mockery on the service, to such a point that one of his subordinates reported that "no one ever knew when he was joking and when he was serious." When it came to military matters though, Nansouty's posture became extremely imposing, concise and tough. A perfectionist, with a keen eye and impeccable knowledge of his arm, he was shocked whenever he saw his cavalry manoeuvres mishandled and then he became sarcastic, at times even insulting his subordinates. However, whenever he went too far with his reprimands, he was noticeably displeased with himself and remorseful, trying to offer reparation to the person he had insulted. This behaviour seems to have been recurrent. His mood seems to have been particularly bad during his last days of service, in 1814, after he had received a number of light wounds in a short period of time, and foremost, after he had fallen out with the Emperor. During this period, he severely mistreated one of his squadron commanders for not executing his order fast enough, and even sacked his chief of staff, Colonel de la Loyère, for a minor fault.
Nansouty's character as a proud and independent commander was apparent throughout his career and his conceitedly assertive nature, quite typical of the great cavalry commanders of the time, led to several clashes with his peers. At least one such incident almost led to a duel with another senior cavalry commander, in front of their men. It occurred on 11 July 1809, a few days after the Battle of Wagram
Battle of Wagram
The Battle of Wagram was the decisive military engagement of the War of the Fifth Coalition. It took place on the Marchfeld plain, on the north bank of the Danube. An important site of the battle was the village of Deutsch-Wagram, 10 kilometres northeast of Vienna, which would give its name to the...
, and opposed him to General Arrighi de Casanova
Jean-Toussaint Arrighi de Casanova
Jean-Toussaint Arrighi de Casanova , duc de Padoue, was a French diplomat and soldier of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. In the late 1840s, Arrighi was also involved in politics and was elected Deputy and then Senator in the French Parliament...
, the commander of the 3rd heavy cavalry division. Both Nansouty and Arrighi adamantly claimed for their respective troops exclusive rights to use a small farm pond that they had found. Both men refused to give way and engaged in a heated argument, to such a point that they almost came to a duel in order to settle the matter. In the end, the more senior Nansouty won out and just after the incident, one of Arrighi's cuirassier
Cuirassier
Cuirassiers were mounted cavalry soldiers equipped with armour and firearms, first appearing in late 15th-century Europe. They were the successors of the medieval armoured knights...
s erected a sign sarcastically saying "Nansouty's pond".
Indeed, at times, his sarcasm was directed even at his superiors, with Nansouty clashing with the more senior Grouchy at the Battle of Friedland
Battle of Friedland
The Battle of Friedland saw Napoleon I's French army decisively defeat Count von Bennigsen's Russian army about twenty-seven miles southeast of Königsberg...
. Nevertheless, Grouchy later recognised that the actions of Nansouty's division throughout the battle were "glorious". In 1809, Nansouty famously responded to Napoleon's criticism after the Battle of Wagram by saying: "It is not Your Majesty at any rate who can teach me how to handle cavalry." Three years later, during the campaign in Russia
Russian Campaign
The Russian campaign may refer to:* the Russian Campaign of Napoleon in 1812 * the World War II on the Eastern Front * The Russian Campaign, a strategic board wargame of the World War II on the Eastern Front 1941-1945....
, when Murat, King of Naples
Joachim Murat
Joachim-Napoléon Murat , Marshal of France and Grand Admiral or Admiral of France, 1st Prince Murat, was Grand Duke of Berg from 1806 to 1808 and then King of Naples from 1808 to 1815...
complained to him about the lack of resistance of the horses, Nansouty retorted: "Oh yes, Sire, this is because they lack patriotism." At the Battle of Craonne
Battle of Craonne
The Battle of Craonne was fought on March 7, 1814, and resulted in a French victory under Napoleon I against Russians and Prussians under General Blücher.Craonne is a village on the Chemin des Dames, in the département of Aisne....
, in 1814, one day before resigning, he was recorded to have refused to execute Napoleon's order to assault a redoubt, a move which he saw as a death sentence to his men. Instead, Nansouty told the Emperor: "I am going alone. There is nothing but death there and I will not lead these brave soldiers to it."
His behaviour on campaign can only be described as perfectly honourable and at times humane, a trait which was illustrated during the French Revolutionary Wars
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
, when he spared no effort to protect captured émigrés
Émigré armies of the French Revolutionary Wars
The émigré armies of the French Revolutionary Wars were armies raised outside of France by and out of Royalist émigrés, with the aim of overthrowing the French Revolution, reconquering France and restoring the monarchy. These were aided by royalist armies within France itself, such as the Chouans,...
from the wrath of the Revolutionary radicals in the army. He also showed respect for occupied populations and never tolerated pillaging nor violence from his men. As a sign a gratitude, he was offered gifts several times but he was often seen refusing and sending them back. While on campaign in Tyrol
County of Tyrol
The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...
, he was recorded to have accepted a large sum of money but he immediately distributed it to the local hospitals. Further evidence of his humanity was the care that he displayed for the lives and well-being of his men, whom he was always reluctant to sacrifice for the sake of glory.
Overall as a heavy cavalry
Heavy cavalry
Heavy cavalry is a class of cavalry whose primary role was to engage in direct combat with enemy forces . Although their equipment differed greatly depending on the region and historical period, they were generally mounted on large powerful horses, and were often equipped with some form of scale,...
commander, Nansouty was one of the best men available during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The 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...
. Precise, methodical, with perfect knowledge of cavalry tactics, he was better than any other in preparing his attack dispositions. He was however less daring than the likes of Lasalle, Montbrun or Kellermann
François Étienne de Kellermann
Francois Étienne de Kellermann, 2nd Duc de Valmy was a French cavalry general noted for his daring and skillful exploits during the Napoleonic Wars...
, which did not prevent him from leading some of the most memorable cavalry charges of the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The 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...
. It has also been said that he reacted with "calculated slowness" when placed under the command of Murat. His talents for up-keeping and training his troops seemed to surpass that of his peers. This was illustrated right from the start of the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The 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...
, with the organisation of the cavalry reserve in the Grande Armée, under Marshal Murat. The command of the various units of this reserve was given to some of the best cavalry commanders available, including Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul
Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul
Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul was a French cavalry general of the Napoleonic wars. He came from an old noble family of France whose military tradition extended for several centuries....
, Louis Klein
Louis Klein
Louis Klein served in the French military during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars as a general of cavalry....
, Marc Antoine de Beaumont
Marc Antoine de Beaumont
Marc Antoine Bonnin de la Bonninière de Beaumont, born 23 September 1763 – died 4 February 1830, a French nobleman, became a page to the king and joined the army of the Old Regime. He stayed in the army during the French Revolution and narrowly escaped being executed...
, Frédéric Henri Walther
Frédéric Henri Walther
Frederic-Louis-Henri Walther , was an Alsatian-born general of division and a supporter of Napoleon Bonaparte. He fought for France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars....
, Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers
Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers
thumbLouis Baraguey d'Hilliers was a French Army general who fought in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was the father of Achille Baraguey d'Hilliers, a Marshal of France.-French Revolution:...
and Édouard Jean Baptiste Milhaud
Édouard Jean Baptiste Milhaud
Édouard Jean-Baptiste Milhaud was a French politician, Général de Division, and comte d'Empire.-French Revolutionary wars:...
. Despite the fame and quality of these commanders, it was Nansouty's six-regiment division that acquired the reputation of being the best serviced and most exact in its manoeuvres. He was also a commander who had his men continually manoeuvre during a battle, believing that this would distract them from the danger that they were facing.
Nansouty's battlefield talents were demonstrated through superb charges at Austerlitz
Battle of Austerlitz
The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of Napoleon's greatest victories, where the French Empire effectively crushed the Third Coalition...
, Friedland
Battle of Friedland
The Battle of Friedland saw Napoleon I's French army decisively defeat Count von Bennigsen's Russian army about twenty-seven miles southeast of Königsberg...
, Eckmühl
Battle of Eckmühl
The Battle of Eckmühl fought on 21 April – 22 April 1809, was the turning point of the 1809 Campaign, also known as the War of the Fifth Coalition...
, Essling
Battle of Aspern-Essling
In the Battle of Aspern-Essling , Napoleon attempted a forced crossing of the Danube near Vienna, but the French and their allies were driven back by the Austrians under Archduke Charles...
, Borodino
Battle of Borodino
The Battle of Borodino , fought on September 7, 1812, was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the French invasion of Russia and all Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 troops and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties...
, Hanau
Battle of Hanau
The Battle of Hanau was fought on between Karl Philipp von Wrede’s Austro-Bavarian corps and Napoleon's retreating French during the War of the Sixth Coalition....
, Montmirail
Battle of Montmirail
The Battle of Montmirail was a battle fought near Montmirail, France, during the Six Days Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars. It was fought on February 11, 1814, and resulted in the victory of the French under Emperor Napoleon I over the Russians under General Fabian Wilhelm von Osten-Sacken and the...
, Vauchamps
Battle of Vauchamps
The Battle of Vauchamps, the final major engagement of the Six Days Campaign of the War of the Sixth Coalition, was fought on 14 February 1814...
or Craonne
Battle of Craonne
The Battle of Craonne was fought on March 7, 1814, and resulted in a French victory under Napoleon I against Russians and Prussians under General Blücher.Craonne is a village on the Chemin des Dames, in the département of Aisne....
, thus contributing to some of the most glorious victories of the French Empire and eliciting comparisons with the superb Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n cavalry commander Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz
Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz
Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Seydlitz was a Prussian soldier and one of the greatest German cavalry generals.-Early life:...
.
Sources
Arnold, James R.: Napoleon conquers Austria: the 1809 campaign for Vienna, Praeger Publishers, 1995, ISBN 0-275-04694-0 Castle, Ian: Aspern and Wagram 1809, Chandler, David GDavid G. Chandler
David G. Chandler was a British historian whose study focused on the Napoleonic era.As a young man he served briefly in the army, reaching the rank of captain, and in later life he taught at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Oxford University awarded him the D. Litt. in 1991...
(General Editor), Campaign Series 33, Osprey Military, 1994, ISBN 1-85532-366-4 Courcelles, Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Jullien de (Chevalier de Courcelles): Dictionnaire historique et biographique des généraux Français depuis le 11ème siècle jusqu'en 1823, 8th volume, L'Auteur, 1823 1 Fierro, Alfredo; Palluel-Guillard, André; Tulard, Jean
Jean Tulard
Jean Tulard is a French academic and historian, specialising in the history of cinema, of the French Consulate and the First French Empire.In April 2010, he became Commander of the Légion d'honneur.-References:...
: Histoire et Dictionnaire du Consulat et de l'Empire, Éditions Robert Laffont, 2002, ISBN 2-221-05858-5 Garnier, Jacques: Friedland, une victoire pour la paix, Éditions Napoléon Ier, 2009 Gotteri, Nicole: Grands dignitaires du Premier Empire, NEL, 1990, ISBN 2-7233-0411-6 Hourtoulle, François-Guy: Wagram, L'apogée de l'Empire, Histoire & Collections, 2002, ISBN 2-913903-32-0 La Grande Armée, Collection Trésor du Patrimoine, 2004, ISBN 2-912511-40-2 Mir, Jean-Pierre: Hanau et Montmirail, La Garde donne et vainc, Histoire et Collections, 2009, ISBN 978-2-35250-086-5 Naulet, Frédéric: Wagram, 5–6 juillet 1809, Une victoire chèrement acquise, Collections Grandes Batailles, Napoléon Ier Éditions, 2009. Pigeard, Alain: Dictionnaire de la Grande Armée, Tallandier, Bibliothèque Napoléonienne, 2004, ISBN 2-84734-009-2 Pigeard, Alain: Dictionnaire des batailles de Napoléon, Tallandier, Bibliothèque Napoléonienne, 2004, ISBN 2-84734-073-4 Pigeard, Alain: La Garde Impériale, Tallandier, Bibliothèque Napoléonienne, 2005, ISBN 2-84734-177-3 Rothenberg, Gunther Erich: The Emperor's last victory, Napoleon and the battle of Wagram, Cassel, 2004, ISBN 0-304-36711-7 Smith, Digby G.
Digby Smith
Digby Smith is a British military historian. The son of a British career soldier, he was born in Hampshire, England, but spent several years in India and Pakistan as a child and youth. As a "boy soldier," he entered training in the British Army at the age of 16...
: Great Cavalry Charges of the Napoleonic Wars, Greenhill Books London, 2003, ISBN 1-85367-541-5 Sokolov, Oleg: L'armée de Napoléon, Éditions Commios, 2005, ISBN 2-9518364-1-4 Thoumas, Charles A.: Les grands cavaliers du Premier Empire, Série II, Ellibron Classics, 2006, ISBN 0-543-96047-1 http://books.google.com/books?id=awjgNbikpnsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Les+grands+cavaliers+du+Premier+Empire+-+nansouty&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false Tulard, Jean: Dictionnaire Napoléon; Librairie Artème Fayard, 1999, ISBN 2-213-60485-1