Charles, comte Lefebvre-Desnouettes or Lefèbvre-Desnoëttes (14 September 1773, in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

– 22 April 1822) became a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

officer during the

French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars (french: Guerres de la Révolution française) were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted French First Republic, France against Ki ...

and a general during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. He later emigrated to the

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French Revolutionary Wars

He joined the army in 1792, and served with the armies of the North, of the

Sambre et Meuse The Sambre (; nl, Samber, ) is a river in northern France and in Wallonia, Belgium. It is a left-bank tributary of the Meuse, which it joins in the Wallonian capital Namur. The source of the Sambre is near Le Nouvion-en-Thiérache, in the Aisne ...

and Rhine et Moselle in the various campaigns of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

. Six years later he had become captain and aide-de-camp to General

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

. At the

Battle of Marengo The Battle of Marengo was fought on 14 June 1800 between French forces under the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte and Austrian forces near the city of Alessandria, in Piedmont, Italy. Near the end of the day, the French overcame General Mic ...

in June 1800 he won further promotion.

Empire

Under the Empire, Lefebvre-Desnouettes fought with distinction at the

Battle of Elchingen The Battle of Elchingen, fought on 14 October 1805, saw French forces under Michel Ney rout an Austrian corps led by Johann Sigismund Riesch. This defeat led to a large part of the Austrian army being invested in the fortress of Ulm by the arm ...

in 1805. Later that year, he became colonel after the

Battle of Austerlitz The Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805/11 Frimaire An XIV FRC), also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most important and decisive engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle occurred near the town of Austerlitz in ...

. He served also in the Prussian campaigns of 1806–1807. He was promoted to

general of brigade Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed to ...

in September 1806 and

general of division Divisional general is a general officer rank who commands an army division. The rank originates from the French (Revolutionary) System, and is used by a number of countries. The rank is above a brigade general, and normally below an army corp ...

in November 1807. He was created a count of the Empire in March 1808. Sent with the army into Spain, he conducted the first and unsuccessful Siege of Saragossa. Later he commanded the IV Corps in several actions in Spain. On 29 December 1808, he was taken prisoner in the action of Benavente by the British cavalry under Henry Paget (later Lord Uxbridge, and subsequently Marquess of Anglesey). For over two years Lefebvre-Desnouettes remained a prisoner in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, living on parole from

Norman Cross Prison Norman Cross Prison in Huntingdonshire, England, was the world's first purpose-built prisoner-of-war camp or "depot", built in 1796–97 to hold prisoners of war from France and its allies during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic War ...

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

with his wife Stephanie. In 1811 he broke his parole, an act which greatly offended British public opinion, and escaped; in the invasion of

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in 1812, he led the Guard ''Chasseurs à cheval'' cavalry. In 1813 and 1814, he and his men distinguished themselves in most of the great battles, especially

Brienne The County of Brienne was a medieval county in France centered on Brienne-le-Château. Counts of Brienne * Engelbert I * Engelbert II * Engelbert III * Engelbert IV * Walter I (? – c. 1090) * Erard I (c. 1090 – c. 1120?) * Walter II ...

(where he was wounded), La Rothière, Montmirail, Vauchamps and

Arcis-sur-Aube Arcis-sur-Aube (, literally ''Arcis on Aube'') is a commune in the Aube department in the Grand Est region of north-central France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Arcisiens'' or ''Arcisiennes''. The commune has been awarded "th ...

. He joined Napoleon in the

Hundred Days The Hundred Days (french: les Cent-Jours ), also known as the War of the Seventh Coalition, marked the period between Napoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on20 March 1815 and the second restoration ...

and was appointed commander of the Guard Light Cavalry Division, which he commanded at the

Battle of Quatre Bras The Battle of Quatre Bras was fought on 16 June 1815, as a preliminary engagement to the decisive Battle of Waterloo that occurred two days later. The battle took place near the strategic crossroads of Quatre Bras and was contested between ele ...

. At the

battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...

he was taken prisoner and placed under the guard of a single Dragoon, on his solemnly pledging his honour that he would not attempt to escape. When the Dragoon had taken him to the place where he was to be received, and had taken the saddle off his own horse, the General clapped spurs to his horse, and rode off, but the Dragoon, as quick as lightning, followed him on horseback, gave him a cut with his sabre on the forehead, and brought him back.

Later career and death

For his part in the Hundred Days he was condemned to death by the royalists, but he escaped to the United States and spent the next few years farming in the ill-fated

Vine and Olive Colony The Vine and Olive Colony was an effort by a group of French Bonapartists who, fearing for their lives after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Bourbon Restoration, attempted to establish an agricultural settlement growing wine grapes and oli ...

, beginning in 1817. His frequent appeals to

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in ...

eventually obtained his permission to return. However, the vessel on which he was returning to France, the American

packet Packet may refer to: * A small container or pouch ** Packet (container), a small single use container ** Cigarette packet ** Sugar packet * Network packet, a formatted unit of data carried by a packet-mode computer network * Packet radio, a form ...

''Albion'' of the Black Ball line, went down off the coast of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

on 22 April 1822. Mr Everart, the only passenger surviving reported that the general had been injured in the wreck and presumed drowned, the bodies washing up over a number of weeks were not identifiable. His body is one of those buried in Templetrine Graveyard in County Cork, near Kinsale.

Tributes

He is recognized as LEFÈBVRE-DESNte on the 31st column of the

Arc de Triomphe The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile (, , ; ) is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, France, standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées at the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly named Place de l'Étoile—the ''étoile'' ...

.Information on the 'Pain de Sucre' from visit and inscription on monument. His widow had an obelisk, known as the "''Pain de Sucre''" (

Sugarloaf A sugarloaf was the usual form in which refined sugar was produced and sold until the late 19th century, when granulated and cube sugars were introduced. A tall cone with a rounded top was the end product of a process in which dark molasses, a ri ...

) due to its shape and frequent re-painting in white, erected to his memory and that of the sailors who perished with him. It stands above the sea on the crest of a low hill in

Sainte-Adresse Sainte-Adresse () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the region of Normandy, France. Geography A coastal suburb situated some northwest of Le Havre city centre, at the junction of the D147 and the D940. The English Channel forms th ...

, now a suburb of Le Havre, and doubled as a navigation mark helping other sailors avoid the hazards in the approach to the port.

References

External links

* Smith, Digby. ''The Napoleonic Wars Data Book.'' London: Greenhill, 1998.
Charles Lefebvre Desnouettes Letters, 1818-1819.
Wilson Library at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...