Eugène-Casimir Villatte, comte d'Oultremont (; 14 April 1770 – 14 May 1834) fought in the French army during the

Wars of the French Revolution The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted France against Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and several other countries ...

and the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

. He rose to command a division at many of the important battles in the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...

. His is one of the

names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe The following is a list of the 660 names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris. Most of them represent generals who served during the French First Republic (1792–1804) and the First French Empire (1804–1815). Underlined names signify t ...

Early career

Born in

Longwy Longwy (; older , ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, administrative region of Grand Est, northeastern France. The inhabitants are known as ''Longoviciens''. In ...

as part of the House of d'Oultremont, Villatte joined the army and was a sous-lieutenant (second lieutenant) at the beginning of the French Revolution. After joining the military in January 1792, his first assignment was as lieutenant of the 13th infantry. In 1795 he served as an aide to

Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte Charles XIV John (; 26 January 1763 – 8 March 1844) was King of Sweden and King of Norway, Norway from 1818 until his death in 1844 and the first monarch of the Bernadotte dynasty. In Norway, he is known as Charles III John () and before he be ...

and later as an adjutant-commandant. He rose to the rank of general of brigade in 1803.

Empire

During the

Ulm Campaign The Ulm campaign was a series of French and Bavarian military maneuvers and battles to outflank and capture an Austrian army in 1805 during the War of the Third Coalition. It took place in the vicinity of and inside the Swabian city of Ulm. ...

in 1805, he commanded a brigade under Marshal

Michel Ney Michel Ney, 1st Prince de la Moskowa, 1st Duke of Elchingen (; 10 January 1769 – 7 December 1815), was a French military commander and Marshal of the Empire who fought in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The son of ...

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 ...

. Still under Ney, he fought at the

Battle of Jena A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

and the capture of

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; ) is the Capital city, capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archbishopric of Mag ...

in 1806. After leading his brigade at the combat of Waltersdorf and the

Battle of Eylau The Battle of Eylau (also known as the Battle of Preussisch-Eylau) was a bloody and strategically inconclusive battle on 7 and 8 February 1807 between Napoleon's and the Imperial Russian Army under the command of General Levin August von Be ...

in February 1807, Villatte was promoted to general of division. He led his troops in a successful defense of the bridge over the Pasłęka (Passarge) River at Spędy (Spanden) on 5 June 1807. In this action, part of the

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 suc ...

, Villatte defeated Michael Szabszinski von Rembow's Prussian-Russian division belonging to Anton Wilhelm von L'Estocq corps. On 5 November 1808, while commanding the 12,000-man 3rd Division of the IV Corps, Villatte was attacked by Joaquin Blake's 24,000-strong

Army of Galicia The Army of Galicia (Spanish: ''Ejército de Galicia'') was a Spanish field army that took part in the Peninsular War against Napoleon’s French Grande Armée. Created by the Supreme Junta towards the end of June 1808 to hold the Spanish left win ...

. In the Battle of Valmaseda, he was defeated and lost his baggage, but managed to extricate his soldiers with the loss of only 500 men and one cannon.Smith, p. 269. After his division transferred into Marshal Claude Victor's I Corps, Villatte fought at the Battle of Espinosa. Still under Victor, he led his division at the battles of

Uclés Uclés is a municipality of Spain located in the province of Cuenca, Castilla–La Mancha. The municipality spans across a total area of 64.61 km2 and, as of 1 January 2020, it has a registered population of 212. History The fortress and town w ...

, Medellin and Talavera in 1809. In 1813, Villatte led a division in the Army of the South at the

Battle of Vitoria At the Battle of Vitoria (21 June 1813), a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British, Kingdom of Portugal, Portuguese and Spanish Empire, Spanish army under the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Marquess of Wellington bro ...

. In Marshal

Nicolas Soult Marshal General Jean-de-Dieu Soult, 1st Duke of Dalmatia (; 29 March 1769 – 26 November 1851) was a French general and statesman. He was a Marshal of the Empire during the Napoleonic Wars, and served three times as President of the Council of ...

's reorganized army, he commanded the Reserve Division for the rest of the war. His division was present and/or engaged at the battles of the Pyrenees, the Bidassoa, the Nivelle, the Nive,

Orthez Orthez (; ; , ) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, and region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. It lies 40 km NW of Pau on the Southern railway to Bayonne. The town also encompasses the small village of Sai ...

and

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

. During the

Hundred Days The Hundred Days ( ), 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 of King Louis XVIII o ...

, Villatte remained loyal to the Bourbons. After the Restoration, he served as Inspector General of Infantry and as commander of various military divisions. He died at Nancy in 1834. VILLATTE is etched on Column 2 of the

Arc de Triomphe The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, often called simply the Arc de Triomphe, 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 Plac ...

Notes

References

* Glover, Michael (2001). ''The Peninsular War 1807-1814''. London: Penguin. * Petre, F. Loraine (1976 907. ''Napoleon's Campaign in Poland 1806-1807''. London: Lionel Leventhal Ltd. * Smith, Digby (1998). ''The Napoleonic Wars Data Book''. London: Greenhill. {{DEFAULTSORT:Villatte, Eugene-Casimir French generals 1770 births 1834 deaths Names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe French commanders of the Napoleonic Wars People from Longwy