Henri César Auguste Schwiter (8 January 1768 – 11 August 1839) was a French general in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He was also notable as a patron of the painter

Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( , ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: Britis ...

Life

Born at

Rueil-Malmaison Rueil-Malmaison () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Île-de-France region. It is located from the centre of Paris. In 2017, it had a population of 78,152. It is one of the wealthiest suburbs of Par ...

, he joined the ''Régiment des Gardes Suisses'' as a child on 31 July 1772. He rose to corporal on 31 December 1785 and transferred to the Constitutional Guard on 15 January 1792. On 6 September the same year he volunteered for a company of 'les Quatres-Nations', in which he was promoted to corporal five days later. On 23 September he became a sergeant in the Pont-neuf Battalion (later known as the 19th Paris Volunteer Battalion), rising to sergeant-major on 9 November, sub-lieutenant on 18 November and captain adjutant-major on 3 April 1793. He was attached to the 88th Infantry Demi-Brigade on 21 March 1794 as part of the

armée de la Moselle The Army of the Moselle (''Armée de la Moselle'') was a French Revolutionary Army from 1791 through 1795. It was first known as the ''Army of the Centre'' and it fought at Valmy. In October 1792 it was renamed and subsequently fought at Trier, F ...

, with which he was wounded on 30 December 1795 at the siege of Mannheim. On 21 January 1796 he transferred to the 103rd Line Infantry Demi-Brigade and was captured by the Austrians in June 1796. He was freed on 19 July 1797 and rejoined his regiment, serving with the armies of the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

Helvetia Helvetia () is the female national personification of Switzerland, officially ''Confoederatio Helvetica,'' the Swiss Confederation. The allegory is typically pictured in a flowing gown, with a spear and a shield emblazoned with the Swiss fla ...

and the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

between 1797 and 1801. He rejoined the army of Hanover in 1803 and was made a knight of the

Légion d’honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...

on 5 November 1804. He was put in command of a battalion of the

57th Line Infantry Regiment The 57th Infantry Regiment or (57th IR) was a regiment of the French Army, heir of the Beauvoisis Regiment. It came from a tradition carried since 1667, until dissolved in 2011. The Regiment was in an almost continuous existence since its creatio ...

and took part in the Austrian, Prussian and Polish campaigns between 1805 and 1807. He was made colonel of the 55th Line Infantry Regiment on 22 June 1807 and

baron of the empire As Emperor of the French, Napoleon I created titles of nobility to institute a stable elite in the First French Empire, after the instability resulting from the French Revolution. Like many others, both before and since, Napoleon found that th ...

on 10 September 1808. He was sent to the Peninsula in 1808, where was wounded again on 16 May 1811 at the

Battle of Albuera The Battle of Albuera (16 May 1811) was a battle during the Peninsular War. A mixed British, Spanish and Portuguese corps engaged elements of the French Armée du Midi (Army of the South) at the small Spanish village of Albuera, about south ...

. He was made an officer of the Légion d’honneur on 11 July 1811 and promoted to brigadier-general on 4 September 1812 and took command of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Division of the French forces operating in southern Spain on 16 July 1813. His left leg was seriously wounded in the siege of Pamplona and had to be amputated, after which he was allowed to return to France on 6 October 1813. The restored

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 ...

made him a knight of the

Order of Saint-Louis The Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis (french: Ordre Royal et Militaire de Saint-Louis) is a dynastic order of chivalry founded 5 April 1693 by King Louis XIV, named after Saint Louis (King Louis IX of France). It was intended as a rewar ...

on 1 November 1814, but during 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 ...

Napoleon put him in charge of organising the regiments of the 1st Military Division on 24 April 1815 and command of

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...

on 11 May. This division was based 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 ...

and encompassed the departments of

Seine ) , mouth_location = Le Havre/Honfleur , mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = Seine basin , basin_size = , tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle , tributarie ...

Aisne Aisne ( , ; ; pcd, Ainne) is a French department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. It is named after the river Aisne. In 2019, it had a population of 531,345.Eure-et-Loir Eure-et-Loir (, locally: ) is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers. It is located in the region of Centre-Val de Loire. In 2019, Eure-et-Loir had a population of 431,575.Oise Oise ( ; ; pcd, Oése) is a department in the north of France. It is named after the river Oise. Inhabitants of the department are called ''Oisiens'' () or ''Isariens'', after the Latin name for the river, Isara. It had a population of 829,419 ...

Seine-et-Marne Seine-et-Marne () is a Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne (river), Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square ...

, and

Seine-et-Oise Seine-et-Oise () was the former department of France encompassing the western, northern and southern parts of the metropolitan area of Paris.Nancy.

Footnotes

References

*http://www.napoleon-series.org/military/organization/c_frenchinf6.html#Schwiter *http://thierry.pouliquen.free.fr/Generaux/gnxS.htm *https://web.archive.org/web/20150122235845/http://thierry.pouliquen.free.fr/noblesse/NoblesseScSe.htm *http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/leonore_fr?ACTION=CHERCHER&FIELD_1=COTE&VALUE_1=LH%2F2487%2F80 *Léon Hennet, Les volontaires nationaux pendant la Révolution, tome 3, Paris, Maison Quantin, 1906, p. 17. * ''Carnet de Sabretache, volume 5'', Paris, J. Leroy éditeur, 1905, p. 45. * Louis Antoine Michel, ''Biographie historique et généalogique des hommes marquants de l'ancienne province de Lorraine'', Nancy, C.J Hissette, 1829, 536 p., p. 465. * Vicomte Révérend, ''Armorial du premier empire'', tome 4, Honoré Champion, libraire, Paris, 1897, p. 229. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schwiter, Henri César Auguste 1839 deaths 1768 births Generals of the First French Empire People from Rueil-Malmaison Knights of the Order of Saint Louis Barons of the First French Empire