Jean Charles Abbatucci or Abatucci (15 November 1770 - 2 December 1796) was a French general during the
War of the First Coalition
The War of the First Coalition (french: Guerre de la Première Coalition) was a set of wars that several European powers fought between 1792 and 1797 initially against the constitutional Kingdom of France and then the French Republic that suc ...
. His name is engraved on the
Arc de Triomphe.
Life
The son of the general
Jacques Pierre Abbatucci, Jean Charles was born in
Zicavo
Zicavo (; co, Zìcavu) is a commune in the Corse-du-Sud department of France on the island of Corsica.
Population
Notable people
* Jacques Pierre Abbatucci (minister) (1791-1857)
See also
*Communes of the Corse-du-Sud department
An ...
,
Corsica, and studied at the military school in
Metz
Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...
, leaving it in 1787 aged 17 to join the 2nd regiment of foot artillery as a
sous-lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank.
Australia
The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until 19 ...
. At the start of the 1792 campaign he was still only a captain of artillery, but his brilliant conduct brought him to the rank of lieutenant colonel before the end of 1792. In 1793 he moved to France's newly formed horse artillery. In 1794
Jean-Charles Pichegru
Jean-Charles Pichegru (, 16 February 1761 – 5 April 1804) was a French general of the Revolutionary Wars. Under his command, French troops overran Belgium and the Netherlands before fighting on the Rhine front. His royalist positions led to hi ...
chose Abbatucci as capitaine premier, the general's aide de camp and together they led the campaign in Holland.
Jean Victor Marie Moreau then gave Abbatucci and generals
Bellavène,
Decaen and
Montrichard
Montrichard () is a town and former commune in the Loir-et-Cher department, Centre-Val de Loire, France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Montrichard Val de Cher.
During the French Revolution, the commune was known as '' ...
the task of organising the Rhine crossing at
Kehl
Kehl (; gsw, label= Low Alemannic, Kaal) is a town in southwestern Germany in the Ortenaukreis, Baden-Württemberg. It is on the river Rhine, directly opposite the French city of Strasbourg, with which it shares some municipal servicesfor exa ...
, which was carried out on 26 June 1796. Abbatucci fought on the river
Kitzing on 27 June and on 14 July that year fought a pitched battle at
Schweighausen
Schweighausen is a municipality in the district of Rhein-Lahn, in Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country ...
against the
corps de Condé. These successes won him the rank of
''général de brigade'' (effective on 10 July 1796) and on 12 August he fought the Émigré rearguard at
Wertheim which he had pursued as far as
Erkheim
Erkheim is a municipality in the district of Unterallgäu in Bavaria, Germany.
Politics
Mayors:
* 2002–2008: Konrad Engel
* 2008–2014: Peter Wassermann (CSU)
since 2014: Christian Seeberger (''Christliche Wählervereinigung Erkheim'')
T ...
. On 13 August he was defeated at
Kammlach
Kammlach is a municipality in the district of Unterallgäu in Bavaria, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and ...
by the
Duc d'Enghein and was forced to surrender with all his troops.
Rescued in extremis by the 89th demi-brigade, he took the offensive once again and pushed the Émigrés back as far as
Mindelheim
Mindelheim (; Swabian: ''Mindelhoi'') is a town in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. The town is the capital of the Unterallgäu district. At various points in history it was the chief settlement of an eponymous state.
Geography
Mindelheim is locate ...
, where he took 1,000 prisoners. He crossed the
Lech
Lech may refer to:
People
* Lech (name), a name of Polish origin
* Lech, the legendary founder of Poland
* Lech (Bohemian prince)
Products and organizations
* Lech (beer), Polish beer produced by Kompania Piwowarska, in Poznań
* Lech Poznań, ...
into Bavaria on 24 August 1796 and again showed his bravery on this occasion - the ''biographie Mullié'' states that "he had to cross this wide and rapid river in front of the enemy : the first battalion that he sent was submerged by the river waters. Immediately rushing to the head of a second battalion, he animated his troops by his example and his words, supported those who were stumbling, saved those whose courage was leaving them and finally led them onto the enemy banks where they overthrew the Austrians who they had already beaten once that day".
He then captured
Kissing
A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...
and marched on
Regensburg to cut off the enemy retreat, for which he rose to the rank of
''général de division''. On 30 August he repulsed an attack on him by the Austrian general Deway at the river
Isar. During the retreat of the
Armée Rhin et Moselle he commanded the rearguard and in September led an attack against the fort at Kehl. In October he stopped the enemy near
Neubourg. He was then put in control of the stronghold of
Huningue, which covered upper
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
and thus was highly important for Moreau in his re-crossing of the Rhine back into France after
Jourdan Jourdan may refer to:
* Carolyn Jourdan, American author
*Claude Jourdan (1803–1873), French zoologist and paleontologist
* David W. Jourdan, businessman
*Jean-Baptiste Jourdan (1762–1833), French army commander
* Jourdan Bobbish (1994–2012), ...
's disasters in
Franconia
Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian languages, Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch'').
The three Regierungsbezirk, administrative ...
. The Austrians soon came to attack Huningue, at the same time besieging Kehl, where
Desaix and
Lecourbe were leading the French defence. Abbattucci held out for a months against 10,000 Austrians but he was mortally wounded in a night sortie he led on 30 November to 1 December 1796, dying at
Huningue on 2 December aged 26. The French surrendered Huningue on 5 February 1797.
Memorials
After the peace was concluded, Moreau put up a monument to Abbatucci in 1801 on the site of his death, which Allied troops destroyed during the siege of
Huningue in 1815. In 1819 general
Rapp began a subscription to re-establish the memorial but this only came to fruition under the
July Monarchy
The July Monarchy (french: Monarchie de Juillet), officially the Kingdom of France (french: Royaume de France), was a liberal constitutional monarchy in France under , starting on 26 July 1830, with the July Revolution of 1830, and ending 23 F ...
and on the initiative of general
Foy. The restored monument was inaugurated in 1856, with the addition of two bronze
bas-reliefs
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
by
Philippe Grass. It is built in sandstone, marble and bronze, showing the general fighting and at the moment of his death. In 1904, the monument was moved from the route de Saint-Louis to Huningue's place Abbatucci). There is also a statue of him in
Ajaccio, on its place Abbatucci.
Notes
References
* "Jean Charles Abbatucci", in Charles Weiss, ''Biographie universelle, ou Dictionnaire historique contenant la nécrologie des hommes célèbres de tous les pays'', 1841
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbatucci, Jean Charles
1771 births
1796 deaths
People from Corse-du-Sud
French Republican military leaders killed in the French Revolutionary Wars
Names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe