Louis Claude Monnet de Lorbeau ( Mougon,

Deux-Sèvres Deux-Sèvres () is a French department. ''Deux-Sèvres'' literally means "two Sèvres": the Sèvre Nantaise and the Sèvre Niortaise are two rivers which have their sources in the department. It had a population of 374,878 in 2019.

1 January 1766 – Paris, 8 June 1819) was a French general, most notable for his failure to prevent the landing of the

Walcheren expedition The Walcheren Campaign ( ) was an unsuccessful British expedition to the Netherlands in 1809 intended to open another front in the Austrian Empire's struggle with France during the War of the Fifth Coalition. Sir John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham ...

Life

He commanded the

National Guard National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. Nat ...

of Sainte-Néomaye from 1789 to 1792, but only joined the regular army on 28 March 1793, as a captain in the 36th Battalion of the

and

Charente Charente (; Saintongese: ''Chérente''; oc, Charanta ) is a department in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, south western France. It is named after the river Charente, the most important and longest river in the department, an ...

, nicknamed ''le Vengeur''. He took part in the campaigns of 1790 to 1793 during the

War in the Vendée The war in the Vendée (french: link=no, Guerre de Vendée) was a counter-revolution from 1793 to 1796 in the Vendée region of France during the French Revolution. The Vendée is a coastal region, located immediately south of the river Loir ...

. Always at a perilous post, he fought with distinction and won his generals' confidence. In 1790, in the Fontenay affair, the 4,000-strong Republican army was attacked by 30,000 men and the brigade in which Monnet was serving was for an instant shaken by the terrible artillery fire. However, hearing of Monnet's courage, they soon formed ranks and charged this artillery, encouraging the following troops to capture the artillery from the insurgents and thus beat them into retreat. In 1791 he won new renown at the fighting at

Luçon Luçon () is a commune in the Vendée department, Pays de la Loire region, western France. Its inhabitants are known as Luçonnais. Luçon Cathedral is the seat of the Diocese of Luçon (comprising the Vendée), where Cardinal Richelieu once se ...

, Mortagne, Châtillon, Saint-Florent,

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the prov ...

Laval Laval means ''The Valley'' in old French and is the name of: People * House of Laval, a French noble family originating from the town of Laval, Mayenne * Laval (surname) Places Belgium * Laval, a village in the municipality of Sainte-Ode, Luxem ...

, Antzin and particularly in the Saint-Denis affair. At Saint-Denis he and 600 combatants beat and threw into complete rout a force of 6,000 men under Charette before general Broussard's division could come to back up Monnet's attack. For his actions at Saint-Denis, he won the praise of

Lazare Hoche Louis Lazare Hoche (; 24 June 1768 – 19 September 1797) was a French military leader of the French Revolutionary Wars. He won a victory over Royalist forces in Brittany. His surname is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe, on ...

, who promoted him to chef de bataillon on 25 November 1795 (4 frimaire year IV) and put him in command of a mobile column to pursue the remnants of Charette's army. The

French Directory The Directory (also called Directorate, ) was the governing five-member committee in the French First Republic from 2 November 1795 until 9 November 1799, when it was overthrown by Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte in the Coup of 18 Brumaire and r ...

was also informed of his good conduct and made him commander of the 31st

demi-brigade A ''demi-brigade'' ( en, Half-brigade) is a military formation used by the French Army since the French Revolutionary Wars. The ''Demi-brigade'' amalgamated the various infantry organizations of the French Revolutionary infantry into a single ...

by decree of 23 July 1796 (5

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). Monnet continued to pursue the insurgents in the

Vendée Vendée (; br, Vande) is a department in the Pays de la Loire region in Western France, on the Atlantic coast. In 2019, it had a population of 685,442.

, marching along the most difficult roads, supplying his troops despite the

scorched earth A scorched-earth policy is a military strategy that aims to destroy anything that might be useful to the enemy. Any assets that could be used by the enemy may be targeted, which usually includes obvious weapons, transport vehicles, communi ...

terrain in which they were operating, defeating the enemy everywhere, forcing the submission of Montaigu and

la Roche-sur-Yon La Roche-sur-Yon () is a commune in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region in western France. It is the capital of the department. The demonym for its inhabitants is ''Yonnais''. History The town expanded significantly after Napo ...

(whose inhabitants handed over their weapons) and finally completing his mission by capturing Charette and the revolts' thirteen leaders in the forêt de Grasla. Summoned to command the département of

, which he purged of the bands of brigands that were infesting it. In 1793 he and his brigade moved to the armée du Rhin and in 1794 took part in general Schaenbourg's corps d'armée, intended to penetrate into

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 ...

. Monnet fought at Berne and covering himself in glory at the Sion affair. The enemy were guarding the bridge of the Morga pass and holding the high ground, entrenched behind the stream bordering their camp. The battle lasted most of a day

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Monnet De Lorbeau, Louis Claude 1766 births 1819 deaths People from Deux-Sèvres French generals French military personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars Republican military leaders of the War in the Vendée French commanders of the Napoleonic Wars