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

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

– 22 April 1822) became a

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officer during the

French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...

and a general during 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 later emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

French Revolutionary Wars

He joined the army in 1792, and served with the armies of the North, of the Sambre et Meuse and Rhine et Moselle in the various campaigns of the French Revolution. Six years later he had become captain and aide-de-camp to General

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

. 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 ...

in June 1800 he won further promotion. On 1 July 1806, in recognition of his services and in view of his upcoming wedding to Marie Louise Stéphanie Rolier (1787–1880), a first cousin of Napoléon Bonaparte, Napoléon gave him his house in Paris, the

Hôtel Bonaparte The Hôtel Bonaparte, also known as ''Hôtel de Ségur,'' ''Hôtel de la Victoire'' or ''Maison du 18 Brumaire,'' was a historic ''hôtel particulier'' located in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, dating largely from the end of 18th century. Due to ...

, by a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

signed at the

Château de Saint-Cloud The château de Saint-Cloud () was a château in France, built on a site overlooking the Seine at Saint-Cloud in Hauts-de-Seine, about west of Paris. The gardens survive, and the estate is now known as the Parc de Saint-Cloud. The château was ...

.Élodie Lefort
''Napoléon – Histoire des deux Empires: L'Hôtel Bonaparte, Rue Chantereine''
Enquête sur le mystérieux aquarelliste Gustave de Reiset, le site d'histoire de la Fondation Napoléon (reconnue d'utilité publique par un décret du 12 novembre 1987), février 2022, (récupéré 2025)Amaury Lefébure, Céline Meunier, Christophe Pincemaille, Alain Pougetoux, Jean-Pierre Samoyault et d'autres
''Napoléon – Histoire des deux Empires: Joséphine et Napoléon, l'hôtel de la rue de la Victoire''
le site d'histoire de la Fondation Napoléon (reconnue d'utilité publique par un décret du 12 novembre 1987), extrait du catalogue de l'exposition tenue au Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau (15 octobre 2013 – 6 janvier 2014), RMN Éditions, Paris, 2013 (récupéré 2025)Ministère de la culture
''Vue du cabinet de travail de l'hôtel Bonaparte, rue de la Victoire à Paris''
le site des musées nationaux, la Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison & Bois-Préau (récupéré 2025)

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 ...

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

Battle of Austerlitz The Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805/11 Frimaire An XIV French Republican calendar, FRC), also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most important military engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle occurred near t ...

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

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 Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, living, on

parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...

from

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

, at

Cheltenham Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...

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 (where he was wounded),

La Rothière La Rothière () is a commune in the Aube department in north-central France. Population See also *Communes of the Aube department *Parc naturel régional de la Forêt d'Orient *Battle of La Rothière The Battle of La Rothière (1 Fe ...

Montmirail Montmirail may refer to: Places * Dentelles de Montmirail, a small chain of mountains in the Vaucluse department, southern France * Montmirail, Marne, in the Marne department, France **Battle of Montmirail, a battle fought in 1814 during the Six Da ...

, Vauchamps and Arcis-sur-Aube. He joined Napoleon in 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 ...

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 el ...

. At the

battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium), marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The French Imperial Army (1804–1815), Frenc ...

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

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. Before his reign, he spent 23 y ...

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

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''Albion'' of the Black Ball Line, went down off the south coast of

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

on 22 April 1822. Mr Everart, the only surviving passenger, 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,

Ballinspittle Ballinspittle () is a village in County Cork, Ireland. It is in the Barony (Ireland), barony of Courceys and lies about southwest of Kinsale, on the R600 road (Ireland), R600 road. It is near Garrylucas and Garrettstown Blue Flag beach, Blue Fl ...

, near Kinsale in County Cork.

Tributes

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

.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, ...

) 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 ...

, 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 Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lefebvre-Desnouettes, Charles 1773 births 1820s missing person cases 1822 deaths Commanders in the French Imperial Guard French commanders of the Napoleonic Wars French emigrants to the United States French generals French prisoners of war Members of the Chamber of Peers of the Hundred Days Military personnel from Paris Missing person cases in Ireland Names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe People lost at sea