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 people, French Romanticism, Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: ...

Life

Born at

Rueil-Malmaison Rueil-Malmaison () or simply Rueil is a Communes of France, commune in the western suburbs of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department, Île-de-France Regions of France, region. It is located from the centre of Paris. It is ...

, 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, 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 The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

Helvetia Helvetia () is a national personification of Switzerland, officially , the Swiss Confederation. The allegory is typically pictured in a flowing clothing, with a spear and a shield emblazoned with the Flag of Switzerland, Swiss flag, and commo ...

and the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

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 ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

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 creat ...

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 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 sou ...

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

made him a knight of the

Order of Saint-Louis The Royal and Military Order of 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 reward for exceptional officers, notable as the fir ...

on 1 November 1814, but 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 ...

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 is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...

on 11 May. This division was based 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 ...

and encompassed the departments of

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

Aisne Aisne ( , ; ; ) is a French departments of France, department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. It is named after the river Aisne (river), Aisne. In 2020, it had a population of 529,374. Geography The department borders No ...

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 ( ; ; ) 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 in 2019.< ...

Seine-et-Marne Seine-et-Marne () is a department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square kilometres (2,284 square miles); it roughly covers its ...

, and

Seine-et-Oise Seine-et-Oise () is a former department of France, which encompassed the western, northern and southern parts of the metropolitan area of Paris. Its prefecture was Versailles and its administrative number was 78. Seine-et-Oise was disbanded in ...

. He was retired from the army after Napoleon's final fall. He died at 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