Jean Baptiste Eblé (; 21 December 1758 – 31 December 1812) was a French

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and

Artillery Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...

man 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 is credited with saving

Napoleon 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 ...

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from complete destruction in 1812.

Biography

Eblé was born in Saint-Jean-Rohrbach,

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; ; ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A sm ...

. He, like his father, started out in the artillery when he joined the army in 1793. He was commissioned as an officer two years later. Rising rapidly through the ranks, he served in northern Germany, and commanded an artillery

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at Austerlitz in 1805 before becoming governor of

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in 1806 and Minister of War for

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

in 1808. The following year, he was assigned to Spain serving in the army of

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Masséna where he commanded the French artillery at

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and Almeida. In 1811, Eblé was put in command of the Dutch

Pontoon bridge A pontoon bridge (or ponton bridge), also known as a floating bridge, is a bridge that uses float (nautical), floats or shallow-draft (hull), draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the support ...

builders (''pontonniers'') for the

Grande Armée The (; ) was the primary field army of the French Imperial Army (1804–1815), French Imperial Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Commanded by Napoleon, from 1804 to 1808 it won a series of military victories that allowed the First French Empi ...

which Napoleon was assembling for his invasion of Russia. Eblé discovered he had inherited a rag-tag collection of boatmen, yet in less than a year he had turned them into a disciplined, highly trained and skilled force who would soon prove indispensable. Besides training, Eblé also issued his pontonniers specialized tools and equipment, the most notable of which were the mobile wagon-mounted forges, that could quickly make any needed but unavailable metal parts or items. During the disastrous retreat from Moscow in 1812, Napoleon ordered Eblé to destroy the pontonniers' mobile forges, so that these valuable pieces of engineering technology would not fall into enemy hands. Eblé argued with his Emperor, that without the forges his men could not perform their duty and the greater danger to the Armée was to be caught between an uncrossable river and a vengeful, pursuing enemy. Napoleon insisted they be destroyed, but Eblé went against his orders and kept the vital equipment intact. When the Armée arrived at the Berezina River it found itself trapped, with the Russians fast bearing down and no way to cross. Eblé's men worked feverishly in dangerously frigid water to complete the bridges in time for the Armée to escape. With the way across the Berezina opened, most of the surviving remnants successfully crossed. But the campaign had taken a heavy toll on General Eblé's men and his health. He died in

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

shortly after returning from Russia.

References and links

THE BRIDGES THAT ÉBLÉ BUILT: THE 1812 CROSSING OF THE BEREZINA
*Caulaincourt, Armand-Augustin-Louis de, Duc de Vicence, ''With Napoleon in Russia''. Grosset & Dunlap, 1959 * Chandler, David, ''Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars''. London 1979 *Haythornthwaite, Philip, ''Who Was Who in the Napoleonic Wars'', London, 1998. *''1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow'',

Adam Zamoyski Adam Zamoyski (born 11 January 1949) is a British historian and author descended from the historically important Polish nobility. Personal life Born in New York City in 1949, as Adam Stefan Zamoyski, the youngest son of Count Stefan Zamoyski ( ...

, {{DEFAULTSORT:Elbe, Jean Baptiste 1758 births 1812 deaths People from Moselle (department) French commanders of the Napoleonic Wars Grand Officers of the Legion of Honour French military personnel killed in the Napoleonic Wars Names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe