Dumouriez

Early life and education

Dumouriez then visited Italy, Spain and Corsica, and his memoranda to the duc de Choiseul on Corsican affairs at the time of the Corsican Republic led to his re-employment on the staff of the , for which he gained the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1769 Choiseul gave Dumouriez a military command as deputy quartermaster general to the army under the Marquis de Chauvelin. After two campaigns on the island, he became a member of the Secret du Roi, the secret service under Louis XV, which gave full scope to his diplomatic skills. The fall of Choiseul (1770) brought about Dumouriez's recall. In 1770 he undertook a mission into Poland, where, in addition to his political business, he organized a Polish militia for the Bar Confederation. There he met with Jozef Miaczinsky, the commander of a regiment. His Polish soldiers were pushed back by the Russian forces of General Alexander Suvorov in the first clash but Suvorov failed in the second clash. On 21 May 1771, Dumouriez' Polish soldiers were smashed in the third clash.