Bramsche

Jacques Bernard Modeste d' Anselme , born the July 22nd 1740 with Apt, dead the September 17th 1814 with Paris, is a general of the Revolution French.

State of service

Old Mode

Wire of a Captain with the Regiment of Souvré, it entered to the service on September 27th, 1745, i.e. it was carried at the 5 years age, according to the use of time, as wire of officer, on the control of the Régiment of Brancas, which became Ségur, then Bricqueville and finally Soissonnais. Reformed on August 6th, 1749, it became ensign on March 27th, 1752, then lieutenant on February 1st, 1756, was useful in front of Minorque in 1756, then passed Capitaine assistant medical officer on October 28th, 1760. It served during the Guerre Seven Year old, then in Corsica of 1768 to 1769. It was promoted knight of Saint-Louis on April 18th, 1770, and became major of the Régiment of Périgord on February 20th, 1774, then major of the Régiment of Maine on April 26th, 1775. Named lieutenant-colonel with the Regiment of Soissonnais on July 17th, 1777, it left shortly after to make the war of Independence of the United States of 1780 to 1783.

Named Mestre of camp (Colonel) of the 2 {{E}} Provincial Regiment Staff on January 1st, 1784, then Brigadier on March 9th, 1788, it became the Aide-de-camp of Rochambeau on April 1st, 1791.

Wars of the French revolution

Employed in the 9th military division on May 20th, 1791, then with the Armed with the South on February 15th, 1792, it ordered temporarily the 10th military division on April 3rd, 1792. It was with Perpignan in this quality, when five companies of the Régiment of Vermandois, arrived in this city the day of Easter 1792 were devoted to it to the greatest disorders against the inhabitants. It went to the barracks with the administrators of the city, and managed by its speeches to bring back this army rabble mutinée to the reason and its duties.

General lieutenant employee with the army of the South on May 22nd, 1792, it was named commander-in-chief of the Armée with the South the next on August 27th, but did not take the command. With the head of 12 with 15 000 men, it passed the Var on September 28th, 1792, and, the following day, seized Nice, the Fort of Montalban and the Château of Villefranche, without almost examining resistance. This conquest was important: hundred pieces of artillery, 5000 rifles, a million cartridges, a frigate and a corvette armed with their guns, which were in the port, and an arsenal of navy provided well. It was named commander-in-chief the army established in Nice on November 7th, and continued, but with less success, the course of its operations. The rains, snow, dénûment where its soldiers were who missed clothings, shoes and ammunition, forced it, after an useless attack on Saorge, to limit themselves to the occupation of Sospel, and to take its winter quarters in the surroundings of this city.

The orders of the government and the need for getting resources with its army decided it to give up this idleness. In.liaison.with the admiral Truguet, it formed the project to seize Oneille. The naval army was presented in front of this place on November 23rd, and at once a member of Parliament was sent to urge the magistrates of this city to open the doors to them. But this delegation was accepted by rifle shots which wounded the officer and killed seven people around him. The city was bombarded and the very same day taken the following day, and the French gave up it only after having plundered it and having reduced in ashes. But consequently the disorder reigned in the army, which did not observe any more any discipline, and was devoted to all kinds of violences and depredations towards the inhabitants of the county of Nice. These exactions revealed the barbet spaniels. The Anselme general was shown to miss energy to repress these excesses, and to perhaps even protect them and to benefit from it itself. He published in December 1792 a justifying report of his control, in which he endeavoured to prove that he had repressed plundering. He rejected dénûment his troops on Montesquiou, and protested of the purity of his republican feelings. The police chiefs sent by the Convention to examine its control were far from being satisfied with the reasons which it pled. They rejected on the contrary all the disorders on its weakness and its incurie. Mandé with Paris on December 16th, it was replaced temporarily by the general Brunet. It left Nice the 23, and was suspended of its functions by the representatives the 27.

Issued charge on February 14th, 1793, on the report/ratio of Collot d' Herbois, for the plundering of the town of Nice, it was put at once in prison. Deprived of its papers, its correspondence and its registers of order which had been put under seals at Apt and Paris, he wrote nevertheless and made public, in the month of March 1793, a new justifying report of 55 pages, in which he recalled in detail all his control, since the day when he had been in charge of the command of the Armée with the VAr, and where he showed that, consequently, this army being stripped of all and in prey with anarchy, one could to only know liking him to have led it to the victory against forces much more and organized better. This memory appeared to produce an effect favorable to the Anselme general, since he was forgotten in his prison. The Thermidor 9 made some leave. He was discharged and authorized to take his retirement on April 12th, 1793, obtaining a pension of 10 000 francs on October 15th, 1795. It nevertheless was named inspector of the troops stationed in the South on December 6th, 1798, and finally allowed with the retirement on January 27th, 1801 at the 60 years age. He died in Paris on September 17th, 1814, at the 74 years age.

Distinctions

It belongs to the 558 officers to have his name engraved under the Triumphal arch of the Star.

Titles, decorations, honors

Knight of Saint-Louis on April 18th, 1770

Sources

Pierre Larousse, Large universal Dictionary of the XIXe century , 15 volumes, 1863-1890.
Louis Gabriel Michaud, old and modern universal Biography , 35 vol., 1773-1858.
Georges Six, biographical Dictionary of the generals and French admirals of the Revolution and the Empire , 2 vol. 1934.
Appleton' S Cyclopedia d' American Biography, published by James Grant Wilson, John Fiske and Stanley L. Klos Six of volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company 1887-1889]

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