Emmanuel de Grouchy

Emmanuel, marquis de Grouchy (born with Paris, the October 23rd 1768, † Saint-Etienne May 29th 1847), Marshal of Empire, count of the Empire, Large Eagle of the Legion of honor, Even of France.

During Monarchy

Aristocrat, wire of officer, his family, Norman of origin, are known to be related to the great writers and thinkers of the end of the Ancien Mode. Grouchy entered at 13 years to the royal body of artillery of Strasbourg in the capacity as candidate, in 1780, it is promoted lieutenant as a second with the artillery regiment of Fère in 1781. Passed in the cavalry in 1782, Grouchy was in 1784 promoted with the rank of captain in the foreign royal Régiment Cavalerie before being named in 1786 with the Scottish company of the Royal Garde, with row of Lieutenant-colonel.

The French revolution

The principles of 1789, which it adopted with enthusiasm, carried it to give its resignation of its use of lieutenant to the guards. Rejoined with the novel ideas, he is the brother-in-law of Condorcet by his Sophie sister and of Cabanis by his other Charlotte sister.

He integrates the army and becomes Colonel in 1792 of the 12 {{E}} Régiment of Hunters with Horse, (He is colonel of 2nd Rgt de Dragons from February 5th to July 8th, 1792) then very quickly of the 5 {{E}} Régiment of Hussards (old regiment of Lauzun Hussards); the same year, it was sent to the Armée with the South in the capacity as Brigadier; it ordered the cavalry and took a glorious share with the operations and the conquest of the Savoy. Its control in the various battles which followed was worth him the Major general rank of , which was conferred to him by the representatives on mission. It defends Nantes against the Vendéen S, but is suspended like noble and is excluded from the army.

Proscribed like noble by the decree of Thermidor 15 year II, Grouchy was withdrawn in the department of the Manche; there remains discrete and passes the Terreur without encumbers. After the Fall of Robespierre, it takes again service.

Recalled in year III, it was sent to the Armée with the coasts of the West as chief of staff, operated his junction with the troops ordered by Hoche and contributed like him to the success of the Expédition of Quiberon. Following this business, it obtained the command as a chief of the Armée with the West, and became, in quality, of chief of general staff, the adjudant of the Hoche general, in charge of the command of the three joined together armies. It leaves for the forwarding Ireland and returns after the failure of unloading. In year VI, Grouchy passed under the orders of Joubert to the army of Italy. Sent in Piedmont, it forced with abdication the king Charles-Emmanuel, and accepted in reward the command of Piedmont. In all the businesses which preceded the Bataille by Novi, Grouchy made wonders of value. It was wounded with Valence and had with the Bataille of Trebbia two horses killed under him. From Novi, it ordered the left wing and made captive 4.300 Austrians. Encircled in the processions of Paturna, where it accepted 14 wounds, it was made prisoner.

Consulate

Exchange after one year of captivity, he saw with despair the 18 brumaire and protested in writing against the establishment of the Consulat. He took again nevertheless service and, affected in the Armée with the Grisons at the summer 1800, he drove out the Austrians of the Engadine. Responsible for the command of one of divisions of the second reserve army, it ordered it as a chief during a disease of Macdonald.

It passed then to the Armée with the Rhine under the orders of Moreau; it there fought with its ordinary value and took with the Bataille of Hohenlinden a share of most glorious. It continues towards Vienna, arrives at Steyer where the armistice is signed. Its friendship with the Moreau general is worth in Grouchy the suspicion of Bonaparte, which does not give him any command to the countryside of 1805. With peace, it obtained an general inspection of cavalry, was charged to take back in Toscane the son of the king Louis I {{er}}, and to make it recognize as king of Étrurie.

Empire

The 19 brumaire year XII, it was created member of the Légion of honor and large officer the 25 meadow following. With this occasion, it had to lend oath of fidelity to the emperor Napoleon i, and with this oath, never it did not miss there.

In 1805, the Grouchy general was promoted with the command of a division of the Armée gallo-Batavian, with the head of which it attended the battles of Wertingen, of Guntzbourg and Ulm. After Ulm, it fell sick and had to leave its division to return in France.

Passed, in 1806, with the command of a division of dragons, it pursues the remains of the Prussian army after Iéna, constrained Hohenlohe with the capitulation. It leads its division, the October 25th, in Berlin; the 26, it fights with it with Zehdenick, and two days afterwards with Prentzlow.

After being itself distinguished with Lubeck, the passage of the the Vistula, Thorn, etc, it assisted the February 8th 1807 with the loophole Bataille of Eylau. The morning, it had led 4.000 men to the combat; the evening, there him remained 1.200 about it hardly. Its horse had been killed under him. Seriously wounded itself, it had the life with the devotion of the young person Lafayette, his assistance-of-camp. After this battle, it accepted from the Emperor the grand' cross of the Ordre of Bavaria; four months later, its control with Friedland was worth to him a flattering mention in the 19th bulletin.

After the Peace of Tilsitt, the Grouchy general was decorated with the large eagle of the Légion of honor: in 1808, the Emperor created it Count of the Empire and sent it in Spain. It is sent in Spain in 1808 under the orders of Murat, he becomes governor of Madrid, and represses the insurrection of May 1808.

The general announced his presence in this capital by important services; but soon he solicited and obtained the permission to return to France. Count of the Empire to the beginning of the year 1809.

Hardly arrived, it accepted order to join the army in Italy (1809). After wonders of value, in this countryside, it went to join with the prince Eugene de Beauharnais the Large army in Germany. It decides victory with the Bataille of Raab. The July 6th, it took a glorious share with the Bataille of Wagram, where it beat the enemy cavalry and wrapped the body of the Archiduc Charles. Two days afterwards, it completely demolished the enemy rear-guard under the orders of the Prince de Rosamberg. Napoleon rewarded it by conferring the rank to him for commander for the Ordre for the Crown for iron and appointed it general colonel of the hunters with horse of the Guard. This rank placed the Grouchy general at the number of the high-ranking dignitaries of the Empire.

In 1812, the general count Grouchy accepted the command of one of the three bodies of cavalry of the Large army. It orders the 3rd body of cavalry at the time of the countryside of Russia. It passed the first the Borysthène and fought with Krasnoïe, Smolensk and the Moskowa. It is with him that one had the success of this last battle, in which it accepted a Biscaïen in the chest, saw his son wounded at his sides and had a horse killed under him.

At the time of the Retirement of Moscow, Grouchy fought with Maloyaroslavets under the orders of Eugene de Beauharnais, accepted the order to cover the army, and had the honor to save with Viazma part of French artillery. Replaced with the rear-guard by Davout, Grouchy accepted the command of the Escadron crowned, “battalion crowned”, which protects the Emperor during the retirement.

Returned to France at the end of 1812, it is annoyed with Napoleon in 1813, this last wanting to maintain it with the head cavalry whereas Grouchy wishes a command in the infantry. It then returned its orders of service to the minister and was withdrawn in his grounds; but soon the French borders were invaded, and the Grouchy general, forgetting any personal resentment, wrote with the Emperor for him redemander service.

It was still the cavalry of the Large army which one entrusted to him. Grouchy stopped the enemy in the plains of Colmar, united the Emperor with Saint-Dizier, after having defended against the allies the passage of the the Vosges, took a share of most glorious with the combat of Brienne, Rothière and Vauchamps, with Montmirail, and was wounded in Troyes which it took again with the enemy. Wounded again very seriously with Craonne, it had some time to give up the service.

On arrival of Louis XVIII, it joins and becomes general inspector of the cavalry. The Restauration took from Grouchy the rank of general colonel of the hunters with horse to give it to the Duc of Berry. One granted to him however the cross of commander of the Ordre of Saint-Louis.

Hundred Days

But as of the return of the Emperor, this faithful among the faithful ones, is one of the first to join it: in March 1815, the Grouchy general, mandé with the Tileries, called to Napoleon that its devotion was acquired to the fatherland.

Responsible for the command as a chief with 7th, 8th, 98 and the 10th military divisions, it left for Lyon and found with Donzère the duke of Angouleme which claimed the execution of the Convention of the Fen; Grouchy wrote some in Napoleon, and on its express order, made take on board the prince with Sète, then went to Marseilles. This act is worth to him its stick of marshal and to be named Pair of France.

The April 17th, it accepted the patent of Marshal of France.

Sent to the Armed with the Alps as general-in-chief, it organized this army, put the borders of the Savoy and the Piedmont in a state of defense, then returned to Paris, called with the Chambre of the Pars by an imperial decree. Soon, it was in charge of the command as a chief of the cavalry to the Armée with North. It follows the army during the countryside of Belgium.

Waterloo

It contributes to the victory of the Bataille of Ligny the June 16th, but, charged by Napoleon with continuing the Prussians, it blindly carries out this order in spite of supplications of its assistant, the future marshal Gerard, and includes/understands only too late its error not to have been present at Waterloo.

In the days of the 17 and June 18th places a series of facts of which much was the subject against the Grouchy marshal of a serious charge. Detached the 17 with a body of 30.000 men to go to the continuation of the Prussians that Napoleon believed withdrawn towards the Meuse, it would have let escape the body from Blücher, extremely of 40.000 men, that it was not to lose sight of the fact, and would have let itself mask by the small Prussian body of Thielman, which hid the rise of Blücher to him moving on the gun of Wellington. The order given by Napoleon to go on Wavre was not absolute and was subordinated to the operations of the enemy.

Las Boxes reports, in the Memorial, that to Sainte-Hélène Napoleon would have said: “ the Grouchy marshal with 34 000 men and 108 parts of gun found the secrecy which appeared untraceable not to be, in the day of the 18, neither on the field of Bataille of Mount-Saint-Jean, nor on Wavres… The control of the Grouchy marshal was as unforeseeable as if, on its road, its army had tested an earthquake which had absorbed it. ”

The share made with this fatal misunderstanding which deprived Napoleon of his line and changed the victory into rout, the marshal arrived at Wavre the evening, about per hour when Blûcher arrived at Waterloo.

In Wavre, it attacked the Prussian body which occupied this city and beat it. Attacked in its turn the following day by more considerable forces, it pushed back of such kind the enemy that it was prepared to go on Brussels, when it accepted the message of the Emperor. The marshal folded up himself on Namur, carrying out his retirement through all the army anglo-Prussian and arrived at Rheims, without to have made any loss. It was there that he learned that last once, the Emperor had just abdicated in favor of the King de Rome. He made with his soldiers a proclamation in which he committed them to defend, under the orders of the new chief of the Empire, interests of the fatherland and freedom.

The exile in America

With Soissons, the marshal accepted the June 28th a decree of the provisional government, on 25, by which it was called with the command as a chief of the army of North. On its arrival in Paris, it gave this command to the marshal Davout.

Proscribed by the ordinance of July 1815 of Louis XVIII which does not forgive him the arrest of the duke of Angouleme, it takes refuge with the the United States, Philadelphia where it remains five years.

The return in France

Twice the 2nd council of war of the 1st division, charged to judge the marshal, had been declared inefficient. By royal decree of the November 24th 1819, Louis XVIII allowed Grouchy the return in the fatherland, by restoring it in its titles, ranks and honors, with the March 19th 1815. Returned to France in 1821, the count Grouchy, become again lieutenant-general (Major general), was put at the retirement.

Louis-Philippe returns his old titles to him and names it moreover Pair of France. A royal decree of the November 19th 1831 returns to him its title of Marshal of France. Another ordinance of the October 11th 1832 restores its seat with the to him Chambre of the pars.

He dies the May 29th 1847 with Saint-Etienne, of return of a voyage in Italy. Its name is registered on the Triumphal arch of the Star, side Northern.

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