Louis Gabriel Suchet

Origin

Wire the silky one, equipped with a solid instruction, Suchet enters the National guard of Lyon in 1791 and goes up there in the hierarchy until the rank of captain. Full with heat and zeal, the Suchet young person conquered quickly, in 1792, the ranks of second lieutenant, lieutenant and captain.

French revolution

Elected official lieutenant-colonel by the volunteers of the Ardeche in September 1793, chief of the 4^e battalion of Ardeche, it is present at the Siège of Toulon. At the time of this one, a British column of 2 000 men carried out an exit in order to seize the French batteries that Bonaparte had installed in order to start the structures of a fort. The British were counter-attacked and pushed back with the bayonet by the French soldiers, at the time of the body with body, Suchet made captive the British general O' Meara.

First countryside of Italy

Passed the Armed with Italy, it attended, in 1794, with the combat of Vado, Saint-Jacob and with all those which were delivered by division Laharpe. In 1795, with the Battle of Loano, the head of its battalion, it removed three flags with the Autrichien Ordering S., in 1796, a battalion of the 18 {{E}} Régiment in division Masséna, it took a glorious share with the combat of Dego, Lodi, Borghetto, Rivoli, Castiglione, Peschiéra, Thirty, Bassano, Arcole and Cerea, where it was dangerously wounded. Hardly restored, it made the countryside which decided the Traité of Campo-Formio. At that time, the Masséna general sent it to carry to the general-in-chief the flags conquered in the Bataille of Tarvis.

Countryside of Helvétie

Wounded again with Neumarck in Styrie, it was named Chef of brigade on the battle field, in October 1797. In 1798, its regiment passed in Suisse. In 1798, Suchet is chief of staff of Brune at the time of the short countryside of Helvétie. The control of colonel Suchet was worth the honor again to him to carry to Paris 23 flags taken to the enemy.

Named Brigadier general at that time, it was employed little time after, in the capacity as chief of staff, under the orders of the general Joubert, of which he was the friend. The Piedmont then giving concerns for the retirement of the army, and Joubert having received order to occupy this country at the end of 1798, Suchet prepared this forwarding and in its care, it ended without engagements.

Occupied to reorganize the army, it was in opposition with the police chief of the Directoire, and this fight made return against him, by a suspicious and weak government, a decree by which it was threatened to be carried on the list of the emigrants, if it did not return in France under three days. It was necessary to obey. But Joubert, dissatisfied with the unjust recall of his/her friend, left the command abruptly and turned over in its family. As of his arrival with Paris, the Suchet general justified himself fully, and was sent almost at once to the Armée with the Danube (April 5th 1799).

Detached in the Grison , and separated from the army during ten days, it defended the positions of Davos, Bergen, and Pulgen; misled the enemy who surrounded it, and joined the army, by the sources of the the Rhine, towards the Saint-Gothard, without being started; but it was wounded.

It is him which carries then the enemy flags taken to the Directoire. Indicated as general major of the armed with Egypt, it had to go to Paris to clear itself of the false charges carried against its management under Brune to Switzerland and could not thus take part in the countryside.

Second countryside of Italy

Exonerates, it joined the Armée with Helvétie as chief of staff, under Masséna, passed to Italy with same employment under Joubert, the successor of Brune.

After the disastrous countryside of Schérer, Joubert, having begun again the command of the army of Italy, made name in 1799, and its chief Major general of staff, Suchet which left then the Armée with the Danube. After the Battle of Novi, where France lost Joubert, Suchet continued its functions under Moreau and Championnet.

With the 18 brumaire, Napoleon Bonaparte charged Masséna with the command of the army of Italy and Suchet for lieutenant gave him. Cut army of Masséna, it is folded up on the Var, then takes again Genoa, the June 22nd 1800, a few days after Marengo.

The countryside being reopened, in 1801, after six months of armistice, the Suchet general ordered the center of the army, composed of three strong divisions of 18 000 men. In the passing of the Mincio, it helped and released the general Dupont, and made with him 4 000 prisoners on the general Bellegarde with the Combat of Pozzolo.

After the Peace of Lunéville, it was named general inspector of infantry. General inspector of infantry in 1801, it is well-known First Consul, because it married in 1799 Honorine Anthoine of Saint-Joseph, girl of elder of the Clary.

Empire

In 1804, it went to order a division with the Camp of Boulogne. It there was particularly charged to make dig the port of Wimereux, and was named shortly after governor of the palate of Laeken, close Brussels. With the opening of the Countryside of Germany, in 1805, its division became the first of the 5 {{E}} Corps of the large army under the orders of Soult; then ordered by the marshal Lannes, it was distinguished with Ulm and Hollabrunn.

It is illustrated with the Bataille of Austerlitz following which it is named Grand Eagle of the Légion of honor.

In the countryside of Prussia of 1806, its division gained the first advantage with Saalfeld. It began the attack with Iéna It was announced again in Poland, where it only resisted the Russian army at the time of the Bataille of Pułtusk. This division still beat the Russians with Ostrołęka.

After the Peace of Tilsitt, in 1807, the Suchet general took his quarterings in Silesia, and ordered the 5th body which was sent in Spain the following year.

Countryside of Spain

It is sent in Spain, it will be only large generals to gain great victories in this country. Only marshal to gain his title in Spain, it reorganized his French units, establishes a severe discipline, managed wisely, which gave him the affection of the Spaniards. Suchet was only French chiefs to completely make a success of the pacification of the zone with which it was charged. It is characterized by an impressive series from led to the head from the Armée with Aragon.

In December 1808, the division of Suchet opened the head office of Saragossa, on the line of the Èbre, where it obtained successes. Named, in April 1809, general-in-chief of the 3rd body (armed with Aragon), and governor of this province, the departure of the 5th body, the war of the Austria and the dilapidation of a very weak army, made its position extremely critical.

The day of his arrival to the command, the Spanish general Blake presented himself with 25 000 men in front of Saragossa. The shot down troops required the retirement; Suchet communicated its energy to them, led them to the enemy, beat it in Maria the June 14th 1809, took 30 parts of gun and 4 to him; 000 men, and supplemented his defeat, the 18, with Belchite.

These successes reversed the projects of the Spaniards who wanted to go on the the Pyrenees. Its administration right and moderate, its impartial integrity towards the inhabitants at which it preserved their employment, his particular protection for the clergy, its severity on the discipline, attached the Aragoneses to him and created resources to him.

In the middle of the general food shortage, its army became flourishing, and after a walk on Valence, in January 1810, it began its memorable campaigns. Lérida, shelf of the large captains, fell the first in its capacity, the May 13rd, after a complete victory gained over the general O'Donnell, with Margalef, on April 13rd, under the walls of the place. Mequinenza was forced to capitulate the June 8th; Tortose opened its doors the January 12th 1811, after 13 days of open trench; the Strong San-Felipe, with the Collar of Balanguer, was taken by storm the 9; Tarragone, Strong the , succumbed the June 28th after 56 days of seat, or rather of continual and terrible battle, in presence and under the fire of the English squadron, of its and Spanish army landing troops of Catalonia. The stick of Maréchal of Empire was the price of this countryside Napoleon grants the July 8th to him 1811.

In September 1811, the marshal opened the Valence campaign. The forts of the Sagonte antique, which cover this capital, statements with high expenses by the Spaniards, stop it. Oropesa was besieged and taken the August 25th. The garrison of Sagonte had pushed back two attacks. The December 26th, having received the body of reserve of Havana, and, without awaiting divisions of Portugal, it passed the Guadalavia, invests Valence, pressed the seat and the bombardment, and forced Blake to capitulate the January 9th 1812. The 10, the Spaniards, 17.500 men from infantry and 1.800 of cavalry, went, and Valence was occupied. Before one month, the place of Peñíscola and the extremely of Denied fell in its capacity, and supplemented the conquest of the Royaume of Valence.

In January 1812, he is duke of Albufera and governor of the country of Valence.

After various victorious engagements, against the general Joseph O'Donnell and the Spanish army, and after having received in Valence the armies of the Center and the South which joined there to go against the English army, the marshal made, in June 1813, rising the seat of Tarragone, highly pressed by the general Murray who lost all his artillery.

The retirement of the French Army beyond the Pyrenees after the Battle of Vitoria, obliged it to evacuate Valence the July 5th, eighteen months after the rendering of this city. It left garrisons to Dénia, Sagonte, Peniscola, Tortose, Lérida and Mequinenza supplied for more than one year.

In September it beat Lord Bentinck with the Col of Ordal and was then named general colonel of the imperial Guard, to replace the duke of Istrie (Bessières), which had just found death with the battles of Lützen. The duke of Albuféra occupied for six months the Catalogne.

Twenty thousand men having been required him for France, in January 1814, it approached the Pyrenees then, and it was with Gérone where Ferdinand VII accepted, that it was charged to lead to the Spanish army. In spite of the weakness of its army, reduced to nine thousand men, the duke of Albuféra persisted in remaining in Spain to ensure the re-entry of 18 000 men of garrison, and especially to prevent the enemy from invading the border. He is still victorious with Molino del Rey in January 1814. The border of the the Eastern Pyrenees remains inviolate until the fall of the Empire.

Informed officially of the abdication of the Emperor, and believer to see the wish of the nation in this decree of the senate, rejoined with the Restoration, it made recognize Louis XVIII by the army whose royal government preserved the command to him.

Of return to Paris, it was named Pair France, governor of 10^e division, commander of Saint-Louis, and, next in December, governor of the 5^e division to Strasbourg.

As long as the Bourbons remained on the French territory, the duke of Albuféra remained faithful to the oath that it had lent to them and maintained the troops in obedience: remained without orders nor instructions of the royal government, and judging, by the first acts of the Congrès of Vienna, that the foreign forces were prepared to invade France.

Hundred Days

During the Hundred Days, the marshal went to Paris, the March 30th 1815, ten days after the arrival of Napoleon i, to receive new orders. He accepted the April 5th that to go to Lyon to gather an army there. Suchet receives the command of the French Army of the the Alps the June 15th. It was named, the June 27th according to, member of the imperial Room of the pars.

To the head of these new troops, it went towards the the Alps, beat the Piedmont board, the June 15th, and a few days after the Austrians with Conflans. The arrival of the Austrian large army with Geneva obliged it to leave the Savoy and to be folded up on Lyon.

After Waterloo

]] Informed, the July 11th, that the Bataille of Waterloo had just replaced the sceptre in the hand of the Bourbons, the duke of Albuféra, to avoid a civil war, conclude with the Austrians a honourable capitulation which, by saving its birthplace, preserved at France for ten million artillery material. The same day, July 11th, it sent three generals to announce to the king whom it was recognized by the army, whose command was continued to him.

Excluded from the Room of the pars by the ordinance of the July 24th 1815, time to which the royal reaction started to exert its furies, the duke of Albuféra was recalled in this room by an ordinance of the March 5th 1819. By reasons of court, it did not form part of the forwarding of 1823, in Spain, under the orders of the duke of Angouleme, and died in Marseilles, the January 3rd 1826, 54 years old only. Its skin was transported to Paris.

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