Nicolas Soult Jean-of-God

Nicolas Jean-of-God Soult (March 29th 1769 with Saint-Mercy-the-Country house, † November 26th 1851 with Saint-Mercy-the-Country house), soldier and politician French, duke of Dalmatie, Marshal of Empire. It was, with Davout, Lannes, Masséna and Brune, one of the rare marshals of Napoleon to be able to effectively carry out an army far from the Emperor.

First weapons

Rather educated, because promised well with a career of Lawyer, Nicolas Soult Jean-of-God, become orphan of father nevertheless is obliged to engage, the April 16th 1785, like private in the Royal Régiment Infantry, where it goes up quickly in the higher ranks. It was in addition freemason, like much of officers of the time.

French revolution

After six years of service it is Sergent. At the request of its colonel, it is named the January 17th 1792 instructor with the 1st battalion, of the first regiment of volunteers of the Haut-Rhin with the rank of Sous-lieutenant. It is then 22 years old. The Great Wars which will follow offer him many occasions to be announced. Executive officer the July 16th 1792, captain in August of the following year, provisional adjudant with the staff of the Armed with the Moselle the November 19th 1793, provisional major adjudant-general the February 17th 1794, then the April 3rd titrates some.

After the battles of Fleurus where it is characterized by its coolness it is promoted Brigadier general the October 11th by the representatives of the nation. During the five following years, it is constantly employed in Germany under the orders of Jourdan, Moreau, Kléber and Lefebvre.

Attached to the Armed with Sambre-and-Meuse, it takes a brilliant share with the businesses of Altenkirchen, Friedberg and Lieptingen, where it is announced as much by its military intelligence as by its intrepidity. In Stokack and the combat delivered in the forest of this name against the army of the prince Charles. The Major general rank of , which to him is conferred the April 21st 1799.

It passes to the Armée with Helvétie under the orders of Masséna. It is at that time that it builds the bases of its military reputation, in particular the battles of Zurich. When in 1800 the First Consul load Masséna to reorganize the Armed with Italy, this one insists that Soult is to him associated, and he entrusts the command of the right wing to him.

See also: Countryside of Italy (1799-1800)

The defense of the country of Genoa will remain in the history of the French weapons, like one of the most glorious pages of the career of the Soult general: almost each day is marked by a brilliant deed. The April 6th, in a first exit, to the head of several battalions, it crosses the Austrian army boldly and delivers the general Gardanne, delivers several engagements to the enemy, rejects it beyond Piotta, seizes Sassello, gains new successes with Laying-Junera, the attack of Hermette, and returns in Genoa with many prisoners, guns and flags. In a new exit, the general crosses the Austrian army again, removes a division with Assembles-Facio. Lastly, it delivers a last combat to Montecreto, where a shot crashes to pieces the leg to him. Remained with the capacity of the enemy, he remains prisoner.

Marshal of Empire

The victory Marengo returns freedom to him. Little time afterwards, it receives the command of the southern part of the Royaume of Naples. Its energy managed to subdue the insurrection known as of the Barbets . It even succeeds in disciplining these turbulent hordes and it uses them for the service.

After the Treated of Amiens, the Soult general returns to Paris where the First Consul accommodates it with the highest distinction. He is the March 5th 1802, one of the four generals called with the command of the consular Garde although having been useful under Moreau. He does not like Napoleon but he with wisdom to show his allegiance with the capacity. He receives shortly after in August 1803 the command as a chief of the Camp of Saint-Omer

The May 19th 1804 it is promoted, one of the first, with the rank of Maréchal of Empire that Napoleon has just created. In reward of its first exploits, it is promoted the February 2nd 1805 large cord and chief of the 4th troop of the Legion. It receives moreover the title of colonel-general of the imperial Garde and of commander-in-chief of the Camp of Boulogne.

In September 1805, the marshal receives the command of the 4th body of the Armée with Germany. It forces the passage of the the Rhine to Spire, in October 1805, the the Danube to Donauwerth, seizes Augsburg, goes on Biberach and Memmingen, and approaches Napoleon to the doors of Ulm.

It orders a body with Bataille of Austerlitz where it conducts the decisive attack on the allied center.

In the Countryside of Prussia, in 1806, the Soult marshal, still orders the right wing of the army. He plays a great part in almost all the famous battles of the Large army .

In the Countryside of Poland, it contains the Russian general von Bennigsen while the Emperor faces the Russians with the Bataille of Eylau. By its energetic attack on the center of the enemy year, it contributes largely to the victory. It joint with Greussen the marshal Kalkreuth whom it beats completely, continues, with aggressiveness, the king of Prussia, blocks Magdeburg, and forces with Ruthnau five squadrons of the armies of Saxony to put the weapons low. It is made then main of Lubeck and forces Blücher to capitulate with Schwartau, gains new successes with Wolfersdorf, Heilsberg and entered Königsberg.

When the Paix of Tilsit is concluded, it turns over in France. In 1808, it is made Duc Dalmatie.

War of the Iberian peninsula

See also: War of Spanish independence

The war has been just re-ignited with fury in Spain. The Emperor entrusts to Soult the command of the center left of the army. Hardly arrived, the marshal gains, the November 10th 1808, a victory in front of with the Bataille of Gamona, takes Burgos, Santander, collapses the Spanish army close to Reynosa, finally reached the English army in front of Corogne, to fight a bloody battle to him in which the , general-in-chief Moore, is killed. He forces the remains of the English army to embark by giving up 6.000 prisoners, seizes Corogne and the Ferrol He seizes an immense material contained in these two places.

The four following years, Soult remains in Spain and its history merges with that of the war in the peninsula.

Entered to the Portugal the March 4th 1809 after the defeat of Moore, on order of the Emperor, the duke of Dalmatie passes the Minho, takes Chaves and gains the March 29th, the Bataille of Oporto.

But preferring to consolidate the political power of its conquests in the intêret of France and he hopes for his, as a candidate with the throne, it neglects to advance on Lisbon. Wellington dislodges it of Oporto. For lack of reinforcements it is in impossibility of holding the countryside. In less than six days, it renewed in Galicia the weak remains of its army, it still has. He arrives in spite of very beating the Anglo-Spanish army which he finds on his passage to Arzobispo, but he is constrained with a painful and disastrous retirement by the mountains. This retirement is looked by the tacticians like one of the most beautiful operations of the marshal.

After the Battle of Talavera (1809), a decree of the Emperor names the marshal Soult major-general of the French Armies in Spain, with wide capacities. The November 19th, it obtained a great victory with the Bataille of Ocaña. After being itself seized Seville, at the end of January 1810, it passes in the Estrémadure and invades the Andalusia which it entirely occupies except for Cadiz.

In 1811, it goes to north in Estrémadure. It takes Olivenza the January 22nd 1811, gains the Bataille of Gébora the February 11th according to, occupies Badajoz, and when the army britanno-Portuguese besieges the city, it goes to its help, delivering the Bataille of Albuera, the May 16th with lower forces of number.

In 1812 however, after a decisive defeat with the Battle of Salamanque, it is obliged to evacuate the Andalusia. At the request of Joseph Bonaparte, with which, like all the other marshals, it is always in dissension, it leaves Spain

In March 1813, Napoleon i invites it to give him the command of the 4th body of the large army, which it leads to the Bataille of Bautzen. Almost immediately it receives the order to go to Bayonne to reorganize there the Armée with the South that the Bataille of Vittoria completely demoralized. Although often beaten by the veterans of Wellington, him which has only conscripts without experiment, this countryside is one of best the example of its military engineering. It is turned over then against the enemy going towards the French borders, supports the honor of the French Armies with Orthez, to Aire, Vic of Bigorre, Tarbes, Enfin the April 10th 1814, it delivers the battles of Toulouse, the last and glorious blow of gun drawn for defense from the invaded ground, and from which the circumstances alone came to stop the results.

Political career

After the first abdication of Napoleon, he declares himself royalist. The government of the first Restoration names the duke of Dalmatie governor of the 13th military division the June 21st 1814.

It receives the Ordre of Saint-Louis and is named Ministre for the war December 3rd 1814 with the March 11th 1815, station which it occupies when Napoleon gets off the isle of Elba.

As chief of the army, he addresses to the troops a proclamation which does not prevent the Emperor to call it with the Tuileries the March 25th. He makes allegiance, and is made Pair France. Napoleon entrusts the May 9th to him 1815, the functions of major-general of the army. At the Battle of Waterloo, when Napoleon, with the sight of the disaster, wants to precipitate in the middle of the bayonets, Soult, remained at its sides until the last moment, arrives, by seizing the support of its horse, to involve it on the road of Charleroi.

Here the military career of the marshal finishes. Its role with the Bataille of Waterloo is certainly its worse military role. It is responsible for the not-arrival of Grouchy by not sending enough mails, like does it Berthier. For as much, Napoleon made the error not to listen to it, when Soult warned it as for the quality of the British infantry that Napoleon faced forever.

With the Second Restoration, it is exiled, included/understood in the ordinance of exile of the July 24th, and is striped list of the marshals the December 27th 1815. It remains in exile until in 1819. Louis XVIII reinstates it in 1820 in the dignity of marshal. Again royalist enthusiast, the king Charles X the pupil with Peerage in 1827.

After the Révolution of July 1830, during which Soult renders new services to its country, it joins with Louis Philippe, which revives for him the title of general Maréchal of the camps and armies of the king and takes it as Ministre for the War the November 17th 1830

Louis-Philippe, anxious to be able to rest only on the national guard to maintain the law and order, charges it with reorganizing without delaying the army of line. Soult writes a report/ratio with the king, presented to the House of Commons the February 20th 1831, in which it makes the criticism of the law Gouvion-Saint-Cyr of 1818 on recruitment: it shows that the system of voluntariate combined with the drawing lot and the possibility of being made replace did not make it possible to increase manpower sufficiently, and shows that the procedures of advance contribute to maintain surencadrement. He proposes the main roads of a military policy aiming increasing manpower of the army, reabsorbing surencadrement and at ensuring the supply of weapons and ammunition.

The guiding lines are stopped in February 1831 and the means are specified: it is a question of doubling the manpower of the army of the Restoration, which only counted a little more than 200.000 men. The reforms necessary will be carried out during the years 1831 and 1832. The first law of this important military batch of reforms is that of the March 9th 1831 creating the Foreign legion, which could be employed only apart from the territory of the Metropolitan France. Follow the laws of the April 11th 1831 on the military pensions, of the March 21st and April 14th 1832 on the recruitment of the army and advance, and of the May 19th 1834 on the state of the officers.

Soult also makes carry out work of the fortifications of Paris.

In 1834, when the bloody insurrection of April bursts, the Soult marshal receives from the Aymar lieutenant-general, which orders from Lyon, a telegram. The answer of the duke of Dalmatie is made wait only time strictly necessary to write it under its dictation and to carry it by the telegraph. The following letter written to the general ordering the town of Lyon, in connection with this same episode, is also significant

In 1838, the king chooses it to represent it with the crowning of the Queen of England.

Prime Minister during 7 years of 1840 to 1847, margement inspired, dominated by Guizot??

The December 26th 1847, Louis-Philippe restores for him the honorary title of general Marshal of France.

In 1848 it becomes republican but dies shortly after in its castle of Soultberg, close Saint-Mercy-the-Country house where it was born. In its homage, the commune was famous Saint-Mercies-Soult in 1851.

The marshal duke of Dalmatie, Grand Cross of the orders of Léopold of Belgium, of the Saver, order the Golden Fleece and Saint-Hubert, will have been with three recoveries, Chef of the government:

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