Pierre Cambronne

Pierre Jacques Etienne Cambronne , become Pierre, Viscount Cambronne , is a general of Empire, born with Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, close to Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) the December 26th 1770 and died in Nantes the January 29th 1842.

Military career

Intended for the trade, he enlists in a battalion of Nantes volunteers in the pomegranate S in 1792, which was going to fight against the rebels of the the Vendée   ; he is used under the orders as Dumouriez in Belgium, in the Vendée, takes part in the Bataille of Quiberon.

Of a remarkable bravery, he arrives quickly at the rank of captain. The pacified Vendée, it embarks for the forwarding of Ireland under the orders of Hoche in 1796.

It passes then to the Armée with the Alps under the orders of Masséna, where it is pointed out with the head of a company of pomegranate S with the Bataille of Zurich (1799).

It passes then to the Armée with Helvétie, where it removes a Russian battery with a handle of men. He sees perishing at his sides the Tower of Auvergne, and refused the title of first pomegranate of France which its soldiers wanted to give him.

Empire

Colonel with Iéna, it is named major ordering of the 3 {{E}} regiment of acrobats of the Garde in 1810 and is made baron the same year and takes part during two years in the Campagne of Spain. He joined the Large army during the Campagne of Russia. He there orders the 3rd regiment of Voltigeur S and takes part in the battles of Bautzen, Dresden, Leipzig, before being named general with the Bataille of Hanau.

Hundred Days and Waterloo

Named major of the imperial Guard in 1814, it takes part in all the operations of the countryside of 1814, it is wounded several times.

Faithful among the faithful ones to the Emperor, he is military commander (directing the imperial guard and the place of Oporto-Ferraio) of the isle of Elba in 1814 - 1815. He accompanies Napoleon i in 1815 at the time of his return on the continent, and orders the avant-garde of his small army.

He takes the fortress of Sisteron (March 5th). Arrived at Paris, it is named count by Napoleon. It is also decorated with the large cord with Légion of honor and lieutenant-general, but it refuses this last rank.

Ordering the last square of the Old guard to Waterloo, summoned to go by the British general Colville, he answered initially: The guard dies but does not go! Puis, in front of the insistence of the British, it makes an answer as energetic as concise, now known as the “word of Cambronne” which it denied all his life however to have made, Merde! Its determination caused the admiration of the British, who did all to capture it. Seriously wounded, it is indeed made prisoner after the massacre of the last squares.

Later, he is ironical about the sentence which was allotted to him: " I could not say “the Guard dies but does not go”, since I did not die and that I am rendu" , quoted in Levot, Breton biography, 1900 , retranscribed in the Dictionary of the silly thing

Concerning the word of Cambronne

One often disputed the answer which illustrated Cambronne. If he did not pronounce it textually, he says of them the direction in the energetic language of the soldier. The paternity of this answer, become honourable, was disputed and was worth even a lawsuit with the descendants of Cambronne, by those of the general Michel. The Council of State did not slice.

The testimony of Antoine Deleau seems subject to deposit, because published after the first edition of the Poor wretches.

Looked after by Mary Osburn, a nurse of Scottish origin , during its captivity, Cambronne married it, and would then have sworn to him not to be the author of this counterpart. What would have been worth to him to receive a watch in gift.

This heroic coarseness inspired a part with Sacha Guitry, the Word of Cambronne. As it is in worms and that the word in question has only one rhyme (“loses”), the ear of the spectator is obviously with the aguets.

One finds also an allusion in the Eaglet of Edmond Rostand. During a ball at the Court of Vienna, two guests evoke the Court of Napoleon:

a clown, with the most aristocratic dislike
And this court that in a wink it faggoted!

- Tiburce
When title there was spoken, label, Gotha,
My expensive, to answer you, it had nobody there!

- Torch, (gently)
It thus did not have the Cambronne general there?

How the word is authentic or not, the name of the general indissociablement is now indissociablement attached there, at this point which it became an euphemism (“ Oh, and then Cambronne at the end! ”) and one finds sometimes the verb cambronniser .

And as the word is supposed to carry chance to that to which one says it, Tristan Bernard had this disillusioned observation:

Cambronne, one thinks of it with sorrow,
was not shown quite French:
To shout with the enemies the word which carries vein,
was fatally to ensure their success.

Military end of a career

Conduit in England, it writes with Louis XVIII to obtain the permission to return to France. It returns without to have received answer, is stopped, led to Paris, is translated in front of the council of war and is discharged. It is released to be able to attend its lawsuit for treason ( attacks France with weapons ) in France. Defended by the royalist Berryer, he is discharged the April 26th 1816.

In 1820, Louis XVIII names it ordering place of Lille with rank of Brigadier, then the fact Vicomte in August 1822. It takes its retirement in its birthplace, before dying in Nantes the January 28th 1842. Its name is registered on the Northern door of the arc of Star.

The king Louis-Philippe I {{er}}, by an ordinance of the December 5th 1842, authorized the town of Nantes to raise a statue in the honor of this general. It is inaugurated in 1848.

Wounds and decorations

It is wounded:

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