François, marquis de Chasseloup-Laubat
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France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
general
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
and military engineer, was born at Saint-Sernin
Saint-Sernin
Saint-Sernin may refer to the following places in France:* Basilique St-Sernin, Toulouse, the basilica of Toulouse, France* Saint-Sernin, Ardèche, a commune in the department of Ardèche* Saint-Sernin, Aude, a commune in the department of Aude...
(Charente Inferieure), of a noble family, and entered the French engineers in 1774.
He was still a subaltern
Subaltern (rank)
A subaltern is a chiefly British military term for a junior officer. Literally meaning "subordinate," subaltern is used to describe commissioned officers below the rank of captain and generally comprises the various grades of lieutenant. In the British Army the senior subaltern rank was...
at the outbreak of the Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, becoming captain in 1791. His ability as a military engineer was recognized in the campaigns of 1792 and 1793. In the following year he won distinction in various actions and was promoted successively chef de bataillon and colonel. He was chief of engineers at the siege of Mainz in 1793, after which he was sent to Italy. He there commanded the positions and lines of advance of the army of Bonaparte. He was promoted brigadier-general before the close of the campaign, and was subsequently employed in fortifying the new Rhine frontier of France.
His work as chief of engineers in the army of Italy
Army of Italy (France)
The Army of Italy was a Field army of the French Army stationed on the Italian border and used for operations in Italy itself. Though it existed in some form in the 16th century through to the present, it is best known for its role during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic...
(1799) was conspicuously successful,and after the battle of Novi he was made general of division. When Napoleon took the field in 1800 to retrieve the disasters of 1799, he again selected Chasseloup as his engineer general. During the peace of 1801-1805 he was chiefly employed in reconstructing the defences of northern Italy, and in particular the afterwards famous Quadrilateral
Quadrilatero
The Quadrilatero is the traditional name of a defensive system of the Austrian Empire in the Lombardy-Venetia, which connected the fortresses of Peschiera, Mantua, Legnago and Verona between the Mincio, the Po and Adige Rivers...
. His chef-d'œuvre was the great fortress of Alessandria on the Tanaro
Alessandria
-Monuments:* The Citadel * The church of Santa Maria di Castello * The church of Santa Maria del Carmine * Palazzo Ghilini * Università del Piemonte Orientale-Museums:* The Marengo Battle Museum...
.
In 1805 he remained in Italy with André Masséna
André Masséna
André Masséna 1st Duc de Rivoli, 1st Prince d'Essling was a French military commander during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars....
, but at the end of 1806 Napoleon, then engaged in the Polish campaign, called him to the Grande Armée, with which he served in the campaign of 1806-07, directing the sieges of Colberg, Danzig and Stralsund. During the Napoleonic domination in Germany, Chasseloup reconstructed many fortresses, in particular Magdeburg. In the campaign of 1809 he again served in Italy. In 1810 Napoleon made him a councillor of state. His last campaign was that of 1812 in Russia.
He retired from active service soon afterwards, though in 1814 he was occasionally engaged in the inspection and construction of fortifications. Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...
made him a peer of France and a knight of St Louis. He refused to join Napoleon in the Hundred Days
Hundred Days
The Hundred Days, sometimes known as the Hundred Days of Napoleon or Napoleon's Hundred Days for specificity, marked the period between Emperor Napoleon I of France's return from exile on Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815...
, but after the second Restoration he voted in the chamber of peers against the condemnation of Marshal Ney
Michel Ney
Michel Ney , 1st Duc d'Elchingen, 1st Prince de la Moskowa was a French soldier and military commander during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was one of the original 18 Marshals of France created by Napoleon I...
.
In politics he belonged to the constitutional party. The king created him a marquis. Chasseloup's later years were employed chiefly in putting in order his manuscripts, a task which he had to abandon owing to the failure of his sight. His only published work was (Paris, 1801, republished Milan, 1805 and 1811, under the title ). The most important of his papers are in manuscript in the Depot of Fortifications, Paris.
As an engineer Chasseloup was an adherent, though of advanced views, of the old bastioned system perfected by Vauban
Vauban
Sébastien Le Prestre, Seigneur de Vauban and later Marquis de Vauban , commonly referred to as Vauban, was a Marshal of France and the foremost military engineer of his age, famed for his skill in both designing fortifications and breaking through them...
. He followed in many respects the engineer H.J.B. de Bousmard, whose Essai General de Fortification was published in 1797 and who fell, as a Prussian officer, in the defence of Danzig in 1807 against Chasseloup's own attack. His front as applied to Alessandria, contains many elaborations of the bastion trace, with, in particular, masked flanks in the tenaille
Tenaille
Tenaille is an advanced defensive-work, in front of the main defences of a fortress which takes its name from resemblance, real or imaginary, to the lip of a pair of pincers...
, which served as extra flanks of the bastions. The bastion itself was carefully and minutely retrenched. The ordinary ravelin
Ravelin
A ravelin is a triangular fortification or detached outwork, located in front of the innerworks of a fortress...
he replaced by a heavy casemated after the example of Montalembert
Marc René, marquis de Montalembert
Marc René, marquis de Montalembert was a French military engineer and writer, known for his work on fortifications.-Life:...
, and, like Bousmard's, his own ravelin was a large and powerful work pushed out beyond the glacis.
His wife, the daughter of François Fresneau de la Gataudière, brought him the Château de la Gataudière, at Marennes, Charente-Maritime
Marennes, Charente-Maritime
Marennes is a commune in the Charente-Maritime department in southwestern France.For a long time it was one of the most prosperous cities of the Saintonge due to its location in the middle of the salt-water marshes at a time where salt was a valuable commodity.Marennes is a center for oyster...
; his youngest son, Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat
Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat
Count Justin Napoléon Samuel Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat was a French politician who became Minister of the Navy under Napoleon III. He was the youngest son of the General de Chasseloup-Laubat...
, was Minister of the Navy under Napoleon III.
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