Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Comte d'Erlon
Encyclopedia
Jean-Baptiste Drouet, comte d'Erlon (July 29, 1765 – January 25, 1844) was a marshal of France
and a soldier in Napoleon
's Army. D'Erlon notably commanded the I Corps of the Armée du Nord
at the battle of Waterloo
.
D'Erlon was born in Reims
, and in 1792 served as a corporal in the pre-revolutionary army, being elected to captain
the following year. In 1794 he returned to Reims to marry Marie-Anne Rousseau the daughter of Nicolas Rousseau a banker, who he has got to know through Marie-Jeanne (Rousseau) the wife of his brother Jean-François Drouet. while in Reims on the morning of his wedding, he was informed of his appointment as aide-de-camp to General Francois Lefebvre. On Christmas Day 1794, his first child, a son who was christened Nicolas Adolphe was born. In 1796 his wife had their second child, a daughter: Marie-Anne Louise.
In 1799 he was promoted to brigadier general
, and fought under André Masséna
in Switzerland
. The same year he distinguished himself at the Second Battle of Zurich
. In 1800 he moved his family to Paris where his third child Aimé Napoleon François was born. He continued his service in many battles of the French Revolutionary
and Napoleonic Wars
, including Hohenlinden in 1800 (in which he was wounded), the Hanover
region (earning him promotion to Major General
in 1803), Austerlitz
in 1805 (his first battle as Division commander) and one in which his division played a pivotal role, and Jena in 1806.
In 1807, as chief of staff for Lefebvre at the siege of the Polish city of Danzig (Gdańsk
), he negotiated the terms of surrender. The same year he was wounded in the foot at Friedland
.
Following the conclusion of the 1809 Danubian campaign
, D'Erlon was sent as Chief of Staff
to Marshal Lefebvre
. Lefebvre was in command of the VII (Bavarian) Corps
in action in the Tyrol
against the pro-Austrian insurgency led by the innkeeper Andreas Hofer
. After the failure of the allied second offensive to retake the Tyrol, Lefebvre was relieved of his command by Napoleon because of his poor performance and terrible relationship with the Bavarians. D'Erlon was given command, and in by the end of November he had pacified the region, and in the process formed a strong bond with his Bavarian subordinates.
Later in the year he was given the command of the IX Corps of Spain
, after which he defeated the British General Hill
at the Battle of Extremadura
. The following years brought him successes in Portugal
, and in the Peninsular War
.
After Napoleon abdicated in 1814 d'Erlon transferred his alligence to the House of Bourbon along with the rest of the army. The next year he accepted the command of the 16th Military Division under Napoleon from Marshal Davout
.
During the Waterloo Campaign d'Erlon commanded the French I Corps. On June 16, 1815, due to conflicting orders his Corps spent the day on the Nivelles-Namur road marching and counter marching between the battles of Quatre Bras
and Ligny
without engaging in either battle. If the I Corps had engaged in either battle the outcome of the campaign might have been different. Two days later at the Battle of Waterloo
it was his Corps in Column
formation which attacked the Allied centre near La Haye Sainte
at 13:30 and was stopped by Picton
's Peninsular War
veterans, and then attacked in the flanks by the British heavy cavalry
. After the surrender of Napoleon, d'Erlon entered exile in Munich
.
In 1825 he was granted amnesty by Charles X
. In 1828 his wife Marie-Anne died. In the July Revolution
in 1830 he supported the Juilletistes was given the Great Order of the Legion of honor by Louis-Philippe
on November 19, 1831 and in 1832 was given the command of the 12th Division in Nantes
. Later in the year his division suppressed a Vendean revolt and arrested the Duchess of Berry.
In 1834 d'Erlon was named governor-general of Algeria
, although after the defeat of the French army under General Camille Alphonse Trezel on the banks of the Macta in 1835, D'Erlon was recalled to France and replaced.
From 1837 he resumed his command of the 12th Division in Nantes a position he held until 1843 when he moved to Paris
to retire and was granted the title marshal of France
on April 9, 1843. He in died in the January of the following year.
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...
and a soldier in Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
's Army. D'Erlon notably commanded the I Corps of the Armée du Nord
La Grande Armée
The Grande Armée first entered the annals of history when, in 1805, Napoleon I renamed the army that he had assembled on the French coast of the English Channel for the proposed invasion of Britain...
at the battle of Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
.
D'Erlon was born in Reims
Reims
Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....
, and in 1792 served as a corporal in the pre-revolutionary army, being elected to captain
Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)
Captain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...
the following year. In 1794 he returned to Reims to marry Marie-Anne Rousseau the daughter of Nicolas Rousseau a banker, who he has got to know through Marie-Jeanne (Rousseau) the wife of his brother Jean-François Drouet. while in Reims on the morning of his wedding, he was informed of his appointment as aide-de-camp to General Francois Lefebvre. On Christmas Day 1794, his first child, a son who was christened Nicolas Adolphe was born. In 1796 his wife had their second child, a daughter: Marie-Anne Louise.
In 1799 he was promoted to brigadier general
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
, and fought under 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....
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. The same year he distinguished himself at the Second Battle of Zurich
Second Battle of Zürich
The Second Battle of Zurich was a French victory over an Austrian and Russian force near Zurich. It broke the stalemate that had resulted from the First Battle of Zurich three months earlier and led to the withdrawal of Russia from the Second Coalition.After he had been forced out of the city in...
. In 1800 he moved his family to Paris where his third child Aimé Napoleon François was born. He continued his service in many battles of the French Revolutionary
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
and Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, including Hohenlinden in 1800 (in which he was wounded), the Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
region (earning him promotion to Major General
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
in 1803), Austerlitz
Battle of Austerlitz
The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of Napoleon's greatest victories, where the French Empire effectively crushed the Third Coalition...
in 1805 (his first battle as Division commander) and one in which his division played a pivotal role, and Jena in 1806.
In 1807, as chief of staff for Lefebvre at the siege of the Polish city of Danzig (Gdańsk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
), he negotiated the terms of surrender. The same year he was wounded in the foot at Friedland
Battle of Friedland
The Battle of Friedland saw Napoleon I's French army decisively defeat Count von Bennigsen's Russian army about twenty-seven miles southeast of Königsberg...
.
Following the conclusion of the 1809 Danubian campaign
War of the Fifth Coalition
The War of the Fifth Coalition, fought in the year 1809, pitted a coalition of the Austrian Empire and the United Kingdom against Napoleon's French Empire and Bavaria. Major engagements between France and Austria, the main participants, unfolded over much of Central Europe from April to July, with...
, D'Erlon was sent as Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff
The title, chief of staff, identifies the leader of a complex organization, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a Principal Staff Officer , who is the coordinator of the supporting staff or a primary aide to an important individual, such as a president.In general, a chief of...
to Marshal Lefebvre
François Joseph Lefebvre
François Joseph Lefebvre, First Duc de Dantzig was a French military commander during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and one of the original eighteen Marshals of the Empire created by Napoleon....
. Lefebvre was in command of the VII (Bavarian) Corps
Bavarian army
The Bavarian Army was the army of the Electorate and then Kingdom of Bavaria. It existed from 1682 as the standing army of Bavaria until the merger of the military sovereignty of Bavaria into that of the German State in 1919...
in action in the Tyrol
County of Tyrol
The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...
against the pro-Austrian insurgency led by the innkeeper Andreas Hofer
Andreas Hofer
Andreas Hofer was a Tirolean innkeeper and patriot. He was the leader of a rebellion against Napoleon's forces....
. After the failure of the allied second offensive to retake the Tyrol, Lefebvre was relieved of his command by Napoleon because of his poor performance and terrible relationship with the Bavarians. D'Erlon was given command, and in by the end of November he had pacified the region, and in the process formed a strong bond with his Bavarian subordinates.
Later in the year he was given the command of the IX Corps of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, after which he defeated the British General Hill
Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill
General Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill of Almaraz GCB, GCH served in the Napoleonic Wars as a trusted brigade, division and corps commander under the command of the Duke of Wellington. He became Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in 1829.-Early career:Educated at a school in Chester, Hill was...
at the Battle of Extremadura
Extremadura
Extremadura is an autonomous community of western Spain whose capital city is Mérida. Its component provinces are Cáceres and Badajoz. It is bordered by Portugal to the west...
. The following years brought him successes in Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, and in the Peninsular War
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
.
After Napoleon abdicated in 1814 d'Erlon transferred his alligence to the House of Bourbon along with the rest of the army. The next year he accepted the command of the 16th Military Division under Napoleon from Marshal Davout
Louis Nicolas Davout
Louis-Nicolas d'Avout , better known as Davout, 1st Duke of Auerstaedt, 1st Prince of Eckmühl, was a Marshal of France during the Napoleonic Era. His prodigious talent for war along with his reputation as a stern disciplinarian, earned him the title "The Iron Marshal"...
.
During the Waterloo Campaign d'Erlon commanded the French I Corps. On June 16, 1815, due to conflicting orders his Corps spent the day on the Nivelles-Namur road marching and counter marching between the battles of Quatre Bras
Battle of Quatre Bras
The Battle of Quatre Bras, between Wellington's Anglo-Dutch army and the left wing of the Armée du Nord under Marshal Michel Ney, was fought near the strategic crossroads of Quatre Bras on 16 June 1815.- Prelude :...
and Ligny
Battle of Ligny
The Battle of Ligny was the last victory of the military career of Napoleon I. In this battle, French troops of the Armée du Nord under Napoleon's command, defeated a Prussian army under Field Marshal Blücher, near Ligny in present-day Belgium. The bulk of the Prussian army survived, however, and...
without engaging in either battle. If the I Corps had engaged in either battle the outcome of the campaign might have been different. Two days later at the Battle of Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
it was his Corps in Column
Column (formation)
A military column is a formation of soldiers marching together in one or more files in which the file is significantly longer than the width of ranks in the formation...
formation which attacked the Allied centre near La Haye Sainte
La Haye Sainte
La Haye Sainte is a walled farmhouse compound at the foot of an escarpment on the Charleroi-Brussels road. It has changed very little since it played a very important part in the battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815...
at 13:30 and was stopped by Picton
Thomas Picton
Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Picton GCB was a Welsh British Army officer who fought in a number of campaigns for Britain, and rose to the rank of lieutenant general...
's Peninsular War
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
veterans, and then attacked in the flanks by the British heavy cavalry
Scots Greys
The Royal Scots Greys was a cavalry regiment of the British Army from 1707 until 1971, when they amalgamated with the 3rd Carabiniers to form The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards ....
. After the surrender of Napoleon, d'Erlon entered exile in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
.
In 1825 he was granted amnesty by Charles X
Charles X of France
Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...
. In 1828 his wife Marie-Anne died. In the July Revolution
July Revolution
The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution or in French, saw the overthrow of King Charles X of France, the French Bourbon monarch, and the ascent of his cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, who himself, after 18 precarious years on the throne, would in turn be overthrown...
in 1830 he supported the Juilletistes was given the Great Order of the Legion of honor by Louis-Philippe
Louis-Philippe of France
Louis Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. His father was a duke who supported the French Revolution but was nevertheless guillotined. Louis Philippe fled France as a young man and spent 21 years in exile, including considerable time in the...
on November 19, 1831 and in 1832 was given the command of the 12th Division in Nantes
Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....
. Later in the year his division suppressed a Vendean revolt and arrested the Duchess of Berry.
In 1834 d'Erlon was named governor-general of Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, although after the defeat of the French army under General Camille Alphonse Trezel on the banks of the Macta in 1835, D'Erlon was recalled to France and replaced.
From 1837 he resumed his command of the 12th Division in Nantes a position he held until 1843 when he moved to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to retire and was granted the title marshal of France
Marshal of France
The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...
on April 9, 1843. He in died in the January of the following year.