Édouard Jean Baptiste Milhaud
Encyclopedia
Divisional General
Divisional General is a rank used in many armies to denote a rank of general, corresponding to command of a division. For convenience Divisional General is almost always translated into English as Major-General, the equivalent rank used by the UK, USA, etc., although this translation is, strictly...
, and comte d'Empire.
French Revolutionary wars
Born in Arpajon-sur-CèreArpajon-sur-Cère
Arpajon-sur-Cère is a commune in the Cantal department in south-central France.-Population:-References:*...
(Cantal) as the son of Louis Amilhaud and Marguerite Daudé, Milhaud was commissioned as an officer in 1789. Milhaud was elected to the National Convention and in the of Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
he voted for the death of the king. He defended Jean-Paul Marat
Jean-Paul Marat
Jean-Paul Marat , born in the Principality of Neuchâtel, was a physician, political theorist, and scientist best known for his career in France as a radical journalist and politician during the French Revolution...
against the attacks of the Girondins. In 1793 he was send as a commissary to the armies of the Rhine and the Ardennes where he distinguished himself in his severity. Sent to the army of the Pyrenees, he was successful in aiding Dugommier
Jacques François Dugommier
Jacques François Coquille named Dugommier was a French general....
in restoring order. He was recalled the next year and made a member of the military committee.
After the fall of Robespierre, Milhaud was threatened with arrest but saved from this fate by his colleagues on the military committee. His political role effectively over, he was recalled to the army and he became commandant of the 5th dragoons and was sent to 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...
. Milhaud distinguished himself at Brenta and in the battle of Bassano
Battle of Bassano
The Battle of Bassano was fought on 8 September 1796, during the French Revolutionary Wars, in the territory of the Republic of Venice, between a French army under Napoleon Bonaparte and Austrian forces led by Count Dagobert von Wurmser. The battle ended in a French victory...
. The following year he was again accused because of his role during the Terror but the Council of Elders decided not to act on the accusation. Milhaud took an active part in the conspiracy leading up to 18 brumaire
18 Brumaire
The coup of 18 Brumaire was the coup d'état by which General Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the French Directory, replacing it with the French Consulate...
. Promoted to general de brigade in January 1800 he was employed in the army of England and was made commander of the 8th military division in the Vaucluse
Vaucluse
The Vaucluse is a department in the southeast of France, named after the famous spring, the Fontaine-de-Vaucluse.- History :Vaucluse was created on 12 August 1793 out of parts of the departments of Bouches-du-Rhône, Drôme, and Basses-Alpes...
.
Napoleonic Wars
During the War of the Third Coalition he served under Joachim MuratJoachim Murat
Joachim-Napoléon Murat , Marshal of France and Grand Admiral or Admiral of France, 1st Prince Murat, was Grand Duke of Berg from 1806 to 1808 and then King of Naples from 1808 to 1815...
in the campaign leading up to the great battle of 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 which he took part. The next year on the outbreak of the War of the Fourth Coalition
War of the Fourth Coalition
The Fourth Coalition against Napoleon's French Empire was defeated in a war spanning 1806–1807. Coalition partners included Prussia, Russia, Saxony, Sweden, and the United Kingdom....
, Milhaud distinguished himself at Jena. At the end of 1806 he was promoted to general de division and in 1807 he distinguished himself at Eylau
Battle of Eylau
The Battle of Eylau or Battle of Preussisch-Eylau, 7 and 8 February 1807, was a bloody and inconclusive battle between Napoléon's Grande Armée and a Russian Empire army under Levin August, Count von Bennigsen near the town of Preußisch Eylau in East Prussia. Late in the battle, the Russians...
.
His performance brought him to the attention of Napoleon Bonaparte, and having already been awarded the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
, on 10 March he was made as a count. From 1808 until 1811 he fought 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...
. In November 1811 he was put on disponsability but in June 1812 he was recalled to active service and made commandant of the 25th military division.
In 1813 he commanded a cavalry corps at the Battle of Leipzig
Battle of Leipzig
The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations, on 16–19 October 1813, was fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against the French army of Napoleon. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine...
. Based on his experience with these commands in 1814 Milhaud became Inspector General of the cavalry. During the first Restoration he was given command of the 15th military division by 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...
.
During Napoleon's 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...
, he supported Napoleon, and in the Waterloo campaign he commanded the IV Cavalry Corps. At the Battle of 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...
on 16 June 1815 with his curassier-divisions he broke the centre of the Prussian army and helped to create Napoleon's last victory. 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...
18 June his divisions took part in the general cavalry attacks on the allied centre which ultimately proved a failure.
After the second restoration Milhaud was banished by King Louis XVIII as a regicide. After the July Revolution in 1830, he was called back to France, but died on 8 January 1833 in Aurillac
Aurillac
Aurillac is a commune in the Auvergne region in south-central France, capital of the Cantal department.Aurillac's inhabitants are called Aurillacois, and are also Cantaliens or Cantalous in Occitan....
.
Further reading
- Senior Terry J. , The Top Twenty French Cavalry Commanders: #20 General Edouard-Jean-Baptiste Milhaud, Napoleon Series, August 2002
- David, Jacques Louis. Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Milhaud (1766-1833), Deputy of the Convention,My Art Prints