François-Étienne de Damas
Encyclopedia
Life
Damas was born in Paris. Destined by his family for a career in architecture, instead he joined the National GuardNational Guard (France)
The National Guard was the name given at the time of the French Revolution to the militias formed in each city, in imitation of the National Guard created in Paris. It was a military force separate from the regular army...
on 14 July 1789 and served in the camp sous Paris in 1792. Damas's mathematical knowledge led général Meusnier
Jean Baptiste Meusnier
Jean Baptiste Marie Charles Meusnier de la Place was a French mathematician, engineer and Revolutionary general. He is best known for Meusnier's theorem on the curvature of surfaces, which he formulated while he was at the École Royale du Génie . He also discovered the helicoid...
of the engineers to choose him as his aide-de-camp on coming to take command of Paris. Damas went with Meusnier when Meusnier moved to the armée du Rhin, which was commanded by Custine. He was in Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
when it was besieged in 1793 and found himself close to Meusnier when Meusnier was mortally wounded crossing the Main.
Damas was then made an adjudant-général, then chef d'état-major under Jean-Baptiste Kléber and finally général de brigade on 6 December. He distinguished himself in the crossing of the River Rhine, during which he took an Austrian position at bayonet-point and was wounded in the leg by a bullet just as, in the words of Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, 1st Comte Jourdan , enlisted as a private in the French royal army and rose to command armies during the French Revolutionary Wars. Emperor Napoleon I of France named him a Marshal of France in 1804 and he also fought in the Napoleonic Wars. After 1815, he became reconciled...
, he was showing the army the path to victory. He was also noted for his conduct at the assault on Alexandria, the capture of Rosetta
Rosetta
Rosetta is a port city on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt. It is located east of Alexandria, in Beheira governorate. It was founded around AD 800....
, the battle at Chebreiss, the battle of the Pyramids
Battle of the Pyramids
The Battle of the Pyramids, also known as the Battle of Embabeh, was fought on July 21, 1798 between the French army in Egypt under Napoleon Bonaparte, and local Mamluk forces. It occurred during France's Egyptian Campaign and was the battle where Napoleon put into use one of his significant...
and the battle at Ghemélié, all during the French invasion of Egypt. He also took part in the destruction of the Mameluk camp before El-Arichet and caught the plague in Jaffa
Jaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...
. He then rose to général de division and commanded part of Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt is the strip of land, on both sides of the Nile valley, that extends from the cataract boundaries of modern-day Aswan north to the area between El-Ayait and Zawyet Dahshur . The northern section of Upper Egypt, between El-Ayait and Sohag is sometimes known as Middle Egypt...
after Kléber's death.
After the battle unwisely begun by Jacques-François Menou
Jacques-Francois Menou
Jacques-François de Menou, baron de Boussay was a French general under Napoleon I of France. Born Jacques Menou in Boussay on 3 September 1750, he died in Mestre in the Veneto on 13 August 1810...
, general Damas was ill-treated in the reports back to Paris and disgraced by Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I
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...
. Damas left the army and was jobless for five years. He was implicated in the trial of Jean Victor Marie Moreau
Jean Victor Marie Moreau
Jean Victor Marie Moreau was a French general who helped Napoleon Bonaparte to power, but later became a rival and was banished to the United States.- Early life :Moreau was born at Morlaix in Brittany...
and only freed at the request of Joachim Murat
Joachim 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...
. When Murat became Grand Duke of Berg in 1806, he made Damas his secretary of state and military commander. He fought in the French invasion of Russia
French invasion of Russia
The French invasion of Russia of 1812 was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. It reduced the French and allied invasion forces to a tiny fraction of their initial strength and triggered a major shift in European politics as it dramatically weakened French hegemony in Europe...
, distinguishing himself at the battle of Berezina
Battle of Berezina
The Battle of Berezina took place November 26–29, 1812 between the French army of Napoleon, retreating after his invasion of Russia and crossing the Berezina , and the Russian armies under Mikhail Kutuzov, Peter Wittgenstein and Admiral Pavel Chichagov. The battle ended with a mixed outcome...
. He then returned to the Duchy of Berg, then in 1815 to France with the title of inspector general of the infantry. The restored
Bourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
king Louis XVIII of France
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 colonel and commander of the garde royale de Paris (later known as the gendarmerie royale). He remained loyal to the king during 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...
, during which he served as inspector general of infantry. He held his posts from 1816 until his death in Paris in 1828.