Jean-Baptiste Broussier
Encyclopedia
- Not to be confused with Broussier, a French Foreign Legion captain present at Tuyen QuangSiege of Tuyen QuangThe Siege of Tuyen Quang was an important confrontation between the French and the Chinese armies in Tonkin during the Sino-French War...
, Yu OcBattle of Yu OcThe Battle of Yu Oc was a French victory during the Sino-French War. The battle was fought to relieve the French garrison of Tuyen Quang, under siege by the T'ang Ching-sung's Yunnan Army and Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army...
and during the Son Tay CampaignSon Tay CampaignThe Son Tay Campaign was a campaign fought by the French to capture the strategically important city of Son Tay in Tonkin from Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army and allied contingents of Vietnamese and Chinese troops...
.
Jean-Baptiste Broussier (10 March 1766 - 13 December 1814) was a French Divisional General
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...
of the French Revolutionary Wars
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...
.
Life
Broussier was born in Ville-sur-SaulxVille-sur-Saulx
Ville-sur-Saulx is a commune in the Meuse department in Lorraine in north-eastern France.-See also:*Communes of the Meuse department...
.
Meant by his parents for a church career, in 1791 he instead enrolled in the 3rd battalion of Meurthe
Meurthe
Meurthe is a former département of France. Its préfecture was Nancy. It ceased to exist following the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by Germany in 1871.-General characteristics:...
and was made a captain of the Meuse
Meuse
Meuse is a department in northeast France, named after the River Meuse.-History:Meuse is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
volunteers in September that year. He fought his first battles under Beurnonville
Pierre de Ruel, marquis de Beurnonville
Pierre de Ruel, marquis de Beurnonville was a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars and later a marshal of France.-Biography:Bournonville was born at Champignol-lez-Mondeville, Aube....
in the northern campaigns and was severely wounded in the Vavrin affair in year II. Shortly afterwards he was made head of the battalion and was sent with them to armée de Sambre-et-Meuse, charged with the defence of an important post, where he was hit in the head by a musket ball.
In 1797 he moved to the armée d'Italie, where he was made chef de brigade
Chef de brigade
Chef de brigade was a military rank, equivalent to colonel, in the French Revolutionary army, in command of a demi-brigade. Both that unit and that rank were created at the same time, in 1793. The two designations disappeared just before the institution of the French Empire, in 1803, with the...
to the 43e régiment d'infanterie de ligne. He fought with distinction at the capture of La Spezia
La Spezia
La Spezia , at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the Liguria region of northern Italy, is the capital city of the province of La Spezia. Located between Genoa and Pisa on the Ligurian Sea, it is one of the main Italian military and commercial harbours and hosts one of Italy's biggest military...
, being one of the first to break into the fort at Chiusa, and took the Austrian general prisoner with his own hands. He was made chef de brigade in March 1797 following these actions and sent to the armée de Naples, before being charged with an expedition into the Apennines. He ambushed 12,000 peasant troops that had closed off the defile and a major carnage ensued in the Caudine Forks, the same place where the Samnites had caught the Romans. 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...
by Championnet
Jean Étienne Championnet
Jean Étienne Vachier, called Championnet , French general, enlisted in the army at an early age and served in the Great Siege of Gibraltar....
for this action on the same day, he was then put in charge of the conquest of Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, wholly destroying cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo
Fabrizio Ruffo
Fabrizio Ruffo was an Italian cardinal and politician, who led the popular anti-republican Sanfedismo movement .-Biography:...
's army, submitting the whole of Apulia
Apulia
Apulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its most southern portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises , and...
after it rose against the French and captured and burned down the towns of Trani
Trani
Trani is a seaport of Apulia, southern Italy, on the Adriatic Sea, in the new Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani , and 40 km by railway West-Northwest of Bari.- History :...
and Andria
Andria
-Places:Italy*Andria, a city in the Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani*Roman Catholic Diocese of Andria, a Roman Catholic diocese...
.
In 1799, the French Directory
French Directory
The Directory was a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate...
had him and Championnet dismissed and tried for extortion before a council of war, but after the coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
of 30 Prairial year VI the charges against Broussier were waived and he was returned him to his rank. With his cousin Nicolas Broussier
Nicolas Broussier
Nicolas Broussier was a French soldier and officer.-Life:He first joined up as a volunteer in one of the many battalions which the Meuse department sent to the French frontier at the start of the French Revolutionary Wars, receiving a baptism of fire at Arlon...
as his aide de camp, he continued to serve with distinction in Italy until 1803, during which time he was made commander of the place de Paris. In 1805 he was promoted to divisional general
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...
, before being made Grand Officer of 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 21 July 1809, then comte de l'Empire the following October. He returned to Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
that same year, taking a large part at . He then served with equal brilliance 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...
and the 1813 Germany campaign. He took part in the battles of , and . Straight after the disasters of 1813 he was put in command of the 3rd division of the observation corps at 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...
before being put in command of Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
by Napoleon, where he was promptly besieged. In 1814 he took on command of the Meuse before dying of an apoplexy
Apoplexy
Apoplexy is a medical term, which can be used to describe 'bleeding' in a stroke . Without further specification, it is rather outdated in use. Today it is used only for specific conditions, such as pituitary apoplexy and ovarian apoplexy. In common speech, it is used non-medically to mean a state...
at Bar-le-Duc
Bar-le-Duc
Bar-le-Duc, formerly known as Bar, is a commune in the Meuse département, of which it is the préfecture . The department is in Lorraine in north-eastern France-Geography:...
. His name is engraved on the north side of the Arc de Triomphe
Arc de Triomphe
-The design:The astylar design is by Jean Chalgrin , in the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture . Major academic sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the Arc de Triomphe: Jean-Pierre Cortot; François Rude; Antoine Étex; James Pradier and Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire...
, in column 7.
Sources
;- Archives nationales (CARAN) – Service Historique de l’Armée de Terre – Fort de Vincennes – Dossier S.H.A.T. Côte : 7 Yd 401.
- Côte S.H.A.T., services, awards on web.genealogie.free.fr : Les militaires