Louis Emmanuel Rey
Encyclopedia
Louis Emmanuel Rey, born 22 September 1768, Grenoble
– died 18 June 1846, Paris
, joined the French royal army and won rapid promotion to general officer during the French Revolutionary Wars
. He continued to serve the First French Empire
during the Napoleonic Wars
. He fought in the Peninsular War
and led a tenacious defense of San Sebastián
, Spain
in 1813. His is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe
.
's commission in 1792. From that year, he served four years in the Army of the Alps with distinction and won promotion to general of brigade in 1796. For a time, he commanded a camp at Lyon
that reorganized units passing from the Vendée
to the Army of Italy
.
to fight in the War of the Third Coalition, Rey was given command of the Camp de Boulogne from 1805 to 1808. In the latter year he was named a Baron of the Empire. He served as chief of staff
in Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr's VII Corps in Spain beginning in August 1808. He fought in Catalonia and at the Siege of Tarragona in 1811
. In August 1811, he was appointed governor of the fortress of San Sebastián in northern Spain.
From 5 July to 9 September 1813 Rey conducted an extremely able defense of San Sebastián
. In relating the story of the siege, Historian David Gates called Rey, "a commander of the first order." The army of the Marquess of Wellington
shipped 40 heavy siege cannon and large quantities of supplies to the nearby port of Pasajes in early July. Wellington assigned Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch
the British 5th Division and a Portuguese brigade to undertake the siege operation. An attempt to rush an outlying defense, the San Bartholomé Monastery, failed on 15 July. A heavier bombardment and attack pried the French defenders from the monastery two days later, but the Allied infantry gave chase and were bloodily repulsed with 200 casualties at the main defenses. The Anglo-Poruguese siege guns went to work and pounded a small breach on the east side. Meanwhile, the British engineers discovered an old sewer which they utilized to place a mine under the southern defenses.
Rey sealed off the breach with internal defenses, manned the nearby buildings with marksmen, and zeroed in his artillery on the threatened area. At dawn on 25 July, Graham's attack went forward. The mine exploded, doing some damage, but the French easily drove off the southern Allied attack, which was only a diversion. Led by the Royal Scots, the main column splashed across the Rio Urumea estuary at low tide and assaulted the breach from the east. After the attackers reached the top of the breach, the French opened fire and the result was a massacre. The stunned British infantry stampeded, carrying away their supporting battalions. The attackers suffered a loss of 600 killed and wounded, while French casualties were only one-tenth as great. When the incoming tide threatened to drown the many British wounded, Rey generously allowed his soldiers to leave their defenses and rescue them. The onset of the Battle of the Pyrenees
that day caused Wellington to order Graham to abandon the siege. As the Allies withdrew their siege guns, Rey launched a surprise sortie that inflicted 200 more casualties and seized some equipment. Shaken by their setbacks, Allied morale dropped and desertion became a problem.
During the interlude, Rey repaired his southern defenses and thoroughly sealed off the breach with a new wall. He also shipped in fresh troops and supplies through the leaky British naval blockade and sent his sick and wounded soldiers back to France. Rey awaited a return of the Allies with 3,000 infantry and 60 cannon. After defeating the French in the Pyrenees, Graham rearmed his siege batteries, which now numbered 63 heavy guns. On 26 August the bombardment began again and lasted for five days. The Allied artillery knocked out gun after gun and inflilcted serious losses among the defenders. The bombardment blasted a 300-yard wide gap in the wall at the southeast corner of the city, plus a second breach farther north. Faced with the loss of most of his cannon, Rey armed each of his 2,500 surviving soldiers with three muskets and grenades. Several defensive mines were placed and rubble cleared from the breaches.
The final assault began at 10:55 am on 31 August when James Leith
's 5th Division rushed the main breach from the south while Thomas Bradford's Portuguese brigade stormed the smaller one from the east. After running the gauntlet of mines and small-arms fire, both columns reached the tops of their respective breaches and came under murderous fire. After enduring the one-sided slaughter for nearly 30 minutes, both columns retreated to the base of the wall where the troops hugged the ground to escape the intense fire. In this emergency, Graham ordered his siege guns to fire over the heads of the surviving attackers. This expedient saved the day for the Allies, as the fire ripped apart the inner defenses, inflicting heavy losses on the French. As some of the 5th Division managed to make progress, an accident set off a store of bombs, killing 60 Frenchmen and injuring many more.
Leith's men pushed along the walls toward the lesser breach where they assisted the Portuguese in breaking through. Still undefeated, Rey led his men in a house-to-house battle that finally ended when he and his remaining 1,300 troops took refuge in the La Mota Castle. Meanwhile, the Allied troops went berserk and sacked the city for three days in which the place was virtually destroyed. Ensconced in his hilltop castle, Rey held out against a 60-gun bombardment until 8 September when he finally ran up the white flag. Before being forced to surrender the survivors of his garrison, his soldiers inflicted over 5,000 casualties on their enemies, including Leith who was wounded.
As a reward for his meritorious services, Emperor Napoleon I of France
promoted Rey to general of division in November 1813 even though he was a prisoner of war. Historians differ when describing Rey's 1814 service. David G. Chandler
writes that he remained in British custody until May 1814. Digby Smith
places a General Rey in command of a brigade in Eloi Charlemagne Taupin
's division at the battles of Orthez
and Toulouse
in early 1814.
During the Hundred Days
Rey rallied to Napoleon and was given command of the fortress of Valenciennes
. He sustained a siege by 9,000 Dutch-Belgian troops from 30 June until surrendering on 12 August. After the restoration of the monarchy, he fell out of favor until 1830, when he received a three year appointment to a royal commission. His military service is honored on Column 37 of the Arc de Triomphe
in Paris
, with the inscription Eel REY.
Grenoble
Grenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère...
– died 18 June 1846, 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...
, joined the French royal army and won rapid promotion to general officer during 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...
. He continued to serve the First French Empire
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
during the 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...
. 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...
and led a tenacious defense of San Sebastián
San Sebastián
Donostia-San Sebastián is a city and municipality located in the north of Spain, in the coast of the Bay of Biscay and 20 km away from the French border. The city is the capital of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. The municipality’s population is 186,122 , and its...
, 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...
in 1813. His is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe
Names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe
The following is the list of the names of the 660 persons inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris. Most of them are generals who served during the First French Empire with additional figures from the French Revolution ....
.
Early career
In 1784 at the age of 16, Rey joined the French royal army's Regiment de Monsieur, which became the 75th Line Infantry Regiment in 1791. Promoted to sergeant-major in 1791, he earned a lieutenantLieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
's commission in 1792. From that year, he served four years in the Army of the Alps with distinction and won promotion to general of brigade in 1796. For a time, he commanded a camp at Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
that reorganized units passing from the Vendée
Vendée
The Vendée is a department in the Pays-de-la-Loire region in west central France, on the Atlantic Ocean. The name Vendée is taken from the Vendée river which runs through the south-eastern part of the department.-History:...
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...
.
Empire
When the Grande Armée left the shores of the English ChannelEnglish Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
to fight in the War of the Third Coalition, Rey was given command of the Camp de Boulogne from 1805 to 1808. In the latter year he was named a Baron of the Empire. He served 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...
in Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr's VII Corps in Spain beginning in August 1808. He fought in Catalonia and at the Siege of Tarragona in 1811
Siege of Tarragona (1811)
In the Siege of Tarragona from 5 May to 29 June 1811, Louis Gabriel Suchet's French Army of Aragon laid siege to a Spanish garrison led by Lieutenant General Juan Senen de Contreras. A British naval squadron commanded by Admiral Edward Codrington harassed the French besiegers with cannon fire and...
. In August 1811, he was appointed governor of the fortress of San Sebastián in northern Spain.
From 5 July to 9 September 1813 Rey conducted an extremely able defense of San Sebastián
Siege of San Sebastian
In the Siege of San Sebastián Allied forces under the command of General Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington captured the city of San Sebastián in northern Spain from its French garrison under Brigadier-General Louis Rey...
. In relating the story of the siege, Historian David Gates called Rey, "a commander of the first order." The army of the Marquess of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
shipped 40 heavy siege cannon and large quantities of supplies to the nearby port of Pasajes in early July. Wellington assigned Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch
Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch
General Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch, GCB, GCMG, GCTE was a Scottish aristocrat, politician and British Army officer....
the British 5th Division and a Portuguese brigade to undertake the siege operation. An attempt to rush an outlying defense, the San Bartholomé Monastery, failed on 15 July. A heavier bombardment and attack pried the French defenders from the monastery two days later, but the Allied infantry gave chase and were bloodily repulsed with 200 casualties at the main defenses. The Anglo-Poruguese siege guns went to work and pounded a small breach on the east side. Meanwhile, the British engineers discovered an old sewer which they utilized to place a mine under the southern defenses.
Rey sealed off the breach with internal defenses, manned the nearby buildings with marksmen, and zeroed in his artillery on the threatened area. At dawn on 25 July, Graham's attack went forward. The mine exploded, doing some damage, but the French easily drove off the southern Allied attack, which was only a diversion. Led by the Royal Scots, the main column splashed across the Rio Urumea estuary at low tide and assaulted the breach from the east. After the attackers reached the top of the breach, the French opened fire and the result was a massacre. The stunned British infantry stampeded, carrying away their supporting battalions. The attackers suffered a loss of 600 killed and wounded, while French casualties were only one-tenth as great. When the incoming tide threatened to drown the many British wounded, Rey generously allowed his soldiers to leave their defenses and rescue them. The onset of the Battle of the Pyrenees
Battle of the Pyrenees
The Battle of the Pyrenees was a large-scale offensive launched on 25 July 1813 by Marshal Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult from the Pyrénées region on Emperor Napoleon’s order, in the hope of relieving French garrisons under siege at Pamplona and San Sebastián...
that day caused Wellington to order Graham to abandon the siege. As the Allies withdrew their siege guns, Rey launched a surprise sortie that inflicted 200 more casualties and seized some equipment. Shaken by their setbacks, Allied morale dropped and desertion became a problem.
During the interlude, Rey repaired his southern defenses and thoroughly sealed off the breach with a new wall. He also shipped in fresh troops and supplies through the leaky British naval blockade and sent his sick and wounded soldiers back to France. Rey awaited a return of the Allies with 3,000 infantry and 60 cannon. After defeating the French in the Pyrenees, Graham rearmed his siege batteries, which now numbered 63 heavy guns. On 26 August the bombardment began again and lasted for five days. The Allied artillery knocked out gun after gun and inflilcted serious losses among the defenders. The bombardment blasted a 300-yard wide gap in the wall at the southeast corner of the city, plus a second breach farther north. Faced with the loss of most of his cannon, Rey armed each of his 2,500 surviving soldiers with three muskets and grenades. Several defensive mines were placed and rubble cleared from the breaches.
The final assault began at 10:55 am on 31 August when James Leith
James Leith (British Army infantry officer)
General Sir James Leith GCB commanded the 5th Division in the Duke of Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese army at several critical battles during the Peninsular War between 1810 and 1813.-Early career:...
's 5th Division rushed the main breach from the south while Thomas Bradford's Portuguese brigade stormed the smaller one from the east. After running the gauntlet of mines and small-arms fire, both columns reached the tops of their respective breaches and came under murderous fire. After enduring the one-sided slaughter for nearly 30 minutes, both columns retreated to the base of the wall where the troops hugged the ground to escape the intense fire. In this emergency, Graham ordered his siege guns to fire over the heads of the surviving attackers. This expedient saved the day for the Allies, as the fire ripped apart the inner defenses, inflicting heavy losses on the French. As some of the 5th Division managed to make progress, an accident set off a store of bombs, killing 60 Frenchmen and injuring many more.
Leith's men pushed along the walls toward the lesser breach where they assisted the Portuguese in breaking through. Still undefeated, Rey led his men in a house-to-house battle that finally ended when he and his remaining 1,300 troops took refuge in the La Mota Castle. Meanwhile, the Allied troops went berserk and sacked the city for three days in which the place was virtually destroyed. Ensconced in his hilltop castle, Rey held out against a 60-gun bombardment until 8 September when he finally ran up the white flag. Before being forced to surrender the survivors of his garrison, his soldiers inflicted over 5,000 casualties on their enemies, including Leith who was wounded.
As a reward for his meritorious services, Emperor Napoleon I of France
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...
promoted Rey to general of division in November 1813 even though he was a prisoner of war. Historians differ when describing Rey's 1814 service. David G. Chandler
David G. Chandler
David G. Chandler was a British historian whose study focused on the Napoleonic era.As a young man he served briefly in the army, reaching the rank of captain, and in later life he taught at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Oxford University awarded him the D. Litt. in 1991...
writes that he remained in British custody until May 1814. Digby Smith
Digby Smith
Digby Smith is a British military historian. The son of a British career soldier, he was born in Hampshire, England, but spent several years in India and Pakistan as a child and youth. As a "boy soldier," he entered training in the British Army at the age of 16...
places a General Rey in command of a brigade in Eloi Charlemagne Taupin
Eloi Charlemagne Taupin
General Eloi Charlemagne Taupin became a French soldier before the French Revolutionary Wars, rose in rank to command a division in the armies of Napoleon and was killed leading his troops in battle in 1814...
's division at the battles of Orthez
Battle of Orthez
The Battle of Orthez saw the Anglo-Portuguese Army under Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington defeat a French army led by Marshal Nicolas Soult in southern France near the end of the Peninsular War.-Preliminaries:...
and Toulouse
Battle of Toulouse (1814)
The Battle of Toulouse was one of the final battles of the Napoleonic Wars, four days after Napoleon's surrender of the French Empire to the nations of the Sixth Coalition...
in early 1814.
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...
Rey rallied to Napoleon and was given command of the fortress of Valenciennes
Valenciennes
Valenciennes is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It lies on the Scheldt river. Although the city and region had seen a steady decline between 1975 and 1990, it has since rebounded...
. He sustained a siege by 9,000 Dutch-Belgian troops from 30 June until surrendering on 12 August. After the restoration of the monarchy, he fell out of favor until 1830, when he received a three year appointment to a royal commission. His military service is honored on Column 37 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 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...
, with the inscription Eel REY.