Jean-Nicolas Houchard

Jean -Nicolas Houchard (* January 24, 1739 in Forbach, Lorraine, † November 17, 1793 in Paris) was a French revolutionary general.

Life

Houchard made ​​as a private in the cavalry regiment Royal - Allemand with the Seven Years' War. At the outbreak of the Revolution he was a captain in the regiment of dragoons Bourbon and in 1792 colonel of a regiment hunters on horseback. In this position, he distinguished himself under Adam Philippe de Custine such a way that it in its place the command of the Rhine was then transferred via the northern army in 1793.

He broke with his corps on 6 September 1793 his position at Steenvorde and Bailleul out, threw back the 18,000 -strong observation army of Field Marshal Freytag Hondschoote and took on 8 September this position also. Consequently, had the Duke of York, the siege of Dunkirk, the Lazare Hoche defended, cancel and so was the plan of the allies to invade France itself, thwarted.

On September 13, Houchard beat the Dutch at Menen (Belgium ), but suffered himself on September 15 at Courtrai by the Austrian general Beaulieu defeat. He was therefore arrested by order of the horrors men condemned as traitors to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal and guillotined on 17 November 1793 in Paris.

Honors

His name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in the 3rd column.