Antoine Drouot

Antoine Drouot ( born January 11, 1774 Nancy, † March 24, 1847 ) was a Napoleonic military, Earl, peer of France, and finally Division General of the Foot Artillery of the Guard of Napoleon.

The son of a baker visited after leaving school at Nancy in 1793, the Artillery School in Metz. During the revolutionary war he was promoted to the officer ranks. In 1794 he participated as a lieutenant at the Battle of Fleurus, 1800 as a captain in the Battle of Hohenlinden. In 1805 he was a Major participants in the Battle of Trafalgar. In 1808 he was admitted as a major in the Imperial Guard and took in this and the following year, part of the Spanish campaign. In 1809 he was also at the Battle of Wagram with it, where he was wounded in the leg and limped ever since. In the Russian campaign in 1812, he took part as a colonel. In the battles of Lutzen and Bautzen, he was a brigadier general in Leipzig, Hanau, La Rothière, Vauchamps, Craonne and Laon as a general of division. In particular, at Hanau, he acquired merit, as he swept with 50 guns, the Bavarian army under General Carl Philipp von Wrede out of the way that the French army stood in the way of their retreat. After the abdication of Napoleon in 1814, he accompanied these exiled to Elba, where he held the post of Gouverneuers the island. Also in 1815 he is in the hundred days again at the side of Napoleon. In Waterloo, the Emperor begins the battle on his advice until later, so you can better position the artillery because of the still-wet terrain. This extends the time that Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher still can turn the battle against the French. Drouot was regarded as a model of discipline, shaved every morning smooth even under the most adverse conditions. Likewise, he was considered a pious and always carried a Bible with him. He wore many years in the battles always the same old artillery uniform.

Honors

His name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in the 32th column.