Jean Victor Marie Moreau
Jean -Victor -Marie Moreau ( born February 14, 1763 in Morlaix, Finistère, † September 2, 1813 in Laun, Bohemia ) was a French general during the Revolution and the Consulate and an opponent and rival of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Life
Moreau was the son of a lawyer. He studied in Rennes since 1778 the rights and there was judicial officer. At the outbreak of the First Coalition War II, he was chosen by the volunteer battalion formed in Rennes, the leader, took part in the campaign of 1792 in part under Dumouriez, initiated in 1793 as a brigadier general to attack the Prussians at Pirmasens, conquered in 1794 as a division general Menen, Ypres forced to surrender, occupied Bruges, Ostend and Nieuport, and commanded in 1795 in the conquest of Holland under Pichegru the right wing.
In 1796 he was given command of the Rhine and Moselle army. He urged Wurmser to Mannheim back, passed on June 24 for fillet the Rhine, hit Latour on July 5 at Rastatt, the Archduke Charles on July 9 in the battle at Malsch, penetrated through the Black Forest on the right bank of the Danube to the Isar before, ended with Bavaria on September 7, the Treaty of Oberpfaffenhofen, but was forced by the defeat and retreat of Jourdan, also recede.
In this masterfully guided, facilitated by the disunity of the opposing generals retreating, he defeated the Austrians on October 2 in Biberach an der Riss, went through the hell valley of the Black Forest, reaching, after he fought on 24 October to Schliengen again with Archduke Charles had, in late October the Rhine. He crossed the river at Hüningen, claiming Breisach and Kehl until early 1797. During the same year he crossed the Rhine again and penetrated into Lichtenau ago, where he received the news of the concluded about Leoben preliminaries of peace on April 23.
Moreau had found in 1796 in an Austrian baggage wagon a guided between Condé and Pichegru traitorous correspondence, but it concealed from friendship to Pichegru. This fact has been learned and prompted the Board, Moreau recall in September 1797. Nevertheless, he was appointed Inspector général at the end of the Italian Army in 1798.
In April 1799 he took over to General Scherer's place in command of the beleaguered Italian army of Suvorov, this resulted from the Adda on the Ticino and then retired to the mountains, near Genoa. From here, he brought about his association with Jacques MacDonald, who heranzog with his troops of Naples. In August Moreau was recalled. In Joubert's instigation, which should replace him in command, he was present at the Battle of Novi on 15 August, in and took over as Joubert had fallen at the very beginning of the battle, again the supreme command. However, the total defeat of the French, he could not prevent.
Napoleon
After returning to Paris, he refused the request from Sieyès ' themselves to seize the dictatorship. Instead, he took part in the coup of 18 Brumaire in part, without recognizing its significance, and guarded the directors in the Palais du Luxembourg. After he received the command of the Army of the Rhine and turned with Carnot, a new army of 90,000 men, with which he was again passed over the Upper Rhine end of April 1800.
In May, he urged the Austrians under Kray at the crack and Ulm through a series of successful battles in Stockach, Engen, Meßkirch, Biberach back, penetrated across the Danube before and paved by the victories at the Battle of Blenheim, near Nördlingen and Oberhausen the the way to the Inn, whereupon the Austrians closed on 15 July with him the truce of Parsdorf. As, however, in November broke the peace negotiations, Moreau fought on December 3, the decisive victory of Hohenlinden, which opened the way for him in the heart of Austria and the first armistice of Steyr on December 25 and then brought about the Peace of Luneville. Demarcation line was the river Erlauf at Scheibbs in the western part of Lower Austria, about 50 kilometers east of Steyr.
Moreau then retired to his estate Gros Bois. Since he was Napoleon, hated by his Republican attitude and his fame as a commander, who was his own equal, he was arrested on February 4, 1804 after the investigation into the allegedly by Pichegru and Cadoudal conspiracy against Napoleon instigated several accomplices against him had testified. They sat him down in the Temple and accused him that he is in agreement with Pichegru dictator wanted to make to bring the Bourbons returned to the government. This allegation has never been proven. Moreau reiterated that he had never negotiated with the Bourbons. He also never wanted to tear down the dictatorship itself. This was offered to him before Bonaparte and even then he hit it out.
He was acquitted on June 9, with seven votes against five, but Napoleon, who wanted to find him guilty, let the judges by Savary edit until they sentenced him to two years in prison. Napoleon turned the punishment into banishment, and Moreau took ship to the United States, where he settled in Morrisville, Pennsylvania and in the coming years with the fishing and hunting drove the time.
Back in Europe against Napoleon
In the spring of 1813, he accepted an invitation of the Russian Tsar, to fight with him against Napoleon that this on the recommendation of an old friend of Moreau and at this time the Crown Prince of Sweden, Jean- Baptiste Bernadotte, spoke. He landed on July 26 in Gothenburg and was appointed by Alexander I. to his adjutant general. However, the supreme command of the allied Austrians, Russians and Prussians he refused. Against his will, was the attack on Dresden.
When he talked to the south of the city Tsar during the Battle of Dresden on August 27th at the Räcknitzhöhe, a cannonball shattered both his legs. After makeshift Verarztung on the estate of the peasants Palitzsch in Kleinpestitz, a few kilometers further was done in the manor of Castle Nöthnitz the inevitable amputation, which undertook the physician to the Tsar, the Scotsman James Wylie; during the operation smoked Moreau according to tradition cigars. He then spent about Dippoldiswalde and the Ore Mountains to Bohemia, where he died in Laun on September 2, 1813 at the age of 50 years.
The Death of General Moreau ( Auguste Couder; 1790-1873 )
Monument in Dresden, in 1814 created by Christian Gottlieb Kühn on a design by Gottlob Friedrich Thor Meyer
Monument in Dresden
Monuments
Louis XVIII. gave his widow later the title of a Marschallin ( maréchale ) and let Moreau erect a monument in Paris 1819.
The 1814 built by the Russian princes Repnine - Wolkonski at the height of Räcknitz in Dresden Memorial ( Koordinate51.02314444444413.735775 ) covered only the two legs of Moreau; His body was interred in Saint Petersburg.
On the monument in Dresden is " the hero Moreau fell here on the side of Alexander the XXVII August MDCCCXIII " written. The bronze helmet was created by the Dresden sculptor Franz Pettrich. At the perimeter of the monument recalls a small plaque in mind that the monument was restored in 2002 with funds from the estate of Mrs. Aloisa Sterath. Approximately 150 meters above the monument is the Bismarck tower.
Importance
Moreau was quite a " political general ". He disapproved open the autocracy of his former comrades in arms of Napoleon after his successful coup on November 9, 1799 ( 18 Brumaire ). Moreau was a staunch Republican, and also jealous of the success of his happier, albeit ruthless colleagues. He was like Napoleon, Massena, Soult, Ney and Jourdan, Hoche, Marceau or to those Revolutionsgenerälen that in a short time made careers in the People's Army and the newly founded thirty years commanded divisions. While Napoleon was working on his own legend after he took power, became the retreat of Moreau and his Rekonter attack against the Austrians pursuing him to Biberach an der Riss in 1796 into oblivion.
Honors
His name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in the 13th column.