Revolutionary General Jean-Charles Pichegru
Charles Pichegru in a portrait by Alexandre-François Caminade
As we have already noted in one of recent articles, the only commander equal to himself, Napoleon agreed to recognize the early deceased General Louis Lazare Hoche, about whom he once said:
If Gosh had crossed my path, I would have had to either retreat or break him.
And about the death of his rival he said:
In the end, there were two of us, but one was needed.
General Louis-Lazare Gauche, monument in Montreuil
However, he also rated the hero of today's article highly for his military talents. According to Dr. O'Meap's memoirs, it was Jean-Charles Pichegru on Saint Helena whom Napoleon called the most capable general of the Republic.
The origin and early life of Charles Pichegru
Jean-Charles Pichegru was born on February 16, 1761, to a poor landowner in the village of Les Planches, near Arbois. In this small Burgundian town, the future general attended college and then enrolled at the École Militaire de Brienne. There, Pichegru met an as yet unremarkable young Corsican cadet named Bonaparte, eight years his junior. He even began giving him additional mathematics lessons.
Pichegru's military service began in June 1780, when, at the age of 19, he entered the army as a private. artillery Metz Regiment (Regiment d'artillerie de Metz, from January 1, 1791 – 2nd Artillery Regiment). In February 1781, the young man found himself in America as part of the expeditionary force of Generals Rochambeau and Lafayette, who fought on the side of the rebellious colonists, taking part in the Battle of Kingsbridge and the siege of Yorktown. He returned to France in 1783 and was sent to serve first in the garrison of Strasbourg, then in Besançon.
On August 1, 1785, Pichegru was promoted to sergeant. On July 5, 1789, he was promoted to staff sergeant. On February 6, 1792, we see him as only an adjutant (a non-commissioned officer's rank—a rank higher than sergeant but lower than ensign). It was only on June 15, 1792, that Pichegru became a first lieutenant. During this time, he was an ardent supporter of republican ideas and even served as president of the Revolutionary (Jacobin) Club of Besançon.
On 18 Vendémiaire, Year I of the Republic (October 9, 1792), the now 31-year-old subject of this article was elected lieutenant colonel of the 3rd Battalion of Volunteers of the Garde Department, which became part of the Army of the Rhine. He soon became deputy commander of this regiment. His superiors quickly took notice of this proactive officer, as well as his strong organizational skills, and Pichegru was transferred to staff work. By August 22, 1793, he had achieved the rank of brigadier general.
Meanwhile, in the same year of 1793, Lazare Carnot and Louis Antoine Saint-Just were tasked with finding promising generals of non-noble origin who could be entrusted with the command of large military units. Carnot then turned his attention to Jourdan, about whom Napoleon once remarked to Lannes:
Jourdan holds a title greater than mine. I didn't have to win the battle that saved France.
Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, statue on rue de Rivoli, facade of the Louvre
Saint-Just “discovered” Pichegru and Lazare Hoche, but it was the first of them that became his favorite.
On October 4, 1793, Pichegru was promoted to divisional general and given command of the Upper Rhine Division, but by October 27, the 32-year-old subject of this article had become commander of the Army of the Rhine. And the aforementioned Lazare Hoche was given command of the Army of the Moselle on November 2, 1793—and he was only 25 years old at the time.
Revolutionary General Charles Pichegru
Pichegru's first task was to restore order to the poorly disciplined troops entrusted to him. He therefore initially avoided major battles, instead tiring the enemy with constant small skirmishes. Pichegru's Army of the Rhine and Hoche's Army of the Moselle were able to launch an offensive in the second half of December 1793. The Austrians were routed at Fréschwiller, and the people's representatives to the army wrote to Paris:
It would take too much time to describe in detail the miracles of valor of our brave warriors.
Hoche's army's successes were more highly regarded, and at the Second Battle of Weissenburg, Pichegru found himself under the operational control of his young rival, a fact that greatly displeased Saint-Just, who had patronized the article's hero. Despite the victory, which forced the Austrian commander Dagobert von Wurmser to withdraw his troops beyond the Rhine and the Prussian general Charles-Guillaume-Ferdinand of Brunswick to retreat to Mainz, Hoche was relieved of command and given command of another army – the Army of Italy. However, just 10 days after his appointment, he was arrested in Nice (April 1, 1794) and remained in prison until the Thermidorian Coup, which ended with the fall and execution of Robespierre and his closest associates. Hoche was released on July 27, 1794.
But let's return to Pichegru, who initially became commander of the combined Rhine-Moselle Army, and in February 1794, replaced Jourdan as commander of the Northern Army (a position he held until March 1795). Pichegru's subordinate was such a prominent French commander as Jean-Victor Moreau. He would later replace the subject of this article as commander of the Northern Army.
The peak of Charles Pichegru's military career
Pichegru's most successful campaigns were those of 1794-1795, in which he fought against the troops of Britain, Austria, and the Dutch Republic.
Georges Bertin Scott de Plagol. General Pichegru during the Dutch campaign
The Allied plan for the First Anti-French Coalition was developed by the notorious General Mack—the same General who would later plot the route Suvorov's army would take in Switzerland and the dispositions for the Battle of Austerlitz. The plan was to capture the French fortress of Landrecies, and then the city of Saint-Quentin, which opened the road to Paris. The Allies faced two French armies: Pichegru's Army of the North and Charbonnier's Army of the Ardennes. On April 30, 1794, their opponents succeeded in taking Landrecies, but Charbonnier's army pinned down the Allied forces on the left flank, while on the right flank they were constantly harassed by units of Pichegru's Army of the North. However, the French attempts to cross the Sambre River were unsuccessful.
On June 4, four divisions of the Army of the Moselle arrived, led by Jourdan. He also took command of the Army of the Ardennes and the right-flank units of the Army of the North. Among others, he commanded General Jean-Baptiste Kléber (to whom Napoleon would hand over command of the Army of the East in Egypt in 1799) and three future marshals – Soult, Lefebvre, and Bernadotte. Jourdan's forces became the Army of Sambre and Meuse. The French were now able to cross the river and besiege Charleroi; its garrison capitulated on June 26. That same day, the Battle of Fleurus took place, the very one Bonaparte had spoken of when he called Jourdan the savior of France.
Jean-Baptiste Jourdan in J.-B. Moses' painting "The Battle of Fleurus." Note the balloon "l'Entreprenant" (in the upper right corner of this painting): with its help, General Jourdan was the first in stories During this battle, he transmitted signals to his troops
The commander-in-chief of the First Coalition, Prince Frederick of Coburg, arrived at Charleroi only a few hours late. Unaware that the fortress had already surrendered, he ordered an attack on the French at Fleurus, and victory seemed within reach, but Jourdan dispatched the divisions of Lefebvre and Bernadotte. The fate of the battle was still undecided when Frederick of Coburg received news of Charleroi's fall. The enemy commander wavered, ordering a retreat, deciding not to tempt fate with further fighting. The French followed him. Units led by Pichegru captured Nieuport, Ostend, and Bruges, then, advancing toward Ghent, they pushed Prince Coburg's forces back toward Brussels.
Finally, on July 10, Pichegru defeated General Clerfayt at Soagnes. The Austrian forces lost contact with the British and Dutch and retreated to Lüttich. Their allies retreated to Breda. On July 24, the French occupied Antwerp, and Aachen, Jülich, Cologne, and Bonn soon fell as well. Kléber laid siege to Maastricht. Pichegru, having captured the fortress of Sluys on August 24, occupied Breda and forced the Duke of York's troops to retreat across the Meuse River. From then on, the French enemy suffered repeated defeats, losing fortresses and towns. Trying to stop Pichegru, the Dutch opened the dams, but the freezing temperatures quickly froze the water, and this tried-and-true method failed. Having captured Bommel Island, the French crossed the Waal River in January 1795, finally separating the English and Dutch troops, and Amsterdam was also occupied at the same time.
General Pichegru's army enters Amsterdam, 1795 (detail of a painting by Paul Boutini)
The apotheosis of that campaign was the astonishing capture of Dutch ships by French cavalrymen. fleet, frozen in the ice in the Zuiderzee Bay. On the night of January 23, 1795, the hussars of Colonel Lahur, subordinate to Pichegru, mounted infantrymen of the 15th Line Infantry Regiment on their horses' croup and approached the Dutch squadron across the ice, numbering five ships of the line, three frigates, five corvettes, and several merchant ships, which turned out to have 650 cannons. Here's how it looks in a painting by Léon Morel-Fatio:
The surgeon of the Dutch ship "Snelheid" recalled:
On Saturday morning, an orderly informed me that a French hussar was near our ship. I looked out the gun port and indeed saw the hussar.
The shocked Dutch sailors surrendered without a fight.
On February 14, 1795, with the capture of Groningen, Pichegru effectively completed the conquest of the Netherlands; the stadtholder fled to England. Holland not only capitulated, but also entered into an alliance with France under the name of the Batavian Republic. And Pichegru became one of the most popular generals of the French Republic.
From “Savior of the Fatherland” to convict
General Pichegru in a portrait painted in the Netherlands in 1795.
As we recall, it was Pichegru who was the unwavering supporter of Saint-Just, who had done so much to remove (and even arrest) his rival general, Lazare Hoche. Nevertheless, Pichegru supported the Thermidorian Coup and, on April 1, 1795, suppressed the Germinal popular uprising in Paris. He was subsequently awarded the title of "Savior of the Fatherland" by the Directory and the post of commander of the Army of the Rhine (which became the Army of the Rhine and Moselle on April 20). In May 1795, he succeeded in taking Mannheim. However, according to some scholars, Pichegru failed to provide sufficient support to his rival, Jourdan, forcing him to withdraw his troops beyond the Rhine.
Apparently, at this time, Pichegru began to think that the best solution for France would be to restore the monarchy – of course, limited and constitutional.
In August 1795, a certain Foch-Borel, posing as a champagne merchant, arrived at the general's door from the Prince of Condé. He promised him the rank of marshal, as well as a million livres immediately, plus a hundred thousand in annual rent. All he had to do was "simply" conclude an armistice with the Austrians and march his army on Paris. In subsequent correspondence, Pichegru urged the Bourbons to "moderation and prudence," which, incidentally, greatly irritated and displeased them.
Meanwhile, as commander, Pichegru suddenly became overly cautious and indecisive, fearing that victories would strengthen the position of the "directors," while defeat would negatively impact his popularity. This displeased the authorities, and the general decided to "play it safe." Confident of his indispensability, in October 1795 he submitted his resignation to the Directory, and on March 14, 1796, he was dismissed from the army. He was offered the post of ambassador to Sweden, but Pichegru had other, more serious plans. He was still very popular, and so in the spring of 1796 he took part in the elections to the Council of Five Hundred. On April 12, 1797, he became a deputy for the Jura department, and from May 20 to June 18 of that year, he served as president of the pro-monarchist Council.
Supported by the royalist party of the Clichy Club, supporters of the restoration of the monarchy also constituted a majority in the Council of Elders. However, the chief "director," Barras, appealed for help to Bonaparte, commander of the Army of Italy, who dispatched General Augereau to Paris—a staunch republican who immediately declared to the directors that he had "arrived to kill royalists." And on September 4, 1797 (the Fructidor Coup), Augereau not only dispersed the deputies meeting in the Tuileries but also arrested many of them. Among those arrested was Charles Pichegru, who was sent to the "dry guillotine" ("la guillotine seche") of the Guiana penal servitude—effectively to his death, as the survival rate for convicts was only 3%.
It is curious that the English Minister of War, Windham, then proposed intercepting the ship at sea that would be transporting Pichegru.
Escape
Escaping from Guiana was practically impossible, but Pichegru immediately declared:
Better sharks than a slow death here.
Taking advantage of the prison guards' drunkenness, he and seven other prisoners made it to the Dutch colony of Surinam on a pitiful pirogue. By pure chance, a storm washed them ashore near a Dutch fort. Governor-General François de Friederici, governor of Jurrien, allowed the fugitives to board a ship bound for the United States. In 1798, Pichegru moved to England, and in 1799 he found himself at the headquarters of Suvorov's ally, the Austrian Archduke Charles. We then see him at the headquarters of the Russian corps of A. M. Rimsky-Korsakov, which was routed by General Masséna (this defeat forced Suvorov to abandon the march on Paris and change his route through Switzerland). According to some sources, Pichegru proposed his own plan for fighting the French, which was rejected by the Russian general.
The Ignominious Death of General Pichegru
Pichegru appears to have hated his former pupil (in mathematics) Bonaparte, and according to Windham's entry for 16 September 1800, the fugitive French general discussed with him that day "a plan for the removal of Bonaparte by assassination."
At that time, there was another man in Britain who dreamed of dealing with Napoleon: Georges Cadoudal, the leader of the Chouans, the Vendéen rebels from among the peasants of the Maine-et-Loire department (now Mayenne).
Amable Paul Coutant. Portrait of the Chouan Georges Cadoudal
This son of a Breton miller was arrested as early as June 1794, but was released after the Thermidorian Coup. In 1799, Cadoudal again attempted to stir up rebellion in Brittany, and in October the rebels managed to capture Nantes and several other cities. However, in January 1800, they were defeated by General Brune. Cadoudal did not give up the struggle and organized two assassination attempts on First Consul Bonaparte – in December 1800 and August 1803.
Pichegru and Cadoudal traveled to France, where they met their deaths. Incidentally, Jean-Victor Moreau suffered for meeting them: the renowned republican general categorically refused to collaborate with the royalists, but failed to inform the authorities of his meeting with them. Consequently, Moreau was arrested and sentenced to two years. Napoleon ordered his imprisonment commuted to expulsion from the country and a permanent ban on returning to France. Moreau also lost over a million francs, his Paris apartment, which Bernadotte later occupied, and the Château de Grosbois, which passed to Berthier.
But let us return to Pichegru: he was arrested on the night of February 28, 1804 and placed in the Temple.
The arrest of Pichegru
According to eyewitnesses, he was treated very politely and even respectfully, well-fed, and given wine. Nevertheless, on the morning of April 6 of that year, Pichegru was found dead (the date of death is considered to be April 5). A volume of Seneca's works lay on the mantelpiece, open to the page describing the death of Caesar's opponent, Cato of Uthica:
No, Jupiter saw nothing more beautiful on earth than Cato, who did not bend and was not defeated on the ruins of the republic.
Let, he said, let everything fall under the power of a despot, let Caesar's legions rule the land, and his ships the waters, let his soldiers approach my doors—I will find the sure path to liberation. Cato's sword could not free his homeland, but it will free Cato.
Let, he said, let everything fall under the power of a despot, let Caesar's legions rule the land, and his ships the waters, let his soldiers approach my doors—I will find the sure path to liberation. Cato's sword could not free his homeland, but it will free Cato.
Investigators concluded that the former Republican general had hanged himself with his own tie, which he had tied tightly around his neck with a piece of wood, and that same day he was buried in the Parisian cemetery of Sainte-Catherine.
Georges Moreau de Tours. The Death of General Pichegru
Cadoudal didn't long survive Pichegru: he was captured in Paris on March 9 of that same year, 1804, killing a policeman during his arrest. When the prefect of police rebuked him for leaving a wife and children, Cadoudal responded indifferently:
Why didn't you order the bachelors to arrest me?
He was sentenced to death and executed on June 25, 1804.
Pichegru is not forgotten in France. Despite his betrayal, his name was inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe in the Place de l'Étoile in Paris.
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