The Memoirs of François René Vicomte de Chateaubriand sometime Ambassador to England. volume 3 (of 6): Mémoires d'outre-tombe volume 3Chateaubriand, François-René, vicomte de
History
The Memoirs of François René Vicomte de Chateaubriand sometime Ambassador to England. volume 3 (of 6): Mémoires d'outre-tombe volume 3
Chateaubriand, François-René, vicomte de
Chateaubriand, François-René, vicomte de, 1768-1848
[330] Of the two battles that took place on the 14th of October 1806,
the more important was that of Auerstädt, where Marshal Davout had on
his hands the greater part of the Prussian Army, commanded by the King
of Prussia in person and the Duke of Brunswick; at Jena, Napoleon,
with superior forces, had to do with the weaker portion of the enemy's
army. Davout had 60,000 men in front of him and Napoleon only 40,000.
The Emperor, in his 5th Bulletin, completely inverted the state of
things. While reducing the numbers of the army which Davout had to
fight against from sixty to forty thousand, he raised those to which he
himself was opposed from forty to eighty thousand, making of the Battle
of Auerstädt only a very secondary episode in the Battle of Jena,
whereas it was really a capital and decisive event. It was thus that
the admirable victory of Auerstädt came to be effaced and eclipsed by
that of Jena.--B.
[331] Henri Amédée Mercure Comte de Turenne (1776-1852) was an officer
in the King's Regiment, when the Revolution broke out. He refused
to emigrate and wished to continue his military service, but was
imprisoned as a suspect under the Terror and not released until the
9 Thermidor, when he served in the Army of the Western Pyrenees. The
decree of 1794 against the nobles obliged him to leave the army; he
remained in private life until the proclamation of the Empire, when he
was one of the first to rally to the new power. He held various offices
in Napoleon's Civil and Military Households, and was created a count of
the Empire in 1813. Turenne was present at Napoleon's leave-taking at
Fontainebleau, but failed to obtain leave to accompany the Emperor to
Elba. Louis XVIII. made him a knight of St. Louis and a sub-lieutenant
in the Grey Musketeers. Under the Hundred Days, he resumed his service
with Napoleon, who made him a peer, and fought at Ligny and Waterloo,
where he made desperate efforts against the English Guards. The Second
Restoration deprived him of his titles and functions, but received
him into favour in 1829. Turenne, however, sided with the Monarchy of
July, and was again created a peer of France by Louis-Philippe. He
was smitten with blindness a few years later, and ended his days in
retirement--B.
[332] Jacques Antoine Manuel (1775-1827), a noted orator and advocate.
He opposed the monarchy throughout the Restoration, and in 1823
was expelled by force from the Chamber of Deputies. Manuel was not
re-elected. He remained a popular hero, and his body was followed to
the grave by over 100,000 persons.--T.
[333] 22 June 1815.--B.
[334] Nicolas Marie Baron Quinette (1762-1821) had been a member of
the Convention voting for the death of the King, and Minister of the
Interior to Napoleon (1799), who made him a baron of the Empire. In
1814, he adhered to the Restoration, and was created a peer of France,
but returned to the Emperor during the Hundred Days, and at the Second
Restoration was banished as a relapsed regicide.--T.
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