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Military command · Consulate and First Empire state institutions people 2

François Christophe Kellermann

François Christophe de Kellermann

General who commanded the French at Valmy, Marshal of the Empire

At Valmy on 20 September 1792 Kellermann joined Dumouriez with the Army of the Centre at Dumouriez's request and placed his artillery on the western slopes. He steadied infantry shaken by an exploding ammunition cart and rallied them with the cry 'Vive la Nation'; the Prussians withdrew.

French soldier born in Strasbourg on 28 May 1735. His family, of Saxon origin, had settled in Strasbourg and was ennobled in his grandfather's generation. He entered the royal army in 1750 (or 1752), fought in the Seven Years' War, and became a brigadier in 1788, making him the only Marshal of the Empire to reach general rank under the old regime. Favourable to the Revolution of 1789, he commanded the Army of the Centre at Valmy on 20 September 1792 and drove back the Prussians, earning the name 'the victor of Valmy'. Arrested in November 1793 on suspicion of disloyalty, he spent 13 months in prison during the Terror and was released and reinstated after Robespierre's fall. Marshal in 1804 and Duke of Valmy in 1808, he voted in the Senate for Napoleon's abdication in 1814 and became a peer under Louis XVIII. He died in Paris in 1820.

Career timeline
  • 1750Entered the French royal army (1750 or 1752)
  • 1788Promoted maréchal de camp (brigadier)
  • 1792Commanded the Army of the Centre at the battle of Valmy
  • 1799Senator
  • 1804Appointed Marshal of the Empire (19 May)
  • 1808Created Duke of Valmy (3 June)
  • 1814Voted for Napoleon's abdication in the Senate; peer of France under the Restoration

André Masséna

André Masséna
Military command Consulate and First Empire state institutions France France 1758–1817 ○ Died of tuberculosis in Paris

French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars commander, Marshal of the Empire

At the Second Battle of Zurich in 1799 he led the Army of Helvetia to defeat Korsakov's Austro-Russian force, and in 1800 he held Genoa for about sixty days, tying down Austrian troops so Bonaparte could win at Marengo.

Commander of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He was born Andrea Massena on 6 May 1758 in Nice, then the County of Nice in the Kingdom of Sardinia. He began as an enlisted soldier in the royal Italian regiment, reached the highest rank open to a commoner in 1784, and became a brigade general in August 1793 and a general of division on 20 December 1793. On 19 May 1804 he became one of the first eighteen Marshals of the Empire created by Napoleon, and he was made Duke of Rivoli in 1808 and Prince of Essling in 1809, though some sources record January 1810. He died of tuberculosis in Paris on 4 April 1817, aged 58.

Career timeline
  • 1758Born in Nice
  • 1784Senior non-commissioned rank (adjudant) in the royal Italian regiment
  • 1793Brigade general in August; general of division on 20 December
  • 1799Commander of the Army of Helvetia; victory at the Second Battle of Zurich
  • 1800Commander of the Army of Italy; defence of Genoa
  • 1804Appointed Marshal of the Empire
  • 1808Duke of Rivoli
  • 1809Prince of Essling (some sources record January 1810)
  • 1810Invasion of Portugal; defeated by Wellington at Bussaco
  • 1811Relieved of his command on 11 May
  • 1815Naturalised French by Louis XVIII on 20 January
  • 1817Died in Paris