General of the Revolutionary Wars, victor of Fleurus and framer of the 1798 conscription law
His defining revolutionary moment was the decisive victory over the First Coalition at Fleurus in 1794. In 1798, in the Council of Five Hundred, he proposed with fellow deputy Pierre Delbrel the Jourdan Law, conscripting single and childless men aged 20 to 25.
A French soldier who served in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars and became a Marshal of the Empire in 1804. Born at Limoges in 1762, son of the surgeon Roch Jourdan, he fought in the American War of Independence, then in the revolutionary wars led the Army of the North to victory at Wattignies in October 1793 and broke the siege of Maubeuge. He went on to command the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse and won a decisive victory over the First Coalition at Fleurus in 1794. A Jacobin politician under the Directory, he sat in the Council of Five Hundred (1797–1799) and framed the conscription law of 1798, the Jourdan Law. Defeated at Vitoria in 1813, he supported the July Revolution of 1830 and served as governor of the Hôtel des Invalides until his death.
Career Timeline
- 1778–1783Joined the Auxerrois regiment and fought in the American War of Independence, serving at Savannah in 1779 and in the West Indies
- 1793Promoted brigadier general on 27 May and general of division two months later; named to lead the Army of the North on 22 September and won at Wattignies in October
- 1794Led the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse, formally named on 29 June, and won at Fleurus on 26 June
- 1797–1799Elected to the Council of Five Hundred, where he proposed and carried the conscription law of 1798; defeated at Ostrach and Stockach in 1799
- 1804–1815Made marshal and count by Napoleon, governor of Piedmont, chief of staff to Joseph Bonaparte in Spain in 1808, and defeated at Vitoria in 1813
- 1816–1833After 1815 adhered to the Bourbons, becoming governor of Grenoble in 1816 and Peer of France in 1819; backed the July Revolution of 1830, briefly held the foreign affairs portfolio, then served as governor of the Hôtel des Invalides until his death