Nicolas Haxo

French First Republic state institutions 1749–1794 ✕ Killed in action

Republican general who retook Noirmoutier and died fighting Charette at Les Clouzeaux

Born at Étival-Clairefontaine in Lorraine in 1749, he served in the Touraine infantry regiment from 1768 to 1777. At the Revolution he became commander of the Saint-Dié National Guard, and in 1791 was elected commander of the 3rd battalion of volunteers of the Vosges, fighting with the Army of the Rhine. Distinguished at the siege of Mainz, he was made brigadier general in August 1793, went to the Vendée with the Mainz garrison and fought at Cholet in October. On 3 January 1794 he retook the island of Noirmoutier and promised the surrendering garrison their lives, but the representatives on mission had them executed, d’Elbée among them. Given the western columns in Turreau’s plan, he declared “we are soldiers, not executioners” and kept to hunting Charette. Surrounded by Charette’s men at Les Clouzeaux in March 1794, he was killed; Turreau reported that he had shot himself.