Born on March 9, 1753 in Strasbourg and assassinated on June 14, 1800 in Cairo, Egypt, is a French general who distinguished himself during the wars of the French Revolution, in particular during the Vendée war and the Egyptian campaign. /P>
Youth and commitments before the Revolution
Born at 8, Fossé-des-tanneurs in Strasbourg, baptized in the church of Saint-Pierre-le-Vieux, Kléber is the son of Jean-Nicolas Kléber, who died 3 years after his birth, and Reine Bogart. He was raised by his stepfather, Jean-Martin Burger, and studied at the Jean-Sturm gymnasium in Strasbourg.
Kléber joined the army for the first time at the age of 16 in 1769, in the 1st regiment of hussars. Short-term commitment, because he was very quickly called back to Strasbourg by his mother to resume his studies. From 1770 to 1771, he was a student at the drawing school for arts and crafts, located at the Poêle de la Tribu, very close to the lodging of Goethe who lived there at the same time. Kléber then joined the studio of the architect Chalgrin in Paris, from 1772 to 1774.
In 1777, Kléber enlisted again, this time as a cadet at the military academy in Munich (Bavarian army) where he remained for about 8 months, before joining the famous Kaunitz infantry regiment (Austrian army), the 1st October 1777 with the rank of privat-cadet. He was appointed ensign-bearer on the following November 19. On April 1, 1779, he was appointed second lieutenant:this was his last promotion in the Austrian army. He left the Kaunitz regiment in 1783, no longer hoping for any promotion and giving up his military career for a time. Three reasons have been put forward to explain this failure:on the one hand, Kléber is not noble, at a time when this quality is essential to advance quickly in the profession of arms, on the other hand, he had a bad character and s He won easily, and finally, he had bad luck during his time in service:he took part in no real conflict, with the exception of the Potato Wars, a series of small operations against Prussia. His life was divided between the garrisons of Mons, Mechelen and Luxembourg.
In 1787, Jean-Baptiste Kléber provided the plans for the new Saint-Erhard de Thann hospital, the old one being considered dilapidated. Construction began in 1788. Before the end of construction, it was decided to make it the town hall of Thann. Its structural work was completed in 1793. Its development was entrusted to G.I. Ritter in 1795. From 1788 to 1792, Jean-Baptiste Kléber was the official architect of the city of Belfort. His first signs of revolutionary commitment were born in this city, in particular when he dispersed the royalists during the Belfort Affair on October 21, 1790.
Military glory during the Revolution
When war was declared in 1792, Kléber enlisted in the Army of the Rhine and distinguished himself in the defense of the besieged fortress of Mainz in 1793. He was promoted to adjutant-general as brigade commander on April 1, 1793; then brigadier general on August 17, 1793.
He was sent to the Vendée at the head of the provisional army of Mainz to crush the uprising there under the direction of General-in-Chief Lscale. Beaten at the Battle of Tiffauges, he won the victory at Montaigu. He took part in the second battle of Cholet which pushed the Vendeans north of the Loire. The rout of Entrammes where the Republican army lost 4,000 men and all its artillery marked the height of its conflict with General Lscal. Kléber was not beyond reproach, but it was General Lscale who was held responsible for the defeat. He is impeached.
Reorganized, the Republican army was placed some time later under the authority of General Rossignol, without panties like Lscale. On October 17, 1793, he was promoted to major general.
General Rossignol's incompetence and Kléber's inertia caused two new routs at Dol on 20, 21 and 22 November and Antrain on 21 November. The Vendeans can continue their journey towards Angers where they fail and lose many of their best fighters. Pushed back to the north, they seized Le Mans. Meanwhile, the Republican army was reformed and placed under the unofficial authority of Kléber and Marceau. At the Battle of Le Mans, they dislodge the rebel army and rout it. They then apply without hesitation the instructions of the public safety committee [ref. necessary], massacring several thousand stragglers, wounded, sick, women and children. They finished the job a few days later at the Battle of Savenay (December 1793), thus putting an end to the "great war" in Vendée.
At Le Mans and Savenay, Marceau and Kléber will have tried without success to oppose the murderous madness of the Blues, and will remain outraged.
Kléber will write, in his Memoirs :
“We cross Savenay, each column takes a different direction in pursuit of the rebels. The carnage becomes horrible. We see everywhere only piles of corpses. A large part will drown in the marsh of Montoir, the rest throw themselves into the woods where soon they are discovered, killed or taken prisoner. Crews, cannons, church ornaments, papers relating to their administration, all fall into our power and, for this time, the defeat of the enemy makes his destruction certain. Infantry or cavalry patrols are then sent to all the surrounding villages. Some are occupied by Brigands, we want to parley with them, but they answer with gunshots, and a deputy of the general staff, in bringing them words of peace, was injured. Immediately a rolling fire was made on them and they all perished. Thousands of prisoners of all ages and all sexes are successively arrested and taken to the rear. The representatives of the people had them tried by revolutionary tribunals, and France, all of Europe, knows all the atrocities that have been inflicted on these wretches. The city of Nantes has particularly served as a theater for these bloody and unheard-of scenes, which my pen refuses to describe…” (pages 341-342)
“One cannot imagine the horrible carnage which took place that day, without speaking of the great number of prisoners of all sexes, of all ages and of all states who fell into our hands. (page 330)
He says:“The rebels fought like tigers and our soldiers like lions. »
After Savenay, and the departure of Marceau, Kléber became acting general-in-chief until his replacement in early January by Louis Marie Turreau. Kléber tries to oppose the infernal columns by advocating a strict military occupation plan of the Vendée which is rejected. However, Kléber remained in the Army of the West and fought against the Chouans of Brittany until May 1794, when he left the West for good and joined the Army of the North.
Role during the Battles of Fleurus
Battle of June 16, 1794:Kléber is in charge of the left wing of the future army of Sambre-et-Meuse, whose commander-in-chief is Jean-Baptiste Jourdan. This first battle of Fleurus was a defeat for the French against Marshal Frédéric de Saxe-Cobourg, a remarkable tactician. Despite everything, Kléber's provisions for the left wing made it possible, at first, to push back and defeat the column of Wartensleben (de) which could have enabled him to arrive as reinforcements in the center or on the right in difficulty, too late though. Kleber was given the task of covering the retreat, which enabled the French army to cross the Sambre in good order and resume the offensive which led to the victory at Fleurus on the following June 26.
Battle of June 26, 1794:This time, Kléber is in command of the reserve. Despite this, he can influence the course of the battle. Seeing General Montaigu forced into retirement by General Latour, Kléber immediately sent a division as reinforcements. But the latter, arriving too late, is forced to retreat as well. Kléber then reacted by placing batteries on heights to support Montaigu and sent Bernadotte's division as a diversion, so as to save an important post:Marchiennes. Faced with this reaction on the part of the Republicans (and the retreat of another of the Austrian columns, commanded by the Prince of Orange), the Austrians hesitated, which Kléber immediately took advantage of by putting himself at the head of a column and attacking the left of the Latour column. Finally, he sends the Duhesme brigade to bypass the Austrians and attack them from behind. This maneuver succeeds. Latour, learning of the loss of Charleroi, gave the order to retreat.
Having fallen into disgrace with the Directory, despite his success before Mainz, Kleber was living in obscurity at Chaillot when Napoleon, in November 1797, arrived from Rastadt, after having conquered Italy, dictated peace under Vienna and permanently attached Mainz to France. Kléber attached himself to Bonaparte and followed him to prepare the Egyptian campaign.
The Egyptian Campaign
Kléber commanded one of the assault columns during the capture of Alexandria on July 2, 1798 and was wounded in the forehead by a bullet. Convalescent, he was given command of the garrison left behind by Bonaparte. On October 18, he reached Cairo and stayed there for three months before leaving for the expedition to Syria. The Kléber division was at the center of the fighting in the Battle of El-Arich and then the Battle of Mont-Thabor, before proceeding with the last unsuccessful assault on the fortress of Saint-Jean-d'Acre.
Napoleon Bonaparte, as he was preparing to return to France, on August 22, 1799, entrusted Kléber with supreme command of the Egyptian army. Kléber then concluded with the British Admiral Sidney Smith the convention of El Arich on January 24, 1800 for an honorable evacuation of Egypt by the French army.
But Admiral Keith does not respect these clauses and asks the French to lay down their arms and become prisoners. Kléber declared to his soldiers:“One responds to such insolence only with victories; soldiers, prepare to fight” (declaration inscribed at the bottom of his monument Place Kléber in Strasbourg). Kléber then resumed hostilities and won a final victory at Heliopolis against the 60,000 Turks that the British had placed in front of the French troops on March 20, 1800. He then reconquered Upper Egypt and put down a revolt in Cairo with French artillery. .
Kléber finally seems able to hold the country, despite the abuses committed against the population, the massacre of Turkish prisoners, the lack of respect for religion and the constant desecration of mosques by the troops of the expedition, when he was assassinated by a Syrian student, named Soleyman el-Halaby, with a stab in the heart on June 14, 1800. This one was condemned to the torture of the pal.
“The man is condemned, by the French court martial, to have his fists burned and then to be impaled alive. The executioner Barthélemy lays Soliman on his stomach, pulls a knife from his pocket, makes a wide incision in his base, brings the end of his stake to it and drives it in with a mallet. Then he binds the arms and legs of the patient, raises him in the air and fixes the pole in a prepared hole. Suleiman lived another four hours, and he would have lived longer, if during Bartholomew's absence a soldier had not given him something to drink:at that very moment he expired. »
Command was then taken over by General Menou, Kléber's rival. Converted to Islam and married to an Egyptian, he calls himself Abdallah-Jacques. It is up to him to liquidate the Egyptian expedition, on the verge of exhaustion.
The remains of Kléber, brought back to Marseille, had been forgotten in the Château d'If, when Louis XVIII ordered in 1818 that they be transferred to his native city, Strasbourg, which received them with gratitude and veneration. They rest in a vault built in the middle of the Place d'Armes, and above which Strasbourg and the whole of France had a bronze statue erected, inaugurated on June 14, 1840, forty years to the day, after his death.
The personal papers of General Jean-Baptiste Kléber are kept in the National Archives under the symbol 196AP8.
Freemasonry
There was no Freemasonry in Egypt before the French invasion. It is not known whether Bonaparte was a Freemason or not. What is certain is that several of his officers, including General Kléber, were. After Bonaparte returned to France, the Isis Lodge was founded in Alexandria, with Kléber as Venerable Master. However, after his death, the lodge disappeared.
Tributes
A street in Malo-les-Bains bears his name since August 5, 1898.
His body was placed on December 15, 1838 in a vault located under his statue in the center of Place Kléber, the former Place d'Armes in the heart of Strasbourg. The statue, the work of Philippe Grass from 1840, represents the general on his feet, holding Admiral Keith's letter which demanded the surrender of the French troops. Kléber then addressed his troops:“Soldiers, we only respond to such insolence with victories. Prepare to fight”. The Turkish army sent by the British was crushed by Kléber's troops. The inauguration of this statue was made with some embarrassment by the authorities of the time. It was indeed the time of the July Monarchy and of reconciliation and the oblivion of past conflicts. The city therefore organized a big party for the inauguration of the statue of Gutenberg, a consensual and unifying subject, while the inauguration of the statue of Kléber took place much more discreetly 10 days earlier in June 1840.
In 1940 the Nazi authorities had the statue of Kléber removed from the eponymous square (renamed Karl Roos Square), the remains of his body were then transferred to the Cronenbourg military cemetery, the monument erected in his honor at the Polygon was destroyed.
After the victory of 1945 the statue of Kléber, which was preserved, is put back in place, as well as the remains of the general.
As a military figure of the Revolution, and although some massacres of civilians during the Vendée war and the Egyptian campaign took place under his command, his name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile from the Place de l'Etoile in Paris.
View of contemporaries
Napoleon Bonaparte , on Île Sainte-Hélène:“Courage, conception, he had everything (...). His death was an irreparable loss for France and for me. It was Mars, the god of war himself. »
Honoré de Balzac in La Duchesse de Langeais, 1834, describes it through General de Montriveau:“His head, large and square, had as its main characteristic trait an enormous and abundant black hair which enveloped his face in such a way as to perfectly recall General Kléber, whom he resembled by the vigor of his forehead, by the shape of his face, by the quiet audacity of his eyes, and by the kind of ardor expressed by his projecting features. »
Victor Hugo he himself maintained the Kleberian cult in Les Châtiments (1853) with these lines:“Iron colliding with iron; The winged and flying Marseillaise in the bullets; Drums, shells, bombs, cymbals; And your laughter, oh Kléber. »
Antoine de Jomini (general) “General Kléber can be put among the best generals of the Revolution; and we do not hesitate to place it immediately after Bonaparte and Moreau. He was the handsomest man in the army; a colossal size, a noble figure, a strength equal to his courage, joined to the genius of war, gave him a great ascendancy over his comrades.... We will constantly find him on the fields of glory, until his tragic death on the banks of the Nile. »
Caffarelli, who could cast a disinterested judgment on Kléber, said of him:“Look at this Hercules, his genius devours him! »