May 10, 1770 (Annoux) - June 1823 (Paris)
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- Davout, Louis-Nicolas, Duke of Auerstaedt, Prince of Eckmühl
Of noble stock, son of a soldier, of Avout or Davout entered as a cadet-gentilhomme at the military school of Paris in 1785. Ardent follower of the Revolution, he was twice arrested because of his behavior, resigned (1791) and was elected lieutenant-colonel of the Yonne volunteers, a week later, on September 22. Sent to the north, Davout is in Neerwinden (March 18, 1793), tries in vain to stop Dumouriez when he goes over to the enemy. Sent to Vendée, he was made brigadier general and then general of division in July 1793, but refused this promotion and resigned to comply with the decree excluding ci-devant nobles from the army. He did not return to service until after the elimination of Robespierre, in the autumn of 1794, and fought on the Rhine as a brigadier general. He seized Mannheim (1795), but was taken prisoner when this city surrendered (September 18, 1795).
Exchanged shortly after, he returned to the Rhine, attacked Kehl, was at Haslach (July 14, 1796), seized Pichegru's correspondence in Klinglin's van (April 21, 1797), which makes it possible to discover the negotiations of this one with the emigrants. Introduced by Desaix to Bonaparte, Davout followed him to Egypt, where he commanded a cavalry brigade. He took part in most of the battles there, at the Pyramids, at Louqsor, at Aboukir. He left with Desaix for France on March 3, 1800. Detained for a month by the English in Livoume, he arrived in Toulon on May 6. Promoted to major general on July 3, Davout was placed at the head of the cavalry of the Army of Italy. Marshal of the Empire on May 19, 1804, one of the four Colonel Generals of the Imperial Guard, Davout played a decisive role at Austerlitz, where he commanded the right wing.
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- Davout's weapons
It was he again who decided the Prussian campaign of 1806 by supporting the shock of the bulk of the enemy army at Auerstedt and winning the battle, thus facilitating the Emperor's task at Jena. As a reward, Davout entered Berlin first (October 25, 1806). He still fights several victorious battles in Poland, commands the right wing in Eylau. Duke of Auerstedt (March 28, 1808), Governor General of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, Davout distinguished himself again during the campaign of 1809. Winner at Eckmühl, he led to victory at Wagram by driving back the enemy with his wing right of the army. Napoleon made him prince of Wagram on August 15, 1809. Commander-in-chief of the German army since the beginning of 1810, Davout prepared the invasion of Russia and launched the offensive.
Preferring Murat's solutions to those proposed by Davout, Napoleon fought a bloody and inconclusive battle at the Moskva River and took the same route on the way back as on the outward journey, transformed into a desert by the war. In 1813, Davout defended Dresden then locked himself in Hamburg, which he did not deliver until May 27, 1814, on the orders of Louis XVIII. Minister of War for the Hundred Days, from March 20 to July 8, 1815, Davout was under house arrest in Louviers, but the king ended up giving him back his marshal's baton (1817) and making him a peer of France (1819) . Napoleon's only undefeated marshal, Davout is, of course, on the Arc de Triomphe.