Jourdan, Jean-Baptiste, Count

April 29, 1762 (Limoges) - November 23, 1833 (Paris)

Jourdan, Jean-Baptiste, count

Jean-Baptiste, Count Jourdan (born April 29, 1762 in Limoges, Haute-Vienne - died November 23, 1833 in Paris), was a French soldier, who had begun his career under the Ancien Régime, participated with La Fayette in the war of independence of the United States of America and became one of the most brilliant generals of the Revolution and the Empire, winner in particular of the battle of Fleurus (June 26, 1794). He was made Marshal of the Empire in 1804.

Military career

Son of a Limoges surgeon, he enlisted in the Auxerrois regiment in 1778 and served there in the American campaign. Returning to France in 1782, he left the army in 1784 and established himself as a haberdasher in Limoges.

Captain of the National Guard in 1789, he volunteered in 1791, being elected lieutenant-colonel of the 2nd Battalion of Haute-Vienne which he led to the Army of the North.

He campaigned in Belgium under Dumouriez. With the Northern Army, he took part in the battles of Jemmapes (November 6, 1792) and Neerwinden (March 18, 1793).

He distinguished himself in particular around Namur, during the retreat of the army. On May 27, 1793, he was elevated to the rank of brigadier general, and to that of division general on the following July 30. He commands at the Battle of Hondschoote, where he is wounded while taking enemy entrenchments at the head of his troops. On September 26, he replaced Houchard in command of the army. He was soon commander of the army of the Ardennes, then of the army of the North and beat Frédéric-Josias de Saxe-Cobourg at Wattignies (15-16 October 1793), fiercely disputed in a 48-hour fight, and forced the Prince of Cobourg to lift the blockade of Maubeuge.

Wanting to take the offensive, the Committee of Public Safety called Jourdan to Paris. He argues that the army is only made up of new recruits, most of them without weapons or clothes, and that it is better to spend the winter on the defensive, to be in a condition to attack in the spring. His plans were adopted, but his reluctance was not forgotten, and as soon as the troops were ready to act, he was replaced by Jean-Charles Pichegru.

The Committee of Public Safety even issued a decree by which it ordered the dismissal and arrest of General Jourdan, but representatives of the people close to the army defended him, the Committee limited itself to proposing that Barrère put him in the retirement. Dismissed in January 1794, he resumed his business in Limoges.

Soon, however, he was employed again and given command of the Army of the Moselle. He opened the campaign of 1794 with the battle of Arlon, where the Austrians, 16,000 strong, were completely defeated. He then receives the order to cross the Ardennes and gather 40,000 men in front of Charleroi and the right wing of the Armée du Nord, which he executes with skill. Its troops receive the name of Army of Sambre-et-Meuse.

This army crosses the Sambre, wins the decisive victory of the battle of Fleurus (June 26, 1794), that of the Ourthe and Arwaille on September 18, and that of La Roèr the following October 2. It defeats the enemy in several combats, takes back the places of Landrecies, Le Quesnoy, Valenciennes and Condé, conquers those of Charleroi, Namur, Juliers and Maestricht, and plants its flags on the Rhine from Clèves to Coblentz.

In October 1798, he resigned and was appointed commander of the army of the Danube. In 1798, he took possession of the fortress of Luxembourg which capitulated. In September, he crossed the Rhine by force, in the presence of a body of 20,000 Austrians and seized Dusseldorf. Clairfayt's army gathered on the Lahn does not dare run the risk of a battle and retreats beyond the Mein. Jourdan pursues it, takes up a position between Mainz and Hochst, or crosses the line of neutrality agreed with Prussia.

Pichegru, who had crossed the Rhine at Manheim, and should have advanced with the major part of his forces on the Mein to cut off the retreat at Clairfayt and effect his junction with the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse, limited himself to bring to Heidelberg a body of 10,000 men, which is completely beaten in a few days. Clairfayt, reassured by Pichegru's inaction, drew reinforcements from the Austrian Army of the Upper Rhine, crossed the line of neutrality above Frankfurt, and maneuvered to envelop the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse between the Lahn , the Mein and the Rhine.

These circumstances force Jourdan to retire. Shortly after, having forced the lines of Mainz, Jourdan marched to the aid of the Army of Rhine-and-Moselle. After a short but brilliant campaign in the Handsruck, he agreed to an armistice, and the war did not resume until the following spring. He then crosses the Rhine again, forces General Wartenslenben to retreat, seizes Frankfurt and Würzburg and moves on Regensburg.

But attacked by Archduke Charles Louis of Austria who retreated before Moreau and came to the aid of Wartenslenben with 40,000 men, he fell back on the Rhine. His retreat is mainly caused by the bad instructions given to the armies by the government, and by the party taken by Moreau who prefers an easy victory over the Lech instead of pursuing the Archduke Charles. This one defeats Jourdan in Würzburg on September 3, 1796.

Political career

Jourdan, having left the command of the army, was appointed in March 1797, by the department of Haute-Vienne, to the council of the Five Hundred. On September 23, he was elected president, and on January 21, 1798 secretary. Re-elected president on September 24, he resigned in October, announcing that the Directory intended him to command the armies.

In the exercise of his legislative functions, he passed the conscription law of September 5, 1798, which made military service compulsory.

By its exaggerated pretensions at Rastadt, and its enterprises in Italy and Switzerland, the Directory, which is arming all Europe against it, nevertheless neglects to raise armies capable of resisting the storm, and opens hostilities before having gathered all the means at his disposal. When the Army of the Danube, commanded by Jourdan, crossed the Rhine on 1 March]]]] and entered Swabia, it numbered only 38,000 men and soon found itself in the presence of the Archduke Charles, who brings together more than 65,000 men under his command. He was defeated at Stockach on March 25, 1799.