January 10, 1769 (Saarlouis) - December 7, 1815 (Paris)
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- Ney, Michel, Duke of Elchingen, Prince of Moskva
Engaged in the hussars in 1787, Ney served as aide-de-camp to General Larnarche in the North from 1792 to 1794. Elected captain, he served on the Rhine, was brigadier general in August 1796, major general after the capture of Mannheim in March 1799. He then moved to the Helvetia armies, then to the Rhine, and played a passive role in the Battle of Hohenlinden. Bonaparte appointed him plenipotentiary minister in the Helvetic Republic, where he signed the act of mediation of 1803. Marched from the Empire in 1804, close to Napoleon thanks to his marriage to Aglaé Auguié, school friend of Hortense de Beauharnais, Ney embodied the officers of the Army of the Rhine rallied to him, as opposed to Moreau and Pichegru. In 1805, Ney covered himself with glory at Elchingen (October 14) and occupied the Tyrol. In 1806-1807, he was in Jena, took Erfurt and Magdeburg then Thorn, decided on victory at Eylau, stopped 70,000 Russians with his 14,000 men at Guttstadt (March 11, 1807), fought again at Guttstadt (June 9) , wins at Friedland. Made Duke of Elchingen in June 1808, Ney was sent to Spain. He gets along very badly with Moncey then with Soult.
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- Ney's weapons
In 1810, he accepted with difficulty to be placed under the orders of Masséna in the army of Portugal, was suspended from his duties by the latter and returned to France. During the Russian campaign, if he showed passivity at Valoutina (August 19, 1812), he distinguished himself at the Moskva and became the hero of the retreat at the head of the Prince of the Moskva rear guards, on the 25th March 1813, Ney at Lützen and Bautzen, but was beaten at Dennewitz (September 6). Wounded in Leipzig, he took part in all the battles in the French campaign, then defected and urged the Emperor to abdicate.
After promising to bring the exile back from the island of Elba in an iron cage, feeling abandoned by his troops, he threw himself into the arms of Napoleon, who held a grudge against him. his attitude of 1814 and only called him on the eve of the decisive confrontation, June 11, 1815. He accumulated faults between June 16 and 18, maneuvering too slowly or charging stupidly, seeking to be killed when defeat is inevitable. Brought before a court martial, he denies his jurisdiction and asks to be judged by his peers, who condemn him to death. Shot at the crossroads of the Observatory, not far from where his statue stands today, Ney, a courageous soldier but of little character, has his name inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe.