December 7, 1764 (Lamarche) - March 11, 1841 (Paris)
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- Perrin, Claude-Victor, dit Victor
Claude-Victor Perrin, known as Victor, born in Lamarche (Vosges) on December 7, 1764 and died in Paris on March 1, 1841), was a Marshal of the Empire (1807), named Duke of Bellune in 1808.
Military debut
He entered the service as a private in the 4th artillery regiment on October 16, 1781. At seventeen, Victor Perrin was a drummer in an artillery regiment in Grenoble. He left the army on March 1, 1791, when he obtained his absolute discharge, for the sum fixed by the ordinances, and settled in Valence, where he married and became a grocer.
Career under the Revolution
He was part of the National Guard of this city as a grenadier, and, on February 21, 1792, he was appointed adjutant non-commissioned officer by the 3rd battalion of volunteers of Drôme, in which he served in this capacity until August 4, time of his promotion to the rank of adjutant-major captain in the 5th battalion of Bouches-du-Rhône.
The declaration of the homeland in danger (1792) led him to the borders with the third battalion of Drôme. He rose in a short time to the rank of battalion commander in the same corps on the following September 15, he went to join the army of Italy with which he made the campaigns of 1792 and 1793.
Victor made his debut under the orders of General Anselme, in the county of Nice and in the battle of Coaraze, tumbling with his single battalion a corps of 3,000 Piedmontese.
After these two campaigns, Victor was sent to the siege of Toulon, where, on his arrival, he was given command of a battalion of chasseurs at the head of which he rendered important services. He met Napoleon Bonaparte there, and was temporarily appointed, on October 2, to the rank of adjutant-general. On December 1, he distinguished himself during the capture of the fort of Mont Faron. His conduct on that day was appreciated by the representatives of the people, Salicetti and Gasparin, who appointed him adjutant-general chief of brigade on the battlefield. He was immediately given command of the troops forming the right division of the siege army.
A few days later, he was seriously wounded in the stomach while conquering the British redoubt Eguillette, known as Little Gibraltar (December 17).
General of the French Revolution
After the surrender of this place, the representatives Salicetti, Barras, Fréron and Ricerd, appointed him provisionally brigadier general, by decree of the 30th of the same month. Barely recovered from his wounds, he was employed in the army of the Pyrénées-Orientales, where he fought in the wars of Years II and III
Under the orders of Pérignon, he distinguished himself at the Montagne Noire.
Confirmed in his rank of brigadier general, by government decree of 25 Prairial of the same year, he joined the army of Italy in year IV and fought there until year IX under the orders from Masséna then Augereau.
General-in-chief Napoleon Bonaparte, who appreciated his audacity and was satisfied with Victor's conduct, temporarily appointed him general of division on the battlefield, and he reported to the Directory, which confirmed this appointment by its decree of the following 20 Ventôse.
While these events were taking place abroad, the royalist maneuvers of the Clichien party had been foiled inside France, and addresses of congratulations were coming to the government from all sides.
After the peace treaty concluded at Campo-Formio on 26 Vendémiaire Year VI, General Victor returned to France. He was employed in the Army of England on 23 Nivôse, took command of the 2nd Military Division (Nantes) on 27 Ventôse, and returned to the Army of Italy on 14 Floréal of the same year.
He is sent back to Italy. [9], wounded at the Battle of La Trebbia in 1799
He distinguished himself during Bonaparte's second campaign in Marengo (June 14) where he received a saber of honor.
On 6 Thermidor of the same year, he was appointed lieutenant of the general-in-chief of the army of Batavia, and exercised these functions until 21 Thermidor, Year X, when he became captain general of Louisiana but did not leave because of the loss of Santo Domingo and the threats of a resumption of hostilities by the British. He kept this title until 17 prairial year XI, and was then called to the command of the army of Batavia.
Included as a legionnaire by right in the 5th cohort, he was laid off on 3 Floréal, Year XII, was created Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor on the following 25 Prairial, and appointed president of the electoral college of the department of Maine-et- Loire. Sent as Minister Plenipotentiary to the King of Denmark on 30 Pluviôse, Year XIII, he was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honor on 15 Ventôse of the same year.
In 1806, when the break with Prussia, he left Copenhagen towards the end of September to join the Grande Armée, and was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the 5th Corps, commanded by Marshal Lannes.
On October 10, he was in Saalfeld, then on the 14th, in Jena. On October 25, Victor signed, as Marshal Lannes' authorized representative, the capitulation of the fortress of Spandau during the pursuit of the Prussian army. On December 26, he is in Pultusk.
Then, on January 4, 1807, he was given command of Dombrowski's Polish division, as well as command of the newly formed X Corps.
He immediately set out to lay siege to Colberg and Danzig; but while he was traveling to Stettin, in a car with his aide-de-camp and a servant, he was kidnapped on January 20, 1807, by a party of 25 Prussian chasseurs commanded by Schill who were battering the country. Exchanged almost immediately for Blücher on March 8, 1807 by the Emperor Napoleon, he was put in charge of the siege of Grandentz in May.
On June 6, Victor replaced Bernadotte, wounded in a skirmish, at the head of the 1st Army Corps. 8 days later, on June 14, 1807, he was in Friedland, where he successfully led the charge against the center of the Russians. He was made Marshal of the Empire on July 13, 1807.
Governor of Prussia and Berlin on August 9, 1807 after the Peace of Tilsitt, he became Duke of Belluno in September 1808, when he left for Spain.
Spanish campaign
Called the following August to command-in-chief of the 1st corps intended to operate in Spain, he immediately headed for Bayonne with the troops under his command.
The 1st Army Corps continued its march on Bayonne, where it arrived from October 20 to 30; he entered Spanish territory by brigades on the 22nd, 23rd, 25th, 27th, and 29th of the same month, and was completely assembled in Vittoria and the surrounding area in the first five days of November.
He won Blake at Espinosa on November 10 and 11, 1808.
But bad maneuver in Somosierra (November 30).
On December 2 of the same year, the Duke of Belluno competed in the attack on Madrid and after taking this place, he headed for Toledo.
Napoleon left, he stayed with Joseph Bonaparte. He is victorious at Uclès, (January 13, 1809).
When Napoleon had decided on the entry of French troops into Portugal, the 1st corps was sent to the borders of Estramadura. On March 15, he crossed the Tagus at Talavera de la Reina and Puente de l'Arzobispo. On the 16th, he marched on the army of Cuesta and met it, on the 17th, entrenched on the Ybor.[18] On the 18th, Leval's division followed the Spanish to Valdecannar and forced them there again.
He is victorious in Medellín[20], (March 29), Alcabon (July 26).
Despite his decisive successes, Marshal Victor could not take part in the invasion of Portugal; the arrival of numerous Anglo-Portuguese troops made its presence essential on the line from the Guadiana to the Tagus. He was pushed back to Talavera (July 27 and 28). The Emperor, grateful for the services rendered by the Duke of Belluno, already richly endowed by him, did not forget this in the distribution he made to his generals, in July 1809, of the domains of Hanover.
After the victory of Ocaña, won by the French on November 18, the marshal entered Andalusia and crossed the Sierra without obstacles from Almaden. After having sent some reconnaissance on Santa-Eufemia and Belalcazar, he marched without artillery and without baggage on Andigar, where he joined the other corps.
Pursuing his forward movement, he entered Cordoba on the 23rd and stopped there for a few days. From there he marched on Seville, arrived in sight of its walls towards the end of January 1810, entered there on February 1 and immediately took the road to the island of Leon, the surroundings of which he reached and formed the blockade on the 5th of February. same month.
He then began the siege of Cadiz, and for thirty months he thwarted all the attempts of the enemy. He is victorious at Chiclana[23] The Duke of Belluno did not see the end of the siege of Cadiz, he was called to form part of the Grande Armée on April 3, 1812, and took command of the 9th corps.
The campaigns of the end of the Empire
The following August, the 9th Corps, 30,000 strong, and intended to form the reserve, left Tilsitt to go to Wilna. During the Russian campaign, Victor is at its head. Then comes the moment of glory, the defense, at the head of the rearguard.
During the retreat from Moscow, on November 14, he took the position of Smoliany and held it despite the efforts of a corps of 45,000 Russians. On the 25th, he received the order to follow the movement of the Duke of Reggio on the bridge of Studzianca (Bérésina), to cover the retreat by forming the rear guard and to contain the Russian army of the Dwina which followed him.
He distinguished himself by ensuring the passage of the Berezina and the rescue of what remained of the Grande Armée, by holding back the Russian armies with a few thousand men, one against five.
Returning to France with the remains of the phalanxes, the Duke of Belluno was appointed commander-in-chief of the 2nd corps of the German army on March 12, 1813. During the German campaign, he was responsible for defending the line of the 'Elbe. On August 27, he was in Dresden, routing the left wing of the Allies, and allowing Murat to take many Austrian prisoners. In Wachau, on October 16, he commanded the French left wing, a position he also occupied, on October 18, in Probstheyda, during the Battle of Leipzig. On October 30, finally, he is in Hanau, where the French army defeats its former ally the Bavarian de Wrede.
After this campaign he took command of a corps to protect the eastern frontiers against foreign invasion. The French territory is again invaded. First responsible for defending the Haut-Rhin in Strasbourg, Victor had to withdraw to Saint-Dizier in January 1814
He took part in all the battles of the French campaign, he cooperated with all his means in the successes of the day of Brienne, on January 29, 1814, and commanded the center of the army, the following February 1, at the Battle of La Rothière, where 36,000 French bravely fought against 106,000 men from the army of Silesia.
On February 17, at Marmont, he routed Count Pahlen's corps, and defeated the Bavarian general Lamotte, near Valjouan. He took 3,000 prisoners that day and captured 16 pieces of cannon.
He was reproached by the Emperor for his late arrival in Montereau on February 18, 1814 and was replaced by Gérard.
Pardoned by the Emperor, he was placed at the head of two divisions of the Guard on February 18, 1814. On March 7 at the Battle of Craonne, he was hit by a gunshot which put him out of action.
The Restoration
After the Emperor's abdication, the Duc de Bellune was named Chevalier de Saint-Louis on June 2, 1814, and Louis XVIII entrusted him with the government of the 2nd military division on December 6 of the same year. Like most other marshals, he therefore pledged allegiance to King Louis XVIII and remained faithful to him during the Hundred Days following him in Ghent.
When the Emperor returned to France, this marshal went to his government, and on March 10, 1815, he was in Sedan [26]
The marshal then left for Chalons-sur-Marne, where he arrived on the 16th; from there he went to Paris where he spent the days of the 17th and 18th. [27]
Leaving Paris on the 19th, the marshal arrived on the 20th at Châlons, where he found all the troops of his command united. Rumors of the Emperor's arrival in Paris induced him to move part of his army corps to the right bank of the Marne, in the various directions of Paris.
But the troops, informed of the triumphal march of the Emperor, successively took the national colors and loudly showed their lack of sympathy for the government of the Bourbons. The Duc de Belluno, seeing his authority disregarded and fearing being arrested, fled and went to join the king.
On July 8, 1815, Victor returned to Paris with Louis XVIII. On September 8, he was appointed Major-General of the Royal Guard, then, on August 17, Peer of France, then Major-General of the Royal Guard.
He votes for Ney's death at the trial of his former comrade in arms. He was also appointed, on October 12, 1815, president of the commission responsible for examining the services of officers who had served Napoleon during the Hundred Days.
On January 10, 1816 the Duke of Bellune was provided with the government of the 16th military division, was Commander of the Order of Saint-Louis, and Grand Cross after the marriage of the Duke of Berry, whose contract he signed, then finally Knight Commander of the Order of the Holy Spirit.
Minister of War (December 14, 1821-October 19, 1823), he prepared the Spanish campaign of 1823, and was appointed major general of the Spanish army on March 17; but the Duc d'Angoulême would not accept it. He then resumed his portfolio, entered the Privy Council; was commander-in-chief of the camp of Reims at the coronation of Charles X, and member of the superior war council in 1828. He took the oath in 1830 to the new government, but kept himself away from business:he remained a legitimist until 1830, when he opposes Louis Philippe. Worn down by his injuries, he died in 1841, three months after the return of the Emperor's ashes.
His name appears on the Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile in Paris and one of the boulevards of the Maréchaux de Paris bears his name (Boulevard Victor).
Brave and intrepid, he was not a great strategist and owed much of his career to Napoleon's friendship with him from the siege of Toulon.
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- Victor's weapons