February 3, 1772 (Besançon) - March 20, 1844 (Paris)
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- Pajol, Pierre-Claude, count Pajot, said
Law student, second lieutenant at the beginning of the war, Pajol distinguished himself very quickly:two bayonet thrusts in the lower abdomen when he entered Speyer at the head of his grenadiers, on September 30, 1792, his arm broken in Mainz, April 10, 1793. Having become Kléber's aide-de-camp until the end of 1796, promoted, thanks to him, leader of hussar squadrons, Pajol accumulated feats of arms and wounds, but, like many cavalry officers, had only a fairly slow advancement and became brigadier general in March 1807. In the Lasalle division, he distinguished himself at Guttstadt, at Heilsberg. Baron of the empire in 1808, he took part in the campaign of 1809, was in Eckmühl, Wagram. With the Grande Armée, Pajol takes Kovno, Vilna, charges at the Moskva, is seriously wounded at Mojaisk (September 9, 1812). Recovered for the 1813 summer campaign in Saxony, he was again seriously wounded at Wachau (October 16). Count of the empire a month later (he had been a baron since 1808), he captured Montereau on February 18, 1814, where he was still wounded. Pajol charges one last time at Wavre, on June 18, 1815, and covers the retreat. Very hostile to the Restoration, he took an active part in the revolution of July 1830. Louis-Philippe marked his recognition by appointing him governor of Paris and peer of France. Pajol's name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe.