Louis Desaix

• 1. Introduction

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  News came to Napoleon Bonaparte that Louis Desaix had been killed at Marengo. The First Consul cried out, "Why am I not allowed to weep?" On that same day, Desaix's close friend and comrade Jean-Baptiste Kléber was assassinated in Cairo. Two generals, bound by friendship and by shared campaigns, died on the same afternoon a continent apart.

  Who was the man whose death drew grief that Napoleon struggled to suppress? How did a noble-born officer rise to become one of the most recognized names of the French Revolutionary Wars? And what had shaped him, over years of war across half the known world, before he arrived at that Italian battlefield?

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• 2. Noble Roots, New Republic

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  The Château d'Ayat in Ayat-sur-Sioule, in the province of Auvergne, was Desaix's birthplace on the 17th of August, 1768. His father was Gilbert des Aix, Lord of Veygoux, a title drawn from the family manor in Charbonnières-les-Varennes. His mother, Amable de Beaufranchet, was also Gilbert's first cousin.

  Desaix received his military education at the school founded by Marshal d'Effiat and afterward joined the French Royal Army. He spent his first six years in service absorbed in duty and systematic military study. When the Revolution erupted, he did not join the nobles who fled abroad. He threw himself into the insurrectionist cause.

  Joining the staff of Charles Louis Victor de Broglie, the Jacobin son of the duc de Broglie, nearly cost Desaix his life. He escaped the guillotine. Through conspicuous service, he won the confidence of the Republican government and by 1794 held command of a division.

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• 3. Rhine and Bavaria

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  In 1795, Desaix commanded the right-wing of Jourdan's army along the Rhine frontier. The following year, during Moreau's invasion of Bavaria, he held an equally important post. When Archduke Charles won the battles of Amberg and Würzburg and forced a French retreat, Desaix was given charge of Moreau's rearguard. He also commanded the fortress of Kehl, carrying out both responsibilities with what contemporaries acknowledged as the highest distinction.

  Bonaparte, Jourdan, Hoche, Marceau, and Kléber were the commanders spoken of in the same breath as Desaix. The Preliminaries of Leoben brought his next run of successes to a halt. Desaix arranged a posting to Italy so that he could meet General Bonaparte directly.

  Bonaparte spared no effort to win over the young general who had built his name in the German campaigns. Desaix was provisionally appointed to command the Army of England. Bonaparte then transferred him to a far larger undertaking.

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• 4. Egypt and the Just Sultan

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  Desaix's division faced the full force of the Mamluk assault at the Battle of the Pyramids. The Mamluks were formidable fighters, and it was Desaix's men who bore the brunt of their attack. He followed that engagement with a campaign of victories over Murad Bey in Upper Egypt. He pushed deep into territory that few European officers had yet traversed.

  Amongst the fellaheen, the rural population of the Nile valley, Desaix acquired an appellation that spoke to his conduct: the Just Sultan. The name set him apart in a campaign that had not been gentle everywhere.

  When command of Egypt passed to Kléber, Desaix was among the small number of French officers selected to accompany Bonaparte back to France. A long journey lay between him and that destination.

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• 5. Lord Keith's Decision

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  Desaix left Upper Egypt and embarked on a ship on the 3rd of March, 1800. The vessel reached Livorno, on the Italian coast. There, British Admiral Lord Keith declared Desaix a prisoner of war and refused to recognize his standing as a general officer.

  Lord Keith's decision prompted a reply that was later preserved in the record. Desaix told the admiral: "I ask you nothing except to deliver me from your presence. If you wish, give straw to the wounded who are with me. I dealt with the Mamelukes, the Turks, the Arabs of the great Desert, the Ethiopians, the blacks of Darfur; all respected their word when they gave it, and they did not insult men in misfortune."

  Superior orders from the British Admiralty eventually overruled Keith. Desaix was freed, but the detention had cost him months. He reached Italy only as the campaign of 1800 neared its most critical point.

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• 6. Rivalta to Marengo

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  Desaix was assigned to command a corps of two infantry divisions in the Army of Italy. Three days into that command, on the 14th of June, he was detached with Boudet's division at Rivalta. He heard cannon fire to his right. Marengo was being fought nearby, and he set his men in motion toward the sound.

  Halfway on the route, he encountered a staff officer whom Bonaparte had sent to recall him. They continued toward the field together.

  Desaix arrived to find the Austrians victorious all along the line. He exclaimed, "There is yet time to win another battle!" and led his three regiments straight at the enemy's center. At the moment the tide turned, a musket ball struck and killed him. France would raise monuments to mark where his memory stood.

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• 7. Monuments and Memory

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  Napoleon raised two monuments to Desaix in Paris: one on the Place Dauphine and one in the Place des Victoires. The memorial at the Place des Victoires was later destroyed. Desaix's body first rested in Milan. In 1805 it was transferred to the Great St Bernard Hospice, where a monumental tomb bearing sculptures by Jean-Guillaume Moitte marks his grave.

  His name appears on a face of the Arc de Triomphe alongside many other military figures of the French Revolution. Fort Desaix in Fort-de-France, Martinique, carries his name. In Paris, Rue Desaix and the parallel Square Desaix run through the fifteenth arrondissement, between the metro stations Bir-Hakeim and Dupleix. Desaix Boulevard passes through the Bayou St. John and Fairgrounds district of New Orleans.

  Several ships of the French Navy have borne the name Desaix in his honor. The general born in a château in Auvergne has, through these ships, become a part of French maritime tradition as well.

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