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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MOL-MOS |
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MOREAU, JEAN VICTOR MARIE (1763-1813) , French general, was born at Morlaix in Brittany on the 14th of February 1763. His father was an avocat in good practice, and instead of allowing him to enter the army, as he attempted to do, insisted on his studying law at the university of Rennes. Young Moreau showed no inclination for law, but revelled in the freedom of a student's life. Instead of taking his degree he continued to live with the students as their hero and leader, formed them into a sort of army, which he commanded as their provost, and when 1789 came he commanded the students in the daily affrays which took place at Rennes between the young noblesse and the populace. In 1791 he was elected a lieut.-colonel of the volunteers of Ille-et-Vilaine. With them he served under Dumouriez, and in 1793 the good order of his battalion, and his own martial character and republican principles secured his promotion as general of brigade. Carnot, who had an eye for the true qualities of a general, promoted him to be general of division early in 1794, and gave him command of the right wing of the army under Pichegru, in Flanders. The battle of Tourcoing established his military fame, and in 1795 he was given the command of the Army of the Rhine-and-Moselle, with which he crossed the Rhine and advanced into Germany. He was at first completely successful, won several victories and penetrated to the Isar (see FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS), but at last had to retreat before the archduke Charles. However, the skill he displayed in conducting his retreatwhich was considered a model for such operationsgreatly enhanced his own reputation, the more so as he managed to bring back with him more than 5000 prisoners. In 1797 he again, after prolonged difficulties caused by want of funds and material, crossed the Rhine, but his operations were checked by the conclusion of the preliminaries of Leoben between Bonaparte and the Austrians. It was at this time he found out the traitorous correspondence between his old comrade and commander
Conde . He had already appeared as Pichegru's defender against imputations of disloyalty, and now he foolishly concealed his discovery, with the result that he has ever since been suspected of at least partial complicity. Too late
Consul
bear by Bonaparte on the judges; and after it was pronounced the First Consul
Jersey
series of well-meant political errors that marked his career. Negotiations were set on foot with an old friend in the circle of republican intriguers, Bernadotte, who, being now crown prince of Sweden and at the head of an army opposing Napoleon, introduced Moreau to the tsar Alexander. In the hope of returning to France to re-establish the regime of popular government, Moreau gave advice to the allied sovereigns as to the conduct of the war, but fortunately for his fame as a patriot he did not live to invade France. He was mortally wounded while talking to the tsar at the battle of Dresden on the 27th of August 1813, and died on the 2nd of September. He was buried at St Petersburg
Moreau's fame as a general stands very high, though he was far from possessing Napoleon's transcendent gifts. His combinations were skilful and elaborate, and his temper always unruffled when most closely pressed. Moreau was a sincere republican, though his own father was guillotined in the Terror. He was fortunate in the moment of his death, though he would have been more so had he died in America. He seems by his final words, " Soyez tranquilles, messieurs; c'est mon sort," not to have regretted being removed from his equivocal position as a general in arms against his country. The literature on Moreau is copious, the best book being C. Jochmus, General MoreauAbriss einer Geschichte seines Lebens and seiner Feldzuge (Berlin, 1814). A more ordinary work is A. de Beauchamp, Vie politique, militaire, et rivee du General Moreau, translated by Philippart (London, 1814) and there is a curious tract on his death in Russian, translated into English under the title, Some Details Concerning General Moreau and his Last Moments, by Paul Svinin (London, 1814).End of Article: MOREAU, JEAN VICTOR MARIE (1763-1813) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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