Mortier was born on February 13th, 1768 at what is now Le Cateau. He was the sixth child of a well-to-do family of cloth merchants, and, rather bizarrely for one of Napoleon's marshals, had an English mother. Accordingly Mortier grew up fluent in not only his own native tongue, but that of his country's greatest enemy. Indeed, he was educated at the English College in Douai. He grew into something of a 'gentle' giant, measuring 6'4", easily the tallest of the marshals. However, as will be seen the geniality was something of an off-field characteristic.

There is no apparent evidence of any military career in mind when Mortier joined a merchant's office in Lille - a career which ended abruptly in a minor scandal over the firm's finances. However with the coming of the Revolution Mortier's father was called up to the States-General, a post which got Mortier a position in the Dunkirk National Guard. Further family influence - an uncle - obtained a transfer to the Volontaires du Nord and he was rapidly elected a captain in his uncle François' battalion. He was 23 years old.

Mortier was blooded at Quiévrain on April 28th, 1792. It was not a hugely successful action for the French who suffered at the hands of the Austrians, but Mortier and his unit acquitted themselves well enough, and he had a horse shot from under him. He continued to survive the series of mishaps which followed before being transferred to the relief of Dunkirk. Again he was adequately capable during the campaign and was promoted to major on the staff of the advance guard on September 3rd, 1793. However, staff duties clearly did not appeal to Mortier, and within a matter of weeks he had requested a transfer to the cavalry.

This transfer was still pending when Mortier received his first wound at Wattignies on October 15th whilst torching the village of Dourlers - obviously staff work wasn't ALL boring. Unfortunately for Mortier he was rather too efficient for his own good, and General Balland refused to release him. This decision, however cannot be held to blame for Mortier receiving another wound the following April (1794) in the operations on the Sambre. His efficient work also caught Kléber's eye, although that was more than he saw of direct action. Probably bored, he took winter leave into 1795 and went home.

Promoted to Colonel

On his return Mortier found himself promoted to colonel, but still on the dreaded staff. 1795 was another uneventful year, although in the process of it he met another future marshal, Soult, with whom he struck up an instantaneous but enduring friendship. Becoming divisional chief of staff to Lefebvre's advance guard division that October, Mortier began haranguing his commander for more combat duty. Lefebvre did not disappoint him. When hostilities recommenced in May 1796, Mortier was given command of the light infantry of the division, which was spearheading the l'Armée de Sambre et Meuse.

Over the next quarter he was to fight an average of five engagements a month. By the end of June his command had swelled to include small proportions of cavalry and artillery and finally on July 14th he negotiated the Austrian surrender at Frankfurt. On July 22nd his all-arms brigade took Schweinfurt, earning a commendation from Kléber.

Finally, with Lefebvre's intervention, Mortier was given his own regiment, the 23rd Cavalry on January 4th, 1798 having successfully negotiated the surrender of Mainz. He was, in fact, offered the post of General de Brigade, but with similarly modesty to Ney, he too refused the promotion. Depression set in immediately when he was ordered to Boulogne as part of the invasion of England. He clearly expected this to be going nowhere fast, not realising that the real destination was Egypt. He dallied in Paris, not reading between the lines of Kléber's summonses, and missed the boat. So, whilst Napoleon was enjoying the Egyptian hospitality, Mortier drilled his troops and got married - as you do; Anne-Eve Himmies being the lucky girl.

General de Brigade

The honeymoon was interrupted with news that at 31 (old for Revolutionary France) Mortier was now a General de Brigade whether he wanted it or not. It was February 23rd, 1799. He was posted to Soult's advance guard with the l'Armée de Danube, and despite another untoward retreat he did well enough to go with Soult to join Massena in Switzerland, and he subsequently replaced Soult in command on September 25th, with the rank of General de Division, although in effect he had been commanding the division for the previous month. Suddenly Mortier found himself on the ladder, with the rungs narrowing before him. It was here for the first time that Mortier fought the Russians, and it was his performances against them that caught Massena's eye. However the campaign against the Russians under Suvarov was brutal and unpleasant and Mortier was looking forward to the turn of the new century with an optimistic hope that things would get better.

They did not. At least not immediately. His mother died, shortly followed by one of his elder brothers, and an unsympathetic Lecourbe refused him leave. Despite going technically AWOL in March 1800 on route to Paris, Bonaparte promoted him to command of the 17th military division which included Paris itself, adding the 15th five days later on April 21st, on the intervention of its outgoing commander, none other than Mortier's old friend and backer, Lefebvre. Once again Mortier's capable staff work shone, and in the process he missed Marengo. He was to stay in command for another three years. In the process he became one of the future Emperor's entourage, and falling under the great man's spell, even began to enjoy staff work.

On May 3rd, 1803 Bonaparte sent Mortier to seize England's sole European possession, Hanover. He awaited the expected declaration of war, which duly came on May 16th. Two weeks later he invaded, and despite being woefully short of supplies, succeeded in capturing the city. Things failed to run smoothly when England refused to ratify the Convention of Suhlingen, but Mortier's capable diplomatic talents again came to the fore and he independently negotiated Wallmoden's surrender. He remained its governor until February of 1804, doing a good enough job that he was actually missed when he finally left.

Commander of the Consular Guard Artillery

He had to return though, because Napoleon had appointed him commander of the Consular Guard artillery. With the coming of the Empire you wouldn't get good money backing Mortier not to become one of the newly-appointed Marshals. On May 19th Mortier became eleventh in seniority, and his place in history was assured. Considering that at 30 he had still been a colonel, and that all but three of the officers in the 23rd cavalry had been older than him, the rise had been meteoric. Now 36, only five of the marshals were younger than him. It had been quite a turn around.

He was completely the Emperor's man, and the son born in August of the year he collected his baton could only have one name, and if you can't guess then I'm not telling you! Once more he found himself at Boulogne, looking over the channel from amongst the new Imperial Guard. Despite distractions, it would always be them to whom he seemed to return. However Bessières commanded the guard, and it was as a member of the general staff that he led the troops off the transports and marched them to Strasbourg, and it was from this ivory-towered position that he watched Napoleon's masterpiece at Ulm.

He was then given an ad hoc corps on the Danube - one of Murat's half-baked ideas, but it wasn't the overdressed horseman who got attacked at Durrenstein by four times his own number of Russians. Nevertheless in a solid performance - helped by Miloradovitch's incompetence- he gave the Russians a severe hiding. In many ways it was a mini Auerstadt, but with so much else going on at the time it has naturally been overshadowed.

Mortier then went on to garrison Vienna, putting his diplomatic skills to good use again, and missing Austerlitz. He must have been getting just a little miffed. Every time there was a really epic scrap he was pushing paper somewhere. After the event he took V Corps over from Lannes, doing garrison duty under Bernadotte, with whom he became close friends. However, a show down with the Prussians was on the horizon and Mortier dearly wanted to be in the thick of things for a change. This time he got his wish.

Command of VIII Corp

Recalled to Paris by Napoleon, he was given command of VIII Corps and on October 1st, 1806 he joined it at Mainz. Unfortunately for Mortier his job was to cover northern Germany, and by 'modern' standards VIII Corps was under-equipped. He missed Jena-Auerstadt, sweeping up in Hesse and Hanover instead. On January 20th, 1807 Mortier was commanded to capture Stralsund in Sweden, with a deadline of March 1st. He missed Eylau. The whole Swedish Pomeranian campaign was a frustrating experience for Mortier. The weather was awful, the Swedes under Essen enterprising and difficult, and his troops were continually being whittled down by requisitions from Napoleon. Finally a truce was negotiated and Mortier was packed off to besiege Gneisenau in Colberg. He was not a happy soldier.

Practically as soon as Mortier had gone out of sight, Essen came out of Stralsund and drove back Grandjean's under-strength division. Mortier turned around and fought a nasty two day affair at Anclam, eventually forcing Essen to sign an armistice that he would stick to. Finally he could get off to some real war.

Mortier did not miss Friedland. Yes, I know. By this time I'm almost as relieved as he must have been. VIII Corps was now 18,000 strong, and included a good proportion of Dutchmen, Poles and Italians. He fought with Lannes during the famous delaying action on the morning of June 14th, and as the day wore on he commanded the whole left wing which had the pinning role. During the fighting he had another horse killed under him.

Duke of Treviso

Napoleon was pleased. So pleased that he made Mortier governor of Silesia and subsequently brought Mortier into the New Nobility as Duke of Treviso. Mortier, it has to be said, appears to have had a very good time in Silesia, where he brought his family, and was again treated with unusual warmth by the locals. Just when things were cosy, Napoleon sent him to the Marshals' Graveyard - Spain. So he missed Aspern-Essling and Wagram.

Leading the experienced V Corps, Mortier departed for Spain in September 1808, commanding nearly 23,000 men and 30 cannon. Soult, with Moncey's III Corps was besieging Saragossa, and it was here that Mortier was sent. V Corps covered the siege, avoiding most of the messiness, and he was conspicuous by his abstinence from the mass looting which followed the city's fall. For the most part he then fought the Spanish, and thus avoided the humiliation of losing to Wellesley. Certainly his performance after Talavera was poor, showing far too much circumspection in his dealings with the retreating allies. However his humane treatment of 1,500 (probably drunk) English wounded left at Talavera was well noted, and Wellesley was chivalrous enough to send him a letter of thanks.

As has been said, Mortier did well enough against the Dons, but then again, who didn't? Thus this cannot be grounds for any excessive praise. Rather Mortier simply did not do anything stupid. Prior to Albuera, Mortier was recalled to Paris. Once more he was gravitating towards the guard, although this time Napoleon had a new idea - something called the Young Guard. The Emperor needed 18,000 conscripts, all capable of reading and writing, and he decided that Mortier was the man to find and train them. He was right. It was the sort of job that the giant marshal was cut out for. His capable combat record combined with a good staff mind engendered immediate respect, and he enjoyed the role mightily. Russia put an end to that.

On to Borodino

On the way to Borodino, 14% of Mortier's Young Guardsmen were lost from the ranks, primarily through lack of rations. In his diary Mortier makes mention that some starved to death. Losses at Borodino were negligible, as for the most part the Young Guard were kept in reserve. Afterwards he fell out with Murat over the latter's inept handling of the pursuit. Once in Moscow he was appointed governor, presumably because he was about the only senior officer who could be relied upon not to loot the place. Subsequent events were of course to make this an irrelevance.

On November 17th, During the retreat Mortier's Young Guard did well at Krasnöe, extricating Davout's Corps, although by this time they were only 5,000 strong. By the time he reached the Berezina, Mortier was down to 1,500 effectives, where they helped beat off the Russian assault, going down to under 1,000 men in the process. Nevertheless he remained undaunted, unlike many of his colleagues.

Mortier was back in Paris on February 1st, 1813 to train a new Young Guard division. Considering the debacle which he had just left, Mortier did an excellent job. Inside 3 months he had forged a top quality combat formation which he led well at Lutzen and Bautzen. By this time Mortier's name was synonymous with the Young Guard. During the armistice he returned to his old haunts in Silesia, building the formation up to 32,000 men, a corps in itself. More importantly his loyalty to the Emperor remained unshaken. It was he who proposed the toast on the occasion of Napoleon's forty-fourth birthday in Dresden, when his Young Guard were decisive in obtaining the French victory, suffering 20% of the French casualties in the process.

After Dresden the Young Guard was split between Mortier and Oudinot. Mortier was subsequently less impressive by failing to support Vandamme at Gross Beeren, but by this stage most of the marshals had done badly, so signalling him out for vilification here would serve no more purpose than praise in Spain. At Leipzig, Mortier was his usual solid self, and was amongst those who were undaunted by the enemy numbers.

With defeat, Mortier alternated with Oudinot during the retreat, acting as rearguard, and in November 1813 he once more began the task of refilling the Young Guard's ranks. By 1814, however, Mortier's unswerving loyalty and coolness under pressure meant that Napoleon could trust none other with the Old Guard. Fighting defensively and using interior lines, Mortier showed himself at his best. Perhaps it was because so many were shadows of their former selves, but who can say? He did well at Craonne (the wargamer's ultimate battle - all the French are guard!)

Unfortunately, Napoleon's character judgement was becoming flawed, and he put too much faith in his friend Marmont, giving him an independent command despite Mortier's seniority. Marmont was ordered not to ruffle Mortier's feathers, but the discord was sown. Marmont did badly and dragged Mortier down with him, blaming the guard commander in his memoirs. Frankly, Marmont should not be trusted on the subject of 'Eggs Is Eggs' and thus the prudent reader might be advised to appropriate the blame for La Fère-Champenoise accordingly.

As things deteriorated, both marshals were authorised by Joseph to negotiate with the enemy, but following further poor co-operation, Mortier saw the way Marmont was swinging and pulled out, coldly stating that he had business defending Paris. He was not one of those encouraging the Emperor to abdicate. Following Napoleon's departure, Mortier rather surprisingly stayed on to serve the Bourbons. He had claimed in a letter that he intended to go with his Emperor into exile, but this did not happen.

The 100 Days

Nevertheless he behaved with great dignity and honour, refusing to arrest the king and allowing the Bourbons to escape unmolested, much to Davout's chagrin. Despite this Napoleon was more than happy to greet Mortier back at the Tuileries, referring to him as "Monsieur le Blanc." He was given the Guard Cavalry to command, although it was Napoleon's intention to once more bring the Young Guard up to strength and give it to Mortier, who it appears treated them akin to his own children. Yet, even at the end he was to miss the Big One. Confined to bed with sciatica, he missed Waterloo. He may not have influenced the outcome of the battle, but Napoleon was subsequently convinced that the Duke of Treviso would not have allowed the Guard Cavalry to be wasted against the Allied squares.

Following the Second Abdication, Mortier was reluctantly involved in Ney's trial, where he once more behaved with great honour, scotching forged evidence and making sure that the military court did not convict him. His continued dignity, coupled with memories of allowing the Bourbons to escape meant that Mortier had a future. His children married well and he retained his title from 1819 onwards, and he only retired from service at the age of 67. Unfortunately on July 25th, 1835 the marshal was one of 18 people murdered at the National Guard review by the Corsican terrorist Fieschi's 'Infernal Machine' made from 25 rifles.

What of Mortier?

So what can be said of Mortier? Well he was a damned sight more pleasant to write about than Macdonald, that's for sure. For me, he's always the 'nearly man,' missing most of the great battles of the period, bar 1813. Certainly he never let himself down badly, although few of his successes were particularly spectacular. He was certainly cool, both under fire and under pressure. He was also unswervingly loyal, not only to Napoleon but also to the Bourbons, when he was under their command.

In fact he's not your regular marshal at all. He didn't even go in for looting. One can never say that 'if Mortier had been there...' except for the reference to Waterloo, yet his solidity as a subordinate commander might have been put to better use. His major contribution, however, must be his efforts in helping create and command the Young Guard. Three times he recruited fresh faces, and we're talking thousands, not a few hundred replacements, and each time he turned out a fighting formation the equal of the one that had gone before it. That in itself is probably accolade enough.

Related Article:

1st Tirailleurs of the Young Guard Profile of Young Guard Squadrons 1813-1814

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