The Fighting Marshals
Marshal Lefebvre
Duc de Danzig
by Ian Barstow, UK
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An old friend of the marshal was visiting his grand Paris residence and made a number of jealous remarks. 'Very well,' said the marshal, 'come into the courtyard and I'll have twenty shots at you from thirty paces. If I don't hit you the whole house and everything in it is yours.' Not surprisingly, the friend declined, expressing shock. Lefebvre was unmoved: 'I had a thousand bullets fired at me from much closer range before I got all this.' This story works for me on two levels. Firstly, it immediately draws me to the originator, but it also epitomises for me the fascination of the Napoleonic period. Only in France, and only during this short window, I contend, could an ordinary man rise to a position of greatness and success through the most honest yet maligned of professions. But should we be right to admire Lefebvre, or like so many others amongst the marshals whom we have examined, is he demonstrably unworthy... Early Years Lefebvre was born in the Alsace in Rouffach on October 25th , 1755, the son of the town constable, and not to be confused with the Guard Cavalry general, Lefebvre-Desnouettes. As father had been a hussar in his youth it might easily have been assumed that the young Joseph Lefebvre would follow in his footsteps, yet when he was seven his father died, and his upbringing was left to his uncle, the Abbe Jean Christophe. This might well have influenced a career in the church, but ten years later Joseph left the Abbe's house, apparently little more advanced educationally then when he arrive, and headed for Paris where, weeks before his eighteenth birthday he joined the French Guards. It took him five years to make corpora and another four to become a sergeant. Hardly the electric stuff which epitomised the likes of Ney, but this was well before the accelerated opportunities of the Revolutionary Wars, so be patient, gentle reader. In March of 1783 Lefebvre married Catherine Hubscher, a washerwoman and another Alsatian. She is variously described, and often unkindly. Suffice to say that she was the sort of broad, bosomy girl who used to get walk-on parts in Carry On movies. Hardly classy, but at this point Lefebvre had no inkling of where life was taking him. In any case, the couple had one thing going for them - they were genuinely in love. Lt. then Capt. The French Guards, disaffected like so many others, joined in the storming of the Bastille on... you should know this. With the coming of the Revolution they were then disbanded, and Lefebvre, good working class NCO that he was, joined the National Guard of Paris with most of his lads, who elected him lieutenant of the grenadier company on September 1st, 1789. He did his duty patriotically but efficiently, bringing the iron discipline of the guards with him. This stood him in good stead, and when wear approached in 1792 Lefebvre was promoted to captain in the 13th Legere Battalion with the Army of the Moselle. It was at this point, like most of the others, that Lefebvre's career took off. He fought at Thionville in 1792 and Arlon a year later. With his promotion to lieutenant colonel in September 1793 things looked more than rosy. Then a directive from the paranoid Committee of Public Safety in Paris nearly scuppered everything. Concerned about Bourbon sympathisers, it was decided that all former members of household units were to be drummed out of the army. As a former member of the French Guards, Lefebvre fell into this category. It appears that like many of his colleagues, Lefebvre was protected by one of the People's Representatives who were posted throughout the army to oversee political correctness. Nevertheless, it took the edge off Lefebvre's revolutionary fervour. General de Brigade With Hoche, a fellow French Guardsman, now in command, Lefebvre made General de Brigade following the action at Kaiserslautern at the end of November 1793, and he was acting divisional commander when he distinguished himself at Wissembourg on 1793's Boxing day. On January 10th, 1794 he was confirmed in the rank. To this point it is the familiar meteoric rise, and along with the likes of Soult, who was Lefebvre's chief of staff upon his promotion, and Ney he served under Hoche's successor, Jourdan, at Fleurus where he again distinguished himself, leading the French counterattack. Following the battle, like a number of his contemporaries, including Ney, Lefebvre went out of his way to avoid the standing orders to execute captured émigré prisoners. Many of he future imperial general staff learnt their trade in the see-saw fighting which characterised the central theatre during the 1790's, and Lefebvre was no exception. Between 1795 and 1797 he commanded the advanced guard of the army, gaining as much experience of retreat as attack. He was one of the more successful commanders, doing particularly well at Altenkirchen on June 4th, 1796. By the time peace was concluded in 1797 Lefebvre was amongst the most highly rated officers in the army. In later years both Soult and Jourdan were full of praise for him. Now, following the peace, Lefebvre requested that the new Directory - who had replaced the Committee - retire him from active service. He was tired by six years of continuous fighting, and his increasingly regular clashes with political officials held no pleasure for him. The Directors refused. Instead, Lefebvre was granted a period of leave, cut short by the arrival of the Second Coalition. Not relishing more hard campaigning, Lefebvre requested a desk job, citing poor health, but this was again refused and he found himself commanding a combat division in the Army of the Danube. Wounded On March 21st, 1799, Lefebvre took a musket ball in his right arm in the defeat at Ostrach. Only then was he allowed to return to Paris. Here he found much unrest. With defeat came dissension, and he much-vaunted Directory had been effectively discredited. There was a whiff of insurrection in the air. The Directors, not being blind, began courting prominent soldiers for support, Lefebvre amongst them. He was appointed to command of the 17th Military District, encompassing Paris itself, and he was in the city when Bonaparte returned from Egypt. The Directors at once began sniffing about the little general, little realising the nature of the man they thought could so easily be manipulated. On the morning of November 9th, 1799 Lefebvre reported to Bonaparte's offices, as he had been requested to do. One story goes that Bonaparte offered him the sword which he had carried at the battle of the Pyramids along with an opportunity to save the Republic. Whilst the gift was undoubtedly appealing, it seems unlikely that this would have been enough to turn someone who was unwilling in the first place. Having seen Lefebvre develop with his increasing distrust of politicians, a military coup may have seemed quite a good idea. 'Yes, let's throw the lawyers in the river' has a ring of truth about it, don't you think? Whatever happened, Lefebvre threw in his lot with Napoleon. For the next fifteen years it looked like a good call. Senator With the creation of the Consulate, Lefebvre was suitably rewarded. The 15th and 16th Military Districts were added to his command and on April 1st, 1800 Bonaparte made his loyal supporter a Senator. However the true reward had to wait until Bonaparte's whole scheme fell into place. On May 19th, 1804, with the Empire established, the new Emperor appointed Lefebvre to the marshalate - sixteenth in seniority. At forty-eight, he was one of the old veterans, and like Perignon and Serurier it was expected that he would see out his days doing the emperor's work in the Senate. Fate, however, had other things in store. Corps Commander With yet another coalition showing up in 1805, Lefebvre was ordered to command a corps of reserve at Mayence. This was entirely inactive and the formation saw no action. However it seems to have reignited the old spark, because having missed Austerlitz Lefebvre requested an active posting the following summer. Napoleon responded by giving the solid old veteran command of the Imperial Guard infantry. This seems a wise choice. It was not as though the emperor intended to throw them into the thick of the action every five minutes, yet he clearly wanted someone reliable to look after them in the field should they be needed. During 1806 they weren't. By the March of 1807 Lefebvre must have been getting twitchy, but some decent action was coming his way. The fortress of Danzig needed taking, and Napoleon entrusted Lefebvre, now in command of X Corps, to deal with it. Putting himself about like a far younger man, Lefebvre inspired his somewhat insipid hotchpotch of nationalities by his personal example and they saw off a relief attempt to force a surrender on May 25th. Three days later in recognition - and strapped for other ideas, I suspect - Napoleon created Lefebvre Duc de Danzig. It's round about this paragraph in practically every essay in this series that one dirty word keeps raising its head. Spain. Yes, garnished with his brand new title what better than a posting to that easiest of theatres. Lefebvre was given IV Corps in September 1808 when the great man himself deigned to cross the border for a visit to the Peninsula. Spain As part of the right wing along with Ney, it was Lefebvre's job to form part of a grand pincer movement. However Lefebvre allowed himself to be distracted by Blake's Spanish corps, who he duly defeated on November 10th at Espinosa. A ticking off from the emperor was his reward for disobeying orders. Nevertheless Lefebvre did not learn his lesson, and at the turn of the new year he was removed from command for exceeding his orders by peremptorily invading Old Castile when he was supposed to be mopping up. Like so many f the others, Lefebvre had shown a massive lack of capacity for limited independent command. However, by the standards of some of his fellows this was small potatoes, and Lefebvre's ignominy did not last long. Within a few months Lefebvre was commanding the Bavarian-manned VII Corps against the Austrians. During April, when the super-clod Berthier was in command, Lefebvre kept his head and performed more than creditably. He was rewarded with a rather unpleasant task. Namely, clearing the Tyrol of unwanted insurgents. This was an indecisive little campaign cut short by VII Corps being required at Wagram, where it saw next to no action, before returning once more to the Tyrol where after some hard fighting the insurrectionists were put down. With this Lefebvre returned to semi-retirement at the grand estate referred to in the introductory anecdote. It seems to have been a happy time for the ageing couple, although they were deprived by fate of all but two of their fourteen children - twelve died in infancy, although the only survivor, Marie-Xavier was a General de Brigade in the Grand Army, much to his father's pride. As with all things during the First Empire, it was not destined to last. In 1812 he was posted once more to command of the infantry of the Old Guard. At 58 years old, it was hardly a pleasant experience, particularly the retreat, but Lefebvre did not waver in his duty. Without any real command decisions to make, he became more of a bodyguard commander for his emperor, and is supposed to have marched on foot all the way back to Poland. He did see action at Vilna, but tragedy was the order of the day, and his own was compounded by the death of Marie-Xavier in the Russian snow. Grief Nothing else had come close to breaking the tough old marshal, but this did. He asked to be relieved and Napoleon granted his wish. Returning to his heartbroken wife he grieved throughout the 1813 campaign. However, if he thought that he had seen his last service with the Eagles, Lefebvre was mistaken. It was all hands to the pumps in 1814, and with French soil itself threatened, Lefebvre was not about to be an exception. On February 10th he fought at Champaubert and the following day he personally led two battalions of the Old Guard in a charge at Montmirail at the grand old age of 60. A week later at Monterau he had a horse shot from under him, and after Arcis-sur-Aube he began losing hope. Nevertheless he remained steadfastly loyal to Napoleon, and was contemptuous of the intrigues going on around him. It did not take a genius to determine that France was beaten, and on April 4th Lefebvre reluctantly was involved in pressuring Napoleon to abdicate. After a meeting with the Russian Czar Alexander where he pleaded for Alsace to remain a French possession, he went into retirement. Here he was pretty much left in peace. He did a lot for other veterans who had fallen on hard times, and managed to retain his peerage under the Bourbons despite supporting the 1815 fiasco. By 1820 he was a frail old man, broken by the piteous task of having to bury fourteen children. These days some do-gooding twit would have recommended that he see a counsellor. Perhaps men were just hardier in those days. Lefebvre died on September 14th, 1820 in Paris, hand-in-hand with his beloved wife. Conclusions So, what do we think of old Lefebvre? He may have been the least affected of all the marshals, and certainly it seems that he changed not one iota during his career. Lucky enough to find true marital bliss, if he knew that this and the rustic nature of his character were the butts of the humour of those who thought themselves better then he controlled himself admirably. It seems likely that he did not care. As a person he was loyal, dependable and honest. Brave, too. As a soldier suggestions that when he was promoted above sergeant he got out of his depth are, I believe, grossly unfair, and smack again of a more probable contempt for his lack of sophistication. Being utterly unsophisticated myself I thus have an instant bond with the man. Certainly he did nothing to broaden the field of the military art, but more importantly he did nothing to stain it. We'll put Lefebvre down as a good bloke, then. 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Lefebvre has the dubious distinction of, if nothing else, being the subject of my second-favourite Napoleonic anecdote - after Berthier, Massena and the rabbits, of course. It goes thus: