The Fighting Marshals
Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
by Ian Barstow, UK
 |
Jourdan was born at Limoges on April 29, 1762, the son of a local surgeon. It seems the young Jourdan always had a desire for the military life, and aged 16, he was posted to the Auxerre Regiment in the West Indies. Here he fought at Savannah, where the French and Americans took a pasting from the 60th Foot. To compound a pretty inauspicious start to his army career Jourdan subsequently contracted a fever that was so intense that he was invalided home to France, where he spent the best part of two years recuperating. During this time peace was signed and Jourdan found himself a discharged private.
Going home to Limoges he went off at something of a tangent by becoming a haberdasher, and then marrying the local seamstress. There are various versions about how successful this career move was, but in 1789 he was elected as a captain in the newly-formed National Guard, and by the end of 1791 he had risen to the rank of lieutenant-colonel without having to do very much. Jourdan led his men in both victory and defeat at Jemappes and Neerwinden over the winter of 1792-93, and mainly through high natural wastage found himself bumped up to General of Brigade on May 27, 1793. Then, as was the way of things at the time two months later he was a General of Division.
Jourdan next fought at Hondschoote on September 8, taking a chest wound during an uncoordinated scrap, and before he even had time to begin a recovery he found himself appointed to the command of the Army of the North. This was not a cushy number. The previous two incumbents, Custine and Houchard had made appointments with Madame Guillotine and the atmosphere in France bore similarities to Bolshevik Russia. The dreaded Representatives of the Committee of Public Safety were everywhere, acting as spies for their masters in Paris, and there word alone often meant death or disgrace for a soldier.
The current guidelines dictated that Jourdan should undertake the capture of all the Austrian-held fortresses, which coincidentally was the exact opposite of the Austrians plans. The Austrians got in first, laying siege to Maubeuge. The garrison was commanded by one of those princes of Orange who appear to have made a name for themselves throughout history by attending the Danny La Rue military academy. It was considered paramount that Jourdan succeed in relieving Maubeuge, and accordingly Carnot himself came out from Paris to lend his personal guidance.
Hampered by a hat-full of ill-meaning amateurs, Jourdan finally relieved Maubeuge following victory at Wattignies, but not before a couple of sharp reverses, not all of which can be wholly blamed on the Representatives. Carnot and Jourdan clashed almost as often as the enemy armies, and Jourdan must have been most uncomfortable when Carnot went back to Paris to report to Robespierre.
Orders soon came through from Carnot ordering Jourdan to cross the Sambre and surround the Austrian General Coburg. The best bit of these orders though was the instruction to remain concentrated. Yes, Carnot was a pillock. Jourdan decided that his men weren't up to this sort of thing, and quickly found himself recalled to Paris to face the Committee of Public Safety. This was pretty serious, and conviction would literally have meant the chop, but one of committee, Duquesnoy, who had a brother commanding a division on the Sambre, backed Jourdan and succeeded in reducing his punishment to merely being dismissed to his family home. Haberdashery in Limoges thus saw the return of its most famous son.
Bizarrely a month later, Jourdan had been forgiven. In April 1794 he took command of the Army of the Moselle, based near Luxembourg, relieving Hoche. A period of confusion not entirely uncommon at the time ended with Jourdan taking command of a new combined army of 96,000 men called the Army of the Sambre and Meuse. He was tasked with taking Charleroi, and in what became the first in a series of to-and-fro campaigns he crossed the Sambre on June 12 and invested the town before being chased off by the Austrians on the 16th. St Just, the kindly People's Representative then threatened another day out in Paris unless Jourdan got his act together.
On June the 18th (a familiar date) Jourdan attacked again and on the 26th Charleroi surrendered almost with Coburg's standards in sight. The Battle of Fleurus, which followed, was another bloody and confusing affair. Coburg stupidly split his 52,000 men into five columns, but even so managed to overwhelm both French wings, despite their being well dug in. In fact, credit for the French victory is generally given to Lefebvre who held Fleurus against all-comers, ably assisted by a young Soult. Also present at the battle were Bernadotte and Ney, as well as the Archduke Charles who led the Austrian 4th column. All-in-all a veritable feast of future stars. Sadly Coburg was not one of them and with victory within his reach he managed to grasp defeat and lost his bottle.
Jourdan now led his troops across the Netherlands to the Rhine, spared of St Just's presence by virtue of the guillotine. Things were looking good, and in association with events in Italy, Jourdan crossed the Rhine and took Frankfort, before sickness forced him to his tent, effectively losing him the military initiative. Then Carnot poked his oar in again with another grandiose entrapment scheme. The Archduke Charles who had replaced Coburg was Carnot's target. He envisaged a joint manoeuvre with the Army of the Rhine and Moselle to trap Charles, but there was a complete lack of co-ordination with Moreau's troops and Jourdan took a hiding at Wurzburg on September 3, 1796. It was too much for Jourdan's fragile health, and his West Indian fever kicked in again and he found it a good enough reason to resign his post.
Tranquillity beckoned with a return posting to the Army of the North where not a lot was happening. Jourdan was able to rehabilitate with a spot of politics. First a Deputy, and then President of the Council of Five Hundred. In September 1798 he passed through the Conscription Law which bears his name. In October he took command of the Army of Mayence, with which he then managed to get outmanoeuvred by Charles at Stockach the following March and was beaten again. In fact at Wagram I bet the Archduke was rather hoping that Jourdan would show up. The flu flattened him again and Massena took command.
On April 27th Jourdan was made Inspector-general of the Infantry, and in Paris he was in a position to be at the hub of things, but approached by General Bonaparte with a view to becoming a major player in the forthcoming coup, Jourdan sagely refused. He was ideologically opposite to the diminutive Corsican, being what we might today term a lefty. Thus when Bonaparte's Consulate took over the reigns of power from the Directory, Jourdan's name was on the wrong sort of list. He was arrested and was at one stage to be deported, but in 1800 Bonaparte pardoned him and made him Inspector-general of the Infantry and Cavalry. Ambassadorial work in the Cisalpine Republic and Piedmont followed, and with such an undistinguished record both on and off the field it was of course obvious to place him fourth on the list of marshals in 1804. Not. Why this came about is a mystery to me. Perhaps Napoleon wanted someone in the marshalate with strong republican sympathies; there were others of course, yet most of he other fighting marshals had actually done a bit. Sure Jourdan had been in action, but not heavily by the standards of the time, and then not with any degree of blinding success. He may have been riding on the back of Fleurus, but that really was not his battle.
In March 1806 Jourdan was sent as Governor of Naples, which had been suffering the unwelcome attention of Massena's greed and needed cooling down. Joseph was technically king, of course, but his brother realised that he needed a lot of guidance. In a busy time elsewhere it seems fair to say that Jourdan could be spared. A strong friendship soon grew between Jourdan and Joseph, and when Joseph got promoted King of Spain he requested Jourdan go with him as his chief of staff. This came about on August 22, 1808, although the capital was currently Vitoria and not Madrid, as Joseph had been chased out of there. Still, Napoleon popped over, recaptured the proper capital and things looked to be hunky-dory. Then at the start of 1809 Napoleon had business elsewhere and left things to his subordinates. This of course we know to be a bad move. Jourdan found himself commanding old enemies like Ney and Soult, with whom he had clashed during the republic, and co-operation was minimal. Jourdan certainly did not have the personality to carry things off. Then, temporarily commanding IV Corps in the absence of Lefebvre, he contrived to join Victor in defeat at Talavera. The brown stuff then hit the fan big-time at Imperial headquarters and Jourdan felt it an appropriate time to have another touch of Caribbean fever and went to bed.
What amounted to a two year retirement then ensued before Napoleon posted Jourdan back to Madrid as its governor, a demeaning role for the fourth senior marshal, and then only to please a sulky Joseph who was threatening abdication if he didn't see a friendly face. In 1812, with the Emperor's attention turned east, the usual mayhem was going on in Spain. Technically Joseph and thus Jourdan had supreme command, but neither were remotely up to it. The final outcome were total defeats for first Marmont at Salamanca and Jourdan at Vitoria. He had advised Joseph against fighting but nevertheless Napoleon unloaded most of the blame on Jourdan, who was called home in disgrace. He would never hold an active command again.
Jourdan did a spot of rear-echelon work in Rouen during 1814, but didn't everybody. He quickly went over to the Bourbons following the abdication but turned coat once more to rejoin Napoleon for the final fling. However during all this time he did so little (I wonder if Rapp's Army of the Rhine knew he had even taken command in late June) that when the Bourbon's got back in yet again they forgave him instantly. Now comes the bit that sticks in the craw. Jourdan presided over the court that tried and condemned Ney. For me this would be enough to justify scraping his woeful name from the history books and burying it in the vacant space behind Frank Tate's gravestone. True he had no liking for Ney, but anybody who stands up and goes on about Jourdan's honesty and loyalty better care to defend that one. Stick him up there with Mr Iscariot as far as I am concerned.
Should any of you be interested the man who was made a count for betraying Ney died in 1833 whilst governor of Les Invalides. Look up the exact date should you care enough.
Crikey, saved up the interesting stuff for last this time. Probably by now you can tell that I can't stick Jourdan. To me he is a nothing, and that's without the Ney affair. I would guess that 50% of the readers dropped out before getting to the meaty stuff through boredom. Anyway let's try and sum up Jourdan. About as much use as Macdonald would be my short answer. How on earth did he get the number 4 slot? Clearly this is one man who should never have received his baton. There were hundreds of uninspiring officers who never got anywhere near his position, yet were it not for a few crazy months during 1793 Jourdan might more likely have been in Ney's firing squad rather than presiding over it. Whilst researching my novel on Ney's early career (publishers take note) the best that I can say about Jourdan is that he turned into a decent baddy. Were he alive, I should have Donald Pleasance play him in the film. Or Larry Grayson.
|
I know what your thinking. I didn't even know Jourdan was a marshal. Obviously not you smug over-educated types, but to many who are not intimate with Napoleonic France Jourdan's name is not instantly familiar. So is this scraping the bottom of the barrel, then? Well, Jourdan did enough during the early years to secure the fourth spot on the roster when it became baton time, so let's see.