Generale Jean-Baptiste Eble
Profile
by Terry J. Senior (UK)
 |
The two were at one time working together on a project involving the development of rockets, but these experiments proved unsuccessful and the subject was dropped. It was perhaps fitting that the two old comrades should die within ten days of each other, in the same city of Koenigsberg, Eastern Prussia after the Emperors great Russian debacle Jean-Baptiste Éblé was born on the (21st December 1757 according to Six), but the correct date is the 22nd December in Saint Jean Rohrbach in eastern France. The small commune with some 800 inhabitants is located some 425km east of Paris 80km slightly to the Southwest of Metz and within 15km of the German border. The nearest town of any size is Sarraguemines. Through the ages there had been a number of derivations of the Éblé name including Eppele, Éblée, Eple and Appelee to quote a few. Jean-Baptiste was the second child of Jean Apelee (yet another variation) and his wife Marie Metrin whose family name had also seen a number of changes over a period of time. The family had a total of six children altogether. The others were: a son called Jean born in September 1756 but lived only seven weeks, next came the Generale. Then came a sister, Elisabeth born in August 1760, followed by another boy they called Joseph. He was born at Auxonne in October 1763 but lived for only three and a half years. The family was completed by two more girls, Laurence, and finally Anne-Nicole, who was also born at Auxonne on 22nd June 1765. Although Apelee senior was a soldier, it does not seem that the family, which could be traced back four generations, had a great military tradition. The Generals father Jean, was the first of five children born to Francois Eple and his wife Marguerite Heimes. There was one other boy Paul, who remained a bachelor all his life, the other three children Madeleine, Elisabeth and Catherine were all girls. The modest little house in which the General was born existed in Saint Jean Rohrbach until it was destroyed during the Second World War. A plaque has since been placed on another building close to the site of the original house. Enlisted After receiving a primary education the young Éblé, then only ten years old, enlisted as an enfant du corps on the 31st December 1767 and six years later entered the regiment d’artillerie d’Auxonne in December 1773. This regiment was in 1791 renamed the 6eme regiment d’artillerie. Being intelligent and bright he made steady progress and was sergent in April 1775 and by August 1779 was sergent-major serving with l'Armée des Cotes de Bretagne under the orders of Generale Marquis de Vaux. He was made Capitaine on the 18th May 1792 having seen service at the siege of Geneva, and then sent on a mission to Naples. From 1792 until 1795 he was with l'Armée des Ardennes and then l'Armée du Nord during which time he was first made Capitaine Commandant under the orders of the 57 year old Generale Charles-Francois du Perrier Dumouriez who was shortly to defect to the Austrians. Éblé was soon Chef de Bataillon of the 6eme artillerie a pied at the Camp of Madeleine in August 1793. He took part in the battle at Hondschoote on 8th September 1793 in which his commander and the future Marechal 31 year old Jean-Baptiste Jourdan was struck in the chest by a spent cannonball. Another future Generale, Jean-Pierre-Francois Bonet, also lost an eye in this battle. Three weeks later, on 29th September Éblé was made Generale de Brigade d’Artillerie while at Mauberge. The young officer was a modest man and wrote to the Ministerie de Guerre claiming that he did not deserve such promotion and that it should have gone to his older colleague Francois-Charles-Robert Chonet de Bollemont, who was Éblé’s senior in age at least by some ten years. De Bollemont did receive his promotion just four weeks later following the battle of Wattignies. Éblé was himself present at Wattignies on 16th of the following month and just nine days later on 25th October 1793 he found himself elevated to the rank of Generale de Division and appointed Directeur du Parc d’Artillerie a l'Armée du Nord again serving under the Limoges born Jourdan. He was a few weeks short of his 34th birthday. Over the years Éblé had developed into a very determined soldier, good at his profession and possessing considerable physical strength, which on very rare occasions he used to his advantage. It was in his acceptance speech at this promotion that he again stated that he felt unworthy of the honour but was nevertheless pleased to have the opportunity to help France triumph over her enemies. Éblé was of slim build with a clean-shaven pleasant sort of face and in his youth had a mass of brown wavy hair, which was to recede in later life when he had very little hair. He was of average height. The young General then saw successive service at the siege of Ypres, Nieuport, in July 1794, then at Bois le Duc, the fort of Crevecoeur and Nijmegen before becoming Inspecteur Generale d’Artillerie in November. Éblé next joined l'Armée de Hollande in 1795 and became Commandant d’Artillerie de l'Armée du Rhin et Moselle on 19th April the following year. He served at the defence of Kehl in November of that year and was then succeeded by the Nimes born veteran 65 year old Generale Jean Fabre de Lamartilliere on 13th February 1797. Commander of Artillery In November 1798 36 year old Generale Jean-Etienne Vachier Championnet having succeeded Generale de Division and future Marechal de l’Empire Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre MacDonald, an officer of Scottish descent, as Commandeur en Chef l'Armée de Rome, appointed Éblé as commander of his artillery. In this capacity Éblé was present at the capture of Capri on 10th January 1799 and Naples on the 22nd and 23rd of the same month. The following month Championnet left his command and on 16th March was arrested by an agent of the Directory named Faypoult on charges accusing him of disobeying Government orders and of embezzlement from the Kingdom of Naples. He duly faced a military tribunal at Grenoble who decided that the charges had no foundation and found him innocent of any wrong doing. He was destined to have a relatively short life however, when after being restored to high command in l'Armée d’Italie, he was taken ill towards the end of the year, surrendered his command once more and died on 9th January 1800 from an epidemic, which swept through the army. Éblé meantime, in July of 1799, had left Championnet’s army and was instead appointed Commandant l’Artillerie de l'Armée des Grande Alpes then, for the next ten years or so, he was given a string of highly important posts and established himself firmly as one of the leading exponents of artillery of the time. His appointments included Commandeur d’Artillerie du Corps de Reserve a l'Armée du Rhin, Commandeur l’Artillerie en Batavia, Commandeur d’Artillerie du Camp du Utrecht, Commandant d’Artillerie de l'Armée de Hanovre, then Commandant en Chef d’Artillerie du 1er Corps de la Grande Armée on 30th August 1805 under le Marechal Jean-Baptiste-Jules Bernadotte. He served at Halle on 17th October 1806 and was then present at the capture of Lubeck on the 6th November of the same year. He was next appointed Gouverneur of Magdebourg for the first time. During this period he was also decorated a number of times being made Grand Officier de Legion d’Honneur on 14th June 1804. This was followed in 1806 by the award of the Grand Croix du Lion du Baviere. After the battle of Friedland on 14th June 1807 and following the resulting Treaty of Tilsit in July, Magdebourg, which is located on the left bank of the Elbe, became part of the Kingdom of Westphalia and Éblé was called upon to serve there again. In January 1808 Éblé was recalled to France and sent for service first to Huningue close to the town of Saint Louis in the region of Haute Rhin and then to Belgium for service at Anvers (Antwerp). He was next appointed for a very brief period Commandant la 3eme division Westphalienne in Magdebourg once again He was considered to have done an excellent job and on leaving this post on 17th March 1808 he was given an annual pension of 10,000 francs drawn on the kingdom of Westphalia and decreed by le Ministre de Guerre de Royaume de Westphalie. Baron de l’Empire The popular General’s achievements then resulted in him being elevated to the Imperial nobility being created Baron de l’Empire on the 26th October 1808. Shortly after this, he was yet again posted to Magdebourg to serve the Emperors youngest brother Jerome whom Napoleon had created Roi de Westphalie. By this time, Éblé was 51 years of age and a bachelor, and it was now that he married the 20 year old Edeline-Louise-Helene Freteau who was born at Vaux le Penil, Seine et Marne but lived at rue Guillon No 15 in the 2e arrondissement in Paris. She was the youngest daughter of Emmanuel-MarieMichel-Philipe Freteau. The marriage took place on the 5th April 1809 in the Parish of Elisabeth de Kassel in a ceremony, which was conducted by the curate of the parish Canon Jean-Antoine Rieger. In June Éblé was further honoured being made Colonel-General des Gardes du Corps Westphaliens and on 28th August Chambellan du Roi Jerome. Almost a year after he was married Éblé returned to the service of France on 14th March 1810 and the following day received yet another honour when he was decorated as Grand Commandeur de l’Ordre de Westphalie. Less than two weeks later on 24th March, Edeline-Louise gave birth to the couples first child in Paris, a girl they called Catherine-Jeromia. The next appointment for Éblé was as Commandeur l’Artillerie de l'Armée de Portugal Three months later, Éblé was in Spain, present at the siege of Cuidad Rodrigo from 6th June to 10th July. He was then also at the siege of Almeida from 24th July to 28th August that fortress being taken after an almighty eruption on the 26th when the magazines exploded and killed some 500 defenders. It was never established whether the magazines were fired deliberately by traitors or whether the heavy French artillery bombardment was the cause. As Commandeur l’Artillerie of Massena’s army Éblé had just 40 guns. On 27th October 1810, the General was to be found at Santarum where the engineers, blacksmith’s and carpenters of each Corps had been instructed to report to Éblé who was charged with building bridges to facilitate the crossing of either the Tagus or the Zezere should it be necessary. What he (Éblé) found was that there were no forges, no materials and no timber. They had to strip the houses for the timber (an exercise he was destined to carry out under much more harrowing circumstances just over two years later) and to use the wrought iron from the balcony balustrades to make saws and hammers and other essential tools. On 30th January 1811, the General was in receipt of another financial award, this time of 4,000 francs annually and drawn on the city of Hanover. It is also thought that Éblé was present at the battle of Fuentes d’Onoro on the 3rd to 5th May 1811 though that is not confirmed. At least one historian has him as being in command of the artillery in le Marechal Andre Massena, Prince d’Essling and Duc de Rivoli’s Armee de Portugal Just ten days after this battle, Éblé was ordered to return to Paris where he was given the post of Commandant Provisoirement l’Artillerie d’Allemagne and given yet another award of 16,000 francs annually drawn on the department of Stura by decree dated 31st January 1812. On 7th February 1812 he was officially appointed Commandant en Chef les equipages de pont a la Grande Armée in readiness for the forthcoming Russian Campaign. In the meantime, on 3rd April 1812 his second child, another girl they called Marie-Louise-Laurence was born in Paris. There is some doubt as to whether the General actually got to see this new addition to his family before le Grande Armée departed for Russia. 1812 and Russia The Grande Armée some 450,000 strong began the crossing of the river Niemen just after 10 o’clock on the night of 23rd June when elements of Generale de Division Charles-Antoine-Louis Alexis, Comte Morand’s 1er division d’infanterie of le Marechal Louis-Nicolas Davout duc d’Auerstadt’s 1er Corps de la Grande Armee made the opposite bank. As soon as this had been achieved Generale Éblé’s engineers and sappers began throwing across the river three pontoon bridges, which were completed by dawn the following morning, thus enabling the massive army to cross in great numbers and with relative speed over several days. Éblé was present at the taking of Smolensk on the 17th August. The whereabouts of Éblé on the 7th September at the battle of Borodino is uncertain. It is thought unlikely that his command would have been required. Following the Emperors decision to commence the retreat from the Russian capital in October, the Grande Armée had reached Orsha when Napoleon, dissatisfied with the progress of the retreat in general ordered Éblé to destroy his bridging equipment train. Napoleon was of the opinion that in view of the exceptionally harsh weather conditions at that time, heavy falls of snow with many degrees of frost, the crossings to be made, would be accomplished with comparative ease as the rivers would be sufficiently frozen over to render bridges unnecessary and the destruction of so many lumbering and slow moving wagons would enable the rate of progress of the retreat overall to be improved. Much of the train was destroyed as ordered, but Éblé, not convinced of the Emperor’s reasoning, deliberately retained a number of wagons carrying important items such as nails, saws, cordage etc. This proved to be a very wise move on Éblé’s part as on reaching the banks of the Berezina although the weather remained very cold and miserable the freezing conditions they had been experiencing when the Emperor had made his decision had since changed. The overall temperature had risen, and as a result, the ice had partially melted and was no longer strong enough to effect a crossing. Huge pieces of ice now floated down the river, and if the remnants of the once mighty French army were not to be trapped with their backs to the river, bridges must be constructed and without delay. There are not many enthusiasts who remain unaware of the magnitude and value of the work carried out by Éblé’s command at Studianka at the end of November 1812. The first objective was to find the most suitable place for the building of the bridges. This was discovered by a member of another very famous Napoleonic family, namely Generale de Brigade Jean-Baptiste Juvenal Corbineau who had one brother, Claude-Louis-Constant-Esprit-Juvenal killed at Eylau, and another Colonel Marie-Louis-Hercule-Hubert very seriously wounded at Wagram in 1809. The Colonel’s right knee had been carried away by a round shot and the limb had subsequently been amputated. His life had been saved by the swift action of a friend and another very famous Napoleonic warrior, Major Pierre Daumesnil also of the Chasseurs a Cheval de la Garde Imperiale. Daumesnil’s leg had also been amputated and the two were lying side by side in adjacent cots in the Esterhazy Palace, when Daumesnil noticed that Corbineau was haemorrhaging very badly. Daumesnil with little care for his own welfare struggled down two flights of stairs on his one good leg and called for assistance. As a direct result of this action Corbineau’s life was saved. The Bridge The main shortage faced by Éblé and his engineers, pontonniers and sapeurs, was of timber and to get over that problem they had no alternative but to take timber from the houses of the village of Studianka and another hamlet nearby called Veselovo. Éblé arrived at Studianka at around five o’clock in the evening of the 25th November and immediately set about the difficult task of building two bridges each some 100 metres in length, in very hazardous conditions. He lead by example and jumped into the freezing waters of the river encouraging the some 400 men of the bridging unit along with men drafted in from Generale Francois Comte Chasseloup-Laubat’s engineering complement all working in shifts, often up to their necks in the ice strewn water. One bridge was to be for the foot soldiers, the second, more robust and stronger was intended for the cavalry, the artillery such as it was, and carriages and wagons of every description. The first bridge was completed by the evening of the 25/26th November, and immediately men of Generale Claude-Just Alexandre, Comte Legrand’s 6eme infanterie division of le Marechal Nicolas-Charles Oudinot, duc de Reggio’s 2eme Corps crossed to the opposite bank and took up defensive positions.
A few hours later the more robust structure for the heavier traffic was completed and cavalry, carriages and other heavy traffic started to cross. Neither of the bridges had any guard-rails, and in the crush many soldiers were pushed over the edge to be swept away down river and drowned. The traffic was continuous day and night and during the course of the 26th, and 27th November several thousand men, horses and vehicles had made the crossing. Even so, as the 27th drew to a close some 30,000 wounded, stragglers, cantineres, and miscellaneous personal including camp followers huddled round their fires and despite much urging, cajoling and threats by officers, refused to leave their much fought over places of relative but meagre comfort for the night crossing. The Emperor who had crossed with some 6,000 men of the Garde Imperiale gave orders that both bridges were to be burnt, Éblé had the orders carried out but not until 2am on the 28th, several hours later than the Emperor had ordered, thereby enabling a few thousand more tired, cold, and dejected soldiers to make the opposite bank. The crossing had not been without mishaps, both bridges had suffered damage and the construction parties were time and again required to jump once more into the freezing waters to effect repairs. During this time the pursuing Russians had made progress and were within artillery range of the bridges. This bombardment caused great loss of life in the crush of humanity clogging up the approaches to the bridges all desperately trying to scramble their way across the none too safe bridges. Two or three times the bridges themselves were struck and yet more repairs had to be carried out. Eventually, as the Russians closed in, both bridges were fired leaving several thousand to their fate either to the weather or to the advancing Russian units. It had been a magnificent achievement by Éblé and his men, many of whom, weakened by their exertions in appalling conditions, had been swept away down river and drowned. The ever decreasing remnants of the Grande Armée continued with the retreat losing more and more men every day and leaving behind them a wide path strewn with bodies of dead and wounded, discarded and abandoned weapons and equipment and the carcasses of emaciated horses. The Emperor, when he reached Smorgoni decided that he would rush ahead with a small select band of senior officers, including Caulaincourt, Duroc, Rapp and Lefebvre-Desnouettes. His intention was to return to France as quickly as possible and attempt to raise yet another army to resist the advance of the Russian armies, which he knew would not stop at their own borders. All the time, the enemy were gaining the support of units that were previously loyal to the Emperor, such as the Prussians etc. Death Generale Éblé, exhausted, reached Koenigsberg, where he remained until he died on 31st December 1812. He was not to know that just ten days earlier his great friend and colleague Generale JeanAmbroise Baston LaRiboisiere had passed away. La Riboisiere had a 21 year old, son Ferdinand-Bonaventure, a lieutenant in the 1er Regiment des Carabiniers who had been killed in an assault on the Grand Redoubt at Borodino on the 7th September. La Riboisiere never got over the loss of his son and died a broken man. Éblé who was 55 had given his all. The supreme exertions during that period of late November in the most atrocious of conditions were simply too much for the veteran commander. Having heard of La Riboisieres death, the Emperor, knowing nothing of Éblé’s precarious state of health, appointed him to Commandant-en-Chef l’Artillerie de la Grande Armée and even after his death raised Éblé to Comte de l’Empire. When informed of Éblé’s death, the Emperor insisted that la Comtesse Éblé should retain her title and the documents confirming this honour were issued to Mme la Comtesse on 8th April 1813. The 55 year old Éblé was buried in the Catholic Church at Koenigsberg, in Eastern Prussia. The Generals eldest daughter Catherine-Jeromia lived only until the 16th January 1829 when she died in Paris two months before her 19th birthday. Éblé’s second daughter, Marie-Louise-Laurence married on 20th October 1831 to Vicomte Aymard Charles-Leon de Nicolay and they had two children viz Aymard-Marie-Louis-Charles, who inherited his father’s title of Vicomte de Nicolay born 17th October 1832 and a daughter Aymardine-Marie-GabrielleAlexandrine de Nicolay born 18th July 1836. Their mother, Éblé’s second daughter died herself in Paris on 27th January 1859 at the age of 47. Mme la Comtesse Éblé, the Generale’s wife lived until 20th November 1868 when she passed away in Paris in her ninetieth year. The Éblé family name did not die as the Generale’s sister Laurence married a Monsieur J-B Billebaud but was divorced in 1798 and she reverted to her maiden name. In Paris on the 8th December 1799 she gave birth to a son Charles who carried on the name of Éblé and like his uncle became a highly respected Generale. Generale de Division Jean-Baptiste Éblé, hero of the Berezina, was a kindly man but could be determined when the situation demanded. He enjoyed the affection and respect of all who served under him. He was especially highly thought of by the people of Magdebourg in Westphalia where he was to serve at least three times. In 1820 the people of the city had a portrait of the Generale painted for the Comtesse which was accompanied by a glowing dedication to the Generale. Apart professional abilities and skills, he was an intelligent man and of a very modest disposition. He was considered to be equally at home speaking in either French or German. On the 21st April 1930 a bronze bust of the Generale was inaugurated at Saint Jean Rohrbach. The bust made by a sculptor called Gatelet from Nancy was mounted on a stone column in front of the church in 1930. During the Second World War the bust was removed overnight to a place a safety and restored to it’s original position in 1945. A street in the town bears the Generale’s name as does a local college at nearby Puttelange and a nearby wood of oak trees. There are at least two portraits of the Generale, one in the Mairie at Saint Jean Rohrbach and another in le Musée de l’Armée in Paris. The one in Paris was commissioned by Versailles in 1837 and is by Jean-Baptiste Paulin Guerin (1783-1855) Éblé’s name is to be found along with many of his fellow General officers inscribed on the East face of l’Arc de Triomphe l’Etoile in Paris. Present day descendants of the General are numerous. BibliographyJean-Baptiste Éblé by Eugene Heiser
Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire #62 Back to First Empire List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by First Empire. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com |
Most Napoleonic enthusiasts, and especially students of the disastrous Russian Campaign of 1812, will have heard of Generale Éblé and his heroic performance at the crossing of the Berezina in late November of that year. Perhaps not quite so many will know that he was actually an artillery man, not an engineer by profession and was a great friend of Generale Jean-Ambroise Baston La Riboisiere another great artillerist who was his junior in age by just eight months.
The Garde force a passage for the Emperor over Eble’s bridge. 1812