The Levis family was one of the oldest in France, said even to be older than France itself and descended from the ancient Israeli tribe of Levi. One ancestor even claimed to be a direct descendant of the Virgin Mary! Be that as it may, Francois-Gaston came from an illustrious background.

At the age of fourteen, Levis joined the regiment of La Marine. As a lieutenant he fought at the battle of Clausen. During the War of the Austrian Succession, he served with his future brother-in-law, the Marquis de Montcalm in the campaign in Bohemia. Wounded in the chest by a bomb fragment at the siege of Prague in 1742, he was counted among the invalids under the keeping of Chevert's heroic rear guard after Belle-Isle's epic retreat. He participated in a lively action on the banks of the river Main at the head of a 100-man detachment and was at the battle of Dettingen on June 27, 1743.

On returning to France, Levis went into the army of the Upper Alsace under Marshal de Coigny with whom he served in Swabia. In 1745, he served under the Prince de Conti with whom he crossed the Rhine River. The following year, he went with his regiment toward Nice to defend the frontiers of Provence, which was being threatened by invasion by the Austrians. Promoted to aide major in 1747, Levis distinguished himself at the sieges of Montauban, Valencia, Casale, Villefranche, and Vintimille. At the French defeat at Piacenza, his horse was killed and he was wounded in the head during a reconnaissance.

With the outbreak of hostilities with England at the beginning of the Seven Years War, Levis was named second in command under Montcalm by the Comte d'Argenson for the French reinforcement sent to New France in 1756. A colonel since 1746, Chevalier of Saint-Louis since 1748, he was now appointed to the rank of brigadier.

He departed Brest on March 26, 1756, aboard la Sauvage, commanded by M. de Tourville, with the officers M. de la Rochebeaucour, M. de Cambles, a military engineer, and M. de Fontbrune, his aide de camp. He arrived at Quebec on May 31th and departed for Montreal with Montcalm and the Chevalier de Montreuil. He arrived at Fort Carillon on July 3rd where he was left by Montcalm to reconnoiter the area.

On Montcalm's departure on the 16th, he remained behind at the head of the troops guarding the frontier, where he provided a diversionary force that assisted in Montcalm's siege of Oswego. After the capture of Oswego, Montcalm returned to Fort Carillon with reinforcements. In departing for winter quarters on October 26th, Montcalm placed Levis in charge of the dispositions of his army on the frontier.

In June of 1757, Levis accompanied Montcalm to Saint-John, Chambly, and Sainte-Therese to oversee preparations for the coming campaign. In July, the campaign against Fort William Henry, at the south end of Lake George commenced. Levis commanded a detachment of troops that included the battalions of la Sarre, Guyenne, la Reine, and Languedoc. Because of the presence of rapids along his route to the fort, he was forced to march overland, portaging 150 bateaux and 15 cannon. On July 29th, he was made the commander of the advance guard consisting of 2,970 soldiers, including a detachment of Native Americans. This advance guard traveled lightly, carrying neither tents nor other equipment. He arrived at Northwest Bay on Lake George on August 120h.

He took his force around to the south west of the fort and placed it squarely on the road between Fort William Henry and Fort Edward, thus cutting the fort off from all means of communication. After the fall of Fort William Henry, he risked his life to rescue many of the English that were endangered during the so-called "massacre" that ensued.

Whereas Montcalm's relations with Governor General Vaudreuil were always strained, Levis was well liked by the administrator to the extent that Vaudreuil even tried to get Levis promoted to marechal de camp (French equivalent of major general). During the winter of 1757-58, it became necessary to serve horseflesh to the troops, owing to an acute food shortage. Levis averted a near mutiny of the troops by having himself served horseflesh in front of his own men.

On July 8th, 1758, at Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga), Levis was in command of the right of the troops that withstood General Abercrombie's ill-fated assault on the French works. It was he who led a counterattack by several companies of colonial troops commanded by the Sieurs de Raymond, de Saint-Ours, de Lanaudie re, and de Gaspe. He received two balls through his hat, but survived the battle unscathed. Levis was credited with having contributed a lot to the French victory.

In 1759, he was made marechal de camp (Mare chal de camp was the French equivalent of a major general). On May 28th, he went to Quebec to help in its defense, where he was placed in command of the heights at Beauport. After numerous skirmishes with the English throughout the month of July, he repelled a full-blown assault against his position on the 31" of that month, when General Wolfe attempted an amphibious assault upstream from the falls of the Montmorency. Wolfe lost 400 killed and wounded that day. On August 9th, Levis departed for Montreal where he had been ordered to try to stop the inexorable advance of the English against the capital of New France. With 800 men, he organized a defense at Fort Levis in an island in the St. Lawrence river.

With Montcalm's death on September 14th, 1759, he became the new commander of French troops in New France with all the powers of a lieutenant general, a position in which he was confirmed in 1761. On learning of the capture of Quebec, he began formulating plans to recapture the city. The following year, he directed his small army toward Quebec, and, on April 28th, defeated a smaller English army under General Murray. Murray had sallied forth with the intention of defeating Levis before he had formed up his army. Murray's defeated army retreated safely behind the walls of Quebec and Levis attempted to besiege the city.

On May 11, his small amount of artillery began firing on the city, but the arrival of several English ships bearing reinforcements caused him to call off the siege and retreat to Montreal. Here, the convergence of three English armies resulted in the surrender of New France on September 6th, 1760. Levis, who had protested the capitulation and wanted to fight on, ordered the flags of the army to be burnt rather than handed over to the English.

Repatriated back to France, Levis participated in the battles of Villinghausen and Schedinghem. He went into Hesse with a corps of 10,000 soldiers to reinforce Marshal Broglie. In 1762, he was in charge of the advance guard of the reserve corps of the Prince de Conde, taking part in several skirmishes with the Hereditary Prince of Brunswick (the Erbprinz). He played a significant role in the action at Greminghen; Attacked by 25,000 combatants two miles from the army, he did not waver although his horse was killed beneath him. It was he who helped decide the issue at the French victory at Johannisberg or Nauheim, the left of the army sustaining the assaults of Ferdinand of Brunswick. Just three days later, with 4,000 men, he held a mountainous position against nineteen battalions and thirty pieces of cannon.

On the death of the Duc de Chaulnes in 1766, Levis was named governor of Artois. In 1777, he was named captain of the guards of the Comte de Province (the future Louis XVIII), governor of Arras in 1780, marshal of France in 1783, and Duc de Levis in 1784. He died of a stroke at Arras on November 26th, 1787.

This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com