|
Jean Léchelle or Jean L'Échelle (2 April 1760 – 11 November 1793) briefly commanded a French army during the French Revolutionary Wars. Having served in the French Royal Army as a youth, the outbreak of the French Revolution found him employed as a fencing master. He was elected to lead a volunteer National Guard battalion which fought at Valmy and Jemappes in 1792. He earned promotion to general officer after distinguishing himself at the Siege of Valenciennes and saving a representative from an angry mob. He won such favor with the politicians and the war office that he was rapidly catapulted into command of an army in the War in the Vendée. After the capable battalion leader demonstrated his total unfitness for the post of army commander, he was just as quickly arrested and thrown into prison where he died, a probable suicide. ==Early life== Léchelle was born on 2 April 1760 at Puyréaux.〔French Wikipedia〕 As a young man he enlisted in the French Royal Army as a private and later became a fencing master at Saintes. When the French Revolution broke out he enrolled in the National Guard of Charente-Inférieure.〔Michaud (1865), p. 86〕 In 1791 he became lieutenant colonel of the 1st ''Charente'' Battalion of volunteers.〔 On 20 September 1792 the battalion fought at the Battle of Valmy as part of the Left Wing under Jean-Pierre François de Chazot. On 6 November that year the 1st ''Charente'' was at the Battle of Jemappes where it was included in François Richer Drouet's 1st Brigade of the First Line of the Left Wing under Jean Henri Becays Ferrand. The battalion formed part of the garrison during the Siege of Valenciennes which lasted from 25 May to 27 July 1793. The French defenders led by Jean Ferrand surrendered to the Coalition army under Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany after 1,000 soldiers were killed or died of sickness out of 9,800 troops. The survivors were released on the promise not to fight against the Coalition army for one year. As the French troops marched out of the city to lay down their arms they were set upon by the inhabitants of Valenciennes who then raised the Bourbon flag. Léchelle protected the representative Charles Cochon de Lapparent when the civilians threatened to do him harm, and Cochon secured his appointment as general of brigade on 17 August 1793.〔 In any case, Léchelle earned the promotion by displaying courage and persistence during the defense of Valenciennes. The War in the Vendée was an armed rebellion against the conscription of men for the army and against the National Convention's hostility toward priests. Led by the local nobility, the Vendeans soon proved to be a formidable foe. To deal with the threat, the French government formed three armies, the ''Army of the Coasts of La Rochelle'' from the Gironde to the mouth of the Loire River, the ''Army of the Coasts of Brest'' from the Loire to Saint-Malo and the ''Army of the Coasts of Cherbourg'' from Saint-Malo to the Authie River east of the Somme River. On 9 June 1793 the Vendeans drubbed Jacques-François Menou's division in the Battle of Saumur. Though Jean Baptiste Camille Canclaux defeated the rebels in the Battle of Nantes on 29 June, the Vendeans won the Battle of Vihiers on 18 July when a large part of the Republican forces simply ran away. On 23 July 1793 the Prussian army successfully ended the Siege of Mainz. The Prussians thoughtlessly allowed the 16,000-man French garrison to go home on the condition not to fight against the Coalition for one year. ''Army of the Rhine'' commander Alexandre de Beauharnais suggested that using the garrison to fight in the Vendée would not be a violation of their parole. By 25 August the so-called ''Army of Mayence'' (the French name for Mainz) under Jean-Baptiste Annibal Aubert du Bayet assembled at Tours. Its 14,000 well-trained troops included Jean Baptiste Kléber newly-promoted to general of brigade. The Austrians and English having made the same blunder as the Prussians, the 6,000 fit troops from the garrison of Valenciennes were sent first to the Siege of Lyon and later to the Vendée. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Jean Léchelle」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|