Moreau, Jean Victor
Moreau, Jean Victor
(zhäN vēktôr` môrō`), 1763–1813, French general in the French Revolutionary WarsFrench Revolutionary Wars,wars occurring in the era of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic era, the decade of 1792–1802. The wars began as an effort to defend the Revolution and developed into wars of conquest under the empire.
..... Click the link for more information. . Despite his successes on the Rhine and in Germany (1796–97), he was dismissed for withholding compromising information about General PichegruPichegru, Charles
, 1761–1804, French general in the French Revolutionary Wars. Successful on the Rhine front (1793), he invaded (1794) the Netherlands, entered (1795) Amsterdam and captured the Dutch fleet, which had frozen in the ice.
..... Click the link for more information. after the coup of 18 FructidorFructidor
, 12th month of the French Revolutionary calendar. The coup of 18 Fructidor (Sept. 4, 1797), in which General Augereau was a key figure, annulled the previous elections and removed Lazare Carnot and François de Barthélemy from the Directory.
..... Click the link for more information. (1797); he was later reinstated (Apr., 1799) at the head of the French army in Italy. After helping Napoleon Bonaparte in the coup of 18 Brumaire he was given command (1800) in Germany and routed the Austrians at Hohenlinden. At the conclusion of the war Moreau began to oppose Bonaparte. Informed of the royalist CadoudalCadoudal, Georges
, 1771–1804, French royalist conspirator. A commander of the Chouans, he led the counterrevolutionists in the Vendée. He fled to England in 1801 after the failure of an attempted assassination of Napoleon Bonaparte.
..... Click the link for more information. plot, he neither joined nor revealed it; after its discovery he was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment for two years. The sentence was commuted to exile, which he spent in Spain and America. Returning to Europe in 1813, he assisted the allies as an adviser in their war against Napoleon, but was killed in battle.
Moreau, Jean Victor
Born Feb. 14, 1763, in Morlaix, Brittany; died Sept. 2, 1813, in Laun, now Louny, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. French military commander; general. Son of a lawyer.
Moreau joined the National Guard in 1789 and volunteered for the French Army in 1791. He advanced in the service during the revolutionary wars of 1792–94 and was promoted brigadier general in 1793 and major general in 1794. He became commander of the Northern Army in 1794 and of the Rhine-Moselle Army in 1796; Moreau won several victories over the Austrians in 1795–97 and became known as one of the best generals of the French Republic. In 1799, while commanding the Italian Army, he was defeated by A. V. Suvorov’s troops on the Adda River and at Novi. Moreau supported Napoleon Bonaparte during the coup d’etat of 18 Brumaire. In 1800, while commanding the Rhine Army, he defeated the Austrians at Hohenlinden. Since he was an opponent of Bonaparte’s one-man dictatorship, he left the service and maintained relations with opposition elements, mainly the royalists. In 1804 he was arrested, accused of complicity in C. Pichegru’s conspiracy, and sentenced to two years in prison; but he was soon pardoned and emigrated to the USA. In 1813, Moreau went to Europe on the invitation of Emperor Alexander I and became an adviser to the staff of the Allied Armies. On August 27 he was mortally wounded in the battle of Dresden of 1813.