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| Lasalle's last charge, by Edouard Detaille. |
Lasalle
(Antoine-Charles-Louis, Count),
born on 10 May 1775 in Metz, where his father served as a
commissaire-ordonnateur
des guerres,
entered the Alsace regiment — then led by Prince Maximilien, the
current King of Bavaria — with a commissioned rank. His birth
privileges had opened the door to a military career; the Revolution
opened him the door of glory. Renouncing the epaulettes that he had
had no time to earn, he enlisted as a private in the 23rd
regiment of horse chasseurs, and he learnt obedience in order to be
able to command. The young Lasalle soon fulfilled the hopes that sprang
from such honourable beginnings. As a fourier
in the Army of the North, he captured a cannon battery at the head of
a small platoon. The commander-in-chief rewarded this feat with the
offer of a commission; Lasalle did not believe he had done enough to
deserve this promotion, thus he refused and went on to earn it. He
was nineteen years old and already a veteran by the time he accepted
the honour and responsibilities of a rank that he had already held
eight years earlier. Several feats in the first Italian campaign drew
his chiefs’ and the whole army’s eyes to him. Once, among other
things, he attacked and routed 100 Austrian hussars with only 18 men.
Carried away by his ardour, he found himself alone, surrounded by
four enemy soldiers; he fought and wounded them, then he ran to the
banks of the Bachiglione, swam to the other side and reunited with
his detachment. At the battle of Rivoli, in a bout of boldness that
would prove decisive, he took a plateau overlooking the plain and
came back with his arms full of enemy flags. Rest
on these flags, Lasalle, you have deserved them, said
the commander-in-chief. Later, he entered Valrozone at the head of 16
guides, attacked an enemy squadron garrisoned there and chased them
beyond the Tagliamento, forcing them to cross it again. The
boundaries of this article are much too small to relate all of
Lasalle’s feats of bravery during this campaign. He was then a
squadron leader. However, we will note that his frankness and
presence of mind were equal to his courage. He was briefly a prisoner
in Wurmser’s hands; “How old is Bonaparte?” the Austrian asked.
“As old as Scipio was when he defeated Hannibal”, the young
Frenchman replied. After the Italian campaign, Lasalle went to Egypt
along with this army of citizens marching under French flags to
restore the Roman eagle at the foot of the Pyramids. “Soldiers,
from atop these monuments, 40 centuries are watching you,” the
victor of Italy exclaimed, and soon Egypt was conquered. These
electric words set every heart aflame. The success of the battle of
the Pyramids was crucial and remained long uncertain. Desaix and
Reynier’s divisions, which made up the army’s right wing, took
position between Giza and Embabeh. From the moment Murad-Bey spotted
this move, he sent an elite corps to charge them; but a hail of shot
and shell greeted them at 50 paces, forcing them to retreat hastily
towards a village behind the division’s lines. In a skilful move,
Lasalle had taken this village; he surprised the Mameluks with a
fusillade that sealed their defeat and the French victory. Lasalle
was made a colonel after this fight. At Salahyeh, the last village in
Egypt before the Syrian border, Lasalle dropped his sabre as he
charged with the 22nd
Chasseurs; but with remarkable skill and sangfroid, he managed to
pick it back up and fought hand-to-hand with one of the most intrepid
Mameluks. Salahyeh was the first battle that the French cavalry
fought alone against the Mameluks, with no infantry support. At the
fights of Souagy, in Upper Egypt, Soheidja and Rahtah, Lasalle,
leading the vanguard of General Davout’s cavalry, performed
brilliant charges and inflicted considerable losses on the enemy. At
the battle of Samhoud, Lasalle was still at the vanguard. At Thebes,
he charged the Mameluks and routed them after a long melee, where his
sabre was broken to the hilt. Desaix’s and Bonaparte’s praise was
the reward for his bravery: it is difficult to obtain greater tokens
of military glory. At the fight of Thémé, Lasalle led a column made
of the 22nd
Chasseurs, one battalion of the 88th
Line and one cannon. He sent his infantry to attack the Arabs
entrenched in Thémé, drove them out from their position after a
long resistance and cut them to pieces at the head of his cavalry,
placed between the village and the Desert. Lasalle and his regiment
kept following every move of General Davout’s cavalry corps; and he
soon faced Murad-Bey, whom he drove back towards the Oases. Back in
Cairo, the 22nd
Chasseurs was placed in Belbeis. Colonel Lasalle commanded a camp
gathering infantry and cavalry. He was tasked with maintaining peace
in the country, sending reconnaissance parties to Suez, then occupied
by a French garrison and threatened by the enemy, and lastly,
ensuring communications between Salahyeh and Cairo. Having left Egypt
after General Desaix and the Turkish plenipotentiaries signed the
convention of El-Arich, Lasalle came back to reap more glory in
Italy. On 27 Nivôse Year IX, he had three horses killed under him
and broke seven sabres in a melee. A brigade general after
Austerlitz, he soon earned a reputation in higher commands that never
stopped growing along with his military fortune. On 29 October 1806,
at the head of two cavalry regiments, he attacked the fortified town
of Stettin and captured it. A garrison of 6,000 men, 100 cannons and
a considerable amount of supplies fell into his hands. Such feats, so
close and yet so distant from us, would seem incredible if not for
the defeated parties’ testimony. At the battle of Heilsberg,
Lasalle fought with his usual intrepidity. Twelve Russian dragoons
surrounded the Grand Duke of Berg and future King of Naples. Lasalle
rode to save him, killed the officer leading the detachment and sent
the eleven dragoons fleeing. He could hardly imagine that a few years
later, this warrior who seemed invulnerable on the battlefield would
die like a criminal by Calabrian fire. Anyway, when Lasalle found
himself in an equally perilous situation a few hours later, the Grand
Duke rode to free his saviour and said as they shook hands: General,
we are even.
An Imperial order of the day mentions Lasalle, who became a
divisional general in this campaign, as being one of those who
contributed the most to the capture of several generals, among them
Prince Hohenlohe, Prince August of Prussia and Prince Schwerin, and
of 16,000 infantrymen, 6 cavalry regiments, 45 flags and 64 cannons.
Throughout this glorious campaign, Lasalle led the vanguard, and the
intrepid divisions that followed him spared no effort in facing every
danger and participating in every victory. Among a thousand feats
that we could quote, there is this one: one morning, Lasalle fought
the Prussians under the walls of Königsberg, drove them into the
city, reached Friedland in the evening and distinguished himself, on
the same day, on two battlefields more than 14 leagues apart.
Lasalle’s brilliant career continued in Spain. Sent by the Duke of
Istria to crush the uprisings of Leon and Asturias with 800
cavalrymen and 6,000 infantrymen, he attacked a Spanish army
numbering 27,000 men in Torquemada, captured all of its artillery,
and sent it fleeing in the mountains; but not content with merely
winning, he could exploit his victories. Giving chase to the
Spaniards, he reached them in Cabeson, between Valladolid and
Palencia, winning another battle near this town, defended by a river
and a numerous garrison. Valladolid and Palencia fell to him.
Lasalle, now master of the country he had just conquered, proved to
be as talented in administration as he was in war; and to earn the
love of those he defeated was like a second triumph. Meanwhile,
Cuesta and Blake gathered an army of 40,000 men; the Duke of Istria,
with 12,000 Frenchmen, attacked them in Medina-del-Rio-Seco. The
fight was bitter and uncertain; Lasalle charged at the head of the
10th
and 22nd
Chasseurs; the Spanish line broke, leaving 6,000 men on the
battlefield, and the French were victorious. A few days after this
fight, Lasalle, already decorated with numerous orders, received the
Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honour. The army had to move backwards
towards Victoria; Lasalle, commanding the rear-guard, held the enemy
off with his well-advised and skilful manoeuvres. When Napoleon’s
presence turned the tables, Lasalle forced his way into Burgos with
his two regiments; an enemy division had found shelter there, and
lost 17 flags and 12 cannons to Lasalle. At Villaviejo, 17 cannons
and 4 flags were the spoils of another engagement. At Medellin,
Lasalle, followed by the 4th
Cuirassiers, broke through the enemy ranks; it is mostly to him that
France owes the honour of this memorable fight. Having been recalled
to Germany at the time of the glorious campaign of 1809, he added new
titles to his reputation every day. At the head of two divisions, he
marched on Presburg, pushed his outposts as far as Altemburg,
besieged Raab, and thanks to him, this key stronghold was soon in
French hands. Lasalle, a cavalry officer, had proven able to lead a
corps as soon as his rank put him in line for higher commands; at the
siege of Rabb, he proved that he was not ignorant of Coehorn and
Vauban’s art. We owe him the bridges and the breastworks that have
so greatly contributed to the surrender of this place. Lasalle fought
in Essling with his usual boldness and luck; Wagram was to be the
last theatre of his feats. At barely thirty-four, his active years,
with campaign years counting double, far exceeded his age; his
reputation was made at a time many others only began to build theirs,
and it seemed that his services would soon be rewarded with the same
baton as Fabert’s, a distant relative of his; but a bullet to the
forehead ended his brilliant career just as the battle of Wagram was
being won. This news cast the whole army into deep mourning, and even
the enemy honoured his memory; but Lasalle, whose whole life was a
model of bravery and honour, is not as unlucky now as many of those
who outlived him. He expired on the evening of a battle, amidst the
triumphs of his homeland and on a field of victory. Lasalle had a
citizen’s soul in addition to a soldier’s heart; he loved the
emperor, but he idolised the homeland. A kind man as well as a brave
one, he only had enemies on the battlefield and quickly won over even
those who feared him. He was not made for life in society; he
preferred private life, where he had the gift of always being
amiable. Full of noble selflessness, he had no fortune beyond the
endowments he had received from the emperor. A good father, a good
husband, a good friend, he was no less mourned as a private man than
as a famous person. The city of Metz is proud of having seen his
birth; a street was given his name, and his portrait hangs in the
audience room of the town hall. In that, he was luckier than the
ex-Republican general who was fatally struck by a cannonball in
Dresden, among the ranks of the enemies of France, and whose statue
was refused by the city of Rennes in 1818. Lasalle had earned his
soldiers’ love; he sustained their courage and shared their
miseries. In the African desert, he would refuse his share of water
and distribute it among his soldiers. The grievously wounded Colonel
d’Estrées was being carried by Arabs through the desert; Lasalle,
his close friend, did not want to leave him alone and escorted him.
He walked away for a moment, looking for water. The Arabs, thinking
that he was gone for good, started to bury the dying man. They ran
away when Lasalle came back; but he chased them, brought them back
one after the other, held them in check on his own, despite their
number, and saved his friend. In an odd twist of the human heart,
Lasalle and d’Estrées were inseparable and drew their swords ten
times a day against each other; they could not love each other
without fighting. Lasalle left behind three adopted sons, born from
his wife’s first marriage with Léopold Berthier, and a lovely
daughter, who has inherited one of the finest names consecrated by
the annals of our national glory.
