The military career of this hero was one of singular activity. Foy was
born in 1775, and educated in the military school of La Fere, and made
sub-lieutenant of artillery in 1792. He was present at the battles of
Valmy and Jemappe, and in 1793 obtained a company--promotion was rapid
in those days. In all the subsequent campaigns he was actively employed
under Dumourier, Pichegru, Moreau, Massena, &c. In 1803, he was colonel
of the 5th regiment of horse artillery, and refused, from political
principles, the appointment of aide-de-camp on Napoleon's assumption of
the imperial throne; but was still employed, and shared in the victories
of the short but brilliant campaign of Germany in 1804. In 1806 he
commanded the artillery of the army stationed in Friuli, for the purpose
of occupying the Venetian territory incorporated by the treaty of
Presburg with the kingdom of Italy. In 1807 he was sent to
Constantinople to introduce European tactics in the Turkish service--but
this object was defeated by the death of Selim, and the opposition of
the Janissaries. On Foy's return, the expedition against Portugal was
preparing, and he received a command in the artillery under Junot,
during the occupation of Portugal, and filled the post of inspector of
forts and fortresses. He was severely wounded at the battle of Vimiera.
On the capitulation he returned to France, and with the same army
proceeded to Spain; and, subsequently, under the command of Soult, again
went into Portugal. When commanded to summon the Bishop of Oporto to
open its gates, he was seized and stript by the populace, and thrown
into prison, and escaped with difficulty. The same year he was made
general of brigade. In 1810, he made a skilful retreat at the head of
600 men, in the face of 6,000 Spaniards, across the Sierra de Caceres;
and at the head of his brigade was wounded in the battle of Busaco.
Early in 1811 he was selected by Massena to convey to the emperor the
critical state of the French army before the lines of Torres Vedras.
This commission, though one of great peril--the country being in a
complete state of insurrection--he successfully accomplished, and
brought back the emperor's instructions, for which service he was made
general of division. In July 1812, Foy was in the battle of Salamanca,
and was one of those who, when Lord Wellington raised the siege of
Burgos and retreated to the Douro, hung upon his rear, and took some
prisoners and artillery.
On the news of the disasters in Russia, and Lord Wellington's consequent
resumption of offensive movements, Foy was sent with his division beyond
Vittoria to keep the different parties in check; and after the battle of
Vittoria, at which he was not present, he collected at Bergana 20,000
troops, of different divisions, and had some success in skirmishes with
the Spanish corps forming the left wing of the allied army. He arrived
at Tolosa about the same time with Lord Lynedoch, and after a sanguinary
contest in that town, retreated upon Irun--from which he was quickly
dislodged, and finally recrossed the Bidassao. In the affair of the
passage of the Nive, on the 9th of December, 1813, and the battle of St.
Pierre d'Irrube on the 13th, Foy distinguished himself, and in the hard
fought battle of Orthez, on the 27th of February, 1814, he was left
apparently dead on the field. Before this period be had been made count
of the empire, and commander of the legion of honour. In March 1815, he
was appointed inspector general of the fourteenth military division; but
on the return of Napoleon, during the 100 days, he embraced the cause of
the emperor, and commanded a division of infantry in the battles of
Ligny and Waterloo, at the last of which he received his fifteenth
wound. This terminated his military career. In 1819, he was elected a
member of the Chamber of Deputies, the duties of which he discharged
till his death in November 1825; and from his first entrance into the
chamber, was distinguished for his eloquence, and quickly became the
acknowledged leader of the opposition--_From Foy's History of the
Peninsular War._
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