(1735-1820)
[Illustration: Francois Kellermann. [TN]]
Francois Christopher Kellermann, who with a little army of raw
recruits defeated the forces of united Europe at Valmy, and saved
France from destruction, was born of a respectable family at
Strasbourg, then part of France, on May 28, 1735. At the age of
seventeen, he became a cadet in the regiment of Lowendalh; and passing
through the grades of ensign and lieutenant in 1753 and 1756, became
captain of dragoons, in which rank he served in the Seven Years' War
until 1762, and was favorably mentioned in the reports of the battle
of Bergen. A brilliant charge of cavalry, against a corps commanded by
General Scheider, procured him, in the last year, the distinction of
the cross of St. Louis, then an honor of the highest esteem. After the
peace of 1763, he passed with the same rank into the legion of
Conflans, and in 1765 and 1766 was charged by the king with the
execution of some important commissions in Poland. In 1771, the
increasing troubles in Poland furnished a pretext for the invasion of
that country by the united troops of France and the Germanic
confederation; and Kellermann was appointed to accompany the French
commander-in-chief of the expedition, Baron de Viomenil; and in 1772,
he was placed at the head of a native corps of cavalry which he had
been concerned in organizing. His conduct in the retreat from the
castle of Cracow, in 1772, elevated his character for dexterity and
courage. In 1780, he became lieutenant-colonel of hussars; on January
1, 1784, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier, and in 1788,
received the rank of major-general. In 1790, under the National
Assembly, he was placed in command of both departments of Alsace, and
so approved were his services in placing that frontier in a state of
defence against the threatened invasion of combined Europe, that, in
1792, he received the cordon rouge of the order of St. Louis, and was
appointed lieutenant-general and commander-in-chief of the forces
assembled at Neukirch, and afterward, on August 28th, in the same
year, of the army of the Moselle.
It was at this time that the formidable invasion under the Duke of
Brunswick, consisting of 138,000 men, of whom 66,000 were under the
King of Prussia in person, and 50,000 were Austrians under Prince
Hohenlohe and Marshal Clairfait, marched to France, and menaced
Dumouriez, who occupied the defiles of Varennes, with very inferior
forces. Against this mighty invasion the French nation rose as one
man. Recruits poured to the borderland singing the Marseillaise, their
newly adopted national hymn. Rapidly reducing this motley force to
order, Kellermann, with 22,000 men, marched from Metz, on September
4th, for Chalons with the utmost celerity, reached Bar before the
Prussians, saved the magazines on the upper Saone and Marne, and put
himself in a situation to communicate with Dumouriez. The latter
general was attacked on September 16th, and immediately ordered
Kellermann to take a designated position on his left, which was,
accordingly, accomplished on the 19th. No sooner had Kellermann
arrived here, than he perceived that the position was altogether
defective. A pond on his right separated him from Dumouriez; the
marshy river of the Auve, traversed by a single narrow bridge, cut off
his retreat in the rear; and the heights of Valmy commanded his left.
While he was shut up in this isolated position, the enemy might march
upon the magazines at Dampierre and Voilmont, cut both the French
armies off from Chalons, and then fall upon each of them in
succession. Kellermann instantly resolved to rectify this error in the
disposition of the troops; and by four o'clock on the following
morning, his army was in motion by its rear upon Dampierre and
Voilmont. But the Prussians, equally alive to the disadvantage in
which Kellermann had been placed, were already in movement to attack
him, and it became impracticable to pass the Auve. Leaving his
advanced-guard and his reserve to check the Prussians on the plain,
Kellermann drew off the rest of his army to the heights of Valmy, and
placing a battery of eighteen pieces near the mill of Valmy, at seven
in the morning was drawn up in a strong position to receive the attack
of the enemy. The King of Prussia, who commanded in person, drew up
his army in three columns on the heights of La Lune, and advancing in
an oblique direction a vehement fire was kept up on both sides for two
hours. About nine, a new battery on the enemy's right suddenly opened
in the direction of the mill, near which Kellermann and his escort,
with the reserve cuirassiers, were stationed, and produced the utmost
confusion. Most of the escort were killed or wounded, and Kellermann
had a horse shot under him, while about the same time the explosion of
two caissons of ammunition near the mill added to the alarm.
Kellermann, however, quickly disposed a battery so as to return the
fire, and the battle was restored on that side. After some time, two
of the Prussian columns, flanked by powerful cavalry, advanced in
formidable array toward the mill, while the third remained in reserve.
Kellermann drew up his men in column by battalions, and advancing
his reserved artillery to the front of his position, waited the
advance of the enemy, who approached in silence. When they were within
range of a destructive fire, Kellermann, waving his hat upon the end
of his sabre, shouted, "Vive la Nation!" to which the whole army
responded with enthusiastic cries, and at the same moment, the
artillery opened a tremendous fire. The Prussians halted; the heads of
their columns melted away under the galling discharges; and they
retreated, in good order, to their original position after sustaining
a serious loss. The fire, however, continued on both sides with
spirit; and about four o'clock in the afternoon the Prussians renewed
their attack in column, but were again repulsed, even more decidedly,
and by six in the evening were in full retreat. The victory was thus
decided in favor of the French; but the safety of the magazines at
Dampierre and Voilmont was still not secured.
[Illustration: The Marseillaise.]
Kellermann allowed his army about two hours' repose, and then, leaving
large fires lighted along his whole line, and some regiments of light
cavalry to defend the position, if the enemy should attempt an attack,
he quietly drew off about nine o'clock at night, and reached Dampierre
without the enemy being aware of his movement. About six o'clock the
next morning, the Prussians marched for the same point, and were not a
little astonished to find Kellermann's army drawn up in line of battle
on the heights of Dampierre, in a position which rendered it
impracticable to attack. They immediately retreated, and their
retiring columns suffered severely from a fire opened by the French
artillery. This operation raised the reputation of Kellermann to an
exalted height. The allies soon afterward retreated from France, and
Kellermann desired to attack their rear; but Dumouriez would not allow
the movement to be made.
In recompense of these services Kellermann was made commander-in-chief
of the army of the Alps; but incurring the jealousy of the ruling
faction, he was thrown into prison in June, 1793, and lingered there
for thirteen months, until the 9th Thermidor (July 27, 1794) restored
him to liberty. In 1795 the army of Italy was reincorporated with the
army of the Alps, from which it had been separated in the beginning of
1793; and the command of the united force was given to Kellermann at
the close of that month. On his way to Nice to take the command, he
met Napoleon at Marseilles, who, having been displaced by the
reconstruction of the army, was now visiting his mother at that place
on his way to Paris. Napoleon gave much valuable information
respecting the seat of war; and Kellermann, continuing his journey,
reached head-quarters at Nice on May 9, 1795. His operations during
the campaign that followed diminished the reputation which he had
previously acquired. "Throughout the conduct of this war," says
Napoleon, "he was constantly committing errors." On June 23d General
Devins, at the head of the Austrian and Piedmontese armies, advanced
against his positions; and after a series of engagements on the 25th,
26th, and 27th, Kellermann was driven out of all the posts in which
Napoleon's arrangements had placed him in the preceding October, and
falling back to the line of the Borghetto, wrote to the Directory
that, unless he was speedily reinforced, he would be obliged even to
quit Nice. The government were now satisfied that the command of the
army of Italy was beyond Kellermann's abilities; and again separating
the army of the Alps from it, they placed Kellermann at the head of
the latter as a reserve, and intrusted the army of Italy to General
Scherer, and sometime afterward to Napoleon.
After the conquest of Milan, the Directory, either jealous of Napoleon
or elated by success, decided to divide his army, and to place 20,000
men under Kellermann to cover the siege of Mantua, and to direct the
rest under Napoleon upon Rome. Napoleon immediately resigned his
command, and wrote to the Directory: "I will not serve with a man who
considers himself the best general in Europe; it is better to have one
bad general than two good ones." The Directory, in alarm, abandoned
their design; Kellermann was left at Chambery, and Napoleon was
allowed to follow his own plans.
In 1797, Kellermann was made inspector-general of the cavalry of the
army of England and of that of Holland; and in 1799, he took his place
in the Senate, and was elected president on August 1, 1801. In 1804,
he was created a Marshal of the Empire, and in the following year,
received the grand eagle of the Legion of Honor. In 1803, he commanded
the third corps of the army of reserve on the Rhine; and, in 1806, was
placed at the head of the whole of that army; to which authority the
command of the army of reserve in Spain was added in 1808; and in the
same year, in honor of the great victory of his more vigorous days, he
was created Duke of Valmy.
In 1809, he commanded the army of reserve on the Rhine, the army of
observation of the Elbe, the fifth, twenty-fifth, and twenty-sixth
military divisions, and the army of reserve of the North. In 1812, he
was charged with the duty of organizing the cohorts of the national
guard in the first military division; he afterward commanded the
twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth divisions. In 1813, he was at first
provisional commander of the corps of observation on the Rhine, and
then received the command of the second, third, and fourth military
divisions. After the battle of Leipsic, he performed a valuable
service in reconducting to France a body of about six thousand
soldiers, who had been wounded in the affairs about Dresden.
Upon the restoration of Louis XVIII., Marshal Kellermann received the
command of the third and fourth divisions, and took no part in the
events of the "hundred days." Upon the second restoration, he was
placed at the head of the fifth division, received the grand cross of
the order of St. Louis, and was made a peer of France.
He died at Paris, on September 13, 1820, aged eighty-five years. He
left a son, the celebrated general who made the decisive charge at
Marengo, and distinguished himself in Spain and at Waterloo, and who
died on June 2, 1835; and a daughter, married to General de Lery.