Biographies

French soldier, a fruiterer's son, who earned a reputation as a reliable and doughty divisional commander on the Pyrenean front, on the Rhine and during the Italian campaigns of 1796-97, receiving Napoleon's public praise for his performance at Castiglione in 1796. One of the original Marshalate created in 1804, he commanded the camp at Brest […]

Born into a noble Georgian family, he began his military career in 1782. He fought in the campaigns of 1792 and 1794 against the Poles. He found favour with Suvarov and was chosen as one of the latter's lieutenants for the Swiss and Italian campaigns of 1799. Here again he showed great bravery and intelligence, […]

Achille Baraguey d'Hilliers was born in Paris on 6 September, 1795. He entered the 9e dragoon regiment in 1806 before going on to attend military academy a year later. He completed his studies and left on 3 September 1812 with the grade of second lieutenant. He served with the 2e regiment de chasseurs à cheval […]

Barclay de Tolly was born on 24 December 1757, in Pamuskis, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (now Zeimiai, Lithuania) and raised in Livonia, which then belonged to Russia and is now part of Estonia and Latvia. He was a German-speaking descendant of a Scottish family which had settled in Livonia in the 17th century. His grandfather served as the mayor […]

Achille Bazaine came from a family established in Scy, near Metz. His grandfather was a wine maker who as a result of the Revolution “went up to Paris” to become a Contrôleur-Jaugeur; he also wrote a book on the new metric system that was proving difficult to apply in France. The Larousse dictionary describes the […]

The infancy of Eugène de Beauharnais and Hortense was much more marked by the death of their father, Alexandre, than by the poor state of relations between their parents. That death brought the siblings not only closer together but also closer to their mother – indeed in his last letter Alexandre had entrusted his children […]

Heinrich von Bellegarde was born on 29 August, 1756, the son of Saxony’s War Minister. He entered into Austria’s service in 1778 and served with distinction during the campaigns between 1793 and 1795. In 1796, following these campaigns, he was made Feldmarschallleutnant and chief of military staff to Archduke Charles. The following year, he negotiated […]

Ludwig August Ritter von Benedek (b. 14 July 1804 – d. 27 April 1881), also known as Lajos Benedek, was an Austrian general (Feldzeugmeister) of Hungarian descent, infamous for being the commander of the imperial army in 1866 in the Battle of Königgrätz against the Prussian Army.

A German officer who entered the Russian service in 1773, he attracted the attention of Catherine the Great and he forged himself a reputation during the Polish campaign. He was commander of the Russian forces in 1806 and 1807. Despite a good strategic sense and generally combative attitude, he was beaten at Eylau (8 February, […]

BERG, Burhardt Maximovic (Bernhardt Magnus), (b. 19 May, 1764, Derpt – d. 31 July 1838, Vyborg) was born to a German noble family in the Derpt in the Lifland gubernia. At the age of ten, he was enlisted by his family as a sergeant in the Voronezh Infantry Regiment on 20 January 1774. The following […]