Claude Lecourbe

Claude Jacques Lecourbe (; 22 February 1759 – 22 October 1815) was a French general during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. He was especially famed for his conduct in Switzerland and as a subordinate of General Jean Victor Marie Moreau.

He fell out of favour with Napoleon as a result of his closeness with Moreau and was out of service for a decade until recalled by the Bourbons where he would briefly attempt to stop Napoleon's restoration before switching sides and taking command of the defence of Belfort in 1815.

He would die soon after but before his death he gave testimony that would be used in the trial of Marshal Ney.

Early life

Birth and Family Born in Besançon, Franche-Comté, on February 22, 1758, he was declared the illegitimate child of Tiennette Vuillemot, on the baptismal certificate but this was amended in 1761, by request of Claude-Guillaume Courbe, and his wife Marie Valette, whose marriage had been celebrated on 15 August 1761, declaring that Tiennette Vuillemot's son was indeed their child, and that they had not had their names entered in the birth register for reasons of propriety.

His father Claude-Guillaume was a cavalry officer Moving to Guillaume Philibert Duhesme's division, he would fight at further attempts to cross the Rhine in the following year, at Diersheim and Renchen.

Lecourbe was made a general of division by the Directory shortly after the invasion began. The Habsburg advance would continue with Archduke Charles retakeing Zurich in early June.

Lecourbe was not present at Zurich. Instead ordered to the south of Switzerland, Lecourbe would win at Wasenbach and Amsteg and suffered a wound to his arm. In August his division secured the Saint-Gothard, Grimsel, Furka and Oheralp mountain passes.

Disgrace under the Empire Moreau and Claude Lecoubre returned to Paris in 1802, This event as well as the conduct of Lecourbe's brother, the judge Jacques François Lecourbe, brought on the enmity of Bonaparte. Other sources give the number of the Austrians at 40,000. Lecourbe would only agree to a ceasefire with General Colloredo-Mansfeld on 11 July 1815. and Besançon.

In Belfort, a statue commemorates Lecoubre as "The glorious defender of the city", as part of a monument [Fr] dedicated to the three sieges Belfort underwent in the 1800s. Lecourbe is honoured alongside General Claude Juste Alexandre Legrand, commander of the 1813–14 siege that lead to the 1814 invasion of France, and Colonel Pierre Philippe Denfert-Rochereau who commanded the defence during the 1870–71 siege in the Franco-Prussian War.

Another statue by Antonine Etex made in 1853 commemorating Lecourbe, standing in the Place de la Liberté in Lons-le-Saunier, was donated by Napoleon III's government in 1854. On the side of the statue are scenes depicting battles in the 1815 Jura campaign. alt=Stone attached to the wall of a tomb by iron supports in the corners, the inscription reads "In this tomb rests Mr. Claude Jacques Lecourbe, Count of the King, Lieutenant General of the King’s Armies, Grand Officer, Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honor, and Knight of Saint Louis, deceased, Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the East, at Belfort, on October 22, 1815" The name "LECOURBE" is inscribed on the east side of the Arc de Triomphe.

Honours Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, 23 August 1814. Peer of the Empire, 2 June 1815