Jean Reynier

Jean Louis Ébénézer Reynier (; 14 January 1771 – 27 February 1814) was a Swiss-French military officer who served in the French Army during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He rose in rank to become a general during the War of the First Coalition, and led a division under Napoleon Bonaparte in the French campaign in Egypt and Syria. Under the First Empire, Reynier continued to hold important combat commands, eventually leading an army corps during the Peninsular War in 1810–1811, playing a minor role in the invasion of Russia and then seeing action in Germany all during the War of the Sixth Coalition.

Background and education Reynier was born on 14 January 1771 in Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland. He was the son of Jacques François Reynier, a physician, and Caroline Chapuis. His brother (1762–1824), a naturalist and archeologist, held government posts in the French administration in Egypt and Naples. He was granted French citizenship through the 1791 constitution, which guaranteed right of return to descendants of French individuals who had fled the country due to religious persecution under the ancien régime.

He saw rapid promotion appointed by the representatives of the people Bentabole and Delmas adjutant general battalion commander, on 5 September 1793. Followed soon after by appointed by the representative of the people Florent Guiot [Fr] as adjutant general brigade commander and chief of staff of the General Joseph Souham's division in the Army of the North, on 17 February 1794. And undertook a provisional appointment as chief of staff of the Army of the North in place of Liébert [Fr], at the end of March before resuming command of his brigade upon the arrival of Nicolas Ernault des Bruslys, on 13 July. commanding a division at the Battle of the Pyramids and, in 1799, at the sieges of El Arish and Acre. Later, under the command of General Jacques-Francois Menou he defended against the British counter-invasion of Egypt in 1801. His division was present but not engaged in the Battle of Alexandria.

Napoleonic Wars

Army of Naples (1804–1808) He would return to duty in Italy He would be elevated to command the right wing of the Army of Naples under André Masséna where he laid siege to Gaeta on 12 February. Commanding the 2nd Corps comprising his own and Jean-Antoine Verdier division he was tasked with conquering Calabria.

On 24 November 1805, Reynier's 6,000 Frenchmen routed the 10,000-man army of the Bourbon Kingdom of Naples and Sicily at the Battle of Campo Tenese on 9 March 1806. This victory helped Napoleon to install his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne of the newly created Napoleonic Kingdom of Naples. On 4 July of that year, a British raiding force inflicted a severe drubbing on an overconfident Reynier at the Battle of Maida in southern Italy. Reynier was later able to reassert French control of the area via the French victory at Mileto, This impressive array of cannon helped stop a dangerous flanking attack by Johann von Klenau's Austrian VI Armeekorps.

Sent to the Iberian Peninsula in 1810, he commanded the II Corps in the Army of Portugal under his old chief Masséna at fighting at the Battle of Bussaco, the Lines of Torres Vedras, and the Battle of Sabugal in Portugal.

His corps was not seriously engaged at the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro in Spain when he commanded the right wing.

His name is inscribed in column 24 on the southern pillar of the Arc de Triomphe as REYNIER,

Honours Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour. Grand Cordon of the Order of the Reunion. Naples: Grand Dignitary of the Royal Order of the Two-Sicilies. Grand Cross of the Military Order of St. Henry.