Louis César Berthier

Louis César Gabriel Berthier de Berluy (; 9 November 1765 Versailles – 17 August 1819 Château de Grosbois (Seine-et-Oise)), was a French Napoleonic War general.

Early life He was the son of Jean-Baptiste Berthier (1721-1804), an engineer and lieutenant-colonel ennobled by Louis XV, and a brother of Louis-Alexandre Berthier the Empire maréchal, the division general Victor Léopold Berthier, and maréchal de camp Joseph-Alexandre Berthier, 1st Viscount Berthier (1821).

César was born on 9 November 1765, at 3, rue de l’Indépendance américaine, in Saint-Louis parish, at Versailles, and was baptised on 20 November.

Career After the coup of 18 Brumaire in Year VIII (9 November 1799) he was appointed inspector of reviews. At Marengo on 25 Prairial in the year VIII (14 June 1800), he was made adjutant to Joachim Murat, commander of the cavalry. Promoted to Brigadier General on September 4, 1802, he succeeded his brother the following year as chief of staff in Paris, the latter being called to leave for Germany.

He was made a commander in the Legion of Honor on 14 January 1804, and in 1805 he obtained the command of an army of observation on the coast of Holland. He became a division general on 3 January 1806.

At Corfu The Septinsular Republic was ceded by Russia to France as part of the Treaties of Tilsit in 1807. In August 1807, Berthier arrived in Corfu from Taranto with 4,000 men of the 5th Italian Regiment of the Line, the , two artillery companies, two companies of sappers, supplies and ammunition.

He rallied to the Bourbons in 1814. He was awarded the Cross of St. Louis on 24 October 1814. In 1819 he was assigned the rank of lieutenant general in the infantry's General Inspectorate.

But on 17 August 1819, while visiting the Castle of Grosbois near Boissy-Saint-Léger, the country house of his sister-in-law Duchess Maria Elisabeth in Bavaria, Princess of Neufchatel and Wagram, he died accidentally (by drowning or struck with apoplexy) in a pond on the grounds of the castle.