FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   325   326   327   328   329   330   331   332   333   334   >>  
Beaupuy received seven or eight sabre-cuts at Jorich-Wildstadt. But on the 8th of July he was already back at his post. He again greatly distinguished himself on the 1st of September 1796 at Greisenfeld and Langenbruck, where the victory of the French was owing to a timely attack made by Desaix and himself. He was one of the generals under Moreau when the latter achieved his well-known retreat through the Black Forest, begun on the 15th of September 1796, and during which many battles were fought. In one of the actions on the banks of the Elz, Beaupuy was killed by a cannon-ball, while opposing General Latour on the heights of Malterdingen. His soldiers, who loved him passionately, fought desperately to avenge his death (Oct. 19, 1796). One of Beaupuy's colleagues, General Duhem, in his account of the battle to the Government, thus expressed himself on General Beaupuy: "Ecrivains patriotes, orateurs chaleureux, je vous propose un noble sujet, l'eloge du General Beaupuy, de Beaupuy, le Nestor et l'Achille de notre armee. Vous n'avez pas de recherches a faire; interrogez le premier soldat de l'armee du Rhin-et-Moselle, ses larmes exciteront les votres. Ecrivez alors ce que est vous en dira, et vous peindrez le Bayard de la Republique Francaise." Such bombastic style was then common, but what we have seen of Beaupuy in this sketch shows that he had through his career united Nestor's prudence [B] with Achilles' bodily courage and Bayard's chivalric spirit,--to use the language of the time. General Moreau had Beaupuy's remains transported to Brisach, where a monument was erected to his memory in 1802, after the peace of Luneville. In short, Beaupuy seems to have always remained worthy of the high praise bestowed on him by Wordsworth. His name is to be remembered along with those of the unspotted generals of the first years of the Revolution--Hoche, Marceau, etc.--before the craving for conquest had developed, and the love of liberty yielded to a fond admiration of Bonaparte as it did in the case of Kleber, Desaix, and so many others. [C] N. B.--The great influence which Beaupuy exercised at that time on Wordsworth will be easily understood, if we take into account not only his real qualities, but also his age. When they met, Wordsworth was only twenty-one, Beaupuy nearly thirty-five. The grown-up man could impart much
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   325   326   327   328   329   330   331   332   333   334   >>  



Top keywords:
Beaupuy
 

General

 
Wordsworth
 

generals

 
Moreau
 

account

 

fought

 
Nestor
 

Desaix

 

Bayard


September
 

Luneville

 

common

 

bestowed

 

praise

 
worthy
 

remained

 
sketch
 
language
 

remains


transported

 

Brisach

 

Achilles

 

bodily

 

chivalric

 

courage

 

monument

 

prudence

 

memory

 

spirit


erected
 

united

 

career

 
qualities
 

understood

 

easily

 

influence

 

exercised

 
impart
 
thirty

twenty

 

Marceau

 
bombastic
 

craving

 

Revolution

 

remembered

 

unspotted

 

conquest

 

developed

 

Kleber