Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle - Early Career

Early Career

Antoine Lasalle was born on 10 May 1775 in Metz, Lorraine province, into a family of minor nobility. His father was Pierre Nicolas de Lasalle d’Augny, an officer in the French Royal Army and a knight of the Order of Saint Louis, and his mother was Suzanne Dupuy de la Gaule. On his maternal side, Lasalle descendant from Abraham de Fabert, a Marshal of France. His military inclinations showed at an early age, as he immediately showed talent for horseback riding, shooting and handling the sword. Thanks to his family’s status, at just eleven years old he joined the Foreign Infantry Regiment of Alsace (German) as a second lieutenant replacement on 19 June 1786 and rising to the rank of second lieutenant by the age of fourteen.

When the French Revolution broke out, Lasalle eagerly embraced it. He was assigned as a second lieutenant to the 24th Cavalry Regiment on 25 May 1791. Being an officer in the French Army was always a privilege of nobility, but this was all soon reversed by a government decree in 1792 to the point of forbidding people of aristocratic origins to have military command. As an aristocrat, he lost his commission. Lasalle had to abandon his grade, but he remained loyal to France, and the incident did not deter his love of war so he waited to earn back his rank through personal merit and good services. He enlisted as a private in 1792 and moved to Paris.

He joined the section des Piques, a group of radical Parisian revolutionaries in the National Guard. By 1793, he joined the Army of the North in Italy as a volunteer in the 23rd Horse Chasseur Regiment. He was soon elected sergeant and with his company he attacked and captured an enemy artillery battery. The general in command witnessed the fearlessness Lasalle demonstrated and addressed him for praise and proposed positions as officer. Lasalle rejected this because it would separate him from his men, but continued to earn these proposals.