Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle - Return To France and Campaign in Spain

Return To France and Campaign in Spain

When he returned to France he received pistols and a Sabre of Honour from the hands of Napoleon himself on 5 August, as a testimony of government satisfaction. On 25 August of the same year he received the command of the 10th Hussars as Colonel or chef de brigade. In some respects he was a strange contradiction: one of the best commanders of light cavalry, he was extremely talented both on the battlefield and in outpost duty, was handsome, intelligent, well-educated, and witty; yet, according to Marbot, he posed as a libertine and ruffian who “might always be seen drinking, swearing, and smashing everything.” In this regard he was the archetypal hussar, flamboyant and fearless, with a cultivated swagger – an attitude epitomized by his remark that any hussar who was not dead by the age of thirty is a blackguard.

He appeared as the “bad boy” of the light cavalry and carefully maintained the hussar image and reputation. He also founded the “Society of Alcoholics” an initiative that shocked the entire high society of Paris except for Napoleon. It is reported that in one month they drank all that existed of foreign wines in Salamanca. One evening Lasalle made Thiébault count all the empty wine bottles. Thiébault asked “Do you want to kill yourself?” which prompted the famous reply from Lasalle: “My friend, any hussar who does not die by thirty is a blackguard and I’ve arranged not to die this year.” At Napoleon’s table Lasalle wrote the lyrics to the famous French drinking song “Fanchon.” On 17 January 1801 he commanded the cavalry at the Battle of Vilnadella and had three horses killed under him and broke seven swords on the enemy.

It was never a rare sight to see him in the forefront of a hack-and-slash mêlée, gripping his reins with his teeth, a pistol in one hand and saber in the other. On his way back to France from Spain, he met up with another hussar regiment in a city in Spain and gave the two officers dinner consisting of two Burgundy wines he had put on the table. Lasalle was well-built and looked every inch soldier though he was only 5 foot 8 inches tall, and throughout his career had a succession of flamboyant moustaches. He was a superb horseman and once rode into a ball where he made his mount dance. Back in Egypt Lasalle had been intimately connected with Joséphine Berthier, wife of General Victor-Leopold Berthier, the then Minister of War and Chief of Staff. Joséphine and Berthier divorced in which Lasalle proposed to her. Napoleon gave Lasalle 200,000 francs as a reward. When they met at the Tuileries Palace, Napoleon asked “When is the wedding?” Lasalle replied saying “Sire, when I have enough money to buy the wedding presents and furniture.” Napoleon said “But I gave you 200,000 francs last week, what did you do with them?” Lasalle replied “I used half to pay my debts and have lost the rest gambling.”

Such a confession would have broken the career of any other soldier but coming from Lasalle made the Emperor smile. Napoleon merely ordered Marshal Duroc to give Lasalle another 200,000 francs. Napoleon thought highly of Lasalle and would pay off his debts and forgive his rowdy behavior unfitting of an officer. When a prefect asked why Napoleon didn't discipline Lasalle for his conduct, Napoleon responded saying that “It only takes a stroke of a pen to create a prefect, but it takes twenty years to make a Lasalle.” A commander, who was known, on occasion, to charge with nothing more than his pipe in his hand, mellowed a little and became more responsible after he married Joséphine-Jeanne-Marguerite d'Aiguillon in 1803. This also put Lasalle in a new circle of nobility, furthering his ties with the Emperor. Lasalle possessed a keen sense of duty and responsibility and cared for Berthier's three boys, Alméric-Alexandre (b. 1797), Oscar (b. 1799), and Alexandre-Joseph (b. 1802) as if they were his own even though Alméric-Alexandre and Oscar were his illegitimate sons. On 14 June 1804 he was made a member of law in the 5th Cohort of the Legion of Honor as a Commander. Lasalle traveled back to Salamanca, Spain that year.

The captain of engineering in Salamanca had a very beautiful Spanish wife. Lasalle, though he was a tender and caring husband who wrote love letters daily to his wife, had his infidelities. He entered the home of the young Spanish lady without warning giving off slight surprise and fear. He charmed and wooed her, eventually making love to her unbeknownst to her husband who then walked in on them in the act. He was outraged and furious, insulting and screaming at Lasalle, which resulted in a duel by sabre, though Lasalle was the most skilled and terrifying duelist of the time. He considered himself as better horseman and swordsman than everybody else and was said to be “a man for high adventure and reckless deeds.” Lasalle was generous enough not attack the man, but contented himself with parrying. But he did so with such vigor that it broke the poor engineer’s wrist. As the engineer was doubled over with fatigue and pain, Lasalle let down a hard blow with the flat edge of his sabre on the man’s back and circled around the engineer amid countless jokes.

Whatever rage this unhappy officer had, he could do nothing for he was exhausted. When it was obvious the engineer could take it no more, Lasalle opted to end the battle by saying, “If you had known me better you would have attached less importance to the fact you have been injured, and if I had known better, I would have refrained from continuing to fight after you had been injured. Let us finish this fight for it is far too unequal, but I now know because of your actions I now know you are a man of honor.” There was a saying: “The hussars were loved by every wife and hated by every husband.” Another time, Lasalle showed off his weapons to his men and one of these weapons was a very beautiful black sabre from Damascus that had cost around 12,000 francs. He wanted to show his men the superior quality of the blade by striking it on iron bars and tree branches. Lasalle then struck it so hard the blade broke in two as his men stood petrified at the fact he just single handedly broke a fine blade that was worth 12,000 francs. Lasalle then without a moment’s notice threw the broken pieces, scabbard and all, over his head and walked on, continuing these acts of showmanship with other weapons.

Being the prankster he was Lasalle once saw servants emptying garbage by carrying it in pots over their head instead of dumping it from the window. These maidservants would carry the pots and dump the garbage in a certain spot giving Lasalle the crazy idea to have a group of hussars block this spot forcing them to dump their disgusting garbage in the adjoining street. When his hussars arrived the crowd of people emptying their garbage panicked, running into each other, smashing pots, and subsequently covering themselves in revolting trash creating a huge mess. This caused appalling results, which to Lasalle and his men was quite amusing. His hell raising ways brought him notoriety, but didn't stop his brilliance handling light cavalry from shining and by 1 February 1805 he was promoted to Brigadier General. A month and a day later he took command of the 2nd Brigade of Dragoons stationed in Amiens. Lasalle enjoyed bragging, smoking a pipe, drinking, sabering champagne bottles, and dueling. There were many deaths in duels when the Army was encamped — especially in 1805, when Lasalle was sick of drilling and parades while waiting in Amiens. But things changed when Napoleon set his sights on the new Austrian and Russian threats along the Rhine sending Lasalle and his men into action.