Jacques Lauriston - Fame and High Command

Fame and High Command

At the Battle of Wagram on 6 July 1809, Napoleon ordered Lauriston to form a grand battery to stop the surprise Austrian attack against his left flank. To provide time, the emperor directed Étienne Marie Antoine Champion de Nansouty's heavy cavalry to charge. While Nansouty's cuirassiers and carabiniers sacrificed themselves in futile attacks on the Austrians, Lauriston assembled 112 artillery pieces for his huge battery. He gathered all 60 guns from the Imperial Guard, 24 guns from Karl Philipp von Wrede's Bavarian division, and 38 pieces from Eugène's Army of Italy. He advanced the batteries into grape shot range, unlimbered the guns, and opened fire. In the face of this terrific blizzard of lead, the Austrian III Armeekorps of Johann Kollowrat halted and edged back out of grape shot range. The barrage allowed time for Napoleon to organize a successful counterattack.

In 1811, he was made ambassador to Russia; in 1812, he held a command in the Grande Armée and gained distinction through his firmness in covering the retreat from Moscow. He commanded the V Corps at Lützen and Bautzen and in the autumn campaign, but he fell into the hands of the enemy during the disastrous retreat after the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813.

He was held a prisoner of war until the fall of the empire. Then he joined King Louis XVIII of France, to whom he remained faithful during the Hundred Days. His reward was a seat in the Chamber of Peers and a command in the Royal Guard. In 1817, he was created a marquis, and, in 1823, a Marshal of France. He died of a stroke in Paris on 11 June 1828. The name LAURISTON is inscribed on Column 13 of the Arc de Triomphe.