Jean Gabriel Marchand - Later Empire and Restoration

Later Empire and Restoration

The start of Napoleon's invasion of Russia found Marchand serving as Jérôme Bonaparte's chief of staff. Later, he took command of the 25th Division in Ney's III Corps. He led the division at the battles of Smolensk and Borodino.

In 1813, Marchand commanded the 39th Division. General-major Stockhorn's brigade consisted of troops from the Grand Duchy of Baden, 2 battalions each of the Stockhorn Infantry Regiment Nr. 1 and the Crown Prince Infantry Regiment Nr. 3, and a Baden foot artillery battery. General-major Prince Emil's brigade was made up of soldiers from the Grand Duchy of Hesse, 2 battalions each of the Foot Guard, Life Guard, and 2nd Infantry Regiments, and a Hessian foot artillery battery. Marchand was present with Ney's III Corps at the battles of Lützen and Bautzen. He led his troops in Marshal Jacques MacDonald's XI Corps at the Battle of Leipzig. After his Germans abandoned the French alliance, he was responsible for defending the Department of Isère in the 1814 campaign. While commanding 11,000 troops at Saint-Julien-en-Genevois on 1 March 1814, he was defeated by Johann Nepomuk Joseph von Klebelsberg and a 6,000-man Austrian division. His forces lost 1,000 killed and wounded plus five guns and 300 men captured, while his opponents suffered 650 casualties.

After Napoleon's return from Elba, the former emperor marched on Grenoble with about 1,000 troops. By 6 March 1815, Napoleon's little force reached Gap, south of Grenoble. Marchand was in charge of the military district at Grenoble, with three battalions each of the 5th and 7th Line Infantry Regiments, the 3rd Engineer Regiment, and the 4th Hussar Regiment. He sent Colonel Lessard with one battalion of the 5th Line and a company of sappers to blow the bridge at Ponhaut. Lessard bumped into Napoleon's force and withdrew to a defile near Laffrey. When the column from Elba appeared on 7 March, Napoleon walked forward alone toward the levelled muskets of the 5th Line. The soldiers immediately went over to his side in a body. On 8 March Napoleon was joined by the 7th Line and its Colonel Charles de la Bédoyère, who also defected to him. That day, Marchand closed the gates of Grenoble and insisted that the cannons be loaded and trained. Fearing that he and his soldiers would be attacked by the enraged Grenoble mob, Marchand's artillery officer, a royalist, offered to surrender to Napoleon if his safety was guaranteed. At once the citizens of Grenoble dismantled the gates and let Napoleon's column into the city.

After Napoleon's final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, the Bourbons accused Marchand of delivering Grenoble to the former emperor. Dismissed from his command on 4 January 1816, he was hauled before a court-martial in Besançon and acquitted after a six-month trial. He was taken off active service in 1818. He retired from the army in 1825 and died on 12 November 1851 at Saint-Ismier in the Isère department. MARCHAND is engraved on Column 26 of the Arc de Triomphe.