Antoine Charles Louis Lasalle
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Antoine Charles Louis, comte de Lasalle (10 May 1775 – 6 July 1809) was a French cavalry General during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
He belonged to a noble family in Lorraine; his grandfather was Abraham de Fabert, a Marshal of France. Entering the French Army at the age of eleven, he had reached the rank of lieutenant when the French Revolution broke out. As an aristocrat, he lost his commission, but he re-enlisted as a private soldier. By 1795 he had won back his grade, and was serving as a staff-officer in the army of Italy. On one occasion, at Vicenza, he rivalled Seydlitz's feat of leaping his horse over the parapet of a bridge to avoid capture, and, later, in Egypt, he saved Davout's life in action.
By 1800 he had become colonel, and in one combat in that year he had two horses killed under him, and broke seven swords. Five years later, having attained the rank of general of brigade, he was present with his brigade of light cavalry at Austerlitz. In the pursuit after Jena in 1806, though he had but 600 hussars and not one piece of artillery with him, he terrified the commandant of the strong fortress of Stettin into surrender.
Made general of division for this exploit, he was next in the Polish campaign, and at Heilsberg saved the life of Joachim Murat. When the Peninsular War began, Lasalle was sent out with one of the cavalry divisions, and at Medina de Rio Seco, Gamonal and Medellin broke every body of troops which he charged.
In the War of the Fifth Coalition Lasalle commanded a Light Cavalry Division of La Grande Armée. His division was attached to Massena's IV Corps during the Battle of Aspern-Essling and at Wagram. He was killed on the second day of the battle, while commanding a rearguard action at the end of the battle.
With the possible exception of Curély, who was in 1809 still unknown, Napoleon never possessed a better leader of light horse. Wild and irregular in his private life, Lasalle was far more than a beau sabreur. To talent and experience he added that power of feeling the pulse of the battle which is the true gift of a great leader.
[edit] Posthumous
His remains were brought from Austria to Les Invalides in 1891. A statue of him was erected in Lunéville in 1893. In Edgar Allan Poe's short story, The Pit and the Pendulum, Lasalle rescued the narrator from death by falling into the pit.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- Haythornthwaite, Philip. Napoleon's Commanders (1) c1792-1809. London: Osprey Publishing, 2001. ISBN 1-84176-055-2
