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Moreau, Jean Victor Marie

Jean Victor Marie Moreau

Born

14 February 1763

Died

2 September 1813

The son of a Breton advocate, Jean Victor Moreau was prominent among the law students of Rennes during the political disturbances of 1788–89. He formed a company of gunners in the National Guard in 1789 and was elected lieutenant-colonel of a volunteer battalion two years later. Rising under Pichegru during the campaigns in the Low Countries, he eventually succeeded him in command of the Army of the Rhine and Moselle. His fighting retreat through the Black Forest in 1796 established his reputation as one of the Republic's leading generals.

On 21 April 1797, Moreau's troops captured correspondence from the baggage of the Austrian general Klinglin revealing Pichegru's dealings with royalist agents. Moreau withheld the documents for more than four months and disclosed them only around the time of the coup of 18 Fructidor, when Pichegru had already been arrested. The delay made Moreau himself suspect, and he was subsequently removed from command.

Moreau played a limited but compromising role in the coup of 18 Brumaire, placing the directors Gohier and Moulin under guard at the Luxembourg Palace. He returned to military command and won his greatest victory at Hohenlinden in December 1800. Increasingly estranged from Bonaparte, he was implicated in the Pichegru-Cadoudal affair, tried in 1804 and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, which was commuted to exile in the United States.

Recalled to Europe in 1813 by Alexander I, Moreau joined the Allied campaign against Napoleon. He was mortally wounded by a cannonball at Dresden on 27 August and died of his wounds on 2 September 1813.

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