Vandamme enlisted in the army in 1786 and rapidly rose through the ranks. At the outbreak of the
French Revolutionary Wars in 1793 he was a
Brigadier General. He served in this rank in the campaigns of 1794 in the
Low Countries, 1795 on the
Rhine and 1796 in
Germany. He was court-martialled for looting and suspended. Reinstated, he fought at the
First Battle of Stockach on 25 March 1799, but disagreement with General
Jean Moreau led to his being sent to occupation duties in Holland and involvement in the
Battle of Castricum. At the
Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, he led his division, alongside Gen.
St. Hilaire's, as part of
Marshal Soult's IV Corps in the charge that captured the Pratzen Heights. For his leadership he was awarded the Grand Eagle of the
Legion of Honour. In the campaign of 1809, he led a small allied corps from
Württemberg in the battles of
Abensberg,
Landshut, and
Eckmühl. He took part in the
1812 invasion of Russia as the commander of the 8th corps under
Jérôme Bonaparte. The worsening supply problems during the march and general privations of his soldiers made Vandamme send several letters of concern to both Napoleon and Jerome which were not received well by either. A few days after the capture of
Grodno, Vandamme sent another letter of complaints to Jerome and asked to be relieved of his command unless steps were taken to improve conditions for both his, and other corps of the army. Jerome took him up on his offer and relieved Vandamme and assigned command of his corps to General
Jean Victor Tharreau. Apparently Vandamme had not expected his offer to resign to be accepted and he sent letters of protest to both Napoleon and Jerome but to no avail. Vandamme was sent home to France by
Louis-Alexandre Berthier. Reportedly a brutal and violent soldier, renowned for insubordination and
looting, Napoleon is said to have told Vandamme, "If I had two of you, the only solution would be to have one hang the other". Napoleon later also commented: "If I were to launch a campaign against Lucifer in Hell, Vandamme would be at my back." In the campaign of 1813, Vandamme's
I Corps attacked the Allied
Army of Bohemia as it tried to retreat after the
Battle of Dresden. While his troops were engaged in the
Battle of Kulm, a corps led by the Prussian General
Friedrich Graf Kleist von Nollendorf fortuitously attacked the French from the rear. In the consequent disaster, Vandamme and 13,000 of his men were captured. In his captivity, he appears to have been treated with special harshness, and at the end of the war, he was forbidden to enter Paris and sent to
Cassel by
Louis XVIII. He was thus free of all obligations towards the
Bourbons, and when Napoleon returned, joined him without hesitation. The emperor made him a
peer of France. General Vandamme was allowed to return to France by the ordinance of 1 December 1819. He was re-established in the service in the
Ètat-major Général, until his final retirement on 1 January 1825. Afterwards, he lived alternatively in Cassel and
Ghent, occupying himself with the writing of his memoirs. He died in his native
Cassel, aged 59.
VANDAMME is one of the
names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe. ==Notes==