Jean Reynier

Reynier was born on 14 January 1771 in Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland. He was the son of Jacques François Reynier, a physician, and Caroline Chapuis. His brother (1762–1824), a naturalist and archeologist, held government posts in the French administration in Egypt and Naples. He was granted French citizenship through the 1791 constitution, which guaranteed right of return to descendants of French individuals who had fled the country due to religious persecution under the ancien régime. ==French Revolutionary Wars==

, c. 1798 Early military career (1792-1798) Reynier joined the French Army as a gunner in 1792 and was drafted in October into the Army of the North, in which he saw action at the Battle of Jemappes that year, then the at the siege of Maastricht and the Battle of Neerwinden in 1793. He saw rapid promotion appointed by the representatives of the people Bentabole and Delmas adjutant general battalion commander, on 5 September 1793. Followed soon after by appointed by the representative of the people Florent Guiot [Fr] as adjutant general brigade commander and chief of staff of the General Joseph Souham's division in the Army of the North, on 17 February 1794. And undertook a provisional appointment as chief of staff of the Army of the North in place of Liébert [Fr], at the end of March before resuming command of his brigade upon the arrival of Nicolas Ernault des Bruslys, on 13 July. commanding a division at the Battle of the Pyramids and, in 1799, at the sieges of El Arish and Acre. Later, under the command of General Jacques-Francois Menou he defended against the British counter-invasion of Egypt in 1801. His division was present but not engaged in the Battle of Alexandria. ==Napoleonic Wars==

, 1836 Army of Naples (1804–1808) He would return to duty in Italy He would be elevated to command the right wing of the Army of Naples under André Masséna where he laid siege to Gaeta on 12 February. Commanding the 2nd Corps comprising his own and Jean-Antoine Verdier division he was tasked with conquering Calabria. On 24 November 1805, Reynier's 6,000 Frenchmen routed the 10,000-man army of the Bourbon Kingdom of Naples and Sicily at the Battle of Campo Tenese on 9 March 1806. This victory helped Napoleon to install his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne of the newly created Napoleonic Kingdom of Naples. On 4 July of that year, a British raiding force inflicted a severe drubbing on an overconfident Reynier at the Battle of Maida in southern Italy. Reynier was later able to reassert French control of the area via the French victory at Mileto, This impressive array of cannon helped stop a dangerous flanking attack by Johann von Klenau's Austrian VI Armeekorps. Sent to the Iberian Peninsula in 1810, he commanded the II Corps in the Army of Portugal under his old chief Masséna at fighting at the Battle of Bussaco, the Lines of Torres Vedras, and the Battle of Sabugal in Portugal. His corps was not seriously engaged at the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro in Spain when he commanded the right wing. In honour of years of service in 1811, Napoleon named him a Count of the Empire, he was also named Grand Dignitary of the Order of the Two Sicilies. Reynier was recalled from Spain for the Russian campaign of 1812, leading VII Corps composed of Saxon troops. Together with an allied Austrian force under Karl Schwarzenberg, he operated well to the south of the major fighting. After victorious but inconclusive battles with the Russians at Gorodeczna and Wolkowysk and a minor defeat at Lapenitza, he retreated when he learned of the main army's disaster. Leading the Saxon corps plus an attached French division, Reynier fought at the battles of Kalish, Bautzen, Grossbeeren and Dennewitz in 1813. During the Battle of Leipzig, his Saxon troops suddenly changed sides. When a key bridge was blown up too quickly, Reynier was trapped and captured with his remaining French soldiers. == Death and legacy ==

Reynier was released after being exchanged for the Austrian general Maximilian von Merveldt, also captured at Leipzig, and arrived in Paris on 15 February 1814. He died of gout nearly two weeks later, on 27 February. His name is inscribed in column 24 on the southern pillar of the Arc de Triomphe as REYNIER, ==Honours==

• : Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour. • : Grand Cordon of the Order of the Reunion. • Naples: Grand Dignitary of the Royal Order of the Two-Sicilies. • : Grand Cross of the Military Order of St. Henry. ==References==