War of the Third Coalition s preparing for a charge in 1805. Nansouty commanded cuirassiers in several actions throughout the campaigns of the
War of the Third Coalition that year. Painting by
Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier. At the outbreak of the
War of the Third Coalition, a cavalry reserve corps was organised in the
Grande Armée, with command given to
Marshal Joachim Murat. This cavalry reserve included Nansouty's
heavy cavalry division, another heavy cavalry division under
Jean-Joseph d'Hautpoul, three
dragoon divisions, a foot dragoon division and a light cavalry brigade. Nansouty's six-regiment division soon acquired the reputation of being the best administered and most exact in its manoeuvres. During the initial phase of the campaign, Nansouty's division was at first attached to Marshal
Louis Nicolas Davout's III Corps, with which it crossed the
Rhine and then the
Danube, before rejoining Murat's cavalry reserve. Nansouty had a first opportunity to lead his men into combat at the
Battle of Wertingen, where his men were noted for their excellent manoeuvring. Detaching his two
Carabiniers-à-Cheval regiments, which he had to leave with Murat, Nansouty and his reduced division followed the Emperor at
Augsburg, where he was attached to Marshal
Jean Lannes's V Corps. These men were at first positioned on two lines, behind
Caffarelli's infantry division of Lannes's V Corps. However, Liechtenstein soon reformed his men and, seeing that all the French cavalry was positioned on the left of Caffarelli's infantry division, he launched his men against the right wing of this division, but was instantly met with sustained
musket volleys that disorganised his cavalrymen. Seeing this development, Nansouty wheeled right with his men and crossed the infantry intervals by
platoons, and then formed his men on two battle lines in front of the infantry. Three charges ensued in brief succession, with Nansouty skilfully committing the 1st and 2nd
Carabiniers-à-Cheval and the 2nd Cuirassiers from his first line, then the 9th Cuirassiers and Saint-Germain's brigade from his second line. The Austro-Russian cavalry was finally broken and repulsed for good. After another series of well-coordinated cavalry and infantry actions, Murat and Lannes were able to force Bagration's entire force to withdraw, with a loss 2,000 men (approximately half of the force) and 16 guns. which resulted in the capture of 12,000
prisoners of war (including 6,000 wounded) and 65 cannons. Resuming its pursuit of the Prussian army, Nansouty's division was at
Potsdam beginning on 25 October, and two days later they participated to the triumphant parade of the Grande Armée in
Berlin, before being reviewed by the Emperor on 30 October. Beginning on 7 November, Nansouty and his division were with Murat, heading for the river
Vistula, which they crossed on 22 December with the rest of the cavalry reserve. After a brief and successful cavalry action at the Lapazin bridge, they tried to get to the
Battle of Golymin in time for the action, but were delayed by the thick mud and by the slower dragoon division that preceded them; they arrived after the battle.
Campaign in Poland: early manoeuvres regiments of
carabiniers-à-cheval wore no
cuirass. They were a part of Nansouty's heavy cavalry division between 1804 and 1809. With the news of the alarming Russian operations against the left wing of the army, Murat reassumed command of the cavalry reserve, ordering Nansouty to retake command of the 1st heavy cavalry division and follow the concentration of the army towards
Eylau. Joining his men in Warsaw, Nansouty diligently led them towards his assigned destination, but did not arrive until 13 February 1807, five days after the
Battle of Eylau and too late to take part in any action. On 14 February, Nansouty learned of the death of his comrade and former commander during the
Revolutionary Wars, General d'Hautpoul, who had been fatally wounded during the
heroic cavalry charges at Eylau. After the battle, the Emperor decided that the army was to take winter quarters. To ensure the safety of his outposts, he sent Murat with a powerful column, including Nansouty's men, with the mission of pushing back any enemy they might find. A short skirmish involving the 1st heavy cavalry division occurred at Wolfsdorf on 10 March, before it was decided that all the heavy cavalry would be sent to the lower Vistula, where they were to rest and be reinforced. As military operation resumed later in 1807, Nasouty's division was hastily directed towards the town of Deppen, where Marshal
Michel Ney had managed to retreat with his Corps, after energetically extricating himself from a
dangerous situation, with surprisingly few losses. With Ney's Corps, the Cavalry Reserve and the
Guard, Napoleon moved towards
Guttstadt, where on 9 June he found a large combined-arms enemy force. Murat took Lasalle's light horse and Nansouty's heavy cavalry and launched a series of charges that drove back the enemy force. Murat continued to press on and pushed the enemy into the streets of Guttstadt, where he penetrated with the cavalry at nightfall. Having fought well with his men, Nansouty was rested the next day, leaving all the action at the
Battle of Heilsberg to Espagne's 3rd Heavy Cavalry division. In fact, Nansouty had arrived not long before and had been instructed to place himself at Heinrichsdorf, without further instructions and without being informed of what was happening on the right. As Russian infantry and cavalry were boldly pressing him, he became concerned with his own lines of communication and thus ordered his men back, to avoid being cut off. . However, Nansouty's move compromised Lannes's entire plan, which counted on powerful reinforcements arriving through Heinrichsdorf. An alarmed Lannes immediately sent one of his
aides de camp to Grouchy urging him to stop the enemy from cutting his communications with the Emperor, whatever the cost. Grouchy duly took command of Nansouty's leading squadrons, ordering them back to their initial position, then launched a desperate but successful charge with his own dragoons, arriving in the streets of the village and cutting off its Russian defenders. Grouchy's dragoons became disorganised and were badly positioned following this sudden charge, and the Russian cavalry countercharged them, but Nansouty arrived just in time and the French repulsed the Russian cavalry, momentarily securing the position. A lively argument ensued between the two cavalry commanders. Grouchy invoked his seniority and position as commander of the cavalry and criticised Nansouty's earlier decision to withdraw. Nansouty countered by saying that he had superior experience at handling cavalry. When combat resumed, the quarrel did not prevent Nansouty from performing brilliantly under Grouchy's command during the dramatic series of events that followed. Having been repulsed earlier, the Russians decided to force the position at Heinrichsdorf, and they assembled a strong infantry force preceded by no less than 60 cavalry squadrons, plus around 2,000 Cossacks. To counter this move, Grouchy opted for deception, luring some of the enemy cavalry away from the infantry. Then, Grouchy charged the enemy horse from the front; simultaneously Nansouty hit them from the flank and together Grouchy and Nansouty repulsed them. Despite numerous charges and countercharges, the French cavalry maintained the upper hand. After the arrival of the Emperor with significant reinforcements, the time was right for a general counterattack. The Emperor planned his main attack against the Russian left and he wanted to prevent the enemy from transferring reinforcements from their right wing to their battered left. To that effect, Grouchy received orders to incessantly harass the enemy before him, in order to prevent Bennigsen from redeploying them on the left wing. Orders also required Grouchy to silence the enemy guns pounding the French left. In this difficult task, Grouchy was perfectly seconded by Nansouty, and together they ended to the Russian cannonade in this sector. Later, Grouchy's report expressed admiration for Nansouty's actions, adding that the latter had "gloriously repaired" his earlier error. Nansouty was also mentioned in the 79th Bulletin of the Grande Armée. After the battle, the 1st heavy cavalry division joined in the pursuit of the Russian army to the
Nieman river, but the
Treaties of Tilsit in July soon ended hostilities. This also brought an annual revenue of 20,000 Francs. His first endowment of 12,846 Francs was offered on 30 June 1807, and was paid by the
Duchy of Warsaw. On 23 September, he received another 5,882 Francs on the Empire's
Grand Livre. A count of the Empire from 10 March 1808, Nansouty was offered two additional endowments, one of 25,000 Francs, paid by the
Kingdom of Westphalia, and the second of 10,000 Francs, paid by the Zeven domain in
Hannover. He also received an endowment of 100,000 Francs for the acquisition of a
Parisian
Hôtel particulier; Nansouty bought the
Hôtel du Président Duret in the
Faubourg Saint-Germain, a neighbourhood inhabited by the new elite of Imperial France. Indeed, first-rate military figures such as
the Viceroy of Italy Eugène,
Marshals Davout and
Lannes and Generals
Rapp and
Legrand also acquired residences in Faubourg Saint-Germain. Additionally, in 1808, he was offered the position of
First Squire of the Emperor in
Napoleon's Military Household, a dignity that offered an annual revenue of 30,000 Francs and which gained importance when the
Grand Squire, General
Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt, was sent to
Saint-Petersburg as ambassador. Napoleon allegedly chose Nansouty for his elegant manners and education, aristocratic posture and talent for administration. In his capacity as First Squire, Nansouty thus had to accompany the Emperor during the latter's short
campaign in Spain (from November 1808 to early January 1809). There, he was in charge of several administrative tasks linked with managing the Emperor's stable services and suite and commanding his orderly officers. The Emperor's
aides-de-camp had their own
aides-de-camp, who were also placed under the command of the First Squire. Although never very far away from the Emperor in a campaign that included many battles, Nansouty himself never exercised a field command during this campaign, and in January 1809, he accompanied his master back to France, as the outbreak of the
War of the Fifth Coalition was imminent.
War of the Fifth Coalition With a large part of the
French Empire's forces now entangled in the bloody
Peninsular War, the
Austrian Empire believed that its best opportunity to avenge the humiliating defeat of 1805 had finally come. The Austrians were looking to defeat France and regain their former influence in Italy and Germany. In early 1809, the Austrian war preparations were so intense that Napoleon was forced to leave Spain and head back to
Paris to reorganise his main army in Germany. In spring, Nansouty was therefore recalled to the command of 1st of the three
heavy cavalry divisions of the Cavalry Reserve, placed this time under the command of
Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bessières. As the
War of the Fifth Coalition broke out, Nansouty's division was soon detached from the Reserve and temporarily attached to Marshal
Louis Nicolas Davout's III Corps, the force that was assigned the most difficult tasks during the early military operations of this war. As Napoleon then ordered a concentration of the army at
Ratisbon, Nansouty's division was once again put under the command of Bessières and sent to serve with the
Bavarian army. After his initial victories at
Abensberg and
Landshut, Napoleon concentrated the bulk of his army, including Nansouty's men, at
Eckmühl, where Davout was waiting.
Eckmühl and Ratisbon Napoleon faced
Archduke Charles's Austrian army at the
Battle of Eckmühl, on 21–22 April 1809. On 22 April, the second day of the battle, Nansouty was at first sent to the Schierling plain, in support of Bavarian General
Deroy, who, after several failed attempts, managed to take the town of
Eckmühl from the enemy. In order to protect his retreat, Archduke Charles of Austria reunited his entire cavalry reserve, 44 squadrons in all, on either side of the Ratisbon road, next to the village of
Eggolsheim. Between 19:00
Aspern-Essling On 21 May 1809, Napoleon crossed the
Danube not far from
Vienna and attacked Archduke Charles's Austrian army, situated on the northern bank of the river, in what became known as the
Battle of Aspern-Essling. The French were nonetheless critically outnumbered and it soon became obvious that they would have a hard time just holding out. Nansouty could only get one of his brigades,
Saint-Germain's 3rd and 12th cuirassiers, across the Danube for the action on 21 May. He found the heroic cuirassiers of General
Jean-Louis-Brigitte Espagne charging, as they had done all day long, in a desperate attempt to stop Austrian attacks on the thin French battle line. Espagne had just been killed in action and his exhausted and depleted squadrons needed to be relieved. Nansouty at once brought forward Saint-Germain's squadrons and charged the enemy infantry, allowing the army to maintain itself on the position. On the second day of the battle, 22 May, Nansouty received his second cuirassier brigade,
Doumerc's 2nd and 9th regiments. During the morning, having received some reinforcements, Napoleon sent Marshal Lannes's Corps forward, in an attack against the enemy line. Nansouty's and
Lasalle's cavalry protected the infantry columns, charging the enemy cavalry to clear their path. However, at around 21:00 in the morning, news that the great bridge over the Danube had broken, making the arrival of further reinforcements virtually impossible, forced Napoleon to call off his attack and order a phased retreat. The situation of the French army was critical, with Marshal Lannes fatally wounded, and a great number of losses in men. It took all the skill of Nansouty and the other cavalry commanders to contain the formidable Austrian onslaught in order to allow the rest of the army to gradually disengage. After most of the army had safely crossed an arm of the Danube onto the island of
Lobau, Nansouty's men were also withdrawn from the battlefield during the night, with the French cavalry subsequently celebrated for their role in preventing a catastrophic defeat that day. This division was indeed very strong: 24 squadrons, more than 4,000 men, including
Brigadier General Defrance's 1st and 2nd
carabiniers-à-cheval, Brigadier General Doumerc's 2nd and 9th cuirassiers and Brigadier General
Berckheim's 3rd and 12th cuirassiers. Bessières and Nansouty led these men forward, through a hail of
cannonballs and
case-shot, with the
carabiniers-à-cheval at the front. Finding a weaker spot in the Austrian line, they pierced it and stormed past the enemy infantry formed in squares, sabering the
Georger Grenzer battalion as they went along their way. However, many of the French cavalry did not manage to penetrate through the formidable masses of Austrian infantry, so Nansouty was now commanding a much diminished force. Showing great skill in handling his men, Nansouty then wheeled right and charged
Liechtenstein's artillery line. However, the Austrian cavalry promptly intervened, spearheaded by the Rosenberg
chevaulegers and the
Kronprinz cuirassier regiments, which caught the
carabiniers-à-cheval in flank and repulsed them, pursuing them back to their lines. The costly repulse of Nansouty's division did not dishearten Bessières, who was preparing another rapid charge, now with the support of elements of the Guard cavalry. This charge never came, as the Marshal's horse was killed by a cannonball, with Bessières also hit and carried unconscious behind the lines. With his commander presumed dead, Nansouty did not know what the Emperor's orders were and thus promptly decided to pull back his men, to avoid further damage to his already battered division. . Detail of a painting by
Antoine-Jean Gros. This however was not to be the end of General Nansouty's action at the great Battle of Wagram. Although the great cavalry attack had done much to ease the pressure on Napoleon's left-centre, the latter's situation remained critical. The Emperor thus launched the Corps of General
Jacques MacDonald in an attack against the Austrian right-centre. MacDonald's attack formation, formed by chance more than by any tactical forethought, was a huge infantry attack column or square, comprising all his divisions in a deep formation that was highly unusual for Napoleonic warfare. Four squadrons of Nansouty's
carabiniers-à-cheval were sent to support the flank of this attack, with the rest of his division further back. Realising that his advance is hampered by intense Austrian artillery fire, MacDonald aimed to clear the enemy guns before him, asking for a cavalry charge from
Walther's Guard cavalry on his right and Nansouty's 1st heavy cavalry division on his left. With no direct orders from the Emperor and his commander, Marshal Bessières, out of action, Walther opted not to move, while Nansouty did send his men forward but, having been positioned too far back, he arrived only after the enemy guns had moved away. A few days after the Battle of Wagram, Napoleon confronted Nansouty over what he saw as being a failure to cooperate with MacDonald. Nansouty responded to the Emperor's lively reproaches by offering categorical explanations, saying that he had not been consulted in the placement of his division, rendering manoeuvres impossible during that action. As Napoleon insisted, Nansouty stood up to him, finally retorting: "After all, it is not Your Majesty at any rate who can teach me to lead cavalry..." Despite this remark, Nansouty would continue to be given significant commands in the coming years. It was shortly after this bloody battle that Nansouty insisted that the
Carabiniers-à-Cheval be given the steel
cuirass, in a bid to cancel out what he saw as being a state of inferiority of these troops
vis-à-vis their fellow
cuirassiers. Nansouty's initiative was approved and was enforced in 1810. However, with the return of the Grand Squire
Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt, the role of the First Squire was much diminished. As a result, in 1811 Nansouty was given an additional function, that of General Inspector of cavalry. Very active in exercising this function, he soon became reputed for his strictness and for his detailed knowledge and invaluable experience that he had of this arm. Nonetheless, war was, once more, not far away and, on 19 October 1811, Nansouty was called to the command of the 2nd and 4th
cuirassier divisions of the "Observation Corps of the
Elbe", under the command of
Marshal Louis Nicolas Davout. Then, with the reorganisation of the
Grande Armée in April 1812, Nansouty was named at the command of the
I Cavalry Corps. With his three divisions reunited on 7 September 1812, Nansouty's Ist Cavalry Corps saw action at the
Battle of Borodino. He was placed on the French right, in second line, behind the Corps of Marshal Davout and, after Murat managed to take two of the
redoubts on the Russian left, Nansouty placed his men on the right of this position and then supported the advance of the right wing of the army. With the Russians making an offensive comeback, Nansouty placed himself at the head of the heavy divisions of Saint-Germain and Valence and charged and while doing so a bullet pierced one of his knees. This was Nansouty's first battle wound and it was serious enough to end his active role during this campaign. He was transported to
Moscow following the battle and although still wounded, on 10 October, he was entrusted with the mission of commanding the convoy that was to take the wounded generals and colonels, as well as the main trophies captured, behind the lines. During this mission, he was exposed to great danger, to famine and extreme cold, which impacted his already frail health. Nansouty's wound was very serious but he had been very lucky: the bullet that pierced his knee only tore through flesh, leaving his kneecap intact. . During the battle, the Austro-Bavarian cavalry was defeated by Nansouty's Imperial Guard cavalry. However, the Guard cavalry was not needed as a whole before the epic
"Battle of Nations" at Leipzig. Placed in reserve at first, the Guard cavalry and artillery had to spring into action at once, after Napoleon received news of the Saxon
defection. With the Saxons now in the
Coalition camp and firing at the soldiers who moments before had been their allies, the situation of some of the French troops became desperate. The position of General
Durutte's division, placed close to Saxon lines, was particularly tenuous and Napoleon soon came to its aid, with Nansouty in command of the Guard cavalry and horse artillery. Nansouty launched an impetuous charge with some of his regiments, the
Grenadiers-à-cheval,
Dragons and
Chevau-légers and the Saxons were unable to hold out in this sector. However, the situation changed on 19 October, with the untimely explosion of a bridge over the
Elster, the main retreat line for the French rearguard, which was now blocked in the city of Leipzig. The Guard cavalry extricated itself from the field of battle and was very useful in covering the retreat of the remaining French forces. With the
Grande Armée in full retreat, another dangerous situation occurred on 29 October. With
Bavaria now also in the camp of the Coalition, an
Austro-Bavarian army of some 45,000 men, under General
Karl Philipp von Wrede, who had fought under the command of the Emperor during the previous campaigns, tried to block the French retreat and delay the French force until the arrival of the rest of the Coalition forces. Wrede had the means necessary to achieve his goal, as he possessed a numerous artillery of about one hundred pieces and a powerful cavalry of 50 squadrons. In comparison, the French forces were much dispersed and only a few units remained cohesive and combat-capable. During the ensuing
Battle of Hanau, Wrede placed his troops in front of the forest of Lamboi, through which he expected that the French would retreat. He also positioned almost all of his cavalry on the left, placing it under the command of Field Marshal-Lieutenant Spleny. Despite his numeric inferiority, Napoleon sent forward a part of his men against Bavarians deployed in the forest before him, but the intervention of the Foot Guards was soon required. The Bavarians had fought alongside the French in the past and the sight of the fearsome
Bearskins of French Guardsmen shook their morale and they abandoned their position in the forest after a brief fight. But, with the fire of a Bavarian
grand battery upon them, the French infantry soon had to stop. Napoleon positioned General
Le Noury's artillery in battery and brought in support General
Drouot with the horse artillery of the Guard, as well as other pieces, constituting a grand battery of some 50 pieces that was soon able to respond adequately to the Austro-Bavarian cannonade. Nansouty, with the Guard Dragoons and Lancers, was instructed to protect this battery from the enemy and thus positioned his men behind the guns. . Seeing this inauspicious development, Wrede sent his cavalry, no less than 7,000 men, to charge Drouot's grand battery. The steady French
canister fire was devastating and many Coalition squadrons turned back to safety. Some of them did manage to get to the French guns and crossed the battery, with the Guard cavalry immediately countercharging and driving them off. With the gun line now out of danger, Nansouty, with the aid of
Sebastiani's cuirassiers launched a pursuit of the repulsed enemy horse, encountering and breaking an Austrian cuirassier regiment, the
Knesevich Dragoon regiment and two Bavarian
chevaulegers regiments, all under the personal command of Field Marshal-Lieutenant Franz Splény de Miháldy. Then, with a manoeuvre resembling that of
Kellermann at
Marengo, Nansouty wheeled his men left and rushed onto the enemy infantry, breaking them. The
Grenadiers-à-Cheval were in the thick of the fighting and, with an offensive comeback of the Bavarian cavalry, they were momentarily in a dangerous situation, but were duly rescued by the ''Gardes d'Honneur'' regiment. Nansouty then took his entire cavalry and broke the remaining enemy squares and cavalry, pushing some of these men into the
Kinzig river. Meanwhile, Nansouty's action left Sebastiani free to silence the Bavarian grand battery, skilfully using
Saint-Germain's cuirassier division and
Exelmans's light division of his Corps. Nansouty received a light wound during this battle, but his role at Hanau is compared by a Russian author to that of
Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz at the
Battle of Zorndorf.
Campaign in France Nansouty's final campaign took place in 1814 on French soil, under bleak circumstances for the French, who saw huge Coalition armies invade France at the beginning of that year. During this campaign, his command, 5,000 Horse Guards, included the
1st and
2nd Chevau-légers Lanciers regiments, under General
Édouard Colbert, the
Chasseurs à Cheval, under General
Laferrière, the
Grenadiers à Cheval under General
Guyot, the
Dragons, under General
Letort, as well as the entire Guard horse artillery. Always in the thick of the action during this campaign, on 24 February, Nansouty was present near the city of
Troyes. Negotiations for an
armistice were ongoing in a village nearby and, despite formal orders to continue the fighting, the two armies had ceased the combat. Nansouty then took his men and attacked enemy troops, charging into the streets of the village where the negotiations were taking place. The French envoy to the armistice talks,
Monsieur de Flahaut saw this development and found Nansouty, bitterly protesting against the latter's action. Nansouty responded that the Emperor was doubtlessly aware that negotiations were indeed taking place there, but that he had orders to capture the position without further delay. On 27 February, the Emperor again moved against Blücher's Prussians, leaving a part of his forces near Troyes to observe the movement of
Prince of Schwarzenberg's Austrian army. Nansouty, with the Guard cavalry, accompanied the Emperor, ensuring his protection and clearing his way after a bloody cavalry skirmish at Château-Thierry on 3 March. Another cavalry skirmish occurred on 5 March, with Nansouty repulsing a numerous enemy cavalry, 3,000–4,000 troopers, and
capturing the bridge of Berry-au-Bac, over the
Aisne, despite the enemy cannonade. Once across the Aisne with a few Polish lancer
platoons, Nansouty launched a heroic pursuit, capturing enemy cannons and munitions, and taking a significant number of prisoners, among whom was the teenage Russian Prince
Gagarin. On 7 March, at the
Battle of Craonne, another incident occurred, seemingly indicating that there had been some sort of disagreement between the General and the Emperor. As the battle was raging, General
Belliard from the Emperor's staff came to Nansouty and told him that he had orders to relieve him of command should his health prevent him from exercising his duties. Nansouty responded that he was indeed ill, but that he was able to retain command. Although in unusually bad humour after this incident, Nansouty subsequently led a most brilliant action at Craonne. He was ordered to cross bogged and broken terrain, and climb a steep incline with his cavalry and artillery, in order to fall on the enemy's right flank. Managing to bring his cavalrymen on the ridge, Nansouty formed them
in line and launched them against the enemy, pushing back in disorder two Russian battalions. Nansouty was again wounded during this action, but this injury was not very serious and he continued to energetically lead his men. This was to be the last military engagement of Nansouty's long career. On 8 March, on the eve of the
Battle of Laon, Nansouty was at
Chavignon, nine kilometres from
Laon, where the Emperor was also present and, although the circumstances of Nansouty's departure are unclear, it is certain that he left this village, and his command, that very day. Two days later, Napoleon wrote to his War Minister to inform him that General Nansouty's health did not allow him to exercise his military duties and that he was authorised to take sick leave in Paris. General Belliard had taken interim command of the Guard cavalry during the battle of Laon, with General
Sébastiani subsequently given permanent command. ==Bourbon Restoration==