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Bon Adrien Jeannot de Moncey


Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey (or Jannot de Moncey), 1st Duke of Conegliano, 1st Baron of Conegliano, Peer of France (31 July 1754 – 20 April 1842), Marshal of France, was a prominent soldier in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. MONCEY is one of the Names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe, on Column 33.

He was born on 31 July 1754 in Palise or Moncey, Doubs. His father was a lawyer from Besançon. In his boyhood he twice enlisted in the French army, but his father procured his discharge on both occasions. His desire was at last gratified in 1778, when he received a commission. He was a captain when, in 1791, he embraced the principles of the French Revolution. Moncey won great distinction in the campaigns of 1793 and 1794 during the War of the Pyrenees, rising from the commander of a battalion to the commander-in-chief of the Army of the Western Pyrenees in a few months, and his successful operations were largely instrumental in compelling the Spanish government to make peace. After this he was employed in the highest commands until 1799, when the government, suspecting him of Royalist views, dismissed him. From 1801-15 he was inspector general of the police.

The coup d'état of 18 Brumaire in 1799 brought him back to the active list, and in Napoleon's Italian campaign of 1800 he led a corps from Switzerland into Italy, surmounting all the difficulties of bringing horses and guns over the then formidable Gotthard Pass. In 1801, Napoleon made him inspector-general of the French Gendarmerie, and on the assumption of the imperial title created him a Marshal of France. In 1805 Moncey received the grand cordon of the legion of honor.


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