Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc
| Charles Leclerc | |
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Charles Leclerc by François-Joseph Kinson (1771–1839)
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| Born |
17 March 1772 Pontoise, France |
| Died | November 1, 1802 (aged 30) Tortuga, Haiti |
| Allegiance |
 Kingdom of the French French First Republic
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| Service/branch | French Army |
| Years of service | 1791-1802 |
| Rank | Général de division |
| Battles/wars |
French Revolutionary Wars Saint-Domingue expedition |
Charles Victoire Emmanuel Leclerc (17 March 1772, Pontoise – 2 November 1802) was a French Army general who served under Napoleon Bonaparte during the French Revolution. He was husband to Pauline Bonaparte, sister to Napoleon. In 1801, he was sent to Saint-Domingue (Haiti), where an expeditionary force under his command captured and deported the former slave Toussaint L'Ouverture, as part of an unsuccessful attempt to reassert imperial control over the Saint-Domingue government. Leclerc died of yellow fever during the failed expedition.
Leclerc started his military career in 1791 during the French Revolution as one of the army volunteers of Seine-et-Oise and passed through the ranks of sous-lieutenant in the 12th Cavalry, then aide-de-camp to general Lapoype. He was made a captain and divisional chief of staff during the siege of Toulon, at which he first allied himself to Napoleon Bonaparte. Following the revolutionary success there, he campaigned along the Rhine. He began serving under Napoleon Bonaparte in the Alpine and Italian campaigns, fighting at Castiglione della Pescaia and Rivoli and rising to général de brigade in 1797. He was then charged with announcing to the French Directory the signature of the peace preliminaries at Leoben. Pauline Bonaparte was at this time receiving a large number of suitors, thus pressing her brother Napoleon Bonaparte to have her married off. On Leclerc's return, he accepted Bonaparte's offer of Pauline's hand in marriage and they married in 1797, having one child, Dermide, and occupying the Château de Montgobert.
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