David Hendrik Chassé
| David Hendrik Chassé | |
|---|---|
General David Hendrik Chassé by Jan Willem Pieneman
|
|
| Born | 18 March 1765 Tiel |
| Died |
2 May 1849 (aged 84) Breda |
| Buried | Ginneken |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom of the Netherlands |
| Service/ |
infantry |
| Years of service | 1775-1839 |
| Rank | lieutenant-general |
| Unit | Third Netherlands Division |
| Commands held |
Dutch brigade, Division-Leval Third Netherlands Division |
| Battles/wars |
Battle of Pancorbo Battle of Talavera Battle of Ocana Battle of Vitoria Battle of Maya Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube Battle of Waterloo Belgian Revolution Ten Days Campaign |
| Awards | Knight's Grand Cross Military William Order |
David Hendrik, Baron Chassé (Tiel, 18 March 1765 – Breda, 2 May 1849) was a Dutch soldier who fought both for and against Napoleon. He commanded the Third Netherlands Division that intervened at a crucial moment in the Battle of Waterloo. In 1830 he bombarded the city of Antwerp as commander of Antwerp Citadel during the Belgian Revolution.
Chassé was the son of Carel Johan Chassé, a scion of an old Huguenot family, who was a major in the army of the Dutch Republic, and of Maria Johanna Helena Schull. He married Johanna Adriana van Nieuwenhoven on 10 November 1786 and divorced her in 1795. His second marriage was to the English widow Elisabeth Irish on 12 April 1796. They had one son. This marriage also ended in divorce in 1816.
Chassé entered the Dutch army as a ten-year-old cadet in his father's regiment in 1775. He was promoted to second lieutenant in 1781. He resigned his commission in 1786 because of his sympathy for the Patriot party in their opposition to the autocratic regime of stadtholder William V, Prince of Orange. Instead he became a captain in a Patriot Free Corps, defending Muiden and Weesp against the Prussian invaders that restored William to power in 1787. Because of this role in the revolt he had to go into exile in France, as many other Patriots. Another reason for going abroad was that he had killed a man in a duel.
In 1788 Chassé received a commission as a first lieutenant in the royal French army. After the revolution of 1789 he took part in the campaigns of the revolutionary French armies as a captain in the Légion franche étrangère (Free foreign legion). He received a wound in the right upper arm in 1794 that would make writing difficult for the rest of his life. As a lieutenant-colonel he conquered the fortress of Zaltbommel shortly before the fall of the Dutch Republic in January 1795.
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