François-Nicolas-Benoît Haxo

François Nicolas Benoît, Baron Haxo (24 June 1774 – 25 June 1838) was a French Army general and military engineer during the French Revolution and First Empire. Haxo became famous in the Siege of Antwerp in 1832. He is the nephew of revolution era General Nicolas Haxo of Étival-Clairefontaine and Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in Lorraine, France.

François-Nicolas-Benoît Haxo was born in Lunéville, France and began his career with the Military engineers (Génie Militaire) in 1793. Haxo embraced the military early in his career. He finished the School of Artillery and Engineers of Chalons-sur-Marne in 1793 with the rank of Lieutenant Minor. Soon after, Haxo earned the rank of Captain of Engineers in the Army of the Rhine in 1794. In 1796, he attended École Polytechnique.

In 1801, he became a battalion commander following the capitulation of Fort Bard (1 June 1800) by the Army of Italy, part of the French military in 1792 - 1802.

Haxo has been called the Vauban of the nineteenth century given his work repairing and reinforcing various fortifications and citadels in the early 1800s. This work became necessary as a result of the development of more sophisticated artillery since the time of Vauban (1633 – 1707). For example, in Besançon in the late seventeenth century, guns did not have enough range to reach the citadel from the hills of Bregille and Chaudanne, whose peaks were higher. However, in the early nineteenth century, guns improved and artillery shelling became possible. Haxo built a fort on each of the two hills to prevent the enemy seizing them and using them for artillery shelling.

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