Jean François Carteaux

Jean Baptiste François Carteaux (31 January 1751 – 12 April 1813) was a French painter who became a General in the French Revolutionary Army. He is notable chiefly for being the young Napoleon Bonaparte's commander at the siege of Toulon in 1793.

Born in 1751, Carteaux followed the career of a painter, producing several works including a portrait of King Louis XVI on horseback.

Following the French Revolution, he became a General and given a command of the Army of the Alps, despite the fact he had achieved no military training. Soon after his arrival, Carteaux was given the task of defeating a force of royalist Provençal rebels. On 16 July 1793 he succeeded in defeating the small rebel force.

In early August 1793, Carteaux was ordered to Marseille where he was given command of the efforts to recapture the vital port of Toulon. The citizens of Toulon had not only openly rebelled, but had granted the British and Spanish fleets access to the harbour. On 25 August Carteaux began the siege of Toulon. Carteaux handled the siege ineptly, concentrating his efforts on the relatively unimportant town of Ollioules. During these battles, Carteaux's artillery commander, Elzéar Auguste Cousin de Dommartin, was severely wounded and the Army was left with no capable artillery commander. Despite this, Carteaux focused his efforts on the construction of a battery in a gully near Ollioules, which he imagined would be able to bring fire to bear on the Anglo-Neapolitan ships. Once the battery was completed, it became apparent that the harbour was beyond its range. On 8 September a 6,000 man detachment from the Armée d'Italie under the command of Jean François Cornu de La Poype arrived to the east of Toulon and began operations independently of Carteaux' force.

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