Jean Rapp

Jean Rapp (27 April 1771 – 8 November 1821) was a French Army general during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.

Rapp was born the son of the janitor of the town-hall of Colmar, then locatd in the Old Customs House. He began theological studies to become a clergyman, but with his build and heated character, he was better suited to the military, which he joined in March 1788. From the rank of a regular of the chasseurs de Cévennes, he worked his way up the ranks through his courage and character to the rank of a division general and adjutant of Napoleon Bonaparte. As a lieutenant, his reputation grew through his impetuousness as well as the wounds he received in battle. He was made aide de camp of Louis Desaix, who named him captain and took him to Egypt, where Rapp distinguished himself at Sediman, capturing an enemy battery. For that he was given a squadron and later a brigade by Napoleon.

After the Egyptian campaign, Rapp remained under the command of Desaix until the latter's death at Marengo on 14 June 1800. He then became aide de camp of Napoleon, then the First Consul, a post he held until 1814. Under this title, he was charged with many confidential missions by Napoleon in the Vendée, Switzerland and Belgium. In 1803 he was promoted to brigadier general and in December 1805, he led a memorable attack at Austerlitz, when he charged at the head of two squadrons each of the Mounted Chasseurs and the Mounted Grenadiers of the Guard and the Guard Mameluks and decimated the Chevalier Guards of the Russian Imperial Guard. Promoted to division general, he later fought at Jena on 14 October 1806 and was wounded at Golymin.

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