Pierre Jacques Étienne Cambronne, Viscount Cambronne |
|
---|---|
Born |
Nantes, France |
26 December 1770
Died | 29 January 1842 Nantes, France |
(aged 71)
Allegiance |
French First Republic First French Empire Kingdom of France |
Service/branch | French Army |
Years of service | 1792–1823 |
Battles/wars |
French Revolutionary Wars Napoleonic Wars |
Awards | Officier of the Légion d'honneur |
Pierre Jacques Étienne Cambronne, later Pierre, Viscount Cambronne (26 December 1770–29 January 1842), was a freemasonGeneral of the French Empire. He fought during the wars of the Revolution and the Napoleonic Era. He was wounded at the Battle of Waterloo.
Cambronne was born in Nantes (Loire-Atlantique). He joined the Grenadiers as a volunteer in 1792, serving under Charles François Dumouriez in Belgium, in the Vendée, took part in the battle of Quiberon, then in the expedition to Ireland under Hoche in 1796. He then joined the Army of the Alps under André Masséna, where he was promoted to command of a grenadier company at the Battle of Zurich (1799).
In 1800, he commanded a company under Latour d'Auvergne, and later succeeded him as First Grenadier of France. He was made a Colonel at the Battle of Jena in 1806, given command of the 3rd Regiment of the Voltigeurs of the Guard in 1810, and was made a Baron the same year. (Voltigeur, a French word meaning vaulter or leaper, was a designation given to elite light infantry units in the French Army, who acted as advance units of the main column.)