Thomas-Alexandre Dumas

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas, painting by Olivier Pichat
Birth name	Thomas-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie
Born	(1762-03-25)25 March 1762 Jérémie, Saint-Domingue (later Haiti)
Died	26 February 1806(1806-02-26) (aged 43) Villers-Cotterêts, France
Allegiance	Kingdom of France Kingdom of the French French First Republic
Service/branch	French Army French Revolutionary Army
Years of service	1786–1801
Rank	Divisional General
Commands held	Army of the Eastern Pyrenees Army of the Alps Army of the West Commander of Cavalry, Armée d'Orient (1798)
Battles/wars	French Revolutionary Wars War of the First Coalition War in the Vendée Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars Siege of Mantua (1796–1797) French Campaign in Egypt and Syria Battle of the Pyramids
Relations	Alexandre Dumas, père (son) Alexandre Dumas, fils (grandson) Alexandre Lippmann (great-great-grandson)

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (French: [tɔma alɛksɑ̃dʁ dyma davi də la pajətʁi]; also known as Alexandre Dumas; 25 March 1762 – 26 February 1806) was a general in Revolutionary France and the highest-ranking man of African descent ever in a European army. He was the first person of color in the French military to become brigadier general, the first to become divisional general, and the first to become general-in-chief of a French army. Dumas and Louverture (appointed a general-in-chief in 1797) were the two highest-ranking officers of sub-Saharan African descent in the Western world until 1975, when "Chappie" James achieved the equivalent rank of four-star general in the United States Air Force.

Born in Saint-Domingue, Thomas-Alexandre was of mixed race, the son of Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie (), a white French nobleman and Marie-Cessette Dumas, an enslaved mother of African descent. He was born into slavery because of his mother's status but was also born into nobility because of his father's. His father took the boy with him to France in 1776 and had him educated. Slavery had been illegal in metropolitan France since 1315 and thus any slave would be freed de facto by being in the country. His father helped Thomas-Alexandre enter the French military.

Dumas played a pivotal role in the French Revolutionary Wars. Entering the military as a private at age 24, Dumas rose by age 31 to command 53,000 troops as the General-in-Chief of the French Army of the Alps. Dumas's strategic victory in opening the high Alps passes enabled the French to initiate their Second Italian Campaign against the Austrian Empire. During the battles in Italy, Austrian troops nicknamed Dumas as the Schwarzer Teufel ("Black Devil," Diable Noir in French). The French – notably Napoleon – nicknamed him "the Horatius Cocles of the Tyrol" (after a hero who had saved ancient Rome) for single-handedly defeating a squadron of enemy troops at a bridge over the Eisack River in Clausen (today Klausen, or Chiusa, Italy).