Berthier, Louis Alexandre, marshal of France, prince and duke
of Neufchatel and Valengin, prince of Wagram, born at Versailles, '
Nov. 20, 1753, murdered at Bamberg, June 1, 1815. He was
educated as a soldier by his father,* the chief of the corps of
topographical engineers under Louis XVI. From the topographical
bureau of the king, he passed to active service, first as lieutenant
in the general staff, and subsequently as a captain of dragoons. In
the American war of independence™ he served under Lafayette.
In 1789, Louis XVI appointed him major-general of the national
guard of Versailles, and on Oct. 5 and 6, 1789, as well as Feb. 19,
1791, he did good service to the royal family. He perceived,
however, that the revolution opened a field for military talents,
and we find him, in turn, the chief of the general staff, under
Lafayette, Luckner, and Custine. During the reign of terror he
avoided suspicion by exhibiting zeal in the Vendean war. His
personal bravery at the defence of Saumur, June 12, 1793,
secured an honorable mention in the reports of the commissaries
of the convention.” After the 9th Thermidor,” he was appointed
chief of the general staff of Kellermann,™ and by causing the
French army to take up the lines of Borghetto, contributed to
arrest the advance of the enemy. Thus his reputation as a chief of
the general staff was established before Bonaparte singled him out
for that post. During the campaign of 1796-’7, he also proved
himself a good general of division in the battles of Mondovi (April
22, 1796), Lodi (May 10, 1796), Codogno (May 9, 1796), and
Rivoli (Jan. 14, 1797).

a Jean Baptiste Berthier.— Ed.

Of a weak character, of a tenacious activity, of a herculean
strength of constitution, which allowed him to work during 8
consecutive nights, of a stupendous memory for every thing
respecting the details of military operations, such as movements of
corps, number of forces, cantonments, chiefs; of a promptitude
always to be relied upon, orderly and exact, well versed in the use
of maps, with an acute appreciation of the peculiarities of the
ground, schooled to report in simple and lucid terms on the most
complicated military movements, sufficiently experienced and
quick-sighted to know on the day of action where to deliver the
orders received, and himself attending to their execution, the
living telegraph of his chief on the field of battle, and his
indefatigable writing machine at the desk, he was the paragon of a
staff officer for a general who reserved to himself all the superior
staff functions. Despite his remonstrances, Bonaparte placed him,
in 1798, at the head of the army destined to occupy Rome, there
to proclaim the republic, and to take the pope prisoner. Equally
unable to prevent the robberies committed at Rome by French
generals, commissaries and purveyors, and to arrest the mutiny in
the French ranks, he resigned his command to the hands of
Masséna, and repaired to Milan, where he fell in love with the
beautiful Madame Visconti; his eccentric and lasting passion for
whom caused him during the expedition to Egypt to be
nicknamed the chief of the faction des amoureux,* and cost him the
best part of the 40,000,000 francs successively bestowed upon him
by his imperial master.

After his return from Egypt, he seconded Bonaparte’s intrigues
on the 18th and 19th Brumaire,” and was appointed minister of
war, a post he occupied till April 2, 1800. Acting again as chief of
the general staff during the second Italian campaign, he contributed somewhat to the apparently false position in which

Bonaparte had placed himself at Marengo, by crediting false
reports as to the route and position of the Austrian army.” After
the victory, having concluded an armistice with Gen. Melas, he was
employed on several diplomatic errands, and then reinstated in
the war ministry, which he held till the proclamation of the
empire. He then became completely attached to the person of the
emperor, whom, with the title of major-general of the grand
army,” he accompanied as chief of the general staff during all his
campaigns. Napoleon showered titles, dignities, emoluments,
pensions, and donations upon him. May 19, 1804, he was created

a Party of lovers.— Ed.

marshal of the empire, grand cordon of the legion of honor,
grand huntsman of France. Oct. 17, 1805, he had the honor of
stipulating with Mack the terms of the capitulation of Ulm.”! From
the Prussian campaign of 1806, he carried home the dignity of
sovereign prince of Neufchatel and Valengin. In 1808 he was
ordered to marry the princess Elizabeth Maria of Bavaria-
Birkenfeld, the king of Bavaria’s* niece, and was made viceconstable of France. In 1809, Napoleon placed him as general-in-

chief at the head of the grand army destined to operate from
Bavaria against Austria. On April 6 he declared war, and on the
15th had already contrived to compromise the campaign. He
divided the army into 3 parts, posting Davout with half of the
French forces at Regensburg, Masséna with the other half at
Augsburg, and between them, at Abensberg, the Bavarians, so that
by quickly advancing, the archduke Charles might have vanquished these corps singly. The slowness of the Austrians and the

arrival of Napoleon saved the French army. In his more congenial
functions, however, and under the eyes of his master, he rendered
excellent service in this same campaign, and added to his long list
of titles that of prince of Wagram.”

During the Russian campaign” he broke down even as chief of
the general staff. After the conflagration of Moscow he proved
unable even to interpret the orders of his master; but in spite of
his urgent request to be allowed to return with Napoleon to
France, the latter ordered him to stay with the army in Russia.
The narrowness of his mind and his devotion to routine were now
fully illustrated in the midst of the fearful odds against which the
French had to struggle. True to his traditions, he gave to a
battalion, sometimes to a company of the rear-guard, the same
orders as if that rear-guard was still composed of 30,000 men;
assigned posts to regiments and divisions which had long ceased to
exist, and, to make up for his own want of activity, multiplied
couriers and formulas. During the years 1813-14 we find him
again at his usual post.‘ After the deposition of Napoleon had
been proclaimed by the senate,’ Berthier, under false pretences,
slunk away from his patron, sent in his own adhesion to the senate
and the provisional government,” even before Napoleon’s abdication, and proceeded, at the head of the marshals of the empire, to

a Maximilian I Joseph.— Ed.

b Of 1812.— Ed.

¢ Chief of the General Staff.— Ed.

4 The Senate’s decision of April 3, 1814 was made public the next day.— Ed.

Compiéegne, there to address Louis XVIII in the most servile
language. On June 4, 1814, Louis XVIII created him peer of
France, and captain of a company of the newly established royal
guard. His principality of Neufchatel he resigned to the king of
Prussia* in exchange for a pension of 34,000 florins. On
Napoleon’s return from Elba, he followed Louis XVIII to Ghent.
However, having fallen into disgrace with the king in consequence
of the concealment of a letter received from Napoleon, he
withdrew to Bamberg, where, June 1, 1815, he was killed by 6
men in masks, who threw him out of one of the windows of his
father-in-law’s” palace. His memoirs were published in Paris in

1826.