Bessieres, Jean Baptiste, marshal of the French empire, born at 
Praissac, in the department of Lot, Aug. 6, 1768, killed at Lützen, 
May 1, 1813. He entered the constitutional guard '™ of Louis XVI, 
in 1791, served as a non-commissioned officer in the mounted 
chasseurs of the Pyrénées, and soon after became a captain of 
chasseurs. After the victory of Roveredo, Sept. 4, 1796, Bonaparte 
promoted him on the battle-field to the rank of colonel. 
Commander of the guides'” of the general-in-chief during the 
Italian campaign of 1796-97, colonel of the same corps in Egypt, 
he remained attached to it for the greater part of his life. In 1802, 
the rank of general of division was conferred upon him, and, in 
1804, that of marshal of the empire. He fought at the battles of 
Roveredo, Rivoli, St. Jean d’Acre, Aboukir, Marengo—where he 
commanded the last decisive cavalry charge—Austerlitz, Jena, 
Eylau, and Friedland.’ Despatched in 1808 to assume the 
command of a division of 18,000 men stationed in the Spanish 
province of Salamanca, he found on his arrival that Gen. Cuesta 
had taken up a position between Valladolid and Burgos, thus 
threatening to intersect the line of communication of Madrid with 
France. Bessiéres attacked him and won the victory of Medina del 
Rio Secco. After the failure of the English Walcheren expedi- 
tion,"’ Napoleon substituted Bessiéres for Bernadotte, in com- 
mand of the Belgian army. In the same year (1809), he was 
created duke of Istria. At the head of a cavalry division he routed 
the Austrian general, Hohenzollern, at the battle of Essling.* 
During the Russian expedition he acted as chief commander of 

a See this volume, pp. 27-33.— Ea. 

Bessiéres 135 

the mounted guard, and on the opening of the German campaign 
of 1813, as the commander of the French cavalry. He died on the 
battle-field while attacking the defile of Rippach, in Saxony, on the 
eve of the battle of Litzen.'* His popularity with the common 
soldiers may be inferred from the circumstance that it was thought 
prudent to withhold the news of his death for some time from the 
army. 

Written in September (not later than the Reproduced from The New Ameri- 
29th), 1857 can Cyclopaedia 

Cyclopaedia, Vol. III, 1858