Hoche, Lazare-Louis

(1768-1797)

   military figure

   Born in versailles, Lazare-Louis Hoche joined the French Guards in 1784 and, during the revolution of 1789, was named brigadier general and commander in chief of the Army of the Moselle (1793). After a defeat by the forces of the Duke of Brunswick at Kaiserslauten (November 28-30, 1793), General Hoche took the offensive, fighting the Aus-trians near Woerth, reoccupying the area around Wissembourg, freeing Landau (December 28, 1793), and entering speyer. Denounced, however to the Revolutionary government as a suspect by his rival general charles pichegru, he was imprisoned and held until 9 Thermidor Year II (July 27, 1794). Having resumed his command (September 1794), he was ordered by the Themidorian Convention to pacify the vendée and the western regions (see chouannerie), and he fought successfully against the royalist émigrés who had landed at Quiberon with the support of the British (June-July 1975). Placed in charge of the expedition to ireland (December 1796), he was stopped by a storm. After the victory at Neuwied, near Cologne (April 17, 1797), General Hoche was named minister of war (July 1797), then resumed his command at the head of the army in Germany, but he died shortly after.