Jourdan, Jean-Baptiste, count

(1762-1833)

   marshal of France

   Born in Limoges, Jean-Baptiste, count Jourdan at age 16 fought in the American War of independence. A supporter of the revolution of 1789, lieutenant colonel of volunteers in october 1791, general in 1793, he distinguished himself at Hond-schoote (september 1793) and, at the head of the Armies of the North, was the victor at Wattignies (October 16, 1793) with General lazare carnot. Relieved of his command in January 1794 for having refused to conduct a winter campaign, he was recalled in March 1794 and won the battle of Fleu-rus (June 26, 1794), which opened Belgium to the French. Defeated several times later, however, in 1795 and 1796, he was replaced by General lazare hoche. A member of the Council of Five Hundred (1797), he was the author of the Jourdan Law on conscription (1798). Opposed to the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire (November 9, 1799), he was left by napoléon i without important posts. Appointed ambassador to the Cisalpine Republic and made marshal (1804), he served as governor of Naples and as military adviser to joseph Bonaparte (1808). He was defeated by General Arthur Wellesley, duke of Wellington at Vittoria (June 21, 1813), and later went over to the Bourbons and louis XV III, who made him a count (1816) and a peer of France (1819). After 1830, he served as governor of the invalides. Marshal Jourdan left his Mémoires militaires de la guerre d'Espagne.