Bessières, JEAN BAPTISTE

Bessières, JEAN BAPTISTE, Duke of Istria, and Marshal of the French empire, was born of poor parents at Preissac, in the department of Lot, 6th August 1768. Entering the army in 1792 as a private soldier, in less than two years he had attained the rank of captain. After making the Spanish campaign he passed into the army of Italy, and soon attracted the notice of Napoleon, who carried him to Egypt in 1798, where his conduct at St Jean d'Acre and Aboukir covered him with glory. At the accession of Napoleon (1804) to the throne, he became marshal of France. He showed his usual conspicuous courage at Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau, and Friedland, and raised to the rank of Duke of Istria, commanded in Spain in 1808-9. In the Russian campaign he led the cavalry of the Guard, and did much by his sleepless courage and presence of mind to save the wreck of the army in the disastrous retreat from Moscow. On the morning of the battle of Lützen (May 1, 1813), he fell mortally wounded by a cannon-ball.