Drouet

Drouet, JEAN BAPTISTE, COMTE D'ERLON, French marshal, was born 29th July 1765, at Rheims, entered a regiment of volunteers in 1792, and took part during the years 1793–96 in the campaigns of the Moselle, Meuse, and Sambre. His conduct in the Peninsular war was highly distinguished. After the fall of Napoleon, the Bourbons gave him the command of the 16th division, but he was shortly after arrested on the charge of conspiring against the royal family. On the return of Napoleon from Elba, he contrived to seize the citadel of Lille, in which he had been imprisoned, and held it for the emperor, who made him a peer of France. At the battle of Waterloo he commanded the first corps d'armée. After the capitulation of Paris, he fled to Bavaria, where he resided until the July revolution, when he returned to France, and received in 1832 the command of the army of Vendée. During 1834–35, he held the important office of governor-general of Algeria, and in 1843 was elevated to the rank of marshal. Drouet died 25th January 1844.—JEAN BAPTISTE DROUET (1763–1824) was a zealous revolutionist of the extreme Jacobin section; and LOUIS DROUET (1792–1873) was a very famous flute-player.