Dumouriez, CHARLES FRANÇOIS

Dumouriez, CHARLES FRANÇOIS, a French general, was born at Cambrai, 25th January 1739, son of an army commissary who was also a fair poet. At eighteen he entered the army, and served with distinction during the Seven Years' War until the conclusion of hostilities in 1763. After some time spent in rambling travel, he was appointed by Choiseul army quartermaster-general, and was next employed on a secret mission to Poland. On his patron's fall, he was sent by D'Aiguillon to Sweden, but was flung into the Bastille on his return, whence he was set free by Louis XVI. and appointed commandant of Cherbourg. As the Revolution drew on, Dumouriez began to attach himself more closely to the popular party, and in 1790 became connected with the Jacobin Club, and during the same year was appointed commandant at Nantes. He now attached himself to the Girondists, and through their influence held for a short time the office of Minister of Foreign Affairs, which he resigned to take the field. The allies were advancing in great force. By a series of bold and rapid manoeuvres, Dumouriez prevented the enemy from sweeping over the plains of Champagne, and finally took up his position at Grand-Pré. Success quickly arrived, and the victory at Valmy (q.v.) compelled the invaders to retreat. It was mainly the admirable strategy of Dumouriez at this critical period that saved France. A winter campaign in Belgium followed, and on the 5th and 6th November 1792, he overthrew the Austrians in a great victory at Jemappes. The campaign of 1793, which aimed at the complete conquest of the Netherlands, was opened with the siege of Maastricht; Breda and other places were taken by the French; but at Neerwinde, Dumouriez sustained a severe defeat from the Austrians under Coburg. Though he had saved France from a foreign enemy, he could not save himself from the envious jealousy of the revolutionists of Paris who hated his leanings towards constitutional monarchy, and ere long he was openly denounced as a traitor and summoned to Paris. To save his head he obeyed by riding over into the Austrian camp. After wandering through many countries of Europe, he finally settled in England, where he died an exile at Turville Park, near Henley-upon-Thames, 14th March 1823. Besides a multitude of pamphlets, Dumouriez left Mémoires (Hamburg, 1794), and La Vie et les Mémoires du Général Dumouriez (3d ed. Paris, 1822-24). See also the Life by Monchanin (1884), and that in German by Boguslawski (2 vols. 1878-79).