Foy, MAXIMILIEN SÉBASTIEN

Foy, MAXIMILIEN SÉBASTIEN, French general, was born at Ham, 3d February 1775. During the early wars of the Revolutionary period he served as an artillery officer in Belgium, and on the Moselle and Rhine, till by 1800 he had risen to the rank of adjutant-general. In 1801 he commanded a brigade during the Italian campaign, and in 1805 a division of artillery in the Austrian campaign. Two years later Napoleon sent him to Turkey to assist Sultan Selim against the Russians and British, and his defence of the Dardanelles obliged Duckworth, the British admiral, to retire with loss. From 1808 to 1812 he commanded, as brigade-general, in Portugal and Spain, and was present at all the battles of the Pyrenees, being dangerously wounded at Orthez in 1814. In 1815 he was again wounded at Waterloo, where he commanded a division under Ney. In 1819 he was elected deputy by the department of Aisne. In the chamber he was the constant advocate of constitutional liberty, and distinguished himself particularly by his eloquence in opposing the war against Spain in 1823. Foy died at Paris, November 28, 1825. The Histoire de la Guerre de la Péninsule appeared in 1827, and in 1828 his Discours, with a biography by Tissot.