Marceau

Marceau, FRANÇOIS SÉVERIN DESGRAVIERS, French general, was born at Chartres on 1st March 1769. On the outbreak of the Revolution he was appointed inspector of the national guard in his native town, and in 1792 helped to defend Verdun with a body of volunteers till its surrender. His brilliant military career was ended in four years from this time; but they were four years of stirring activity. Sent in the following year to join the republican army in La Vendée, he was, for his services in the engagements before Saumur and Le Mans, promoted to the rank of general of division. Then, proceeding to the north-east frontier, he commanded the right wing at Fleurus, and after the allies retreated occupied Coblenz. During the campaign of 1796 he was given command of the first division of Jourdan's army, and sat down to invest Mainz, Mannheim, and Coblenz. But whilst covering the retreat of the French at Altenkirchen he was shot, on 19th September, and died four days later. His body was buried in the entrenched camp at Coblenz, but was transferred to the Panthéon in Paris in 1889. He ranks next after Hoche amongst the French generals of the early years of the Revolution, not only for military genius, but also on account of the nobility and uprightness of his personal character. See Lives by Doublet de Boisthibault (1851), Maze (1888), and Captain T. G. Johnson (1896).