Oudinot

Oudinot, CHARLES NICOLAS, Duke of Reggio and Marshal of France, was born at Bar-le-Duc, Meuse, 25th April 1767. At the age of seventeen he entered the army, and in the revolutionary wars distinguished himself in various actions with the Prussians and Austrians. In 1805 he obtained the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, and about the same time received the command of ten battalions of the reserve, afterwards famous as the 'grenadiers Oudinot.' At the head of this corps he did good service in the Austrian campaign. He was present at Austerlitz and Jena, gained the battle of Ostrolenka (16th February 1807), and greatly contributed to the success of the French at Friedland. He sustained his now brilliant reputation in the second Austrian campaign of 1809, and was created Marshal of France and Duke of Reggio. In 1810 he was charged with the occupation of Holland, was engaged in the disastrous Russian campaign, and subsequently took part in the various battles of 1813 between the French and the Russians and Austrians. He was one of the last to abandon Napoleon, but he did so for ever, and spent the period known as the 'Hundred Days' on his own estates. At the second restoration he became a minister of state, commander-in-chief of the royal guard and of the national guard, and was created a peer of France, Grand Cross of St Louis, &c. In 1823 he commanded the first division of the army of Spain, and was for some time governor of Madrid. After the revolution of July 1830 Oudinot retired to his estates; but Louis-Philippe in 1842 appointed him governor of the Invalides. He died at Paris, 13th September 1847. See his Life by Nollet (Paris, 1850).—His son, CHARLES NICOLAS-VICTOR OUDINOT, Duke of Reggio (1791-1863), was a general in the French army. He first distinguished himself in Algeria, and was general of the French expedition against Rome in 1849.