Pichegru, CHARLES, French general, was born a labourer's son at Arbois in Jura, 16th February 1761, and was educated by the Minorite friars at Arbois and at the college of Brienne. He enlisted into an artillery regiment in 1783, and showed such capacity and courage on the Rhine in the fiery service of the young republic that by 1793 he was a general of division. In October of that year he was given supreme command on the Rhine, and in conjunction with Hoche and his army of the Moselle he drove back the Austrians, relieved Landau, and overran the Palatinate. Next year he continued his career of triumph in the Netherlands, and showed in three campaigns within one year consummate generalship and a fortunate audacity worthy of the great Napoleon. After by swift movements defeating the Austrians in detail, he broke their forces at Fleurus, June 27, 1794, and, continuing the struggle into the winter, crossed the Meuse and the Waal on the ice, entered Amsterdam, January 20, 1795, and soon occupied the whole of Holland. During this campaign occurred the famous capture by the French hussars of the Dutch ships frozen in the Helder. Recalled to Paris by the Thermidorians, the 'Sauveur de la Patrie' crushed an insurrection of the fanbourgs at Paris, 1st April 1795, next proceeded to the Rhine, and took Mannheim. But at the height of his fame he turned traitor, and sold himself for vast promises to the Bourbons. With deliberate treachery he remained inactive before the enemy, and allowed Jourdan to be defeated. The Directory becoming suspicious superseded him by Moreau, and Pichegru retired to Arbois. In 1797 he took his place, first as member, next as president, of the council of Five Hundred, and continued his Bourbon intrigues, but on the 18th Fructidor (4th September) was arrested and deported to Cayenne. Escaping in the June of next year, he made his way to London, was attached to the Austro-Russian army in 1799, and thereafter lived in Germany and England until the formation of the Bourbon conspiracy of Georges Cadoudal (q.v.) for the assassination of the First Consul. The pair reached Paris secretly, but found it impossible to gain over
Moreau. They were soon betrayed to the police, and Pichegru was seized in bed and carried to the Temple, February 28, 1804. Here, on the morning of the 6th April, it was found that he had anticipated justice, and ended his dishonoured life with his own hands. The traitor knew that he had justly forfeited his life to his country's laws, and there is no justification for the royalist slander that he was made away with by Napoleon.
See the Lives by Gassier (1814), Pierret (1826), Vouziers (Dôle, 1870); also the Mémoires by Montgillard (1804).