Davout: “The First Consul [Napoleon] does not like
Davoust, because when in Egypt he associated with all
of those who made a point of being hostile to Bonaparte.
I do not know that Davoust can be justly ranked among
the First Consul’s enemies; but it is certain that he has
inspired him with an antipathy as complete as one man
can entertain for another. I am the more sorry for this,
inasmuch as Davoust is my comrade and a clever man.”
Nevertheless, soon after Davout’s return to Eu-
rope, Napoleon made him a general of division, and he
saw action at Marengo (14 June 1800), where his good
friend Desaix was killed on the field of battle. In 1800,
Davout refused to sign a letter against Napoleon during
the latter’s absence from Paris. For this sign of loyalty,
Napoleon promoted him to major general (3 July 1800),
and he was given command of the cavalry division of the
French army in Italy, commanded by General Marshal
Guillaume Marie Anne Brune. In 1801, Davout mar-
ried Napoleon’s sister Pauline’s sister-in-law. He was pro-
moted to the rank of marshal in 1804, when Napoleon
became emperor of the French, and named commander
of the III Corps of the French army, the left wing and
an integral part of France’s Grande Armée. Davout be-
came one of the leaders of Napoleon’s campaign against
Austria, seeing action at Austerlitz (2 December 1805),
when he and his troops force-marched for 36 hours to
reinforce the left flank of Napoleon’s army and hold off a
Russian attack that helped the French attain victory. His-
torian George Bruce writes that “the allies lost 27,000
killed, wounded, and prisoners, and a large number of
guns. The French lost about 8,000 [soldiers].” For his
service in this battle, Davout was awarded the Legion
d’Honneur (Legion of Honor) and named as colonel
general of the Imperial Guard.
Still commander of the III Corps, on 14 October
1806 Davout defeated the duke of Brunswick and his
Austrian army at Auerstadt, despite being outnumbered
three to one in troops. Although Napoleon, who was
fighting at Jena that same day, initially dismissed Da-
vout’s victory at Auerstadt, he realized its importance
and allowed Davout to enter Berlin as the leader of the
armies on 27 October 1806. For this important mili-
tary triumph, Davout was styled as the duc d’Auerstadt
(duke of Auerstadt) in 1808. He was also named as an
administrator of the Duchy of Warsaw (1807–09).
Davout proved himself to be one of Napoleon’s
most important commanders: At Eylau on 8 February
1807, leading some 14,000 troops into battle at the
last moment, he again forced defeat on the Russians;
at Eckmühl on 22 April 1809, he held Prince Charles
and his Austrian forces off until Napoleon could deliver
reinforcements, then turned on the Austrians to deliver
victory for the French; and at Wagram on 6 July 1809,
he again defeated the Austrians. Styled as the prince
d’Eckmühl, he was named as commander in chief of the
French army in Germany on 1 January 1810, oversee-
ing the administration of the occupied territory until- In this position he promoted Napoleon’s Conti-
nental System for governing those conquered European
states. He later served as the administrator for Hamburg
(1813–14).
Following Napoleon’s exile to Elba and his subse-
quent return to power—a period known as “The Hun-
dred Days” for its length—Davout served as minister of
war. He was the only one of Napoleon’s generals not to
have sided with the returned monarch King Louis XVII,
and because of his loyalty to Napoleon, he was once
again made one of his leading advisers, this time helping
to reestablish the Napoleonic army, although not as a
commander. This force met a devastating defeat at Wa-
terloo on 18 June 1815, and Davout, in Paris, realized
that Napoleon was finished. The new French govern-
ment asked him to ask the emperor to leave Paris, after
which Napoleon was arrested by the British and exiled
a final time to the island of St. Helena. On 3 July 1815,
Davout, representing Napoleon’s government, signed the
treaty of surrender and armistice with the coalition that
defeated him. He packed his belongings and left Paris.
Davout’s last years were painful and without the
former glory of his days under Napoleon. Deprived of a
military pension, it took him two years of fighting with
the new French government to reclaim all of his offi-
cial titles, including those of the duc d’Auerstadt and
the prince d’Eckmühl. In 1819, he was admitted as a
member of the French House of Peers, a chamber similar
to England’s House of Lords. He died in Paris on 1 June - Despite his loyalty to his commander and military
record, Louis Nicolas Davout has been largely forgotten
except by Napoleonic historians.
References: Gallaher, John G., The Iron Marshal: A Bi-
ography of Louis N. Davout (Edwardsville, Ill.: Southern
Illinois University Press, 1976); De Ségur, Count Philippe-
Paul, Napoleon’s Russian Campaign (Alexandria, Va.: Time/
Life Books, 1980); Palmer, Alan, Napoleon in Russia (New
York: Simon and Schuster, 1967); Bruce, George, “Aus-DAvout, louiS-nicolAS