References: Weems, Mason Locke, The Life of Gen. Fran-
cis Marion: A Celebrated Partisan Officer in the Revolution
War against the British and Tories in South Carolina and
Georgia (Philadelphia: J. Allen, 1834); Lossing, Benson
John, Lives of Celebrated Americans: Comprising Biogra-
phies of Three Hundred and Forty Eminent Persons (Hart-
ford, Conn.: Thomas Belknap, 1869), 184–186; Bass,
Robert D., Swamp Fox: The Life and Campaigns of General
Francis Marion (New York: Holt, 1969).
Marlborough, first duke of See churchill,
John, first duke of marlborough.
Martel, Charles See charles martel.
Masséna, André, duc de Rivoli (Andrea
Massena, prince d’Essling) (1758–1817)
French general
André Masséna was born as Andrea Masséna in the vil-
lage of Leven, near what is now Nice, France (then part
of the kingdom of Sardinia), on 6 May 1758. His father
was Guilio-Cesare Masséna, whose family had been mer-
chants and farmers in the Nice region for many years. At
the age of 17, Masséna entered the Sardinian army and
served for a period of 14 years before retiring and set-
tling in Nice, where he married and raised a family.
In 1791, Masséna volunteered in the French revo-
lutionary cause and raised a battalion of volunteers; he
was named general of brigade the following year. When
naPoleon bonaParte was sent to fight in Italy, Mas-
séna joined him, and in the two-year campaign (1794–
96), he commanded the right wing of the French army.
Masséna’s victories at Bassano (8 September 1796), in
which he defeated the Austrian commander Marshal
von Wurmser, as well as his victory at Rivoli (14 January
1797) earned him a reputation as a military strategist.
In 1799, he defeated Austrian and Russian armies in
Switzerland, an action that saved France from invasion
by the allies of the so-called Second Coalition. In addi-
tion, Masséna’s desperate five-month defense of Genoa
against the Austrians enabled Napoleon to win his great
victory at Marengo (14 June 1800).
In 1804, as one of Napoleon’s most trusted com-
manders and advisers, Masséna was named as a marshal
of the French Empire. The following year, he was given
command of all French toops in Italy, and, following the
signing of the Peace of Pressburg (26 December 1805)
between France and Austria, he took possession of the
kingdom of Naples. Starting in 1807, he again ably as-
sisted Napoleon in his conquests across Europe, seeing
action in Poland, winning a key victory at Esslingen
(also known as Aspern, 21–22 May 1809), when Mar-
shal Jean lannes, another of Napoleon’s key military
commanders, was killed in battle. For saving the French
from being destroyed, Napoleon titled Masséna as the
prince d’Essling, having already named him the duc
(duke) de Rivoli in 1808.
Masséna’s first failure came during the Peninsular
War (1808–14), when Napoleon sent him to Portugal
to attack the British commander Arthur Wellesley, the
Duke of Wellington. Hampered by Spanish guer-
rillas who constantly attacked his lines of communica-
tion, Masséna forced Wellington back to Torres Vedras,
outside Lisbon, but spent a fruitless five months there
attempting to break through impregnable British de-
fenses. Because of a lack of supplies and reinforcements,
he failed to stop Wellington’s advance at Bussaco (27
September 1810) and lost at Fuentes d’Onoro (5 May
1811). Historians have faulted Masséna for this defeat,
claiming that he did not work effectively with the other
French commanders such as Marshal Michel ney and
Marshal Jean-Andoche Junot. Despite this, Welling-
ton wrote at the time that it was Masséna, more than
any other French commander, whom he feared and re-
spected on the field of battle.
With Napoleon’s fall from power in 1814, Masséna
accepted the accession of King Louis XVIII, who made
him a French peer. However, when Napoleon escaped
from Elba and landed in France in a bid for power,
Masséna did not oppose him but refused to fight for
him and took no part, either militarily or politically, in
Napoleon’s “One Hundred Days,” which ended at Wa-
terloo (18 June 1815). Masséna died in Paris on 4 April
1817, a month before his 59th birthday. His Memoires
were published in seven volumes from 1848 to 1850.
The editors of the The Wordsworth Dictionary of
Military Biography sum up Masséna’s record:In modern history it is rare to find a military
leader whose record commands respect despite his
enthusiastic indulgence in both financial greedmASSénA, AnDRé, Duc De Rivoli