For his services to the French Empire, Lannes was
styled as the duc de Montebello (duke of Montebello).
Sent to command French forces in Spain, he directed the
siege and capture of Saragossa, which fell to the French
on 20 February 1809. Shifted back to the main con-
flict on the continent, Lannes continued to command
his forces to victory. At Abensberg, Bavaria, on 20 April
1809, as commander of a joint French-Bavarian force
of some 90,000 troops, he confronted the Austrians
under Archduke charles, who was forced to withdraw
after Lannes’s French forces drove back the Austrians.
The Austrians lost approximately 7,000 men, while the
French-Bavarian force lost 3,000 killed and wounded.
During the battle at Aspern-Esseling near Vienna
(21–22 May 1809), however, Lannes was mortally
wounded. Gangrene set in, and both of his legs had to
be amputated. On 31 May 1809, nine days after being
wounded, he died in a hospital in Vienna, Austria. (His
death closely resembles that of the American general
Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, who, at the height of
his success in the American Civil War, was struck by a
rifle bullet and died shortly afterward.)
Jean Lannes was undoubtedly one of Napoleon’s
greatest generals. Had he not died in 1809, it is possible
that the fall of the French emperor would never have
occurred just a few years later at Waterloo. The loss of
Lannes marked the beginning of the end of the Napo-
leonic Wars and their impact on the European conti-
nent. His role in Napoleon’s victories ranks him with
André masséna and Louis-Nicolas daVout. His moral
strength, his instinctive use of forces at key moments in
battle, and his ability to deploy his troops skillfully made
him one of Napoleon’s best commanders.
References: Chrisawn, Margaret Scott, The Emperor’s
Friend: Marshal Jean Lannes (Westport, Conn.: Green-
wood Press, 2001); Bruce, George, “Aspern,” “Auster-
litz,” and “Montebello I,” in Collins Dictionary of Wars
(Glasgow, Scotland: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995), 23,
25, 164–165.
La Tour d’Auvergne, Henri de See turenne,
henri^ de la tour^ d’auVergne, Vicomte^ de.
Lee, Robert Edward (1807–1870) Confederate
general
Robert E. Lee was born into a prestigious Virginia
family in Stratford, Virginia, on 19 January 1807. His
father, Henry Lee (1756–1818), also known as “Light
Horse Harry,” served with distinction as a military
commander under General George Washington dur-
ing the American Revolution (1775–83); Henry Lee’s
uncles included Francis Lightfoot Lee (1734–97), a
signer of the Declaration of Independence; Arthur
Lee (1740–92), a noted early American diplomat; and
Richard Henry Lee (1732–94), another signer of the
Declaration of Independence who was also a member
of the Continental Congress. All were descended from
Richard Lee, who emigrated from England during the
reign of King Charles I and settled in Virginia, where he
served as a member of the Privy Council and secretary
of state of the Virginia colony.
Robert E. Lee, the fourth son of Henry Lee’s second
wife, followed his father by entering the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point, New York, in 1825, graduating
second in his class four years later. Commissioned as a
second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers, in 1831 he
married Mary Custis, the great-granddaughter of Mar-
tha Washington. The Lees moved into the Custis fam-
ily estate at Arlington House in northern Virginia, near
Washington, D.C.
In 1846, when America went to war with Mexico,
Lee—by then a captain—was sent to San Antonio,
Texas, to serve under General John E. Wool. He saw ac-
tion in some of the earliest battles of the conflict and was
recognized for his skill and ability at the battle of Buena
Vista (22 February 1846). Because of this, Lee was no-
ticed by the commander of American forces, General
Winfield scott, who selected the young officer to serve
on his staff. Lee took part in the battle at Veracruz (9
March 1847), and he also helped to bring about victo-
ries at Cerro Gordo (17–18 April 1847) and Chapulte-
pec (12–13 September 1847), where he was slightly
wounded. He returned home in 1848, was promoted
to the rank of brevet colonel for his role in the war, and
served for four years at Fort Caroll in Baltimore, Mary-
land. In 1852, he was named as superintendent of West
Point and promoted to the rank of colonel of cavalry. In
March 1855, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis named
him as commander of the 2nd Cavalry in Texas, with the
rank of lieutenant colonel. During this period, Lee led a
series of engagements against American Indian tribes in
the western United States. In 1859, at home in Virginia,
he was placed in command of the force that arrested the
antislavery raiders who attacked Harper’s Ferry, Virginialee, RobeRt eDwARD