Augereau
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
PIERRE FRANÇOIS CHARLES, DUKE OF CAS- TIGLIONE, a celebrated French general, born at Paris in 1757. He joined the army as a private soldier, proceeded to Spain, and soon rose to the rank of adjutant-general. He then took high command under Napoleon I. in Italy, and in 1796, at the head of his own brigade, stormed the bridge of Lodi. To him Napoleon owed the brilliant victories of Castiglione and Arcole. Augereau having been sent by Napoleon to Paris became military commander of the capital, and led the coup d'état, or Revolution of Fructidor, by which the enemies of the Directory were seized and overthrown. Appointed to the command of the army on the German frontier, he became so wildly democratic that the Directory displaced ced him and sent him to Perpignan. He refused to assist Napoleon in the revolution which preceded the consulate being created and the empire. In 1805, be a Marshal of France, Augereau commanded at the reduction of the Vorarlberg; was at the battle of Jena in 1806, and accompanied Napoleon to Berlin. He commanded the French at Eylau in 1807, and, in 1809 and 1810, commanded in Catalonia, where he committed great excesses. Augereau was at the great battles of Leipsic, Oct. 16, 17, and 18, 1813, and in 1814 commanded at Lyons, to repel the march of the Austrians from that direction on the capital. Yielding to superior numbers, he retired to the S. and displaying little attachment to Napoleon, acknowledged the Bourbons, retained his honors, and became a peer. He died in June, 1816. GUILLAUME VICTOR AUGIER, EMILE (ōzh-ya'), a French dramatic poet, born at Valence, Sept. 20, 1820. "La Ciguë," his first play (1844), was accepted by the managers of the Odéon Théâtre and established the popularity of the author. "Gabrielle," a five-act comedy, has been pronounced Augier's most finished and best constructed work, whether as regards plot, poetry or the delineation of character. He was nominated a member of the Académie Française, and then officer of the Legion of Honor. At the solicitation of Mlle. Rachel, Augier wrote "Diane," a piece in five acts. In 1868 his "Fils de Giboyer" had a great success. He may be said to have founded a new school in French dramatic literature. He died Oct. 25, 1889.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Augereau died in 1816, so the facts of his life were already closed when Collier's wrote this in 1921, and the outline here still holds: the ex-private who rose to Marshal of France, won at Castiglione, drove the Fructidor coup of 1797, held the line at Eylau, and then made his peace with the Bourbons in 1814. Modern historians are less generous on two points. The claim that he "at the head of his own brigade, stormed the bridge of Lodi" is not how the storming column is usually credited today, and his behaviour in 1799-1804 was less principled resistance than opportunism: he grumbled at Brumaire but took the marshal's baton in 1804 all the same. Napoleon, returning in 1815, denounced him as a traitor for his 1814 conduct, and Augereau died the next year out of favour with both sides — though his name is among the 660 carved on the Arc de Triomphe.
Written for this edition, 2026.