General Alexandre Dumas: The Dark Count Of France Too The Highest-Ranking Somebody Of Coloring Of All Fourth Dimension Inwards Continental European Army
General Alex Dumas, is a human well-nigh unknown today, yet his story is strikingly familiar—because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used his larger-than-life feats as inspiration for such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo too The Three Musketeers. But, hidden behind General Dumas's swashbuckling adventures was an fifty-fifty to a greater extent than incredible secret: he was the boy of a dark slave adult woman from Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) and a renegade French aristocrat—who rose higher inwards the white footing than whatsoever human of his race would before our ain time.
Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, also known as Alexandre Dumas, (25 March 1762 – 26 Feb 1806) was a full general inwards Revolutionary France; he is the highest-ranking someone of color of all fourth dimension inwards a continental European army. He was the foremost someone of color inwards the French armed services to travel brigadier general, the foremost to travel divisional general, too the foremost to travel general-in-chief of a French army. Dumas shared the status of the highest-ranking dark officeholder inwards the Western footing alone with Toussaint Louverture (who inwards May 1797 became the 2nd dark general-in-chief inwards the French military) until 1975, when the American Daniel "Chappie" James Jr became a 4 star General inwards the the States Air Force, the closest American equivalent of Général d'Armée, Dumas' highest rank.
TIME magazine called The Black Count "one of those quintessentially human stories of strength too courage that sheds calorie-free on the historical 2nd that made it possible." It is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of dearest betwixt a manly someone parent too son.
The truthful story of Alex Dumas was itself ruthlessly suppressed past times his greatest enemy (General Napoleon Bonaparte)—and remained buried for 200 years. Alexandre whose uncle was a rich, hard-working planter who dealt saccharide too slaves out of a picayune cove on the northward coast called Monte Cristo—but his father, Antoine, neither rich nor hard-working, was the eldest son. In 1775, Antoine sailed to French Republic to claim the identify unit of measurement inheritance, pawning his dark boy into slavery to purchase passage. Only after securing his championship too inheritance did he ship for the boy, who arrived on French soil piece of cake inwards 1776, listed inwards the ship’s records as “slave Alexandre.”
In his 2012 bestselling biographic too series award-winning novel "The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, too the Real Count of Monte Cristo" Tom Reiss writes "At 16, he moved with his father, immediately a marquis, to Paris, where he was educated inwards classical philosophy, equestrianism, too swordsmanship. But at 24, he decided to laid off on his own: joining the dragoons at the lowest rank, he was stationed inwards a remote garrison town where he specialized inwards fighting duels. The twelvemonth was 1786. When the French Revolution erupted 3 years later, the induce of liberty, equality, too fraternity gave him his chance. As a German-Austrian regular army marched on Paris inwards 1792 to reimpose the monarchy, he made a call for himself past times capturing a large enemy patrol without firing a shot. He got his foremost officer’s committee at the caput of a band of beau dark swordsmen, revolutionaries called the Legion of Americans, or precisely la Légion Noire. In the meantime, he had met his truthful love, an innkeeper’s daughter, piece riding inwards to rescue her town from brigands."
The enlistment roll-book for the sixth Regiment of the Queen's Dragoons, which Dumas joined inwards 1786, described him as "6 feet tall, with frizzy dark pilus too eyebrows... oval face, too dark-brown skinned, pocket-size mouth, thick lips." According to the earliest known published description of him (1797), he was “one of the handsomest men you lot could ever meet. [...] His frizzy pilus recalls the curls of the Greeks too Romans.” It described his aspect as "something closer to ebony" than to "bronze." ” Elsewhere General Dumas has been described as “dark — really dark.
At the historic menses of 32 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the French regular army inwards the Alps, the equivalent of a four-star general. The immature full general from the torrid zone led 53,000 men inwards tearing glacier fighting against the best alpine troops inwards the footing too captured the mount make for French Republic inwards their Second Italian Campaign against the Austrian Empire. (Not content with overthrowing their ain rulers, the French revolutionaries had declared a “war of liberation” on all their neighbors.) And though the Austrians nicknamed him der schwarze Teufel—“the Black Devil” or "Diable Noir" inwards French—he was an angel to victims of oppression, no affair their side: inwards the midst of the Revolution’s bloody chaos, he pushed dorsum against those committing terror, earning the mocking nickname “Mr. Humanity” too narrowly escaping the guillotine himself. "The French – notably Napoleon – nicknamed him "the Horatius Cocles of the Tyrol" (after a hero who had saved ancient Rome) for single-handedly defeating a squadron of enemy troops at a span over the Eisack River inwards Clausen (today Klausen, or Chiusa, Italy)."
Dumas’s incredible ascendance as a dark human through the white ranks of the French regular army reflected a key turning betoken inwards the history of slavery too race relations as forgotten as Dumas himself: a unmarried decade when revolutionary French Republic ended slavery too initiated the integration of its army, its government, too fifty-fifty its schools. General Dumas was “a living emblem of the novel equality,” wrote a nineteenth-century French historian—but his career’s tragic unraveling reflected the unraveling of that progress as well.
The agent of devastation for both was his beau general, Napoleon, who at foremost praised Dumas as a Roman hero for his battlefield feats but came to abhor him for his independence too revolutionary values. The 2 men clashed inwards 1798, during the invasion of Egypt—where the Egyptians mistook the towering Dumas for the leader of the French forces. Then, piece Dumas languished for 2 years inwards an enemy dungeon, Napoleon made himself dictator too dismantled France’s post-racial experiment, imposing barbarous race laws inwards France, re-instituting slavery inwards the colonies, too sending an invasion forcefulness to Saint-Domingue with orders to kill or capture whatsoever dark who wore an officer’s uniform. He went to as extraordinary lengths to bury the retention of Alex Dumas, thundering, “I forbid you lot to ever speak to me of that man!” when sometime comrades tried to intervene on behalf of the full general too his family, who were living inwards near-destitution. Barely 5 years after his render to France, Dumas died at 43 of breadbasket cancer, probable an aftereffect of his poisoning piece imprisoned.
Dumas’s son, the hereafter novelist too 1 of France's most widely read authors of all time, would select a marvelous form of revenge, infusing his father’s life too spirit into fictional characters who receive got been embraced the footing over. Yet piece every generation has heaped glory on the call Alexandre Dumas, the nifty full general has remained forgotten. The alone statue of him—in a dry ground awash inwards marble generals—was erected inwards Paris to a greater extent than than a hundred years after his death, too and hence destroyed past times the Nazis.
The general’s grandson, Alexandre Dumas, fils, would travel 1 of France's most celebrated playwrights of the 2nd one-half of the nineteenth century. Another grandson, Henry Bauër, who was never recognized past times the novelist Dumas, was a prominent left-leaning theatre critic inwards the same period. The General's great-grandson, Gérard Bauër, boy of Henry Bauër, was also an accomplished author inwards the twentieth century. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 great-great-grandson, Alexandre Lippmann (grandson of the playwright Dumas fils), was a two-time gilded medalist inwards fencing at the 1908 too 1924 Olympic games (he won silvery inwards 1920).
source:http://harvardmagazine.com/2012/11/vita-alexandre-dumas
General Dumas` Full Biography
General Alex Dumas was born on 25 March 1762 inwards Jérémie, Saint-Domingue (today Haiti). His baptismal call was Thomas-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie. Alex`s manly someone parent was a French nobleman, the Marquis Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie (Antoine) too and his woman parent was Marie-Cessette Dumas (his father`s dark African slave) from La Guinodée, Saint-Domingue.
Gen Alex Dumas` manly someone parent Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, was born inwards 1714. He was the oldest of 3 sons of the Marquis Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie (1674-1758) too Jeanne-Françoise Paultre, (or Pautre) de Dominon (died 1757). The Davy de la Pailleteries were provincial Norman aristocrats whose wealth was inwards decline. The identify unit of measurement had acquired the championship of "lords" (seigneurs) past times 1632. The French kingdom granted the championship "marquis" to the identify unit of measurement past times 1708.
Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie ("Antoine") had 2 younger brothers, Charles Anne Edouard (Charles) born inwards 1716, too Louis François Thérèse (Louis) born inwards 1718. All 3 were educated at a armed services schoolhouse too pursued careers as officers inwards the French military. They foremost served during the War of Polish Succession. Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, who reached the rank of colonel, notably saw activity at the Siege of Philippsburg inwards 1734.
General Alex Dumas` Father`s Career inwards Saint-Domingue
In 1732, Antoine’s younger blood brother Charles had been given a armed services posting inwards Saint-Domingue, a French colony inwards the Caribbean Area that generated high revenues from its saccharide cane plantations, worked past times African slave labor. In 1738, Charles left the armed services to travel a saccharide planter inwards that colony; he married Anne-Marie Tuffé, a rich local French Creole widow, too took over her estate.
That twelvemonth Antoine also left the Army too joined his blood brother too his married adult woman inwards Saint-Domingue. He lived with them too worked at the plantation until 1748. After the 2 brothers quarrelled violently, Antoine left Charles's plantation, taking his 3 personal slaves.
At that betoken Antoine broke off contact with his blood brother too his identify unit of measurement for a menses of 30 years. During that time, Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie purchased the slave adult woman Marie-Cessette "for an exorbitant price" too took her as a concubine. In 1762, she gave nascency to their mixed-race boy Thomas-Alexandre. During her fourth dimension with Antoine, she also had 3 daughters with him. (Some accounts say two.) The French colonist made a living inwards Jérémie, Saint-Domingue as a java too cacao planter, nether the assumed call of "Antoine de l'Isle."
When the brothers’ parents, the Marquise Jeanne-Françoise too the Marquis Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, died inwards 1757 too 1758, respectively, Charles returned to Normandy to claim the championship Marquis too the identify unit of measurement château. The British blockade of French transportation during the Seven Years' War reduced Charles' income from saccharide exports, hence he tried to smuggle the commodity out of Saint-Domingue from his plantation. He used a wharf inwards the neutral edge territory (and tiny island) of Monte Cristo (today Monte Christi, Dominican Republic). (Some historians debate that this Monte Cristo was the "real" isle that inspired Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo). Charles died of gout inwards 1773; Louis, the youngest of the Davy de la Pailleterie brothers, died 3 months later. He had served a 15-day judgement for beingness involved inwards selling defective weapons to the French armed services (a famous scandal at the fourth dimension known as the Invalides Trial (le procès des Invalides)
General Dumas` Mother
Marie-Cessette Dumas — described as a "great matriarch to a saga of distinguished men" was a slave too concubine of African descent owned past times the Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie. They resided together at a plantation called La Guinaudée (or Guinodée), nigh Jérémie (formerly inwards the French colony of Saint-Domingue, immediately Haiti) until shortly before Antoine's divergence inwards 1775. He sold Marie-Cessette Dumas, their other 2 children, too her fille past times some other human to a baron from Nantes before leaving Saint-Domingue.
The alone source for her total name, "Marie-Cessette Dumas," with that spelling, is General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas's later matrimony certificate too contract. Her grandson's memoir gave her call as Louise, too some other source recorded Cécile. Sources receive got spelling variations of her name, as standardization was non mutual at the time. Some scholars receive got suggested that "Dumas" was non a surname for Marie-Cessette, but, pregnant "of the farm" (du mas), was added to her foremost names to signify that she belonged to the property. Others receive got suggested African origins of the names Cessette too Dumas, including Gabon, Yoruba or Dahomey.
The 2 extant primary documents that province a racial identity for Marie-Cessette Dumas refer to her as a “négresse” (a dark female) as opposed to a “mulâtresse” (a woman someone of mixed race).
Secondary sources on General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, dating dorsum to 1822, well-nigh ever pull his woman parent as a dark African (“femme africaine”, “négresse,” “négresse africaine,” “noire,” or “pure dark African.”
Sources differ on the appointment too circumstance of her death. Two documents signed past times Alexandre Dumas – his contract too certificate of matrimony to Marie-Louise Labouret – province that Marie-Cessette died inwards La Guinaudée, nigh Trou Jérémie, Saint-Domingue, inwards 1772. Based on this decease date, Victor Emmanuel Roberto Wilson speculates that she may receive got died inwards the volume outbreak of dysentery next a hurricane that struck principally the Grand Anse part of Saint-Domingue that year.
Two other documents attest that Marie-Cessette was live after 1772: a missive of the alphabet recounting her sale inwards 1775 too an 1801 document signed past times Dumas, maxim that “Marie-Cezette” volition live inwards accuse of General Dumas’s properties inwards Saint-Domingue.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas may receive got before claimed that she had died inwards monastic enjoin to avoid having to acquire her blessing before matrimony too revealing her slave status. In addition, he was inwards a hurry to leave of absence for the armed services front.
Early life
Thomas-Alexandre had 2 siblings past times his parents: Adolphe too Jeannette. They also had an older half-sister, Marie-Rose, born to Marie-Cessette before Davy de la Pailleterie purchased her too began their relationship. His manly someone parent sold Marie-Cessette too her other 3 children before arranging to select Thomas-Alexandre with him to France.
In 1776 when Alexandre was 14 years old, his manly someone parent sold the man child for 800 French livres inwards Port-au-Prince, officially to a Lieutenant Jacques-Louis Roussel (but unofficially to a Captain Langlois). This sale (with correct of redemption) provided both a legal agency to receive got Alexandre taken to French Republic with Langlois too a temporary loan to pay for his father's passage. The man child accompanied Captain Langlois to Le Havre, France, arriving on August 30, 1776, where his manly someone parent bought him dorsum too freed him.
From his arrival inwards French Republic until Autumn 1778, Alexandre (then using the call Thomas Retoré) foremost lived with his manly someone parent at the Davy de la Pailleterie identify unit of measurement estate inwards Belleville-en-Caux, Normandy. After his manly someone parent sold that estate inwards 1777, they moved to a townhouse on the rue de l'Aigle d'Or inwards the Parisian suburb of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. There, Alexandre studied at the university of Nicolas Texier de La Boëssière, where he was given the higher teaching of a immature nobleman of the time. At this school, he learned swordsmanship from the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, some other mixed-race human from the French Caribbean.
Flush with cash from the sale of his identify unit of measurement estate, Davy de la Pailleterie for many years spent lavishly on Dumas. His notary said wrote that the man child "cost him enormously." From 1777 to 1786, from historic menses fifteen to 24, thank you lot to his father's wealth too generosity, Dumas lived a life of considerable leisure.
In 1784, at historic menses 22, Alexandre moved to an storey on Rue Etienne, nigh the Louvre Palace inwards Paris, socializing at venues such as the Palais-Royal too Nicolet's Theater. In September 1784, piece seated at Nicolet's Theater inwards the fellowship of "a beautiful Creole" woman, he too his companion were harassed past times a white colonial naval officer, Jean-Pierre Titon de Saint-Lamain, too 1 or 2 others. Following Dumas's verbal protests, the men "tried to forcefulness him to kneel before his assailant too beg for his freedom." The police force study on the incident shows that Titon chose non to press charges as he powerfulness have, too all participants were released.
Military career
Enlistment too service inwards the Queen's Dragoons
In Feb 1786 his manly someone parent Davy de la Pailleterie married Françoise Retou, a domestic retainer from the Davy de la Pailleterie estate. Dumas did non sign as witness to the matrimony contract. According to his son's memoir, the matrimony precipitated a "cooling off" which led the manly someone parent to tighten Dumas's allowance.
Soon after, Dumas decided to bring together the French Army, a mutual line for gentlemen. Unlike his noble peers, who took arms as commissioned officers, Dumas enlisted as a private. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 1781 dominion enabled men who could demo 4 generations of nobility on their father's side to qualify to live commissioned as officers. Dumas had this, but the French race laws "made it hard for a human of mixed race to claim his rightful championship or noble status.") According to the novelist Dumas's account, on hearing of Alexandre's plan, his manly someone parent insisted that his boy select a "nom de guerre" inwards monastic enjoin that he non drag the noble call "through the lowest ranks of the army." He signed upwards for the sixth Regiment of the Queen's Dragoons as "Alexandre Dumas" on June 2, 1786; thirteen days later, his manly someone parent died.
Dumas spent his foremost years inwards the Queen's Dragoons inwards the provincial town of Laon, Picardy, to a greater extent than or less the edge with the Austrian Netherlands. On August 15, 1789, next the foremost of the French Revolution, his unit of measurement was sent to the pocket-size town of Villers-Cotterêts. The town's newly formed National Guard leader, innkeeper Claude Labouret, had called for them to come upwards inwards answer to a moving ridge of rural violence known as the Great Fear. Dumas lodged at the Labourets' Hôtel de l'Ecu for 4 months, during which fourth dimension he became engaged to Claude Labouret's fille Marie-Louise.
Dumas' regiment was inwards Paris on July 17, 1791, where they served as riot police force along with National Guard units nether the Marquis de Lafayette during the Champ de Mars Massacre of the French Revolution. Troops killed betwixt 12 too 50 people when a large crowd gathered to sign a petition calling for the removal of the French king. When, 2 years later, someone denounced Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, he claimed that his intervention inwards the conflict had saved as many as 2,000 people from massacre.
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 corporal past times 1792, Dumas had his foremost combat sense was inwards a French onset on the Austrian Netherlands inwards Apr of that year. He was 1 of 10,000 men nether the control of the General Biron. Stationed on the Belgian frontier inwards the town of Maulde, on August 18, 1792 Dumas captured 12 enemy soldiers piece leading a pocket-size scouting political party of 4 to 8 horsemen.
In Oct 1792, Dumas accepted a committee as lieutenant colonel inwards (and second-in-command of) the Légion franche des Américains et du Midi, founded a calendar month before past times Julien Raimond. This was a "free legion" (i.e., formed separately from the regular army) composed of gratuitous men of color (gens du couleur libre). It was variously called the "American Legion," the "Black Legion," or the Saint-George Legion, after its commanding officer, the Chevalier de Saint-George, Dumas' sometime teacher inwards swordsmanship. The immature officeholder Dumas oft commanded the legion, as Saint-George was often absent from duty. In Apr 1793, General Dumouriez attempted a coup d'état; Saint-George too Dumas refused to bring together it too defended the urban center of Lille from coup supporters. In the summertime of 1793, Saint-George was defendant of misusing authorities funds, too the Legion was disbanded.
On July 30, 1793, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier full general inwards the Army of the North. One calendar month later, he was promoted again, to full general of division. In September, he was made commander-in-chief of the Army of the Western Pyrenees. In this brief assignment (September–December 1793), Dumas' headquarters were inwards Bayonne, France, where (according to his son's memoirs), he was nicknamed "Mr. Humanity" (Monsieur de l'Humanité) past times local sans-culottes; they wanted to intimidate him to adjust to their political line at a fourth dimension when French generals were extremely vulnerable to accusations of treason that often led to execution.
On Dec 22, 1793, Dumas was given control of the Army of the Alps. His induce inwards the Alps centered on defeating Austrian too Piemontese troops defending the glacier-covered Little Saint Bernard Pass at Mont Cenis, on the French-Piedmont border. After months of planning too reconnaissance from his base of operations inwards Grenoble, he had to hold off for snowfall atmospheric condition to live favorable to his troops' passage. In Apr too May 1794, Dumas launched several assaults on Mont Cenis. In the concluding attack, Dumas's army, equipped with H2O ice crampons, took the mount past times scaling H2O ice cliffs too captured betwixt 900 too 1,700 prisoners.
Though his victory won Dumas praise from political leaders inwards Paris, he was called before the Committee of Public Safety inwards the June of 1794, for reasons unspecified but likely to aspect charges of treason, as this was the menses of the "Great Terror," a menses of accelerated political executions inwards the concluding months of the Reign of Terror menses of the French Revolution. Dumas delayed his arrival inwards Paris until mid-July, too was lucky plenty non to live seen past times the Committee before the Terror ended with the execution of Robespierre on July 27, 1794.
In early on August 1794 Dumas was briefly assigned (for 2 weeks) to control the Ecole de Mars armed services schoolhouse (fr:Ecole de Mars) at Neuilly-sur-Seine nigh Paris. He was reassigned to Pb the Army of the West from August to Oct 1794. In this position, he was responsible for consolidating the recent authorities victory over a massive insurgency inwards the part of the Vendée against the French revolutionary government. He focused on increasing armed services bailiwick too eliminating soldiers' abuses of the local population. One historian, despite or because of his pro-royalist sentiments, would characterize Dumas inwards this control as "fearless too irreproachable," a leader who "deserves to transcend into posterity too makes a favorable contrast with the executioners, his contemporaries, whom world indignation volition ever smash to the pillory of History!”
In September 1795 Dumas served nether General Jean Baptiste Kléber inwards the Army of the Rhine. He participated inwards the French onset on Düsseldorf, where he was wounded.
General Dumas joined the Army of Italia inwards Milan inwards Nov 1796, serving nether the orders of its commander-in-chief, Napoleon Bonaparte. Tension betwixt the 2 generals began inwards this period, as Dumas resisted Napoleon's policy of allowing French troops indiscriminately to expropriate local property. In Dec 1796, Dumas was set inwards accuse of a segmentation besieging Austrian troops at the urban center of Mantua. By Christmas he had intercepted a spy carrying a message to the Austrian commander with of import tactical information. On Jan 16, 1797, Dumas too his segmentation halted an Austrian endeavour to interruption out of the besieged urban center too prevented Austrian reinforcements from reaching Mantua. The French were thereby able to maintain the siege until French reinforcements could arrive, leading to the city's capitulation on Feb 2, 1797.
Following the Jan xvi fighting, Dumas felt insulted past times the description of his actions inwards a battle study past times General Berthier, Bonaparte's aide-de-camp, too wrote a missive of the alphabet to Napoleon cursing Berthier. Dumas was later on omitted from cite inwards Napoleon's battle study to the Directory, France's authorities at the time. He was too hence given a control good beneath his rank, leading a section nether General Masséna, despite a petition from Dumas' troops attesting to his valor. Under General Masséna inwards Feb 1797, Dumas helped French troops force the Austrians northward, capturing thousands of them. It was inwards this menses that Austrian troops began calling him the der schwarze Teufel ("Black Devil", or Diable Noir inwards French).
In piece of cake Feb 1797, Dumas was transferred to a segmentation commanded past times General Joubert, who specifically requested Dumas out of admiration for his republicanism. Under Joubert, Dumas led a pocket-size forcefulness that defeated several enemy positions along the Adige River. Dumas' crowning achievement inwards this menses came on March 23, when the full general single-handedly drove dorsum an entire squadron of Austrian troops at a span over the Eisack River inwards Clausen (today Klausen, or Chiusa, Italy). It was this feat for which the French began referring to Dumas as "the Horatius Cocles of the Tyrol" (after a hero who had saved ancient Rome). Napoleon called Dumas past times this nickname, too rewarded him past times making him cavalry commander of all French troops inwards the Tyrol; he also sent Dumas a twain of pistols. Dumas spent much of 1797 as armed services governor, administering the province of Treviso, northward of Venice.
Dumas was ordered to study to Toulon, French Republic inwards March 1798 for an unspecified assignment. He joined an enormous French armada massing at that spot inwards training for divergence to a hole-and-corner destination. The armada departed on May 10, 1798, goal soundless unannounced. It was alone on June 23, after the fleet had conquered Malta, that Napoleon announced that the mission's main purpose: to conquer Egypt. Aboard the Guillaume Tell, inwards the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Dumas learned that he had been appointed as commander of all cavalry inwards the Army of the Orient. The armada arrived inwards the port of Alexandria at the halt of June, too on July 3 Dumas led the Fourth Light Grenadiers over the walls as the French conquered the city. After the fighting, Napoleon sent Dumas to pay ransom to some Bedouins who had kidnapped French soldiers. The expedition's principal medical officeholder recounted inwards a memoir that local Egyptians, judging Dumas' peak too create versus Napoleon's, believed Dumas to live inwards command. Seeing "him ride his Equus caballus over the trenches, going to ransom the prisoners, all of them believed that he was the leader of the Expedition."
From July 7 to 21, Dumas commanded the invading army's cavalry as it marched due south from Alexandria to Cairo. Conditions of heat, thirst, fatigue, too lack of supplies for the troops on the desert march were harsh; at that spot were a issue of suicides. While camped inwards Damanhour, General Dumas met over watermelons with several other generals (Lannes, Desaix, too Murat). They vented criticisms of Napoleon's leadership too discussed the possibility of refusing to march beyond Cairo. Dumas shortly participated inwards the Battle of the Pyramids (following which he chased retreating Mameluke horsemen) too the line of Cairo. At some betoken during the occupation, Napoleon learned of the before mutinous talk, too confronted Dumas. In his memoirs, Napoleon remembered threatening to shoot Dumas for sedition. Dumas requested leave of absence to render to France, too Napoleon did non oppose it. Napoleon was reported to receive got said: "I tin ship away easily supplant him with a brigadier."
Following the devastation of the French armada past times a British fleet led past times Horatio Nelson, however, Dumas was unable to exit of Arab Republic of Egypt until March of the next year. In August 1798, Dumas discovered a important cache of gilded too jewels beneath a business solid inwards French-occupied Cairo, which he turned over to Napoleon. In October, he was instrumental inwards putting downward an anti-French revolt inwards Cairo past times charging into the Al-Azhar Mosque on horseback. Afterward (according to his son's account, drawn largely from the memories of Dumas's aide-de-camp Dermoncourt), Napoleon told him: "I shall receive got a epitome made of the taking of the Grand Mosque. Dumas, you lot receive got already posed as the cardinal figure." The Girodet painting, however, which Napoleon commissioned 11 years later, shows a white human charging into the mosque.
On March 7, 1799, Dumas boarded a pocket-size ship called the Belle Maltaise inwards the fellowship of his beau General Jean-Baptiste Manscourt du Rozoy, the geologist Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu, twoscore wounded French soldiers, too a issue of Maltese too Genoan civilians. Dumas had sold the furnishings of his quarters inwards Cairo, too purchased 4,000 pounds of moka coffee; 11 Arabian horses (two stallions too nine mares) to found breeding stock inwards France; too hired the ship.
While returning to France, the ship began to sink, too Dumas had to jettison much of his cargo. The ship was forced past times storms to dry ground at Taranto, inwards the Kingdom of Naples. Dumas too his companions expected to acquire a friendly reception, having heard that the Kingdom had been overthrown past times the Parthenopean Republic. But that short-lived commonwealth had succumbed to an internal uprising past times a local forcefulness known as the Holy Faith Army, led past times Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, inwards alliance with King Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples. He was at state of war with France.
The Holy Faith Army imprisoned Dumas too the residual of the passengers too confiscated most of their belongings. Early on inwards the captivity, Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo tried to merchandise Dumas for a Corsican adventurer named Boccheciampe, an imposter posing as Prince Francis, boy of Ferdinand IV, inwards monastic enjoin to assistance the Holy Faith movement. Boccheciampe had been captured past times French forces northward of the Neapolitan kingdom, shortly after he had visited the prisoners inwards Taranto, but Ruffo lost involvement inwards a merchandise when he learned Boccheciampe had been killed past times the French.
Dumas was malnourished too kept incommunicado for 2 years. By the fourth dimension of his release, he was partially paralyzed, well-nigh blind inwards 1 eye, had been deaf inwards 1 ear but recovered; his physique was broken. He believed his illnesses were caused past times poisoning. During his imprisonment, he was aided past times a hole-and-corner local pro-French group, which brought him medicine too a volume of remedies. In Nov 1799, Napoleon had returned to Paris too seized power. Dumas' married adult woman lobbied his authorities for assistance inwards finding too rescuing her husband, to picayune result. Napoleon's forces, nether the control of Dumas' beau full general Joachim Murat, eventually defeated Ferdinand IV's regular army too secured Dumas's release inwards March 1801.
Dumas made few political statements, but those he made propose deeply felt republican beliefs. One calendar month after the French National Convention abolished slavery (February 4, 1794), Dumas sent a message to troops nether his control inwards the Army of the Alps:
"Your comrade, a soldier too General-in-Chief. . . . was born inwards a climate too amid men for whom liberty also had charms, too who fought for it first. Sincere lover of liberty too equality, convinced that all gratuitous men are equals, he volition live proud to march out before you, to assistance you lot inwards your efforts, too the coalition of tyrants volition larn that they are loathed as past times men of all colors."
In Nov 1792, stationed with the Black Legion inwards Amiens, Dumas married Marie-Louise Labouret inwards Villers-Cotterêts. She stayed inwards Villers-Cotterêts with her identify unit of measurement during his armed services campaigns. Dumas bought a farm of 30 acres there. They had daughters Marie-Alexandrine (born September 10, 1794), Louise-Alexandrine (born 1796, died 1797), too a son, Alexandre Dumas, who became a prolific too notable author, with numerous successes inwards plays too peculiarly adventure novels.
After he lastly gained release inwards 1801, Dumas was non awarded "the pension ordinarily allocated to the widows of generals" past times the French authorities too he struggled to back upwards his identify unit of measurement after his render to France. He repeatedly wrote to Napoleon Bonaparte, seeking back-pay for his fourth dimension lost inwards Taranto too a novel committee inwards the military. He died of breadbasket cancer on 26 Feb 1806 inwards Villers-Cotterêts. At his decease his boy Alexandre was 3 years too 7 months old. The boy, his sister, too his widowed woman parent were plunged into deeper poverty. Marie-Louise Labouret Dumas worked inwards a tobacconist's store to brand ends meet. For lack of funds, the immature Alexandre Dumas was unable to acquire fifty-fifty a basic secondary education. Marie-Louise persistently lobbied the French authorities to live paid her armed services widow's pension. Marie-Louise too the immature Alexandre blamed Napoleon Bonaparte's "implacable hatred" for their poverty.
Legacy too honors
Dumas' call is inscribed on the due south wall of the Arc de Triomphe.
In 1913, a statue of General Dumas was erected inwards Place Malesherbes (now Place du Général Catroux) inwards Paris inwards Autumn 1912 after a long fundraising induce spearheaded past times Anatole French Republic too Sarah Bernhardt. From the 2nd of its installation until some fourth dimension after July 1913 the statue was covered past times a cover due to the difficulty of the numerous governmental agencies involved to make understanding on the modalities of its official inauguration. It stood inwards Place Malesherbes for 30 years, amongst statues of Alexandre Dumas's descendants Alexandre Dumas, père (erected inwards 1883) too Alexandre Dumas, fils (erected inwards 1906), as good as 1 of Sarah Bernhardt. The Germans destroyed it inwards the wintertime of 1941-1942, too it has never been restored.
In 2009, a sculpture inwards his honor, made past times Driss Sans-Arcidet, was erected inwards Paris, Place du Général Catroux (formerly Place Malesherbes). Representing broken slave shackles, it was unveiled on 4 Apr 2009. The critic Jean-Joël Brégeon has claimed that the symbolism of the statue was non appropriate because, apart from his noble upbringing, the full general had never been a slave. Documents cited above, however, demo that his manly someone parent sold too and hence re-purchased Alexandre Dumas, disproving this claim. Dumas biographer Tom Reiss has suggested that the monument is inappropriate for other reasons: "In the race politics of twenty-first-century France, the statue of General Dumas had morphed into a symbolic monument to all the victims of French colonial slavery... There is soundless no monument inwards French Republic commemorating the life of General Alexandre Dumas."
In Apr 2009, the author Claude Ribbe started an mesh petition, asking French President Nicolas Sarkozy to laurels General Dumas the Légion d'honneur. As of Feb 2014, the petition has gathered over 7100 signatories.
source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas-Alexandre_Dumas
Portrait of a Hunter inwards a Landscape, attributed to Louis Gauffier (1762-1801), is said to live a portrait of General Dumas.
Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, also known as Alexandre Dumas, (25 March 1762 – 26 Feb 1806) was a full general inwards Revolutionary France; he is the highest-ranking someone of color of all fourth dimension inwards a continental European army. He was the foremost someone of color inwards the French armed services to travel brigadier general, the foremost to travel divisional general, too the foremost to travel general-in-chief of a French army. Dumas shared the status of the highest-ranking dark officeholder inwards the Western footing alone with Toussaint Louverture (who inwards May 1797 became the 2nd dark general-in-chief inwards the French military) until 1975, when the American Daniel "Chappie" James Jr became a 4 star General inwards the the States Air Force, the closest American equivalent of Général d'Armée, Dumas' highest rank.
TIME magazine called The Black Count "one of those quintessentially human stories of strength too courage that sheds calorie-free on the historical 2nd that made it possible." It is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of dearest betwixt a manly someone parent too son.
The truthful story of Alex Dumas was itself ruthlessly suppressed past times his greatest enemy (General Napoleon Bonaparte)—and remained buried for 200 years. Alexandre whose uncle was a rich, hard-working planter who dealt saccharide too slaves out of a picayune cove on the northward coast called Monte Cristo—but his father, Antoine, neither rich nor hard-working, was the eldest son. In 1775, Antoine sailed to French Republic to claim the identify unit of measurement inheritance, pawning his dark boy into slavery to purchase passage. Only after securing his championship too inheritance did he ship for the boy, who arrived on French soil piece of cake inwards 1776, listed inwards the ship’s records as “slave Alexandre.”
Gen. Alexandre Dumas, the boy of a dark slave who led to a greater extent than than 50,000 men at the peak of the French Revolution too and hence stood upwards to the megalomaniacal Corsican (Napoleon Bonaparte) inwards the deserts of Egypt. (The "famous" Alexandre Dumas is the general's boy – the author of The Three Musketeers.) Letters too eyewitness accounts demo that Napoleon came to detest Dumas non alone for his stubborn defence forcefulness of regulation but for his swagger too stature – over vi feet tall too handsome as a matinee idol – too for the fact that he was a dark human idolized past times the white French army. Painting past times Olivier Pichat
The enlistment roll-book for the sixth Regiment of the Queen's Dragoons, which Dumas joined inwards 1786, described him as "6 feet tall, with frizzy dark pilus too eyebrows... oval face, too dark-brown skinned, pocket-size mouth, thick lips." According to the earliest known published description of him (1797), he was “one of the handsomest men you lot could ever meet. [...] His frizzy pilus recalls the curls of the Greeks too Romans.” It described his aspect as "something closer to ebony" than to "bronze." ” Elsewhere General Dumas has been described as “dark — really dark.
At the historic menses of 32 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the French regular army inwards the Alps, the equivalent of a four-star general. The immature full general from the torrid zone led 53,000 men inwards tearing glacier fighting against the best alpine troops inwards the footing too captured the mount make for French Republic inwards their Second Italian Campaign against the Austrian Empire. (Not content with overthrowing their ain rulers, the French revolutionaries had declared a “war of liberation” on all their neighbors.) And though the Austrians nicknamed him der schwarze Teufel—“the Black Devil” or "Diable Noir" inwards French—he was an angel to victims of oppression, no affair their side: inwards the midst of the Revolution’s bloody chaos, he pushed dorsum against those committing terror, earning the mocking nickname “Mr. Humanity” too narrowly escaping the guillotine himself. "The French – notably Napoleon – nicknamed him "the Horatius Cocles of the Tyrol" (after a hero who had saved ancient Rome) for single-handedly defeating a squadron of enemy troops at a span over the Eisack River inwards Clausen (today Klausen, or Chiusa, Italy)."
Dumas’s incredible ascendance as a dark human through the white ranks of the French regular army reflected a key turning betoken inwards the history of slavery too race relations as forgotten as Dumas himself: a unmarried decade when revolutionary French Republic ended slavery too initiated the integration of its army, its government, too fifty-fifty its schools. General Dumas was “a living emblem of the novel equality,” wrote a nineteenth-century French historian—but his career’s tragic unraveling reflected the unraveling of that progress as well.
The agent of devastation for both was his beau general, Napoleon, who at foremost praised Dumas as a Roman hero for his battlefield feats but came to abhor him for his independence too revolutionary values. The 2 men clashed inwards 1798, during the invasion of Egypt—where the Egyptians mistook the towering Dumas for the leader of the French forces. Then, piece Dumas languished for 2 years inwards an enemy dungeon, Napoleon made himself dictator too dismantled France’s post-racial experiment, imposing barbarous race laws inwards France, re-instituting slavery inwards the colonies, too sending an invasion forcefulness to Saint-Domingue with orders to kill or capture whatsoever dark who wore an officer’s uniform. He went to as extraordinary lengths to bury the retention of Alex Dumas, thundering, “I forbid you lot to ever speak to me of that man!” when sometime comrades tried to intervene on behalf of the full general too his family, who were living inwards near-destitution. Barely 5 years after his render to France, Dumas died at 43 of breadbasket cancer, probable an aftereffect of his poisoning piece imprisoned.
Alexandre Dumas, boy of General Thomas Alexandre Dumas too one of France's most widely read authors of all time. He penned The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte de Bragelonne:
Dumas’s son, the hereafter novelist too 1 of France's most widely read authors of all time, would select a marvelous form of revenge, infusing his father’s life too spirit into fictional characters who receive got been embraced the footing over. Yet piece every generation has heaped glory on the call Alexandre Dumas, the nifty full general has remained forgotten. The alone statue of him—in a dry ground awash inwards marble generals—was erected inwards Paris to a greater extent than than a hundred years after his death, too and hence destroyed past times the Nazis.
The general’s grandson, Alexandre Dumas, fils, would travel 1 of France's most celebrated playwrights of the 2nd one-half of the nineteenth century. Another grandson, Henry Bauër, who was never recognized past times the novelist Dumas, was a prominent left-leaning theatre critic inwards the same period. The General's great-grandson, Gérard Bauër, boy of Henry Bauër, was also an accomplished author inwards the twentieth century. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 great-great-grandson, Alexandre Lippmann (grandson of the playwright Dumas fils), was a two-time gilded medalist inwards fencing at the 1908 too 1924 Olympic games (he won silvery inwards 1920).
source:http://harvardmagazine.com/2012/11/vita-alexandre-dumas
General Dumas` Full Biography
General Alex Dumas was born on 25 March 1762 inwards Jérémie, Saint-Domingue (today Haiti). His baptismal call was Thomas-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie. Alex`s manly someone parent was a French nobleman, the Marquis Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie (Antoine) too and his woman parent was Marie-Cessette Dumas (his father`s dark African slave) from La Guinodée, Saint-Domingue.
Alexandre Dumas, a full general inwards Revolutionary France; he is the highest-ranking someone of color of all fourth dimension inwards a continental European army.
Gen Alex Dumas` manly someone parent Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, was born inwards 1714. He was the oldest of 3 sons of the Marquis Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie (1674-1758) too Jeanne-Françoise Paultre, (or Pautre) de Dominon (died 1757). The Davy de la Pailleteries were provincial Norman aristocrats whose wealth was inwards decline. The identify unit of measurement had acquired the championship of "lords" (seigneurs) past times 1632. The French kingdom granted the championship "marquis" to the identify unit of measurement past times 1708.
Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie ("Antoine") had 2 younger brothers, Charles Anne Edouard (Charles) born inwards 1716, too Louis François Thérèse (Louis) born inwards 1718. All 3 were educated at a armed services schoolhouse too pursued careers as officers inwards the French military. They foremost served during the War of Polish Succession. Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, who reached the rank of colonel, notably saw activity at the Siege of Philippsburg inwards 1734.
General Alex Dumas` Father`s Career inwards Saint-Domingue
In 1732, Antoine’s younger blood brother Charles had been given a armed services posting inwards Saint-Domingue, a French colony inwards the Caribbean Area that generated high revenues from its saccharide cane plantations, worked past times African slave labor. In 1738, Charles left the armed services to travel a saccharide planter inwards that colony; he married Anne-Marie Tuffé, a rich local French Creole widow, too took over her estate.
That twelvemonth Antoine also left the Army too joined his blood brother too his married adult woman inwards Saint-Domingue. He lived with them too worked at the plantation until 1748. After the 2 brothers quarrelled violently, Antoine left Charles's plantation, taking his 3 personal slaves.
At that betoken Antoine broke off contact with his blood brother too his identify unit of measurement for a menses of 30 years. During that time, Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie purchased the slave adult woman Marie-Cessette "for an exorbitant price" too took her as a concubine. In 1762, she gave nascency to their mixed-race boy Thomas-Alexandre. During her fourth dimension with Antoine, she also had 3 daughters with him. (Some accounts say two.) The French colonist made a living inwards Jérémie, Saint-Domingue as a java too cacao planter, nether the assumed call of "Antoine de l'Isle."
When the brothers’ parents, the Marquise Jeanne-Françoise too the Marquis Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, died inwards 1757 too 1758, respectively, Charles returned to Normandy to claim the championship Marquis too the identify unit of measurement château. The British blockade of French transportation during the Seven Years' War reduced Charles' income from saccharide exports, hence he tried to smuggle the commodity out of Saint-Domingue from his plantation. He used a wharf inwards the neutral edge territory (and tiny island) of Monte Cristo (today Monte Christi, Dominican Republic). (Some historians debate that this Monte Cristo was the "real" isle that inspired Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo). Charles died of gout inwards 1773; Louis, the youngest of the Davy de la Pailleterie brothers, died 3 months later. He had served a 15-day judgement for beingness involved inwards selling defective weapons to the French armed services (a famous scandal at the fourth dimension known as the Invalides Trial (le procès des Invalides)
General Dumas` Mother
Marie-Cessette Dumas — described as a "great matriarch to a saga of distinguished men" was a slave too concubine of African descent owned past times the Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie. They resided together at a plantation called La Guinaudée (or Guinodée), nigh Jérémie (formerly inwards the French colony of Saint-Domingue, immediately Haiti) until shortly before Antoine's divergence inwards 1775. He sold Marie-Cessette Dumas, their other 2 children, too her fille past times some other human to a baron from Nantes before leaving Saint-Domingue.
The alone source for her total name, "Marie-Cessette Dumas," with that spelling, is General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas's later matrimony certificate too contract. Her grandson's memoir gave her call as Louise, too some other source recorded Cécile. Sources receive got spelling variations of her name, as standardization was non mutual at the time. Some scholars receive got suggested that "Dumas" was non a surname for Marie-Cessette, but, pregnant "of the farm" (du mas), was added to her foremost names to signify that she belonged to the property. Others receive got suggested African origins of the names Cessette too Dumas, including Gabon, Yoruba or Dahomey.
The 2 extant primary documents that province a racial identity for Marie-Cessette Dumas refer to her as a “négresse” (a dark female) as opposed to a “mulâtresse” (a woman someone of mixed race).
Secondary sources on General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, dating dorsum to 1822, well-nigh ever pull his woman parent as a dark African (“femme africaine”, “négresse,” “négresse africaine,” “noire,” or “pure dark African.”
Sources differ on the appointment too circumstance of her death. Two documents signed past times Alexandre Dumas – his contract too certificate of matrimony to Marie-Louise Labouret – province that Marie-Cessette died inwards La Guinaudée, nigh Trou Jérémie, Saint-Domingue, inwards 1772. Based on this decease date, Victor Emmanuel Roberto Wilson speculates that she may receive got died inwards the volume outbreak of dysentery next a hurricane that struck principally the Grand Anse part of Saint-Domingue that year.
Two other documents attest that Marie-Cessette was live after 1772: a missive of the alphabet recounting her sale inwards 1775 too an 1801 document signed past times Dumas, maxim that “Marie-Cezette” volition live inwards accuse of General Dumas’s properties inwards Saint-Domingue.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas may receive got before claimed that she had died inwards monastic enjoin to avoid having to acquire her blessing before matrimony too revealing her slave status. In addition, he was inwards a hurry to leave of absence for the armed services front.
Early life
Thomas-Alexandre had 2 siblings past times his parents: Adolphe too Jeannette. They also had an older half-sister, Marie-Rose, born to Marie-Cessette before Davy de la Pailleterie purchased her too began their relationship. His manly someone parent sold Marie-Cessette too her other 3 children before arranging to select Thomas-Alexandre with him to France.
In 1776 when Alexandre was 14 years old, his manly someone parent sold the man child for 800 French livres inwards Port-au-Prince, officially to a Lieutenant Jacques-Louis Roussel (but unofficially to a Captain Langlois). This sale (with correct of redemption) provided both a legal agency to receive got Alexandre taken to French Republic with Langlois too a temporary loan to pay for his father's passage. The man child accompanied Captain Langlois to Le Havre, France, arriving on August 30, 1776, where his manly someone parent bought him dorsum too freed him.
From his arrival inwards French Republic until Autumn 1778, Alexandre (then using the call Thomas Retoré) foremost lived with his manly someone parent at the Davy de la Pailleterie identify unit of measurement estate inwards Belleville-en-Caux, Normandy. After his manly someone parent sold that estate inwards 1777, they moved to a townhouse on the rue de l'Aigle d'Or inwards the Parisian suburb of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. There, Alexandre studied at the university of Nicolas Texier de La Boëssière, where he was given the higher teaching of a immature nobleman of the time. At this school, he learned swordsmanship from the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, some other mixed-race human from the French Caribbean.
Flush with cash from the sale of his identify unit of measurement estate, Davy de la Pailleterie for many years spent lavishly on Dumas. His notary said wrote that the man child "cost him enormously." From 1777 to 1786, from historic menses fifteen to 24, thank you lot to his father's wealth too generosity, Dumas lived a life of considerable leisure.
In 1784, at historic menses 22, Alexandre moved to an storey on Rue Etienne, nigh the Louvre Palace inwards Paris, socializing at venues such as the Palais-Royal too Nicolet's Theater. In September 1784, piece seated at Nicolet's Theater inwards the fellowship of "a beautiful Creole" woman, he too his companion were harassed past times a white colonial naval officer, Jean-Pierre Titon de Saint-Lamain, too 1 or 2 others. Following Dumas's verbal protests, the men "tried to forcefulness him to kneel before his assailant too beg for his freedom." The police force study on the incident shows that Titon chose non to press charges as he powerfulness have, too all participants were released.
Military career
Enlistment too service inwards the Queen's Dragoons
In Feb 1786 his manly someone parent Davy de la Pailleterie married Françoise Retou, a domestic retainer from the Davy de la Pailleterie estate. Dumas did non sign as witness to the matrimony contract. According to his son's memoir, the matrimony precipitated a "cooling off" which led the manly someone parent to tighten Dumas's allowance.
Soon after, Dumas decided to bring together the French Army, a mutual line for gentlemen. Unlike his noble peers, who took arms as commissioned officers, Dumas enlisted as a private. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 1781 dominion enabled men who could demo 4 generations of nobility on their father's side to qualify to live commissioned as officers. Dumas had this, but the French race laws "made it hard for a human of mixed race to claim his rightful championship or noble status.") According to the novelist Dumas's account, on hearing of Alexandre's plan, his manly someone parent insisted that his boy select a "nom de guerre" inwards monastic enjoin that he non drag the noble call "through the lowest ranks of the army." He signed upwards for the sixth Regiment of the Queen's Dragoons as "Alexandre Dumas" on June 2, 1786; thirteen days later, his manly someone parent died.
Dumas spent his foremost years inwards the Queen's Dragoons inwards the provincial town of Laon, Picardy, to a greater extent than or less the edge with the Austrian Netherlands. On August 15, 1789, next the foremost of the French Revolution, his unit of measurement was sent to the pocket-size town of Villers-Cotterêts. The town's newly formed National Guard leader, innkeeper Claude Labouret, had called for them to come upwards inwards answer to a moving ridge of rural violence known as the Great Fear. Dumas lodged at the Labourets' Hôtel de l'Ecu for 4 months, during which fourth dimension he became engaged to Claude Labouret's fille Marie-Louise.
Dumas' regiment was inwards Paris on July 17, 1791, where they served as riot police force along with National Guard units nether the Marquis de Lafayette during the Champ de Mars Massacre of the French Revolution. Troops killed betwixt 12 too 50 people when a large crowd gathered to sign a petition calling for the removal of the French king. When, 2 years later, someone denounced Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, he claimed that his intervention inwards the conflict had saved as many as 2,000 people from massacre.
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 corporal past times 1792, Dumas had his foremost combat sense was inwards a French onset on the Austrian Netherlands inwards Apr of that year. He was 1 of 10,000 men nether the control of the General Biron. Stationed on the Belgian frontier inwards the town of Maulde, on August 18, 1792 Dumas captured 12 enemy soldiers piece leading a pocket-size scouting political party of 4 to 8 horsemen.
In Oct 1792, Dumas accepted a committee as lieutenant colonel inwards (and second-in-command of) the Légion franche des Américains et du Midi, founded a calendar month before past times Julien Raimond. This was a "free legion" (i.e., formed separately from the regular army) composed of gratuitous men of color (gens du couleur libre). It was variously called the "American Legion," the "Black Legion," or the Saint-George Legion, after its commanding officer, the Chevalier de Saint-George, Dumas' sometime teacher inwards swordsmanship. The immature officeholder Dumas oft commanded the legion, as Saint-George was often absent from duty. In Apr 1793, General Dumouriez attempted a coup d'état; Saint-George too Dumas refused to bring together it too defended the urban center of Lille from coup supporters. In the summertime of 1793, Saint-George was defendant of misusing authorities funds, too the Legion was disbanded.
On July 30, 1793, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier full general inwards the Army of the North. One calendar month later, he was promoted again, to full general of division. In September, he was made commander-in-chief of the Army of the Western Pyrenees. In this brief assignment (September–December 1793), Dumas' headquarters were inwards Bayonne, France, where (according to his son's memoirs), he was nicknamed "Mr. Humanity" (Monsieur de l'Humanité) past times local sans-culottes; they wanted to intimidate him to adjust to their political line at a fourth dimension when French generals were extremely vulnerable to accusations of treason that often led to execution.
On Dec 22, 1793, Dumas was given control of the Army of the Alps. His induce inwards the Alps centered on defeating Austrian too Piemontese troops defending the glacier-covered Little Saint Bernard Pass at Mont Cenis, on the French-Piedmont border. After months of planning too reconnaissance from his base of operations inwards Grenoble, he had to hold off for snowfall atmospheric condition to live favorable to his troops' passage. In Apr too May 1794, Dumas launched several assaults on Mont Cenis. In the concluding attack, Dumas's army, equipped with H2O ice crampons, took the mount past times scaling H2O ice cliffs too captured betwixt 900 too 1,700 prisoners.
Though his victory won Dumas praise from political leaders inwards Paris, he was called before the Committee of Public Safety inwards the June of 1794, for reasons unspecified but likely to aspect charges of treason, as this was the menses of the "Great Terror," a menses of accelerated political executions inwards the concluding months of the Reign of Terror menses of the French Revolution. Dumas delayed his arrival inwards Paris until mid-July, too was lucky plenty non to live seen past times the Committee before the Terror ended with the execution of Robespierre on July 27, 1794.
In September 1795 Dumas served nether General Jean Baptiste Kléber inwards the Army of the Rhine. He participated inwards the French onset on Düsseldorf, where he was wounded.
General Dumas joined the Army of Italia inwards Milan inwards Nov 1796, serving nether the orders of its commander-in-chief, Napoleon Bonaparte. Tension betwixt the 2 generals began inwards this period, as Dumas resisted Napoleon's policy of allowing French troops indiscriminately to expropriate local property. In Dec 1796, Dumas was set inwards accuse of a segmentation besieging Austrian troops at the urban center of Mantua. By Christmas he had intercepted a spy carrying a message to the Austrian commander with of import tactical information. On Jan 16, 1797, Dumas too his segmentation halted an Austrian endeavour to interruption out of the besieged urban center too prevented Austrian reinforcements from reaching Mantua. The French were thereby able to maintain the siege until French reinforcements could arrive, leading to the city's capitulation on Feb 2, 1797.
Following the Jan xvi fighting, Dumas felt insulted past times the description of his actions inwards a battle study past times General Berthier, Bonaparte's aide-de-camp, too wrote a missive of the alphabet to Napoleon cursing Berthier. Dumas was later on omitted from cite inwards Napoleon's battle study to the Directory, France's authorities at the time. He was too hence given a control good beneath his rank, leading a section nether General Masséna, despite a petition from Dumas' troops attesting to his valor. Under General Masséna inwards Feb 1797, Dumas helped French troops force the Austrians northward, capturing thousands of them. It was inwards this menses that Austrian troops began calling him the der schwarze Teufel ("Black Devil", or Diable Noir inwards French).
In piece of cake Feb 1797, Dumas was transferred to a segmentation commanded past times General Joubert, who specifically requested Dumas out of admiration for his republicanism. Under Joubert, Dumas led a pocket-size forcefulness that defeated several enemy positions along the Adige River. Dumas' crowning achievement inwards this menses came on March 23, when the full general single-handedly drove dorsum an entire squadron of Austrian troops at a span over the Eisack River inwards Clausen (today Klausen, or Chiusa, Italy). It was this feat for which the French began referring to Dumas as "the Horatius Cocles of the Tyrol" (after a hero who had saved ancient Rome). Napoleon called Dumas past times this nickname, too rewarded him past times making him cavalry commander of all French troops inwards the Tyrol; he also sent Dumas a twain of pistols. Dumas spent much of 1797 as armed services governor, administering the province of Treviso, northward of Venice.
Dumas was ordered to study to Toulon, French Republic inwards March 1798 for an unspecified assignment. He joined an enormous French armada massing at that spot inwards training for divergence to a hole-and-corner destination. The armada departed on May 10, 1798, goal soundless unannounced. It was alone on June 23, after the fleet had conquered Malta, that Napoleon announced that the mission's main purpose: to conquer Egypt. Aboard the Guillaume Tell, inwards the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Dumas learned that he had been appointed as commander of all cavalry inwards the Army of the Orient. The armada arrived inwards the port of Alexandria at the halt of June, too on July 3 Dumas led the Fourth Light Grenadiers over the walls as the French conquered the city. After the fighting, Napoleon sent Dumas to pay ransom to some Bedouins who had kidnapped French soldiers. The expedition's principal medical officeholder recounted inwards a memoir that local Egyptians, judging Dumas' peak too create versus Napoleon's, believed Dumas to live inwards command. Seeing "him ride his Equus caballus over the trenches, going to ransom the prisoners, all of them believed that he was the leader of the Expedition."
From July 7 to 21, Dumas commanded the invading army's cavalry as it marched due south from Alexandria to Cairo. Conditions of heat, thirst, fatigue, too lack of supplies for the troops on the desert march were harsh; at that spot were a issue of suicides. While camped inwards Damanhour, General Dumas met over watermelons with several other generals (Lannes, Desaix, too Murat). They vented criticisms of Napoleon's leadership too discussed the possibility of refusing to march beyond Cairo. Dumas shortly participated inwards the Battle of the Pyramids (following which he chased retreating Mameluke horsemen) too the line of Cairo. At some betoken during the occupation, Napoleon learned of the before mutinous talk, too confronted Dumas. In his memoirs, Napoleon remembered threatening to shoot Dumas for sedition. Dumas requested leave of absence to render to France, too Napoleon did non oppose it. Napoleon was reported to receive got said: "I tin ship away easily supplant him with a brigadier."
Following the devastation of the French armada past times a British fleet led past times Horatio Nelson, however, Dumas was unable to exit of Arab Republic of Egypt until March of the next year. In August 1798, Dumas discovered a important cache of gilded too jewels beneath a business solid inwards French-occupied Cairo, which he turned over to Napoleon. In October, he was instrumental inwards putting downward an anti-French revolt inwards Cairo past times charging into the Al-Azhar Mosque on horseback. Afterward (according to his son's account, drawn largely from the memories of Dumas's aide-de-camp Dermoncourt), Napoleon told him: "I shall receive got a epitome made of the taking of the Grand Mosque. Dumas, you lot receive got already posed as the cardinal figure." The Girodet painting, however, which Napoleon commissioned 11 years later, shows a white human charging into the mosque.
On March 7, 1799, Dumas boarded a pocket-size ship called the Belle Maltaise inwards the fellowship of his beau General Jean-Baptiste Manscourt du Rozoy, the geologist Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu, twoscore wounded French soldiers, too a issue of Maltese too Genoan civilians. Dumas had sold the furnishings of his quarters inwards Cairo, too purchased 4,000 pounds of moka coffee; 11 Arabian horses (two stallions too nine mares) to found breeding stock inwards France; too hired the ship.
While returning to France, the ship began to sink, too Dumas had to jettison much of his cargo. The ship was forced past times storms to dry ground at Taranto, inwards the Kingdom of Naples. Dumas too his companions expected to acquire a friendly reception, having heard that the Kingdom had been overthrown past times the Parthenopean Republic. But that short-lived commonwealth had succumbed to an internal uprising past times a local forcefulness known as the Holy Faith Army, led past times Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, inwards alliance with King Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples. He was at state of war with France.
The Holy Faith Army imprisoned Dumas too the residual of the passengers too confiscated most of their belongings. Early on inwards the captivity, Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo tried to merchandise Dumas for a Corsican adventurer named Boccheciampe, an imposter posing as Prince Francis, boy of Ferdinand IV, inwards monastic enjoin to assistance the Holy Faith movement. Boccheciampe had been captured past times French forces northward of the Neapolitan kingdom, shortly after he had visited the prisoners inwards Taranto, but Ruffo lost involvement inwards a merchandise when he learned Boccheciampe had been killed past times the French.
Dumas was malnourished too kept incommunicado for 2 years. By the fourth dimension of his release, he was partially paralyzed, well-nigh blind inwards 1 eye, had been deaf inwards 1 ear but recovered; his physique was broken. He believed his illnesses were caused past times poisoning. During his imprisonment, he was aided past times a hole-and-corner local pro-French group, which brought him medicine too a volume of remedies. In Nov 1799, Napoleon had returned to Paris too seized power. Dumas' married adult woman lobbied his authorities for assistance inwards finding too rescuing her husband, to picayune result. Napoleon's forces, nether the control of Dumas' beau full general Joachim Murat, eventually defeated Ferdinand IV's regular army too secured Dumas's release inwards March 1801.
Dumas made few political statements, but those he made propose deeply felt republican beliefs. One calendar month after the French National Convention abolished slavery (February 4, 1794), Dumas sent a message to troops nether his control inwards the Army of the Alps:
"Your comrade, a soldier too General-in-Chief. . . . was born inwards a climate too amid men for whom liberty also had charms, too who fought for it first. Sincere lover of liberty too equality, convinced that all gratuitous men are equals, he volition live proud to march out before you, to assistance you lot inwards your efforts, too the coalition of tyrants volition larn that they are loathed as past times men of all colors."
In Nov 1792, stationed with the Black Legion inwards Amiens, Dumas married Marie-Louise Labouret inwards Villers-Cotterêts. She stayed inwards Villers-Cotterêts with her identify unit of measurement during his armed services campaigns. Dumas bought a farm of 30 acres there. They had daughters Marie-Alexandrine (born September 10, 1794), Louise-Alexandrine (born 1796, died 1797), too a son, Alexandre Dumas, who became a prolific too notable author, with numerous successes inwards plays too peculiarly adventure novels.
After he lastly gained release inwards 1801, Dumas was non awarded "the pension ordinarily allocated to the widows of generals" past times the French authorities too he struggled to back upwards his identify unit of measurement after his render to France. He repeatedly wrote to Napoleon Bonaparte, seeking back-pay for his fourth dimension lost inwards Taranto too a novel committee inwards the military. He died of breadbasket cancer on 26 Feb 1806 inwards Villers-Cotterêts. At his decease his boy Alexandre was 3 years too 7 months old. The boy, his sister, too his widowed woman parent were plunged into deeper poverty. Marie-Louise Labouret Dumas worked inwards a tobacconist's store to brand ends meet. For lack of funds, the immature Alexandre Dumas was unable to acquire fifty-fifty a basic secondary education. Marie-Louise persistently lobbied the French authorities to live paid her armed services widow's pension. Marie-Louise too the immature Alexandre blamed Napoleon Bonaparte's "implacable hatred" for their poverty.
Legacy too honors
Dumas' call is inscribed on the due south wall of the Arc de Triomphe.
In 1913, a statue of General Dumas was erected inwards Place Malesherbes (now Place du Général Catroux) inwards Paris inwards Autumn 1912 after a long fundraising induce spearheaded past times Anatole French Republic too Sarah Bernhardt. From the 2nd of its installation until some fourth dimension after July 1913 the statue was covered past times a cover due to the difficulty of the numerous governmental agencies involved to make understanding on the modalities of its official inauguration. It stood inwards Place Malesherbes for 30 years, amongst statues of Alexandre Dumas's descendants Alexandre Dumas, père (erected inwards 1883) too Alexandre Dumas, fils (erected inwards 1906), as good as 1 of Sarah Bernhardt. The Germans destroyed it inwards the wintertime of 1941-1942, too it has never been restored.
In 2009, a sculpture inwards his honor, made past times Driss Sans-Arcidet, was erected inwards Paris, Place du Général Catroux (formerly Place Malesherbes). Representing broken slave shackles, it was unveiled on 4 Apr 2009. The critic Jean-Joël Brégeon has claimed that the symbolism of the statue was non appropriate because, apart from his noble upbringing, the full general had never been a slave. Documents cited above, however, demo that his manly someone parent sold too and hence re-purchased Alexandre Dumas, disproving this claim. Dumas biographer Tom Reiss has suggested that the monument is inappropriate for other reasons: "In the race politics of twenty-first-century France, the statue of General Dumas had morphed into a symbolic monument to all the victims of French colonial slavery... There is soundless no monument inwards French Republic commemorating the life of General Alexandre Dumas."
In Apr 2009, the author Claude Ribbe started an mesh petition, asking French President Nicolas Sarkozy to laurels General Dumas the Légion d'honneur. As of Feb 2014, the petition has gathered over 7100 signatories.
source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas-Alexandre_Dumas
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