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GOURGAUD, GASPAR, BARON (1783-1852)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 288 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GOURGAUD, GASPAR, See also:BARON (1783-1852) , See also:French soldier, was See also:born at See also:Versailles on the 14th of See also:September 1783; his See also:father was a musician of the royal See also:chapel. At school he showed See also:talent in mathematical studies and accordingly entered the See also:artillery. In 1802 he became junior See also:lieutenant, and thereafter served with See also:credit in the See also:campaigns of 1803-1805, being wounded at See also:Austerlitz. He was See also:present at the See also:siege of See also:Saragossa in 18o8, but returned to service in Central See also:Europe and took See also:part in nearly all the battles of the Danubian See also:campaign of 18og. In 1811 he was chosen to inspect and See also:report on the fortifications of See also:Danzig. Thereafter he became one of the See also:ordnance See also:officers attached to the See also:emperor, whom he followed closely through the See also:Russian campaign of 1812; he was one of the first to enter the Kremlin and discovered there a quantity of See also:gunpowder which might have been used for the destruction of See also:Napoleon. For his services in this campaign he received the See also:title of baron, and became first ordnance officer. In the campaign of 1813 in See also:Saxony he further evinced his courage and prowess, especially at See also:Leipzig and See also:Hanau; but it was in the first See also:battle of 1814, near to Brienne, that he rendered the most See also:signal service by killing the See also:leader of a small See also:band of See also:Cossacks who were See also:riding furiously towards Napoleon's See also:tent. Wounded at the battle of Montmirail, he yet recovered in See also:time to See also:share in several of the conflicts which followed, distinguishing himself especially at See also:Laon and See also:Reims. Though enrolled among the royal See also:guards of ,See also:Louis XVIII. in the summer of 1814, he yet embraced the cause of Napoleon during the See also:Hundred Days (1815), was named See also:general and aide-de-See also:camp by the emperor, and fought at See also:Waterloo. After the second See also:abdication of the emperor (See also:June 22nd, 1815) Gourgaud retired with him and a few other companions to See also:Rochefort. It was to him that Napoleon entrusted the See also:letter of See also:appeal to the See also:prince See also:regent for an See also:asylum in See also:England.

Gourgaud set off in H.M.S. " Slaney," but was not allowed to See also:

land Photographed from specimens in the See also:British Museum. in England. He determined to share Napoleon's See also:exile and sailed with him on H.M.S. " See also:Northumberland " to St See also:Helena. The See also:ship's secretary, See also:John R. See also:Glover, has See also:left an entertaining See also:account of some of Gourgaud's gasconnades at table. His extreme sensitiveness and vanity soon brought him into collision with See also:Las Cases and See also:Montholon at Longwood. The former he styles in his See also:journal a " Jesuit " and a scribbler who went thither in See also:order to become famous. With Montholon, his See also:senior in See also:rank, the See also:friction became so acute that he challenged him to a See also:duel, for which he suffered a See also:sharp rebuke from Napoleon. Tiring of the See also:life at Longwood and the many slights which he suffered from Napoleon, he desired to depart, but before he could See also:sail he spent two months with See also:Colonel See also:Basil See also:Jackson, whose account of him throws much See also:light on his See also:character, as also on the " policy" adopted by the exiles at Longwood. In England he was gained over by members of the Opposition and thereafter made See also:common cause with O'Meara and other detractors of See also:Sir See also:Hudson See also:Lowe, for whose character he had expressed high esteem to Basil See also:Jack-son.

He soon published his Campagne de 1815, in the preparation of which he had had some help from Napoleon; but Gourgaud's Journal de Ste-Helene was not destined to be published till the See also:

year 1899. Entering the See also:arena of letters, he wrote, or collaborated in, two well-known critiques. The first was a censure of See also:Count P. de See also:Segur's See also:work on the campaign of. 1812, with the result that he fought a duel with that officer and wounded him. He also sharply criticized Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott's Life of Napoleon. He returned to active service in the See also:army in 1830; and in 1840 proceeded with others to St Helena to bring back the remains of Napoleon to See also:France. He became a See also:deputy to the Legislative See also:Assembly in 1849;. he died in 1852. Gourgaud's See also:works are La Campagne de 1815 (See also:London and See also:Paris, 1818); Napoleon et la Grande Armee en Russie; examen critique de l'ouvrage de M. le See also:comte P. de Segur (Paris, 1824) ; Refutation de la See also:vie de Napoleon See also:par Sir Walter Scott (Paris, 1827). He collaborated with Montholon in the work entitled Memoires pour servir d l'histoire de France sous Napoleon (Paris, 1822-1823), and with Belliard and others in the work entitled See also:Bourrienne et ses erreurs (2 vols., Paris, 1830) ; but his most important work is the Journal inedit de Ste-Helene (2 vols., Paris, 1899), which is a remarkably naif and lifelike See also:record of the life at Longwood. See, too, Notes and Reminiscences of a See also:Staff Officer, by Basil Jackson (London, 1904), and the bibliography to the See also:article LOWE, SIR HUDSON. (J. Hr..

End of Article: GOURGAUD, GASPAR, BARON (1783-1852)

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