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HAXO, FRANCOIS NICOLAS BENOIT, BARON ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 104 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HAXO, See also:FRANCOIS See also:NICOLAS See also:BENOIT, See also:BARON (1774—1838) , See also:French See also:general and military engineer, was See also:born at See also:Luneville on the 24th of See also:June 1774, and entered the See also:Engineers in 1793. He remained unknown, doing See also:duty as a regimental officer for many years, until, as See also:major, he had his first See also:chance of distinction in the second See also:siege of See also:Saragossa in 1800, after which See also:Napoleon made him a See also:colonel. Haxo took See also:part in the See also:campaign of See also:Wagram, and then returned to the See also:Peninsula to See also:direct the siege operations of See also:Suchet's See also:army in See also:Catalonia and See also:Valencia. In 1810 he was made general of See also:brigade, in 1811 a baron, and in the same See also:year he was employed in preparing the occupied fortresses of See also:Germany against a possible See also:Russian invasion. In 1812 he was See also:chief engineer of See also:Davout's I. See also:corps, and after the See also:retreat from See also:Moscow he was made general of See also:division. In 1813 he constructed the See also:works around See also:Hamburg which made possible the famous See also:defence oft See also:hat fortress by Davout, and commanded the Guard Engineers n1-it he fcli into the enemy's hands at See also:Kulm. After the Restoration See also:Louis XVIII. wished to give Haxo a command in the Royal See also:Guards, but the general remained faithful to Napoleon, and in the See also:Hundred Days laid out the provisional fortifications of See also:Paris and fought at See also:Waterloo. It was, however, after the second Restoration that the best See also:work of his career as a military engineer was done. As inspector-general he managed, though not without See also:meeting considerable opposition, to reconstruct in accordance with the requirements of the See also:time, and the designs which he had evolved to meet them, the old See also:Vauban and Cermontaigne fortresses which had failed to check the invasions of 1814 and 1815. For his services he was made a peer of See also:France by Louis Philippe (1832). Soon after this came the French intervention in See also:Belgium and the famous scientific siege of See also:Antwerp citadel. Under See also:Marshal See also:Gerard Haxo directed the besiegers and completely outmatched the opposing engineers, the fortress being reduced to surrender after a siege of a little more than three See also:weeks (See also:December 23, 1832).

He was after this regarded as the first engineer in See also:

Europe, and his latter years were spent in urging upon the See also:government and the French See also:people the fortification of Paris and See also:Lyons, a project which was partly realized in his time and after his See also:death fully carried out. General Haxo died at Paris on the 25th of June 1838. He wrote Memoire sur le figure du terrain dans See also:les cartes topographiques (Paris, N.D.), and a memoir of General Dejean (1824).

End of Article: HAXO, FRANCOIS NICOLAS BENOIT, BARON (1774—1838)

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