French general (1753?1800)
Jean-Baptiste Kleber
(
French pronunciation:
[???
batist
kleb??]
; 9 March 1753 ? 14 June 1800) was a French military leader of the
French Revolutionary Wars
. After serving for one year in the
French Royal Army
, he entered
Habsburg
service seven years later. However, his humble birth hindered his opportunities. Eventually, he volunteered for the
French Revolutionary Army
in 1792 and quickly rose through the ranks.
Kleber served in the
Rhineland
during the
War of the First Coalition
, and also suppressed the
Vendee Revolt
. He retired to private life in the peaceful interim after the
Treaty of Campo Formio
, but returned to military service to accompany
Napoleon Bonaparte
in the
campaign in Egypt and Syria
in 1798. As the Egyptian campaign was deteriorating, Napoleon returned to
Paris
in 1799 and appointed Kleber as commander of all French forces in
Egypt
. He was assassinated by a student in
Cairo
in 1800.
A trained
architect
, Kleber, in times of peace, designed a number of buildings.
[1]
Early career
[
edit
]
Jean-Baptiste Kleber was born on 9 March 1753 in
Strasbourg
, in the province of
Alsace
, where his father worked as a
master builder
. He briefly engaged in 1769 in the
French 1st Hussar Regiment
, but resigned to study, from 1770 to 1774,
architecture
, partly in Paris with
Jean Chalgrin
. His opportune assistance to two German nobles in a tavern brawl obtained for him nomination to the military school of
Munich
. From this education, he obtained a commission in the
Kaunitz
Infantry Regiment Nr. 38 of the
Habsburg Austrian
army. He took part in the
War of the Bavarian Succession
but did not see major engagements. He was stationed alternately in the garrisons of
Mons
,
Mechelen
, and
Luxembourg
in the
Austrian Netherlands
. Finding that his humble birth hindered his chances for promotion
beyond that of an
unterleutnant
, he left the Austrian army in 1783 after serving seven years.
Architecture
[
edit
]
On returning to France, Kleber received the appointment of inspector of public buildings at
Belfort
.
Between 1784 and 1792, he designed a number of buildings both on public and private commission. Perhaps the most notable is the current town hall of
Thann, Haut-Rhin
(1787?1793), which was originally designed as a hospital but turned into an administrative building before its completion.
[4]
Other surviving buildings are the
chateau
of
Grandvillars
(often erroneously spelled "Granvillars"), built around 1790
[5]
and the
canoness
houses of the
Benedictine abbey
of
Masevaux
(1781?1790). Nine of these houses had been planned but due to the
French Revolution
, only seven were built.
[6]
The
Musee historique de Strasbourg
features a room dedicated to Jean-Baptiste Kleber that also displays a number of his sketches and architectural designs.
French Revolutionary Wars
[
edit
]
In 1792, at the start of the
French Revolutionary Wars
, Kleber enlisted in the 4th Battalion of Volunteers of
Haut-Rhin
.
[7]
Thanks to his military experience, he was at once elected adjutant and soon afterward lieutenant-colonel of the battalion.
At the
defense of Mainz
in July 1793 he so distinguished himself that, though disgraced along with the rest of the garrison and imprisoned, he promptly won reinstatement, and was promoted to
brigade general
in August 1793.
Kleber was then posted to the
Army of the Coasts of La Rochelle
and deployed to Western France, where he took part in the suppression of the
Revolt in the Vendee
.
[7]
Although beaten at the
Battle of Tiffauges
on 19 September 1793, he maintained good relations with the
representatives on mission
and managed to keep his command.
[7]
A month later, Kleber contributed to the Republican victory at
Cholet
, earning him his promotion to
general of division
on 17 October 1793.
[7]
In these operations began his intimacy with General
Francois Marceau
, with whom he defeated the
Royalists
at the battles of
Le Mans
and
Savenay
in December 1793.
When Kleber openly expressed his opinion that the Vendeans merited lenient measures, the authorities recalled him, but reinstated him once more in April 1794 and sent him to the
Army of the Ardennes
.
[7]
He displayed his skill and bravery in the numerous actions around
Charleroi
, and especially in the crowning victory at
Fleurus
(26 June 1794).
During the following years he served mostly in the
Army of Sambre and Meuse
on the
Rhine
frontier.
[7]
In the winter of 1794?1795 he besieged Mainz.
In 1795, and again in 1796, Kleber held the chief command of the army temporarily, but declined a permanent appointment as commander-in-chief.
On 13 October 1795 he fought a brilliant rearguard action at the bridge of
Neuwied
, and in the offensive campaign of 1796, he served as General
Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
's most active and successful lieutenant, with his victory at
Siegburg
on 1 June that year enabling Jourdan to get the bulk of the French force across the Rhine.
After the retreat to the Rhine, Kleber again declined a chief command, and retired into private life in early 1798.
He returned to service later that year, first in the
Army of England
, then accepted a division in the
Army of the Orient
under General Napoleon Bonaparte.
[7]
Egyptian campaign
[
edit
]
Kleber followed Bonaparte in his
expedition to Egypt
but suffered a wound in the head at
Alexandria
in the first engagement, which prevented him for taking part in the
Battle of the Pyramids
, and caused his appointment as governor of Alexandria.
In the
Syrian
campaign of 1799, however, he commanded the vanguard, took
El-Arish
,
Gaza
, and
Jaffa
, and won a great victory at the
Battle of Mount Tabor
on 15?16 April 1799.
The campaign was not going well for the French as Napoleon withdrew and returned to France towards the end of 1799. Napoleon left Kleber in command of the French forces, without consulting Kleber before leaving.
[8]
In this capacity, seeing no hope of bringing his army back to France or of consolidating his conquests, he negotiated the
Convention of El-Arish
(24 January 1800) with Commodore
Sidney Smith
, winning the right to an honorable evacuation of the French army.
[8]
When Admiral
Lord Keith
refused to ratify the terms, Kleber attacked the Turks at the
Battle of Heliopolis
.
[8]
Although he had only 10,000 men against 60,000 Turks, Kleber's forces utterly defeated the Turks on 20 March 1800.
He then re-took
Cairo
, which had revolted against French rule.
Kleber, son of an operative mason and a prominent freemason himself, was attestedly instrumental in bringing freemasonry to Egypt.
[9]
While he was negotiating with Sidney Smith in January 1800, Kleber opened a masonic temple in Cairo and thus created the Isis lodge (
La Loge Isis
), serving as its first
master
.
[9]
[10]
[11]
The motto of the lodge was the slogan of the French Revolution:
Liberte, egalite, fraternite
.
[9]
Assassination
[
edit
]
Shortly after these victories, while Kleber was walking in the garden of the palace of Alfi bika, he was stabbed to death by
Suleiman al-Halabi
, a Kurdish
[12]
or Arab
Syrian
student living in Egypt. The assassin appeared to be begging from Kleber, but then took his hand and stabbed him in the heart, stomach, left arm, and right cheek, before running away to hide near the palace. He was soon caught, still in possession of the dagger which he had used to kill Kleber, and was later executed. The assassination happened in Cairo on 14 June 1800, coincidentally the same day on which Kleber's friend and comrade,
Desaix
, fell at
Marengo
. The assassin's right arm was burned off, and he was
impaled
in a public square in Cairo and left for several hours to die. Suleiman's skull was shipped to France and used to teach medical students what the French
phrenologists
claimed were the cranial features indicating "crime" and "fanaticism"
[13]
Burial
[
edit
]
After his assassination, Kleber's embalmed body was repatriated to France.
[14]
Fearing that his tomb would become a symbol of Republicanism,
Napoleon
ordered it held at the
Chateau d'If
, on an island near
Marseilles
. It stayed there for 18 years until
Louis XVIII
granted Kleber a burial place in his home town of
Strasbourg
.
[15]
He was buried on 15 December 1838 below his statue located in the center of
Place Kleber
. His heart is in an urn in the
caveau
of the Governors beneath the altar of the
Saint Louis Chapel
in
Les Invalides
,
Paris
. Kleber's name is inscribed in column 23 on the southern pillar of the
Arc de Triomphe
.
Assessment
[
edit
]
Kleber emerged as undoubtedly one of the greatest generals of the French revolutionary epoch. Though he distrusted his powers and declined the responsibility of supreme command, there is nothing in his career to show that he would have been unequal to it. As a second-in-command no general of his time excelled him. His conduct of affairs in Egypt, at a time when the treasury was empty and the troops were discontented for want of pay, shows that his powers as an administrator were little, if at all, inferior to those he possessed as a general.
While Kleber himself had a mixed view of Napoleon (including cursing at him and drawing mocking caricatures of him), Bonaparte thought highly of Kleber's skill, stating that there was, "No sight so splendid as watching Kleber go into battle", and he likened him to the God of War Mars.
[16]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Jensen, Nathan D.
"General Jean-Baptiste Kleber"
.
frenchempire.net
. Retrieved
16 February
2016
.
- ^
"Hotel de ville de Thann"
.
patrimoine.alsace
. Archived from
the original
on 24 February 2016
. Retrieved
15 February
2016
.
- ^
"Chateau, puis trefilerie et usine de petite metallurgie dites le Chateau"
.
actuacity.com
. Retrieved
15 February
2016
.
- ^
"Abbaye de benedictines Saint-Leger"
.
actuacity.com
. Retrieved
16 February
2016
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Bertaud, Jean-Paul. "KLEBER, Jean-Baptiste (1753-1800), general".
Dictionnaire Napoleon
. Editions Fayardurl.
- ^
a
b
c
Charles River (2018).
Napoleon in Egypt: The History and Legacy of the French Campaign in Egypt and Syria
. Charles River Editors.
ISBN
978-1718863620
.
- ^
a
b
c
Karim Wissa (1989).
"Freemasonry in Egypt 1798-1921: A Study in Cultural and Political Encounters"
.
Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies)
.
16
(2): 145.
JSTOR
195148
.
- ^
Dictionnaire universelle de la Franc-Maconnerie (Marc de Jode, Monique Cara and Jean-Marc Cara, ed. Larousse, 2011)
- ^
La franc-maconnerie revelee aux profanes (Pierre Ripert ? ed. Presses de Chatelet- 2009)
- ^
Halverson, Jeffry R.; Greenberg, Nathaniel (5 October 2017).
Islamists of the Maghreb
. Routledge.
ISBN
978-1-351-60510-6
.
- ^
"Halabi, Suleiman al-"
. 31 December 2009. Archived from
the original
on 31 December 2009.
- ^
"Tour necropolitain du metropolitain ? 2nde partie : de J a Q ? Cimetieres de France et d'ailleurs"
.
landrucimetieres.fr
.
- ^
"Kleber apres Kleber (1800-2000) ? Jean Paul Baillard"
.
parutions.com
.
- ^
Elting, John R. (1997).
Swords Around A Throne: Napoleon's Grand Armee
. USA: Da Capo Press. p. 42.
ISBN
0306807572
.
Attribution:
References
[
edit
]
- Phipps, Ramsay Weston
(2011) [1929].
The Armies of the First French Republic and the Rise of the Marshals of Napoleon I: The Armees du Moselle, du Rhin, de Sambre-et-Meuse, de Rhin-et-Moselle
. Vol. 2. Pickle Partners Publishing.
ISBN
978-1-908692-25-2
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Philippe Jehin,
Jean-Baptiste Kleber : le lion indomptable : 1753-1800
, Editions Vent d'Est 2012,
ISBN
979-10-90826-06-9
- Auguste Echard:
J.-B. Kleber : un fils de l'Alsace
, Charavay Freres Editeurs, Paris, 1883 (sic)
online version
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