{{Short description|Swiss-French military officer (1771–1814)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = Count of the Empire | name = Jean Louis Ebénézer Reynier | image = Regnier IMG 3218.JPG | caption = Engraved portrait of Reynier (1800) | birth_date = {{birth date text|14 January 1771}} | death_date = {{death date and age text|27 February 1814|14 January 1771}} | birth_place = Lausanne, Switzerland | death_place = Paris, France | allegiance = French First Republic<br/>First French Empire | branch = French Army | service_years = 1792–1814 | rank = General of Division | battles = {{ubl|French Revolutionary Wars|Napoleonic Wars|{{*}}Battle of Castelfranco Veneto|{{*}}Battle of Campo Tenese|{{*}}Battle of Maida|{{*}}Battle of Mileto|{{*}}Battle of Kobrin|{{*}}Battle of Wolkowisk|{{*}}Battle of Großbeeren}} | burial_place = Panthéon }} '''Jean Louis Ébénézer Reynier''' ({{IPA|fr|ʒɑ̃ lwi ebeneze ʁɛnje}}; 14 January 1771 – 27 February 1814) was a Swiss-French military officer who served in the French Army during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He rose in rank to become a general during the War of the First Coalition, and led a division under Napoleon Bonaparte in the French campaign in Egypt and Syria. Under the First Empire, Reynier continued to hold important combat commands, eventually leading an army corps during the Peninsular War in 1810–1811, playing a minor role in the invasion of Russia and then seeing action in Germany all during the War of the Sixth Coalition.
==Background and education== Reynier was born on 14 January 1771 in Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland.<ref name="HDS">{{HDS|24197|author=Czouz-Tornare, Alain-Jacques|date=27 August 2010}}</ref> He was the son of Jacques François Reynier, a physician, and Caroline Chapuis.<ref name=HDS/> Through his father, Reynier descended from French Huguenots from the Dauphiné who fled to Switzerland after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.<ref name=Haag>{{cite book|language=fr|title=La France protestante|pages=420–421|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6103157h|author=Haag, Eugene; Haag, Émile|year=1858|volume=8}}</ref> His brother {{ill|Jean-Louis-Antoine Reynier|fr}} (1762–1824), a naturalist and archeologist, held government posts in the French administration in Egypt and Naples.<ref name=Haag/>
In March 1790, Reynier entered the École des ponts et chaussées in Paris.<ref name=HDS/><ref name=Baudoin>{{cite book|publisher=Imprimerie Crapelet|title=Mémoires du Comte Reynier|editor=Baudouin Brothers|year=1827|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k104904k|language=fr|location=Rue de Vaugirard, Paris}}</ref> He was granted French citizenship through the 1791 constitution, which guaranteed right of return to descendants of French individuals who had fled the country due to religious persecution under the ''ancien régime''.<ref name=Baudoin/>
==French Revolutionary Wars== [[File:Reynier by Dutertre.jpg|thumb|left|Reynier during the French campaign in Egypt and Syria. Sketch portrait by André Dutertre, c. 1798]]
=== Early military career (1792-1798) === Reynier joined the French Army as a gunner in 1792 and was drafted in October into the Army of the North, in which he saw action at the Battle of Jemappes that year, then the at the siege of Maastricht and the Battle of Neerwinden in 1793.<ref name="Baudoin" /><ref name=":52">{{Cite book |last=Six |first=Georges |title=Dictionnaire Biographique Des Generaux Et Amiraux De La Revolution Et De L'Empire |publisher=Georges Saffroy |year=1934 |volume=2 |pages=364 |language=Fr |trans-title=Biographical Dictionary of Generals and Admirals of the Revolution and the Empire}}</ref>
He saw rapid promotion appointed by the representatives of the people Bentabole and Delmas adjutant general battalion commander, on 5 September 1793. Followed soon after by appointed by the representative of the people Florent Guiot [[:fr:Florent-Guiot|[Fr]]] as adjutant general brigade commander and chief of staff of the General Joseph Souham's division in the Army of the North, on 17 February 1794.<ref name=":52" />
In June 1794 he refused further promotion to brigadier general, claiming he was too young. He would see service in the conquest of Holland, including action at the crossing of the frozen Waal river on 10 January 1795. He would eventually accept a promotion to brigadier general, on 13 January.<ref name="AN">{{cite archive|institution=Archives Nationales|collection=ÉTAT SOMMAIRE DES FONDS D’ARCHIVES PRIVÉES SÉRIE AP (1 à 680 AP)|item=211 AP|item-url=http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/chan/chan/AP-pdf/AP_etat%20sommaire_2011.pdf}}</ref> And undertook a provisional appointment as chief of staff of the Army of the North in place of Liébert [[:fr:Jean_Jacques_Liébert|[Fr]]], at the end of March before resuming command of his brigade upon the arrival of Nicolas Ernault des Bruslys, on 13 July.<ref name=":52" />
He was promoted to brigade general in January 1795, and received the assignment of chief of staff of the Army of the Rhine and Moselle under Moreau in March 1796, soon promoted yet again to general of division in November of the same year but retaining the staff role.<ref name=":52" /><ref name="AN" />
=== Expedition to Egypt and fall from favour (1798–1803) === The peace of Amiens saw a pause in fighting in Europe and Reynier secured a position in Napoleon's Army of the Orient as a divisional general.
Participating in the conquest of Malta and the following Egyptian campaign in 1798,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k54008600|title=Mémoires de Masséna|date=1850|editor=Koch, Frédéric|volume=7|author=Masséna, André|author-link=André Masséna|language=fr}}</ref> commanding a division at the Battle of the Pyramids and, in 1799, at the sieges of El Arish and Acre.<ref>{{cite book|title=Lettres de noblesse et lettres d'armoiries concédées à des Vaudois|author=Dubois, Fréd.-Th.|work=Archives héraldiques suisses = Schweizerisches Archiv für Heraldik = Archivio araldico Svizzero |year=1934|volume=48 |issue=1 |page=22 |doi=10.5169/seals-744728|url=http://doi.org/10.5169/seals-744728|language=fr}}</ref> Later, under the command of General Jacques-Francois Menou he defended against the British counter-invasion of Egypt in 1801. His division was present but not engaged in the Battle of Alexandria.<ref name=":52" />
Reynier openly opposed General-in-Chief Jacques-François Menou, who had him arrested in Alexandria by General Jacques Zacharie Destaing [[:fr:Jacques_Zacharie_Destaing|[Fr]]], on 14 May and sent back to France on the Lodi landing at Nice on 28 June. Reynier would then be dismissed from service but sent home with active pay on 31 July. Reynier would published a work on Egypt in which he criticized Menou (the work was seized by order of the First Consul Bonaparte). Following this controversy he would kill General Destaing in a duel in Paris on 5 May 1802. For this he would fall further out of favour and be exiled from Paris in Nièvre.<ref name="HDS" /><ref name=":52" /><ref name="Chandler, Dictionary, p 377">Chandler, Dictionary, p 377</ref>
==Napoleonic Wars== [[File:Philippoteaux - General Jean Louis Ebenezer.jpg|thumb|right|Portrait by Félix Philippoteaux, 1836]]
=== Army of Naples (1804–1808) === He would return to duty in Italy<ref name="HDS" /> in the Naples observation corps under General Gouvion-Saint-Cyr in late 1804. The next year Reynier his 2nd Division helped capture Louis Victor Meriadec de Rohan's 4,400 Austrians at the Battle of Castelfranco Veneto.<ref>Smith, p 215</ref> He would be elevated to command the right wing of the Army of Naples under André Masséna where he laid siege to Gaeta on 12 February. Commanding the 2nd Corps comprising his own and Jean-Antoine Verdier division he was tasked with conquering Calabria.
On 24 November 1805, Reynier's 6,000 Frenchmen routed the 10,000-man army of the Bourbon Kingdom of Naples and Sicily at the Battle of Campo Tenese on 9 March 1806. This victory helped Napoleon to install his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne of the newly created Napoleonic Kingdom of Naples. On 4 July of that year, a British raiding force inflicted a severe drubbing on an overconfident Reynier at the Battle of Maida in southern Italy.<ref>Smith, p 221</ref> Reynier was later able to reassert French control of the area via the French victory at Mileto,<ref name=":52" /> captured Cotrone and besieging Scylla. Reynier would go on to serve under King Joseph as his Minister of War and Marine as well as head of the Army of Naples succeeding Marshal Masséna.<ref name=":52" /><ref name="AN" />
=== Later campaigns in Germany, Spain (1809–1814) === Reynier was called to the Grand Armée and fought at the Battle of Wagram in 1809,<ref name=":52" /> where Reynier commanded 129 artillery pieces and 8,475 soldiers on the Island of Lobau.<ref>Bowden & Tarbox, p 152-154</ref> This impressive array of cannon helped stop a dangerous flanking attack by Johann von Klenau's Austrian VI Armeekorps.<ref>Bowden & Tarbox, p 132</ref>
Sent to the Iberian Peninsula in 1810, he commanded the II Corps in the Army of Portugal under his old chief Masséna at fighting at the Battle of Bussaco, the Lines of Torres Vedras, and the Battle of Sabugal in Portugal.<ref name=":52" /> Before Bussaco, Reynier and other generals urged Masséna to order the assault which turned out to be unsuccessful.<ref>Horward-Pelet, p 175</ref>
His corps was not seriously engaged at the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro in Spain when he commanded the right wing.<ref name=":52" />
In honour of years of service in 1811, Napoleon named him a Count of the Empire, he was also named Grand Dignitary of the Order of the Two Sicilies.<ref name=":52" />
Reynier was recalled from Spain for the Russian campaign of 1812, leading VII Corps composed of Saxon troops. Together with an allied Austrian force under Karl Schwarzenberg, he operated well to the south of the major fighting. After victorious but inconclusive battles with the Russians at Gorodeczna and Wolkowysk and a minor defeat at Lapenitza, he retreated when he learned of the main army's disaster.<ref name=":52" />
Leading the Saxon corps plus an attached French division, Reynier fought at the battles of Kalish, Bautzen, Grossbeeren and Dennewitz in 1813. During the Battle of Leipzig, his Saxon troops suddenly changed sides. When a key bridge was blown up too quickly, Reynier was trapped and captured with his remaining French soldiers.<ref name=":52" />
== Death and legacy == Reynier was released after being exchanged for the Austrian general Maximilian von Merveldt, also captured at Leipzig, and arrived in Paris on 15 February 1814. He died of gout nearly two weeks later, on 27 February.<ref name="Chandler, Dictionary, p 377" /> Pastor Paul-Henri Marron presided over his funeral at the Oratoire du Louvre on 10 March with Reynier then buried in the Panthéon.<ref name="Notice">{{cite news |date=16 March 1814 |title=Notice sur le Général Reynier |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k4208451 |newspaper=Journal de l'Empire |location=Paris |language=fr}}</ref>
His name is inscribed in column 24 on the southern pillar of the Arc de Triomphe as <small>REYNIER</small>,<ref name="HDS" /> right above that of fellow Vaudois volunteer Laharpe.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Six |first=Georges |title=Dictionnaire Biographique Des Generaux Et Amiraux De La Revolution Et De L'Empire |publisher=Georges Saffroy |year=1934 |volume=2 |pages=7 |language=Fr |trans-title=Biographical Dictionary of Generals and Admirals of the Revolution and the Empire}}</ref>
==Honours== *{{flag|First French Empire|name=France}}: Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour.<ref name=":52" /><ref name=Notice/> *{{flag|First French Empire|name=France}}: Grand Cordon of the Order of the Reunion.<ref name=":52" /><ref name=Notice/> *{{flagdeco|Kingdom of Naples|1811}} Naples: Grand Dignitary of the Royal Order of the Two-Sicilies.<ref name=":52" /><ref name=Notice/> *{{flag|Kingdom of Saxony|name=Saxony}}: Grand Cross of the Military Order of St. Henry.<ref name=Notice/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * Bowden, Scotty & Tarbox, Charlie. ''Armies on the Danube 1809''. Arlington, Texas: Empire Games Press, 1980. * Chandler, David. ''Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars''. New York: Macmillan, 1979. {{ISBN|0-02-523670-9}} * Chandler, David. ''The Campaigns of Napoleon''. New York: Macmillan, 1966. * Horward, Donald (ed.), Pelet, Jacques. ''The French Campaign in Portugal 1810-1811''. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, 1973. {{ISBN|0-8166-0658-7}} * Smith, Digby. ''The Napoleonic Wars Data Book.'' London: Greenhill, 1998. {{ISBN|1-85367-276-9}}
==External links== * {{Gutenberg author |id=39967}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Jean Louis Ebénézer Reynier}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reynier, Jean}} Category:French generals Category:French commanders of the Napoleonic Wars Category:French Republican military leaders of the French Revolutionary Wars Category:1771 births Category:1814 deaths Category:Names inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe Category:Swiss military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Category:Military personnel from Lausanne Category:Swiss people of French descent Category:Burials at the Panthéon, Paris Category:French prisoners of war in the Napoleonic Wars Category:Swiss emigrants to France Category:Counts of the First French Empire Category:Grand Officers of the Legion of Honour Category:École des Ponts ParisTech alumni Category:Naturalized citizens of France Category:French recipients of the Legion of Honour