Jean-Baptiste Broussier (10 March 1766 – 13 December 1814) was a general of the French Republic and French Empire during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.
Biography[]
Jean-Baptiste Broussier was born on 10 March 1766 in Ville-sur-Saux in the Kingdom of France. In 1791 he enrolled in the 3rd Marne Battalion of volunteers rather than become a member of the clergy, and he served with the Army of the Sambre-Meuse against the Austrian Empire during the French Revolutionary Wars. In 1797 he was made a Chef de Brigade after he fought in the Italian Campaign of Napoleon Bonaparte, and he later fought under the Army of Naples. He aided in the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples from the Austrians and in 1805 he was promoted to divisional general under Emperor Napoleon at the start of the Napoleonic Wars. Broussier later played a major role in the 1812 Patriotic War against the Russian Empire, and after the disasters of the 1813 War of the Sixth Coalition he took over the 3rd French Division. He was besieged in Strasbourg in 1814 during the Defense of France from an Austrian army, and he died of apoplexy on 13 December 1814 while in command of French forces on the Meuse.