Louis Charles Antoine Desaix (17 August 1768-14 June 1800) was a general of the First French Republic. He was involved first with the Egyptian Campaign of 1798-1800 and then with the Italian Campaign of 1800, during which he was killed.
Biography[]
Desaix was from the Province of Auvergne in central France, and he joined the French Army at a young age. He refused to emigrate during the French Revolution and fought for liberty instead with the French Revolutionary Army in 1789. He was nearly guillotined but his conspicuous service came into favor with the First French Republic. By 1794, he was the general of a division and fought in Jean Victor Marie Moreau's invasion of Bavaria in 1795, and fought in the Rhineland until 1797.
In 1798 he took part in the Egyptian Campaign of Napoleon Bonaparte and commanded the cavalry in the Battle of the Pyramids. He also fought in the Syrian campaign, capturing the Suez Canal for merchants in 1799. He proceeded to fight in the rest of the campaign until its termination in August 1799. Afterwards he returned to France to fight in the War of the Second Coalition. He fought in Italy at the Battle of Marengo, leading an army to save the embattled main force.
Desaix crushed the Austrian center and exclaimed "There is yet time to win another battle!". He marched to the sound of gunfire and led a charge, but was shot through the heart. Desaix was killed on the same day as General Jean-Baptiste Kleber, who was knifed to death in Cairo.
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