Louis-Gabriel Suchet (2 March 1770-3 January 1826) was a Marshal of the Empire of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. Suchet was one of Napoleon I's later marshals, becoming a Marshal in 1811 after capturing Tarragona, and he was known to be one of Napoleon's most brilliant generals.
Biography[]
Suchet in Italy
Suchet was a silk manufacturer in Lyon until he joined the cavalry in 1792 and served at the Siege of Toulon in 1793. He took General Charles O'Hara, the British commander, prisoner during the engagement, and later served in the Italian Campaign in 1796. He was wounded at Cerea on 11 October, but he returned to command soon after.
In Late April 1797 Suchet was recruited as a general in the campaign, and he gained fame as a skilled commander after the First Battle of Reggio. Soon after he saw off a siege of Modena by Venice, and in Early May, he defeated another Papal army in the Second Battle of Reggio. He recaptured Modena from the Papal army, who had occupied the city, in late May, and took Bologna that same week. In Early July, however, he was defeated and wounded at the Battle of Senigallia by the Papal army, and his army melted away. He was forgiven by General Napoleon Bonaparte, his superior, who admired his command skills. General Suchet later took part in the Battle of Marengo in 1800, the last battle of the Italian Campaigns.
From 1805 to 1807 he fought against the Austrians, Prussians, and Russians in the Europe Campaign of Emperor Napoleon I of France and he transferred to the Peninsular War in 1808. Suchet soundly defeated Joaquin Blake y Joyes at the Battle of Maria in 1809 and Henry Joseph O'Donnell at Lleida. Suchet was the leader of one of four French field armies in Spain: the other three were led by Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, Claude Victor-Perrin, and Auguste Marmont, three other Marechals of France. Suchet captured Valencia in early May 1811 but in late May his army was encircled and destroyed, and Suchet repatriated to France to help in its defense in 1814.
When Napoleon was defeated he was made a peer by Louis XVIII of France, but in 1815 he re-joined the army of Napoleon after he once more came to power. While Napoleon fought in Belgium, Suchet led the Army of the Alps in southeastern France against the Austrians, and did not fight a major battle. He held off Austrian attacks on France from that direction, but in July 1815 the French were forced to surrender. Because he supported Napoleon's Hundred Days he was stripped of peerage and died in 1826.