COUNT RENE

See also:

• JOSEPH
• JOSEPH, COMTE DE (1785-1870)
• JOSEPH, FATHER (FRANCOIS LECLERC DU TREMBLAY) (1577-1638)

JOSEPH ISIDORE

See also:

• COUNT RENE JOSEPH ISIDORE EXELMANS (1775-1852)

EXELMANS (1775-1852)  , marshal of France, was born at Bar-le-Duc on the 13th of November 1775 . He volunteered into the 3rd battalion of the Meuse in 1791, became a lieutenant in 1797, and in 1798 was aide-de-camp to General Eble, and in the following year to General Broussier . In his first campaign in Italy he greatly distinguished himself; and in April 1799 he was rewarded for his services by the grade of captain of dragoons . In the same year he took part with honour in the conquest of Naples and was again promoted, and in 18oi he became aide-de-camp to General Murat . He accompanied Murat in the Austrian, Prussian and Polish campaigns of 18o5, 18o6 and 1807 . At the passage of the Danube, and in the action of Wertingen, he specially distinguished himself; he was made colonel for the valour which he displayed at Austerlitz, and general of brigade for his conduct at Eylau in 1807 . In 18o8 he accompanied Murat to Spain, but was there made prisoner and conveyed to England . On regaining his liberty in 1811 he went to Naples, where King Joachim Murat appointed him grand-master of horse . Exelmans, however, rejoined the French army on the eve of the Russian campaign, and on the field of Borodino won the rank of general of division . In the retreat from Moscow his steadfast courage was conspicuously manifested on several occasions . In 1813 he was made, for services in the campaign of Saxony and Silesia, grand-officer of the Legion of Honour, and in 1814 he reaped additional glory by his intrepidity and skill in the campaign of France . When the Bourbons were restored, Exelmans retained his position in the army .

In

January 1815 he was tried on an accusation of having treasonable relations with Murat, but was acquitted . Napoleon on his return from Elba made Exelmans a peer of France and placed him in command of the II. cavalry corps, which he commanded in the Waterloo campaign, the battle of Ligny and Grouchy's march on Wavre . In the closing operations round Paris Exelmans won great distinction . After the ,second Restoration he denounced, in the House of Peers, the execution of Marshal Ney as an " abominable assassination "; thereafter he lived in exile in Belgium and Nassau for some years, till 1819, when he was recalled to France . In 1828 he was appointed inspector-general of cavalry; and after the July revolution of 183o he received from Louis Philippe the grand cross of the Legion of Honour, and was reinstated as a peer of France . At the revolution of 1848 Exelmans was one of the adherents of Louis Napoleon; and in 1851 he was, in recognition of his long and brilliant military career, raised to the dignity of a marshal of France . His death, which took place on the loth of July 1852, was the result of a fall from his horse .