Marshal General Jean-de-Dieu Soult, 1st Duke of Dalmatia was a French general and statesman.
46 Facts About Jean-de-Dieu Soult
2.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult was a Marshal of the Empire during the Napoleonic Wars, and served three times as President of the Council of Ministers of France.
3.
Son of a country notary from southern France, Soult enlisted in the French Royal Army in 1785 and quickly rose through the ranks during the French Revolution.
4.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult was promoted to brigadier general after distinguishing himself at the Battle of Fleurus in 1794, and by 1799 he was a division general.
5.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult played a key role in many of Napoleon's campaigns, most notably at the Battle of Austerlitz, where his corps delivered the decisive attack that secured French victory.
6.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult was created Duke of Dalmatia and from 1808, he commanded French forces during the Peninsular War.
7.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult was again defeated by Wellington at Toulouse in 1814, days after Napoleon's first abdication.
8.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult declared himself a royalist following the Bourbon Restoration, but rejoined Napoleon during the Hundred Days.
9.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult was Napoleon's chief of staff during the Waterloo campaign in 1815, where the emperor suffered a final defeat.
10.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult oversaw reforms of the French military and was responsible for the creation of the French Foreign Legion.
11.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult again declared himself a Republican after Louis Philippe's overthrow in the French Revolution of 1848.
12.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult was born in Saint-Amans-la-Bastide and named after John of God.
13.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult was the son of a country notary named Jean Soult by his marriage to Brigitte, daughter of Pierre Francois de Grenier de Lapierre.
14.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult was expected to have a promising career as a lawyer.
15.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult was promoted to brigadier general by the representatives on mission.
16.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult passed to the Army of Helvetia under the orders of General Andre Massena.
17.
When in 1800 the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte entrusted Massena to reorganize the Army of Italy, he insisted that Jean-de-Dieu Soult be his deputy; giving him the command of the right wing.
18.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult distinguished himself for his active part in the defense of the country of Genoa.
19.
The enemy was repulsed beyond Piotta, and Jean-de-Dieu Soult pursued General Suvorov into the Alps, seizing Sassello and returning to Genoa with numerous prisoners, cannons, and flags.
20.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult was rescued after the victory at Marengo on June 14,1800.
21.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult even managed to discipline the rowdy hordes and use them for his service.
22.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult then received command of the southern part of the Kingdom of Naples.
23.
Shortly before the Treaty of Amiens, General Jean-de-Dieu Soult returned to Paris, where the First Consul welcomed him with the highest distinction.
24.
In May 1804, Jean-de-Dieu Soult was made one of the first eighteen Marshals of the Empire.
25.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult commanded a corps in the advance on Ulm, and at Austerlitz he led the decisive attack on the Allied centre.
26.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult played a great part in many of the famous battles of the Grande Armee, including the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805 and the Battle of Jena in 1806.
27.
At the Battle of Coruna, in which Moore was killed, Jean-de-Dieu Soult failed to prevent British forces escaping by sea.
28.
In 1811, Jean-de-Dieu Soult marched north into Extremadura and took Badajoz.
29.
In 1812, after Wellington's great victory at Salamanca, Jean-de-Dieu Soult was obliged to evacuate Andalusia.
30.
In March 1813, Jean-de-Dieu Soult assumed command of the IV Corps of the Grande Armee and commanded the centre at Lutzen and Bautzen, but he was sent, with unlimited powers, to the South of France to repair the damage done by the defeat at Vitoria.
31.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult nevertheless inflicted severe casualties on Wellington and was able to stop him from trapping the French forces.
32.
The strength of the Army of the Restoration numbered only a little over 200,000 men and Jean-de-Dieu Soult sought to double its size, carrying the necessary reforms from 1831 to 1832.
33.
Louis-Philippe, worried about having to rely solely on the National Guard to maintain public order, instructed Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult to reorganize the line army without delay.
34.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult wrote a report to the king, presented to the Chamber of Deputies on February 20,1831, in which he criticized the recruitment Gouvion-Saint-Cyr law of 1818: the voluntary system combined with the drawing of ballots and the possibility of being replaced had not made it possible to increase the number of manpower sufficiently, and that the promotion procedures helped to maintain over-staffing.
35.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult proposed the main lines of a military policy aimed at increasing the army's strength, reducing said over-staffing and ensuring the supply of arms and ammunition.
36.
Order is restored, but Jean-de-Dieu Soult becomes very unpopular within the Republican camp.
37.
In 1834, when a new insurrection broke out in April in Lyon, Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult received from Lieutenant-General Aymar, commander of the troops in the city, a desperate telegraphic dispatch about evacuating the city.
38.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult participated in the ceremonies for returning the ashes of Napoleon in December 1840.
39.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult died three years later in his castle in Soult-Berg, near Saint-Amans-la-Bastide where he was born, a few days before the coup of 1851.
40.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult is one of the eighteen Marshals of the Empire who belonged to Freemasonry.
41.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult published a memoir justifying his adherence to Napoleon during the Hundred Days, and his notes and journals were arranged by his son Napoleon Hector, who published the first part Memoires du marechal-general Jean-de-Dieu Soult in 1854.
42.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult's armies were usually well readied before going into battle.
43.
Tactically, Jean-de-Dieu Soult planned his battles well, but often left too much to his subordinates.
44.
Wellington said that "Jean-de-Dieu Soult never seemed to know how to handle troops after a battle had begun".
45.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult recognized Wellington's strategic dilemma and took advantage by launching surprise attacks on both wings of the Anglo-Allied Army.
46.
Jean-de-Dieu Soult died at the Chateau de Soult-Berg on 22 March 1852.