16 Facts About Lazare Hoche

Lazare Hoche won a victory over Royalist forces in Brittany.

Lazare Hoche's surname is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe, on Column 3.

Lazare Hoche's mother died when he was two years old, and Hoche was mostly raised by an aunt, who was a fruit-seller in Montreuil, and was educated by the Abbe Merliere, his maternal uncle, parish priest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, who arranged for Hoche to become a choirboy at his church.

In 1782, Lazare Hoche began working as an aide at the royal stables, but soon left in order to join the Army.

Lazare Hoche thereafter served in various line infantry regiments up to the time of his receiving a commission in 1792.

Lazare Hoche first saw action in the defence of Thionville in 1792, as a lieutenant, in the early stages of the Flanders campaign of the Revolutionary Wars, and took part in the Siege of Namur at the end of the year.

Lazare Hoche pursued his success, sweeping the enemy before him to the middle Rhine in four days.

Lazare Hoche then put his troops into winter quarters at Bouzonville.

Shortly after his release, Lazare Hoche was given the command of the Army of the Coasts of Cherbourg with the mission of suppressing the Royalist Revolt in the Vendee.

Lazare Hoche set up his headquarters at Rennes, Brittany, and put his initial effort into reorganizing the troops.

Lazare Hoche completed the work of his predecessors in a few months by the Treaty of La Jaunaye, but soon afterwards the war was renewed by the rebel leadership.

Lazare Hoche directed the operations that led to the capture of rebel leaders Francois Charette and Jean-Nicolas Stofflet, bringing an end to the War in the Vendee.

In Brest, Lazare Hoche gathered and army and forty-eight vessels for the expedition, under the command of Vice Admiral Justin Bonaventure Morard de Galles.

Lazare Hoche was buried four days later next to his friend Francois Marceau at Fort Petersberg in Koblenz.

Lazare Hoche is commemorated by a statue on Place Lazare Hoche, a gardened square not far from the main entrance to the Palace of Versailles, and another in the Louvre Palace.

Lazare Hoche's motto was Res non verba, which is Latin for "Deeds, not words".