General Louis Friant was not flashy—but he was one of Napoleon’s most reliable and effective commanders. Known for his discipline, speed, and precision on the battlefield, Friant played a critical role in many of the French Empire’s greatest victories, often commanding veterans of the Imperial Guard with iron resolve. Special guest Charles Mackay joins the show once again and tells us all about the famous "Immortal" who also commanded the Imperial Guard in their final assault at Waterloo.
In this episode, we uncover the career of a general who quietly shaped the success of the Grande Armée:
✅ His rise through the ranks during the Revolutionary Wars
✅ His brilliant forced march to Austerlitz
✅ His leadership at Auerstädt and Borodino
✅ His key role in commanding the Old Guard in Napoleon’s later campaigns
General Friant may not be as well-known as Ney or Davout, but his record speaks volumes—and Napoleon trusted him with the best soldiers in the army.
⚔️ Discover the story of one of the Empire’s toughest and most trusted generals.
📌 Like, comment, and subscribe for more profiles of the unsung heroes of the Napoleonic Wars!
Bluesky: @andnapoleon.bsky.social, @bubblesvampire.bsky.social
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to Generals and Napoleons.
We have an honored guest on the line once again, the great
Charles McKay joining us on the line.
How are you, good Sir? I am great, how are you?
I'm good, I'm good. For those of you who don't know
Charles, he's been on the show many times.
Fantastic knowledge, fantastic guest.
He also has a Blue Sky account Iwant everybody to check out.
(00:21):
It's Bubbles vampire on Blue Sky, so please give him a follow
there. And Charles, for the
uninitiated, can you tell everyone about your educational
background on Napoleon? Sure.
Yeah, I actually have a PhD in in French history.
I graduated from Florida State. They have an institute there on
the French Revolution and Napoleonic studies, graduated
(00:43):
there, worked as a working professor at both Morehead State
University and West Virginia University, and now I'm an
independent scholar. All right, well, we're super
happy to have you on the show once again.
And tonight we're going to talk talk about one of the so-called
immortals of Marshall Devue score.
We're going to talk about Louis Freon or Louis Freon.
(01:05):
What is your kind of sketch of this man?
So Louis Freon was a course of general in the in the French and
Napoleonic armies, born in 1758.I won't call him a plotter, but
he's leftover from that. He had service in the French
(01:25):
army before the Revolution and was an incredibly capable
tactician and leader both on thefield and off the field, and
also had the good sense, if you want to call it that, or good
luck, to marry into Davoo's family.
And so that in a sense helped his career tremendously,
(01:46):
although honestly, he doesn't need it.
He's an incredibly gifted officer.
Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that, marrying into a Marshall
of France's family, because Napoleon's the rising star.
But these, all these other rising stars, the Marshalls,
Napoleon's family. So if you can get in that solar
system, it's usually pretty goodfor your career.
(02:08):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. You know, listeners of your show
will know that the importance ofthe family is incredibly
important to Napoleon, such that, you know, certainly
promotion in the early part of the Empire, during the
revolutionary part of the Empirewas based entirely on merit.
And and those lines get a littlefuzzy towards the end of the
Empire where family is promoted.You know, I don't think anyone
(02:32):
could could, could say with a straight face that Jerome was
the most capable person that could have run the Kingdom of
Westphalia. And yet he's promoted to be a
king. So those those familial
relations, those relations with the Bonaparte family and and so
Freon gets into it through the Leclerc side, which also had
married into the Bonaparte family.
(02:53):
So tangentially, you know Devue is part of the inner circle not
just because of his accomplishments but because also
his marital relations, correct? And we'll, we'll dive into the
Marshall and the families and all that kind of stuff here in a
minute. But let's talk about Freon's
upbringing. As you mentioned, he was born
September 1758 in the village ofMoreland Cole.
(03:16):
What do we know of his upbringing?
Well, he comes from a what todaywe would call a middle class
background. His father was a candle maker,
reasonably well off, and it was hoped that Louis would go into
the candle making business as one does.
But Louis had designs and in other ways he he wanted the
(03:36):
exciting life of the army. So he joins the Royal Army in
the years before the the revolution and 1781 or so he
joins. He does 6 or so years of service
there, rises to the incredibly high rank of corporal, and then
after six years bails on the military.
(03:58):
Probably because the prospects for promotion for someone who
does not have a a noble background just were not that
great. You know, it's interesting like
for every Marshall like debut came from a military family,
there's like a general like Freont or Mura, the son of an
innkeeper or Lawn, the son of a Dyer, like who maybe their
parents didn't have the most exciting job.
(04:18):
Like Freon's dad was a wax and candle making businessman.
So maybe not having an exciting job lent itself to for these
young men to look for other options, including the military.
Sure, a soul family or Baker's name?
Family comes from Coopers, you know, barrel makers.
So yeah, you know, maybe that's just not what some young men are
(04:40):
looking for. Yeah, yeah.
Well, as you mentioned, in 1789 he comes back to the military
after leaving as a corporal. He joins the Parisian National
Guard during the French Revolution and a few years later
is elected to Lieutenant Colonels.
That's a pretty rapid rise. Does he see any action?
Yeah, he's engaged quite heavilyfrom of course, when the war
(05:02):
breaks out in spring of 1792, really until 1794 or 95 in the
Benelux area, modern day Belgium.
He's at Flourue, for instance, and he's constantly engaged in
action, wounded multiple times, not grievously, but wounded.
So he's on the front, taken fire, involved in leading his
(05:25):
men from the front as a lot of these distinguished generals of
division and future marshals aregoing to have that experience.
Indeed. Yeah.
Well, in 1794, he takes part in the great victory of Flores,
which is a notable victory over the Austrians.
And I believe it is the first battle to use aerial observation
and Recon in the form of a balloon.
(05:48):
Yeah. And the future Marshall Sult
also said the battle quote was 15 hours of the most desperate
fighting I've ever saw in my life.
End Quote. So it sounds like Freon's
learning on the job, right? Oh absolutely.
And there are lots of engagements that where Freon is
involved, not just big set piecebattles like Fuller, but also
(06:08):
little skirmishes and actions all along the way.
So he's he's right up there in it.
OK, well in 1795 he finally getsthe promotion to big General
General Brigade and served as Chief of Staff to General
Scherer. And then 1797 he joins
Bernadotte's division in Italy. Is this where he first met
Napoleon Bonaparte? You know, we don't have any.
(06:32):
I'm not aware of any records that they they met in 1797.
It would be impossible to think that they didn't at least make
each other's acquaintance. Where they're most likely to
have spent a lot more time together or got to know each
other better would have been on the expedition to Egypt, which
comes in a few years later. Right, Yeah, and Pryant joins
the Napoleon's expedition in Egypt and serves under the
(06:55):
talented General Desai and a future boss named Devoux,
Correct. Absolutely, and Desai and Devu
are best buds, so it would not be surprising that that Freon
would get, you know, exposed to and introduced to, socialized
with Devu during that time. OK.
(07:17):
Well, in 1799, Freon has promoted to general of division.
So again, he's rapidly rising upthe ranks.
Do we know how he performed in the Egyptian campaign?
I know it was. It was a a brutal campaign for
all of Napoleon soldiers. Yeah, he, although he took a
less publicized route to say, ofcourse was sent to Upper Egypt,
(07:38):
which a little counted, counterintuitively is South
along the the Nile. So he misses, for instance, the
Napoleon's invasion of the of the Holy Land.
He misses all that because he's seeing quite a bit of action
down down the Nile along with tosay and Devue.
OK. Well, he unfortunately is not
one of the lucky few who escapeswith Napoleon to France.
(08:03):
Napoleon's replacement, Clay Bear, was killed shortly
thereafter by an assassin, and Freont becomes second in command
to General Minoux, who commandedall French forces in Egypt.
So I mean, that's pretty lofty position for Freont.
So he must have had some talent as an organizer.
Yeah, absolutely. And he served well, like I said,
in the Upper Egypt campaign. And I think he distinguished
(08:25):
himself there and then became a new second in command.
So he's evacuated with the troops once there's finally an
agreement with the British, who effectively take over Egypt in
18 O one. OK was repatriated back to
France after the surrender to the British and a few years
later marries the sister of General Leclerc, which makes him
(08:48):
brother-in-law to his future boss, Marshall Devue.
What do we know about his personal life?
We know that that marriage was probably one of the signature
moments in his life in terms of just good fortune or good
planning. You know, often times it it.
It might be good for your readers to remember that the
(09:09):
concept of marrying for love is a a relatively new one.
Usually marriages were put together to to unite the
interests of separate families, things and such.
Although they they they could marry for love.
It happened so they turned out to be a fortuitous development
for free all. Yeah, you look at some of the
(09:31):
marriages. I know Napoleon's brother Louis,
marriage to Josephine's daughterHortense was not love at all and
nor was both found in there. But then you look at Prince
Eugene's marriage, I think it was to the daughter of a, was it
Bavaria or one of the one of theallies of Napoleon?
Right. Yep.
And that turned into love. That turned into a love story.
(09:52):
Right, Absolutely. Absolutely.
And, you know, our good friend Rachel details with great
clarity the relationships between the marshals and their
and their spouses. And there were, there were some
significantly, I mean, there were some great marriages and
then there were some ones that were not so great.
And then, you know, in one particular case, a General Juno
(10:14):
married a woman who wrote all kinds of scandalous memoirs.
And that was a tumultuous relationship, to say the least.
I like that you shoehorned a Juno reference there.
That's good, hey. Man, I got, you know, wherever I
can, right? I know that's your guy.
Well, getting back to Freon in 18O5HE takes command of the
(10:35):
second division of the Vu's famed third core, and this
division earns a reputation for rapid marching, notably moving
70 miles and 46 hours to arrive just in time to secure the right
flank of Napoleon's army of the victorious Battle of Austerlitz.
I just want to pause here for a minute to point out what a feat
(10:57):
of arms that is in December, in the middle of the night, right?
Yeah. And I, I've seen the reference
to 46 hours. I think it was closer to 36
hours. I think there there might be a
typo in some of the sources there, but let's concede that a
different way. You know, that's 2 1/2
marathons, 36 hours. That's just ridiculous.
(11:21):
Once they got to the destination, Elting points out
that there were probably only out of 20 men, only one of them
arrived, you know, on time. The stragglers.
The line of stragglers was impressive, but nevertheless
Duvu had planned for this and had officers placed and you
know, was able to to wrangle TheStranglers stragglers.
(11:44):
And as we all know that the Third Corps made a fantastic
show of itself on the southern French right flank and
Austerlitz and Napoleon really gambled your readers, your
listeners will will will be wellaware on Duvu holding that flank
so that he could make his assault on the Pratt.
Yeah, and I think that's a greatway to reference it or make it a
(12:06):
modern times analogy. Imagine running two marathons
and then fighting a battle at the end of it. 2 1/2 marathons.
Yeah. I don't have any bumper stickers
on my car. If I ever put a bumper sticker
on my car, it would say 0.0, youknow, So I am not going to run a
marathon. And these guys are doing 2 1/2
(12:26):
marathons now. I mean, they're seasoned.
And this speaks to, and Freont was of the same camp at Devoux
here. They drill these guys, I don't
want to say remorselessly, let'sjust call it thoroughly.
So I mean, they marched their, their, their, their primed for
this. They're in physical condition
for this, but then one of the things that Devue and Freon did
(12:47):
very well was to see to the physical needs of their
soldiers. So they have the proper
clothing, they have boots that are in good order, and it makes
all of these incredible feats ofphysical stamina and strength
all the more possible and doable.
That's a good point. Well, during the ferocity of the
Austria it's fighting, Freon hasthree horses shut out from under
(13:08):
him. This later becomes his coat of
arms when he's ennobled by Napoleon.
He's also becomes one of the three Immortals of Devue.
Why were they named that? Well, the, the first of all, I
think that consistency. So the, the three leaders of
which you speak are General Guddin Freon, who we're talking
(13:30):
about in General Morong. And they were Devue's three
divisional commanders really up until, well, the Russian
campaign. So, you know, we're talking
about a span of of six years or a little bit longer than six
years. That's incredibly consistent.
And these guys in a shared abusecommitment to drill and
(13:54):
commitment to looking after the personal concerns and personal
welfare of the soldiers that made that core unique.
It made it special. There were, there were some who
mentioned that the, that Davuse Corps, that the condition of
those soldiers rivaled that of the Imperial Guard.
So and then of course then they could walk and, and March with a
(14:16):
bit of swagger and, you know, a French army of the Napoleonic
era marching with swagger. You think that ever happened?
Of course it did. And you know, there was
definitely some pride in that. I think you hit on something
though. Davoo's Third Corps, Naze, 6th
Corps, the Imperial Guard, they all had usually the same
commanders in the same kind of divisional commanders.
(14:38):
And when you have that uniformity over multiple years,
instead of changing commanders Willy nilly, you have
consistency like like the Pittsburgh Steelers or any
organization that's had like 3 coaches in its existence where
you have that consistency, you know what to expect from the
commanders. Absolutely.
And it and it helps that if the commanders are in alignment with
(14:58):
the the core commander. Now, that won't always be the
case with Devue, but we can talkabout that a little bit later
on. OK, well in 18 O 6 Devue score
has arguably its finest moment at the battle of our stat, and
without us going too down into the rabbit hole, can you tell us
what happens there? Sure.
Your listeners will recall that the it's really a twin battle of
(15:21):
Yena, our stat. So at Yena, Napoleon encounters
what he thinks is the largest portion of the Prussian army.
It turns out not to be the largest portion.
The largest portion is a little bit further north and east.
And he had sent both Devue scoreand Bernadotte score around to
to cut off what he imagined would be the retreat of the
(15:42):
Prussian army. So Devue Corps runs into the
largest chunk of the of the Prussian army and he only has
Goudan's division initially whenhe makes initial contact.
So Goudan just hunkers down, puts the guys in square because
Blue Cur has so much cavalry around there.
And so by 9:00 Goudan is hotly engaged.
(16:04):
By 930 though, Friant has hustled up and Devu directs him
to Goudan's right flank and starts to put pressure on the on
the Prussian left flank and withFreon came the heavy artillery
so that they start to stabilize the position a little bit
through just a bit of bad luck. The Prussian commander Brunswick
(16:26):
gets hit by a stray bullet and is killed on the spot and the
king does not. The Prussian king does not take
command of the battle, so the the Prussian army is left
without effective leadership andso whatever attacks they make
with their overwhelming numbers are piece meal and poorly
directed. So by the time that Devue's last
divisional moron comes out of the field and assumes a position
(16:51):
to the left of Gouda, then everything's in place and by
11:00 Devue is ordered a generalassault and sweeps the the
broken Prussian army off the field.
Yeah, it's amazing. Like you know, initially he was
outnumbered 3 to one and even attowards the end he was still at
#2 to one and he attacked the larger army in one.
So it's amazing. Well, and that's that's one of
(17:13):
the gifts that the best of theseNapoleonic generals have on
either side is they can sense when the enemy in general is
starting to waver. And by 11:00, the Prussian
attacks have been spent largely through ineffective, you know,
cavalry on squares. Rarely is that going to work
except in the peninsula. And the Prussian army is just
exhausted and in shambles. And they had started to hear
(17:35):
rumors or reports from the, you know, the remnants of the
Prussian army at Yena that they had gotten decimated.
So Prussian morale is plummetingand devue you know, senses that
uses the Spidey senses and orders the general assault and
the whole Prussian army collapses.
Yeah, I know, I know. It's one of Marshall Devue's
most famous victories and and Napoleon gives him and his
(17:56):
troops the honor of being the 1st to enter Berlin.
Absolutely famous quote there famous story of Napoleon when
Devue reports back that the numbers he's engaged and
defeated, you know, Napoleon says your your Marshall must be
seeing double referring to the fact that that Devue had had
some significant vision problems.
So had a a set of impressive eyeglasses on thinking that he's
(18:19):
not seeing the numbers that he'sseeing.
Right, right. And Napoleon could be very petty
and and you know, I'll give it up to Napoleon.
In this case, he does give Devuecredit for Arshad, you know,
ennobles him with that title. Does not try and downplay it,
which is notable. I think that is a good example
of him sharing credit. Now you know Yana was his
(18:40):
battle, but you know he could have easily just said, Oh, well,
Yana Arshad was my total victory, but he shared he shared
that with with as. He did in many other places.
Yeah, indeed. While in 18 O 7, Freont fights
at the bloody stalemate of Ilau and is wounded.
Napoleon makes him count on the Empire and he also fights
throughout the eighteen O 9 campaigns.
(19:02):
Do you think Napoleon ever considered making him a
Marshall? That's a great question and of
course I don't have any evidencefor it.
I know that he was before the Russian campaign, which I know
we're about to talk about, he was offered a position in the
Guard and elected to stay with Devue.
And so I, I, I think that, yeah,obviously that the familial ties
(19:26):
there probably played a role in that pretty great personal
loyalty to turn down command in the in the Guard.
Right, right. To stay with, to stay with
Devue. So I I you know, free all seems
pretty tied to Devue at that point.
OK, well, as you mentioned, in 1812, he joins Napoleon's
(19:49):
invasion of Russia and is wounded again at the Battle of
Smolensk. Then he's more severely wounded
at the battle aboard Dino. And I read this, I knew they
left some wounded people there, but is this true?
He was left there to heal because he was so incapacitated.
Like literally left on the battlefield.
Yeah, absolutely. And in fact, when the army
starts to retreat from Moscow inOctober, he's he's literally
(20:12):
still there. So yeah, at least they get him
out before the worst of it. You know, Napoleon tried to go
South, the Russians blocked him.So they have to go back over the
same ground from which they entered.
But Freon is at least evacuated before the general retreat
starts, so he doesn't suffer through the horrible winter
(20:32):
retreat like the survivors of the Grand Army did.
Well, it's probably a good thingNapoleon needed fighting
generals when he got back to France.
Yeah, absolutely. So he's sent back and really is
recuperating ended 1812, beginning of 1813 from pretty
serious wounds. And and it should be noted that
at Borodina, where Davoos core was heavily involved fighting
(20:54):
around the fletches, the famous wooden fortifications that the
Russians hastily erected, these are not guys that are commanding
from the rear. No, and I was, I forget who I
was reading. It was Colin Core, somebody I
witnessed Davoo and he took a hit and fell from his horse so
hard that they thought Marshall Devue is dead because it's such
a heavy hit. So yeah, a lot of guys got
(21:16):
wounded aboard. You know, it was really
unfortunate. Yeah, absolutely.
And there was a little bit of, of momentary panic there when
Devue went down at Borodino because they were afraid that
that he got lost. And, you know, we don't have to
look far to know how devastatingthat could be.
Migration went down in the same area.
And that was a factor that led to demoralizing, to the extent
(21:39):
that it did, the Russian army. That's a great point, you
mentioned it during the aristat.Like when an army loses their
commander in any fashion it can be, the morale can just plummet.
Well, in 1813 Freon is commanding the Imperial Guard
and fights at Dresden, Leipzig and Hanau.
He also fights well in the 1814 invasion of France, correct?
(22:00):
Yeah, absolutely. And and I might just take a tiny
diversion here to explain why he's no longer with Devue or why
he doesn't go back into service with Devue.
Devue at the conclusion of the Russian invasion is sent to
command the French presence at the Hamburg.
And so essentially Devue has a Garrison.
He doesn't have a a mobile forceanymore.
(22:22):
Devue has the the Garrison in Hamburg.
It's some notable trivia on thathe is the only officer of of the
senior officers that was not allowed to go back in 1812 and
1813 to France to recuperate. He was literally reassigned to
Hamburg and and and sent there. One of the sources I read said
to punish the Germans for not being French enough.
(22:46):
But free all is not needed in Hamburg because it's a Garrison
situation. So he does at that point get to
take the command of the guard. And he fights throughout the end
of 1813 and into 1814, fights for the front, fights well, gets
wounded a couple more times. I mean, we're not talking Buno
level wounds, but he's, you know, he's dinged up.
(23:07):
Yeah, well, upon Napoleon's abdication in 1814, Freyant
serves under the Borgons but joins Napoleon again for the 100
Days campaign and is again commanding the Imperial Guard.
Performs well at the Battle of Ligny.
What happens at Waterloo? Because you read the the final
charge of the Imperial Guard. First it's Napoleon leading
(23:28):
them, then it's Nay, then it's Freon as they get closer and
closer. So what happens here?
So Freon is the commander on thefield, so he's the one making
the tactical decisions literallyon the field.
But as we know, in a situation like that, I think it was Mike
Tyson who said most famously, nobattle plan suffers the first
punch. There's so much at Waterloo.
(23:51):
There's so much smoke, fog, confusion, noise.
It's impossible to to actively coordinate.
But it's not nay or Napoleon that's leading that.
It's it's it's Freon. Yeah, yeah, we know what happens
there. The French lose and Napoleon has
to abdicate a second time. What were Freon's later years
like, and what do you think his legacy is?
(24:11):
Well, he doesn't. He doesn't live too terribly
long after that. He dies in the 1820s, and of
course he's drummed out of the military, as most of these guys
were. He does get his rank and things
restored in 18191820 when the rest of the Napoleonic folks do.
But after Waterloo, he just retires to a quiet life of
retirement, and he takes no moreactive role in the military or
(24:33):
in politics or anything. Yeah, nice.
He had a a very long career. So I guess, I guess his legacy,
you know, being part of the three immorals, being part of
Devue's famed third core, but just a sturdy, reliable general
for Napoleon. Yeah, absolutely.
And I mean, I would go beyond sturdy and reliable.
You know, I would, I would, I mean, I cannot imagine.
(24:54):
I, I can say definitively, I can't think of a better general
of division than frankly any of these guys, but particularly
Freel. Yeah, and there there's a lot
out there, you know, Saint Hilaire and some other guys that
were very good divisional commanders who didn't get all
the way to Marshall, but who arereally good divisional
(25:15):
commanders. Absolutely.
Well, thank you, Charles for joining us once again.
If you want to find Charles, youcan catch up with him on Blue
Sky Bubbles Vampire. And we thank you for your time,
Sir. Thanks John, I appreciate it.
Have me back anytime.
Welcome back to Generals and Napoleons.
We have an honored guest on the line once again, the great
Charles McKay joining us on the line.
How are you, good Sir? I am great, how are you?
I'm good, I'm good. For those of you who don't know
Charles, he's been on the show many times.
Fantastic knowledge, fantastic guest.
He also has a Blue Sky account Iwant everybody to check out.
(00:21):
It's Bubbles vampire on Blue Sky, so please give him a follow
there. And Charles, for the
uninitiated, can you tell everyone about your educational
background on Napoleon? Sure.
Yeah, I actually have a PhD in in French history.
I graduated from Florida State. They have an institute there on
the French Revolution and Napoleonic studies, graduated
(00:43):
there, worked as a working professor at both Morehead State
University and West Virginia University, and now I'm an
independent scholar. All right, well, we're super
happy to have you on the show once again.
And tonight we're going to talk talk about one of the so-called
immortals of Marshall Devue score.
We're going to talk about Louis Freon or Louis Freon.
(01:05):
What is your kind of sketch of this man?
So Louis Freon was a course of general in the in the French and
Napoleonic armies, born in 1758.I won't call him a plotter, but
he's leftover from that. He had service in the French
(01:25):
army before the Revolution and was an incredibly capable
tactician and leader both on thefield and off the field, and
also had the good sense, if you want to call it that, or good
luck, to marry into Davoo's family.
And so that in a sense helped his career tremendously,
(01:46):
although honestly, he doesn't need it.
He's an incredibly gifted officer.
Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that, marrying into a Marshall
of France's family, because Napoleon's the rising star.
But these, all these other rising stars, the Marshalls,
Napoleon's family. So if you can get in that solar
system, it's usually pretty goodfor your career.
(02:08):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. You know, listeners of your show
will know that the importance ofthe family is incredibly
important to Napoleon, such that, you know, certainly
promotion in the early part of the Empire, during the
revolutionary part of the Empirewas based entirely on merit.
And and those lines get a littlefuzzy towards the end of the
Empire where family is promoted.You know, I don't think anyone
(02:32):
could could, could say with a straight face that Jerome was
the most capable person that could have run the Kingdom of
Westphalia. And yet he's promoted to be a
king. So those those familial
relations, those relations with the Bonaparte family and and so
Freon gets into it through the Leclerc side, which also had
married into the Bonaparte family.
(02:53):
So tangentially, you know Devue is part of the inner circle not
just because of his accomplishments but because also
his marital relations, correct? And we'll, we'll dive into the
Marshall and the families and all that kind of stuff here in a
minute. But let's talk about Freon's
upbringing. As you mentioned, he was born
September 1758 in the village ofMoreland Cole.
(03:16):
What do we know of his upbringing?
Well, he comes from a what todaywe would call a middle class
background. His father was a candle maker,
reasonably well off, and it was hoped that Louis would go into
the candle making business as one does.
But Louis had designs and in other ways he he wanted the
(03:36):
exciting life of the army. So he joins the Royal Army in
the years before the the revolution and 1781 or so he
joins. He does 6 or so years of service
there, rises to the incredibly high rank of corporal, and then
after six years bails on the military.
(03:58):
Probably because the prospects for promotion for someone who
does not have a a noble background just were not that
great. You know, it's interesting like
for every Marshall like debut came from a military family,
there's like a general like Freont or Mura, the son of an
innkeeper or Lawn, the son of a Dyer, like who maybe their
parents didn't have the most exciting job.
(04:18):
Like Freon's dad was a wax and candle making businessman.
So maybe not having an exciting job lent itself to for these
young men to look for other options, including the military.
Sure, a soul family or Baker's name?
Family comes from Coopers, you know, barrel makers.
So yeah, you know, maybe that's just not what some young men are
(04:40):
looking for. Yeah, yeah.
Well, as you mentioned, in 1789 he comes back to the military
after leaving as a corporal. He joins the Parisian National
Guard during the French Revolution and a few years later
is elected to Lieutenant Colonels.
That's a pretty rapid rise. Does he see any action?
Yeah, he's engaged quite heavilyfrom of course, when the war
(05:02):
breaks out in spring of 1792, really until 1794 or 95 in the
Benelux area, modern day Belgium.
He's at Flourue, for instance, and he's constantly engaged in
action, wounded multiple times, not grievously, but wounded.
So he's on the front, taken fire, involved in leading his
(05:25):
men from the front as a lot of these distinguished generals of
division and future marshals aregoing to have that experience.
Indeed. Yeah.
Well, in 1794, he takes part in the great victory of Flores,
which is a notable victory over the Austrians.
And I believe it is the first battle to use aerial observation
and Recon in the form of a balloon.
(05:48):
Yeah. And the future Marshall Sult
also said the battle quote was 15 hours of the most desperate
fighting I've ever saw in my life.
End Quote. So it sounds like Freon's
learning on the job, right? Oh absolutely.
And there are lots of engagements that where Freon is
involved, not just big set piecebattles like Fuller, but also
(06:08):
little skirmishes and actions all along the way.
So he's he's right up there in it.
OK, well in 1795 he finally getsthe promotion to big General
General Brigade and served as Chief of Staff to General
Scherer. And then 1797 he joins
Bernadotte's division in Italy. Is this where he first met
Napoleon Bonaparte? You know, we don't have any.
(06:32):
I'm not aware of any records that they they met in 1797.
It would be impossible to think that they didn't at least make
each other's acquaintance. Where they're most likely to
have spent a lot more time together or got to know each
other better would have been on the expedition to Egypt, which
comes in a few years later. Right, Yeah, and Pryant joins
the Napoleon's expedition in Egypt and serves under the
(06:55):
talented General Desai and a future boss named Devoux,
Correct. Absolutely, and Desai and Devu
are best buds, so it would not be surprising that that Freon
would get, you know, exposed to and introduced to, socialized
with Devu during that time. OK.
(07:17):
Well, in 1799, Freon has promoted to general of division.
So again, he's rapidly rising upthe ranks.
Do we know how he performed in the Egyptian campaign?
I know it was. It was a a brutal campaign for
all of Napoleon soldiers. Yeah, he, although he took a
less publicized route to say, ofcourse was sent to Upper Egypt,
(07:38):
which a little counted, counterintuitively is South
along the the Nile. So he misses, for instance, the
Napoleon's invasion of the of the Holy Land.
He misses all that because he's seeing quite a bit of action
down down the Nile along with tosay and Devue.
OK. Well, he unfortunately is not
one of the lucky few who escapeswith Napoleon to France.
(08:03):
Napoleon's replacement, Clay Bear, was killed shortly
thereafter by an assassin, and Freont becomes second in command
to General Minoux, who commandedall French forces in Egypt.
So I mean, that's pretty lofty position for Freont.
So he must have had some talent as an organizer.
Yeah, absolutely. And he served well, like I said,
in the Upper Egypt campaign. And I think he distinguished
(08:25):
himself there and then became a new second in command.
So he's evacuated with the troops once there's finally an
agreement with the British, who effectively take over Egypt in
18 O one. OK was repatriated back to
France after the surrender to the British and a few years
later marries the sister of General Leclerc, which makes him
(08:48):
brother-in-law to his future boss, Marshall Devue.
What do we know about his personal life?
We know that that marriage was probably one of the signature
moments in his life in terms of just good fortune or good
planning. You know, often times it it.
It might be good for your readers to remember that the
(09:09):
concept of marrying for love is a a relatively new one.
Usually marriages were put together to to unite the
interests of separate families, things and such.
Although they they they could marry for love.
It happened so they turned out to be a fortuitous development
for free all. Yeah, you look at some of the
(09:31):
marriages. I know Napoleon's brother Louis,
marriage to Josephine's daughterHortense was not love at all and
nor was both found in there. But then you look at Prince
Eugene's marriage, I think it was to the daughter of a, was it
Bavaria or one of the one of theallies of Napoleon?
Right. Yep.
And that turned into love. That turned into a love story.
(09:52):
Right, Absolutely. Absolutely.
And, you know, our good friend Rachel details with great
clarity the relationships between the marshals and their
and their spouses. And there were, there were some
significantly, I mean, there were some great marriages and
then there were some ones that were not so great.
And then, you know, in one particular case, a General Juno
(10:14):
married a woman who wrote all kinds of scandalous memoirs.
And that was a tumultuous relationship, to say the least.
I like that you shoehorned a Juno reference there.
That's good, hey. Man, I got, you know, wherever I
can, right? I know that's your guy.
Well, getting back to Freon in 18O5HE takes command of the
(10:35):
second division of the Vu's famed third core, and this
division earns a reputation for rapid marching, notably moving
70 miles and 46 hours to arrive just in time to secure the right
flank of Napoleon's army of the victorious Battle of Austerlitz.
I just want to pause here for a minute to point out what a feat
(10:57):
of arms that is in December, in the middle of the night, right?
Yeah. And I, I've seen the reference
to 46 hours. I think it was closer to 36
hours. I think there there might be a
typo in some of the sources there, but let's concede that a
different way. You know, that's 2 1/2
marathons, 36 hours. That's just ridiculous.
(11:21):
Once they got to the destination, Elting points out
that there were probably only out of 20 men, only one of them
arrived, you know, on time. The stragglers.
The line of stragglers was impressive, but nevertheless
Duvu had planned for this and had officers placed and you
know, was able to to wrangle TheStranglers stragglers.
(11:44):
And as we all know that the Third Corps made a fantastic
show of itself on the southern French right flank and
Austerlitz and Napoleon really gambled your readers, your
listeners will will will be wellaware on Duvu holding that flank
so that he could make his assault on the Pratt.
Yeah, and I think that's a greatway to reference it or make it a
(12:06):
modern times analogy. Imagine running two marathons
and then fighting a battle at the end of it. 2 1/2 marathons.
Yeah. I don't have any bumper stickers
on my car. If I ever put a bumper sticker
on my car, it would say 0.0, youknow, So I am not going to run a
marathon. And these guys are doing 2 1/2
(12:26):
marathons now. I mean, they're seasoned.
And this speaks to, and Freont was of the same camp at Devoux
here. They drill these guys, I don't
want to say remorselessly, let'sjust call it thoroughly.
So I mean, they marched their, their, their, their primed for
this. They're in physical condition
for this, but then one of the things that Devue and Freon did
(12:47):
very well was to see to the physical needs of their
soldiers. So they have the proper
clothing, they have boots that are in good order, and it makes
all of these incredible feats ofphysical stamina and strength
all the more possible and doable.
That's a good point. Well, during the ferocity of the
Austria it's fighting, Freon hasthree horses shut out from under
(13:08):
him. This later becomes his coat of
arms when he's ennobled by Napoleon.
He's also becomes one of the three Immortals of Devue.
Why were they named that? Well, the, the first of all, I
think that consistency. So the, the three leaders of
which you speak are General Guddin Freon, who we're talking
(13:30):
about in General Morong. And they were Devue's three
divisional commanders really up until, well, the Russian
campaign. So, you know, we're talking
about a span of of six years or a little bit longer than six
years. That's incredibly consistent.
And these guys in a shared abusecommitment to drill and
(13:54):
commitment to looking after the personal concerns and personal
welfare of the soldiers that made that core unique.
It made it special. There were, there were some who
mentioned that the, that Davuse Corps, that the condition of
those soldiers rivaled that of the Imperial Guard.
So and then of course then they could walk and, and March with a
(14:16):
bit of swagger and, you know, a French army of the Napoleonic
era marching with swagger. You think that ever happened?
Of course it did. And you know, there was
definitely some pride in that. I think you hit on something
though. Davoo's Third Corps, Naze, 6th
Corps, the Imperial Guard, they all had usually the same
commanders in the same kind of divisional commanders.
(14:38):
And when you have that uniformity over multiple years,
instead of changing commanders Willy nilly, you have
consistency like like the Pittsburgh Steelers or any
organization that's had like 3 coaches in its existence where
you have that consistency, you know what to expect from the
commanders. Absolutely.
And it and it helps that if the commanders are in alignment with
(14:58):
the the core commander. Now, that won't always be the
case with Devue, but we can talkabout that a little bit later
on. OK, well in 18 O 6 Devue score
has arguably its finest moment at the battle of our stat, and
without us going too down into the rabbit hole, can you tell us
what happens there? Sure.
Your listeners will recall that the it's really a twin battle of
(15:21):
Yena, our stat. So at Yena, Napoleon encounters
what he thinks is the largest portion of the Prussian army.
It turns out not to be the largest portion.
The largest portion is a little bit further north and east.
And he had sent both Devue scoreand Bernadotte score around to
to cut off what he imagined would be the retreat of the
(15:42):
Prussian army. So Devue Corps runs into the
largest chunk of the of the Prussian army and he only has
Goudan's division initially whenhe makes initial contact.
So Goudan just hunkers down, puts the guys in square because
Blue Cur has so much cavalry around there.
And so by 9:00 Goudan is hotly engaged.
(16:04):
By 930 though, Friant has hustled up and Devu directs him
to Goudan's right flank and starts to put pressure on the on
the Prussian left flank and withFreon came the heavy artillery
so that they start to stabilize the position a little bit
through just a bit of bad luck. The Prussian commander Brunswick
(16:26):
gets hit by a stray bullet and is killed on the spot and the
king does not. The Prussian king does not take
command of the battle, so the the Prussian army is left
without effective leadership andso whatever attacks they make
with their overwhelming numbers are piece meal and poorly
directed. So by the time that Devue's last
divisional moron comes out of the field and assumes a position
(16:51):
to the left of Gouda, then everything's in place and by
11:00 Devue is ordered a generalassault and sweeps the the
broken Prussian army off the field.
Yeah, it's amazing. Like you know, initially he was
outnumbered 3 to one and even attowards the end he was still at
#2 to one and he attacked the larger army in one.
So it's amazing. Well, and that's that's one of
(17:13):
the gifts that the best of theseNapoleonic generals have on
either side is they can sense when the enemy in general is
starting to waver. And by 11:00, the Prussian
attacks have been spent largely through ineffective, you know,
cavalry on squares. Rarely is that going to work
except in the peninsula. And the Prussian army is just
exhausted and in shambles. And they had started to hear
(17:35):
rumors or reports from the, you know, the remnants of the
Prussian army at Yena that they had gotten decimated.
So Prussian morale is plummetingand devue you know, senses that
uses the Spidey senses and orders the general assault and
the whole Prussian army collapses.
Yeah, I know, I know. It's one of Marshall Devue's
most famous victories and and Napoleon gives him and his
(17:56):
troops the honor of being the 1st to enter Berlin.
Absolutely famous quote there famous story of Napoleon when
Devue reports back that the numbers he's engaged and
defeated, you know, Napoleon says your your Marshall must be
seeing double referring to the fact that that Devue had had
some significant vision problems.
So had a a set of impressive eyeglasses on thinking that he's
(18:19):
not seeing the numbers that he'sseeing.
Right, right. And Napoleon could be very petty
and and you know, I'll give it up to Napoleon.
In this case, he does give Devuecredit for Arshad, you know,
ennobles him with that title. Does not try and downplay it,
which is notable. I think that is a good example
of him sharing credit. Now you know Yana was his
(18:40):
battle, but you know he could have easily just said, Oh, well,
Yana Arshad was my total victory, but he shared he shared
that with with as. He did in many other places.
Yeah, indeed. While in 18 O 7, Freont fights
at the bloody stalemate of Ilau and is wounded.
Napoleon makes him count on the Empire and he also fights
throughout the eighteen O 9 campaigns.
(19:02):
Do you think Napoleon ever considered making him a
Marshall? That's a great question and of
course I don't have any evidencefor it.
I know that he was before the Russian campaign, which I know
we're about to talk about, he was offered a position in the
Guard and elected to stay with Devue.
And so I, I, I think that, yeah,obviously that the familial ties
(19:26):
there probably played a role in that pretty great personal
loyalty to turn down command in the in the Guard.
Right, right. To stay with, to stay with
Devue. So I I you know, free all seems
pretty tied to Devue at that point.
OK, well, as you mentioned, in 1812, he joins Napoleon's
(19:49):
invasion of Russia and is wounded again at the Battle of
Smolensk. Then he's more severely wounded
at the battle aboard Dino. And I read this, I knew they
left some wounded people there, but is this true?
He was left there to heal because he was so incapacitated.
Like literally left on the battlefield.
Yeah, absolutely. And in fact, when the army
starts to retreat from Moscow inOctober, he's he's literally
(20:12):
still there. So yeah, at least they get him
out before the worst of it. You know, Napoleon tried to go
South, the Russians blocked him.So they have to go back over the
same ground from which they entered.
But Freon is at least evacuated before the general retreat
starts, so he doesn't suffer through the horrible winter
(20:32):
retreat like the survivors of the Grand Army did.
Well, it's probably a good thingNapoleon needed fighting
generals when he got back to France.
Yeah, absolutely. So he's sent back and really is
recuperating ended 1812, beginning of 1813 from pretty
serious wounds. And and it should be noted that
at Borodina, where Davoos core was heavily involved fighting
(20:54):
around the fletches, the famous wooden fortifications that the
Russians hastily erected, these are not guys that are commanding
from the rear. No, and I was, I forget who I
was reading. It was Colin Core, somebody I
witnessed Davoo and he took a hit and fell from his horse so
hard that they thought Marshall Devue is dead because it's such
a heavy hit. So yeah, a lot of guys got
(21:16):
wounded aboard. You know, it was really
unfortunate. Yeah, absolutely.
And there was a little bit of, of momentary panic there when
Devue went down at Borodino because they were afraid that
that he got lost. And, you know, we don't have to
look far to know how devastatingthat could be.
Migration went down in the same area.
And that was a factor that led to demoralizing, to the extent
(21:39):
that it did, the Russian army. That's a great point, you
mentioned it during the aristat.Like when an army loses their
commander in any fashion it can be, the morale can just plummet.
Well, in 1813 Freon is commanding the Imperial Guard
and fights at Dresden, Leipzig and Hanau.
He also fights well in the 1814 invasion of France, correct?
(22:00):
Yeah, absolutely. And and I might just take a tiny
diversion here to explain why he's no longer with Devue or why
he doesn't go back into service with Devue.
Devue at the conclusion of the Russian invasion is sent to
command the French presence at the Hamburg.
And so essentially Devue has a Garrison.
He doesn't have a a mobile forceanymore.
(22:22):
Devue has the the Garrison in Hamburg.
It's some notable trivia on thathe is the only officer of of the
senior officers that was not allowed to go back in 1812 and
1813 to France to recuperate. He was literally reassigned to
Hamburg and and and sent there. One of the sources I read said
to punish the Germans for not being French enough.
(22:46):
But free all is not needed in Hamburg because it's a Garrison
situation. So he does at that point get to
take the command of the guard. And he fights throughout the end
of 1813 and into 1814, fights for the front, fights well, gets
wounded a couple more times. I mean, we're not talking Buno
level wounds, but he's, you know, he's dinged up.
(23:07):
Yeah, well, upon Napoleon's abdication in 1814, Freyant
serves under the Borgons but joins Napoleon again for the 100
Days campaign and is again commanding the Imperial Guard.
Performs well at the Battle of Ligny.
What happens at Waterloo? Because you read the the final
charge of the Imperial Guard. First it's Napoleon leading
(23:28):
them, then it's Nay, then it's Freon as they get closer and
closer. So what happens here?
So Freon is the commander on thefield, so he's the one making
the tactical decisions literallyon the field.
But as we know, in a situation like that, I think it was Mike
Tyson who said most famously, nobattle plan suffers the first
punch. There's so much at Waterloo.
(23:51):
There's so much smoke, fog, confusion, noise.
It's impossible to to actively coordinate.
But it's not nay or Napoleon that's leading that.
It's it's it's Freon. Yeah, yeah, we know what happens
there. The French lose and Napoleon has
to abdicate a second time. What were Freon's later years
like, and what do you think his legacy is?
(24:11):
Well, he doesn't. He doesn't live too terribly
long after that. He dies in the 1820s, and of
course he's drummed out of the military, as most of these guys
were. He does get his rank and things
restored in 18191820 when the rest of the Napoleonic folks do.
But after Waterloo, he just retires to a quiet life of
retirement, and he takes no moreactive role in the military or
(24:33):
in politics or anything. Yeah, nice.
He had a a very long career. So I guess, I guess his legacy,
you know, being part of the three immorals, being part of
Devue's famed third core, but just a sturdy, reliable general
for Napoleon. Yeah, absolutely.
And I mean, I would go beyond sturdy and reliable.
You know, I would, I would, I mean, I cannot imagine.
(24:54):
I, I can say definitively, I can't think of a better general
of division than frankly any of these guys, but particularly
Freel. Yeah, and there there's a lot
out there, you know, Saint Hilaire and some other guys that
were very good divisional commanders who didn't get all
the way to Marshall, but who arereally good divisional
(25:15):
commanders. Absolutely.
Well, thank you, Charles for joining us once again.
If you want to find Charles, youcan catch up with him on Blue
Sky Bubbles Vampire. And we thank you for your time,
Sir. Thanks John, I appreciate it.
Have me back anytime.
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