Info For Yous Full General Alexandre Dumas: The Dark Count Of France In Addition To The Highest-Ranking Individual Of Coloring Cloth Of All Fourth Dimension Inwards Continental European Army
General Alex Dumas, is a human being nigh unknown today, yet his story is strikingly familiar—because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used his larger-than-life feats as inspiration for such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo together with The Three Musketeers. But, hidden behind General Dumas's swashbuckling adventures was an fifty-fifty to a greater extent than incredible secret: he was the boy of a dark slave adult woman from Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) and a renegade French aristocrat—who rose higher inwards the white globe than whatever human being of his race would before our ain time.
Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, also known as Alexandre Dumas, (25 March 1762 – 26 Feb 1806) was a full general inwards Revolutionary France; he is the highest-ranking someone of color of all fourth dimension inwards a continental European army. He was the foremost someone of color inwards the French armed services to acquire brigadier general, the foremost to acquire divisional general, together with the foremost to acquire general-in-chief of a French army. Dumas shared the status of the highest-ranking dark officeholder inwards the Western globe solely with Toussaint Louverture (who inwards May 1797 became the 2d dark general-in-chief inwards the French military) until 1975, when the American Daniel "Chappie" James Jr became a 4 star General inwards the States of America Air Force, the closest American equivalent of Général d'Armée, Dumas' highest rank.
TIME journal called The Black Count "one of those quintessentially human stories of strength together with courage that sheds calorie-free on the historical instant that made it possible." It is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of dear betwixt a manlike someone parent together with son.
The truthful story of Alex Dumas was itself ruthlessly suppressed yesteryear his greatest enemy (General Napoleon Bonaparte)—and remained buried for 200 years. Alexandre whose uncle was a rich, hard-working planter who dealt saccharide together with slaves out of a niggling cove on the due north coast called Monte Cristo—but his father, Antoine, neither rich nor hard-working, was the eldest son. In 1775, Antoine sailed to French Republic to claim the solid unit of measurement inheritance, pawning his dark boy into slavery to purchase passage. Only after securing his championship together with inheritance did he ship for the boy, who arrived on French soil belatedly inwards 1776, listed inwards the ship’s records as “slave Alexandre.”
In his 2012 bestselling biographic together with series award-winning novel "The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, together with the Real Count of Monte Cristo" Tom Reiss writes "At 16, he moved with his father, instantly a marquis, to Paris, where he was educated inwards classical philosophy, equestrianism, together with swordsmanship. But at 24, he decided to laid off on his own: joining the dragoons at the lowest rank, he was stationed inwards a remote garrison town where he specialized inwards fighting duels. The twelvemonth was 1786. When the French Revolution erupted 3 years later, the get of liberty, equality, together with fraternity gave him his chance. As a German-Austrian regular army marched on Paris inwards 1792 to reimpose the monarchy, he made a call for himself yesteryear capturing a large enemy patrol without firing a shot. He got his foremost officer’s committee at the caput of a band of beau dark swordsmen, revolutionaries called the Legion of Americans, or exactly la Légion Noire. In the meantime, he had met his truthful love, an innkeeper’s daughter, spell riding inwards to rescue her town from brigands."
The enlistment roll-book for the sixth Regiment of the Queen's Dragoons, which Dumas joined inwards 1786, described him as "6 feet tall, with frizzy dark pilus together with eyebrows... oval face, together with dark-brown skinned, pocket-size mouth, thick lips." According to the earliest known published description of him (1797), he was “one of the handsomest men y'all could ever meet. [...] His frizzy pilus recalls the curls of the Greeks together with Romans.” It described his seem as "something closer to ebony" than to "bronze." ” Elsewhere General Dumas has been described as “dark — real dark.
At the historic catamenia of 32 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the French regular army inwards the Alps, the equivalent of a four-star general. The immature full general from the torrid zone led 53,000 men inwards tearing glacier fighting against the best alpine troops inwards the globe together with captured the mount attain for French Republic inwards their Second Italian Campaign against the Austrian Empire. (Not content with overthrowing their ain rulers, the French revolutionaries had declared a “war of liberation” on all their neighbors.) And though the Austrians nicknamed him der schwarze Teufel—“the Black Devil” or "Diable Noir" inwards French—he was an angel to victims of oppression, no affair their side: inwards the midst of the Revolution’s bloody chaos, he pushed dorsum against those committing terror, earning the mocking nickname “Mr. Humanity” together with narrowly escaping the guillotine himself. "The French – notably Napoleon – nicknamed him "the Horatius Cocles of the Tyrol" (after a hero who had saved ancient Rome) for single-handedly defeating a squadron of enemy troops at a span over the Eisack River inwards Clausen (today Klausen, or Chiusa, Italy)."
Dumas’s incredible ascendency as a dark human being through the white ranks of the French regular army reflected a key turning indicate inwards the history of slavery together with race relations as forgotten as Dumas himself: a unmarried decade when revolutionary French Republic ended slavery together with initiated the integration of its army, its government, together with fifty-fifty its schools. General Dumas was “a living emblem of the novel equality,” wrote a nineteenth-century French historian—but his career’s tragic unraveling reflected the unraveling of that progress as well.
The agent of devastation for both was his beau general, Napoleon, who at foremost praised Dumas as a Roman hero for his battlefield feats but came to abhor him for his independence together with revolutionary values. The 2 men clashed inwards 1798, during the invasion of Egypt—where the Egyptians mistook the towering Dumas for the leader of the French forces. Then, spell Dumas languished for 2 years inwards an enemy dungeon, Napoleon made himself dictator together with dismantled France’s post-racial experiment, imposing roughshod race laws inwards France, re-instituting slavery inwards the colonies, together with sending an invasion strength to Saint-Domingue with orders to kill or capture whatever dark who wore an officer’s uniform. He went to as extraordinary lengths to bury the retentiveness of Alex Dumas, thundering, “I forbid y'all to ever speak to me of that man!” when onetime comrades tried to intervene on behalf of the full general together with his family, who were living inwards near-destitution. Barely 5 years after his render to France, Dumas died at 43 of breadbasket cancer, probable an aftereffect of his poisoning spell imprisoned.
Dumas’s son, the hereafter novelist together with i of France's most widely read authors of all time, would pick out a marvelous form of revenge, infusing his father’s life together with spirit into fictional characters who receive got been embraced the globe over. Yet spell every generation has heaped glory on the call Alexandre Dumas, the keen full general has remained forgotten. The solely statue of him—in a ground awash inwards marble generals—was erected inwards Paris to a greater extent than than a hundred years after his death, together with therefore destroyed yesteryear the Nazis.
The general’s grandson, Alexandre Dumas, fils, would acquire i of France's most celebrated playwrights of the 2d one-half of the nineteenth century. Another grandson, Henry Bauër, who was never recognized yesteryear the novelist Dumas, was a prominent left-leaning theatre critic inwards the same period. The General's great-grandson, Gérard Bauër, boy of Henry Bauër, was also an accomplished author inwards the twentieth century. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 great-great-grandson, Alexandre Lippmann (grandson of the playwright Dumas fils), was a two-time gilt medalist inwards fencing at the 1908 together with 1924 Olympic games (he won silverish inwards 1920).
source:http://harvardmagazine.com/2012/11/vita-alexandre-dumas
General Dumas` Full Biography
General Alex Dumas was born on 25 March 1762 inwards Jérémie, Saint-Domingue (today Haiti). His baptismal call was Thomas-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie. Alex`s manlike someone parent was a French nobleman, the Marquis Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie (Antoine) together with and his woman parent was Marie-Cessette Dumas (his father`s dark African slave) from La Guinodée, Saint-Domingue.
Gen Alex Dumas` manlike someone parent Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, was born inwards 1714. He was the oldest of 3 sons of the Marquis Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie (1674-1758) together with Jeanne-Françoise Paultre, (or Pautre) de Dominon (died 1757). The Davy de la Pailleteries were provincial Norman aristocrats whose wealth was inwards decline. The solid unit of measurement had acquired the championship of "lords" (seigneurs) yesteryear 1632. The French kingdom granted the championship "marquis" to the solid unit of measurement yesteryear 1708.
Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie ("Antoine") had 2 younger brothers, Charles Anne Edouard (Charles) born inwards 1716, together with Louis François Thérèse (Louis) born inwards 1718. All 3 were educated at a armed services schoolhouse together with pursued careers as officers inwards the French military. They foremost served during the War of Polish Succession. Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, who reached the rank of colonel, notably saw activity at the Siege of Philippsburg inwards 1734.
General Alex Dumas` Father`s Career inwards Saint-Domingue
In 1732, Antoine’s younger blood brother Charles had been given a armed services posting inwards Saint-Domingue, a French colony inwards the Caribbean Area that generated high revenues from its saccharide cane plantations, worked yesteryear African slave labor. In 1738, Charles left the armed services to acquire a saccharide planter inwards that colony; he married Anne-Marie Tuffé, a rich local French Creole widow, together with took over her estate.
That twelvemonth Antoine also left the Army together with joined his blood brother together with his married adult woman inwards Saint-Domingue. He lived with them together with worked at the plantation until 1748. After the 2 brothers quarrelled violently, Antoine left Charles's plantation, taking his 3 personal slaves.
At that indicate Antoine broke off contact with his blood brother together with his solid unit of measurement for a catamenia of xxx years. During that time, Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie purchased the slave adult woman Marie-Cessette "for an exorbitant price" together with took her as a concubine. In 1762, she gave nativity to their mixed-race boy Thomas-Alexandre. During her fourth dimension with Antoine, she also had 3 daughters with him. (Some accounts say two.) The French colonist made a living inwards Jérémie, Saint-Domingue as a java together with cacao planter, nether the assumed call of "Antoine de l'Isle."
When the brothers’ parents, the Marquise Jeanne-Françoise together with the Marquis Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, died inwards 1757 together with 1758, respectively, Charles returned to Normandy to claim the championship Marquis together with the solid unit of measurement château. The British blockade of French transportation during the Seven Years' War reduced Charles' income from saccharide exports, therefore he tried to smuggle the commodity out of Saint-Domingue from his plantation. He used a wharf inwards the neutral edge territory (and tiny island) of Monte Cristo (today Monte Christi, Dominican Republic). (Some historians combat that this Monte Cristo was the "real" isle that inspired Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo). Charles died of gout inwards 1773; Louis, the youngest of the Davy de la Pailleterie brothers, died 3 months later. He had served a 15-day judgement for beingness involved inwards selling defective weapons to the French armed services (a famous scandal at the fourth dimension known as the Invalides Trial (le procès des Invalides)
General Dumas` Mother
Marie-Cessette Dumas — described as a "great matriarch to a saga of distinguished men" was a slave together with concubine of African descent owned yesteryear the Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie. They resided together at a plantation called La Guinaudée (or Guinodée), nigh Jérémie (formerly inwards the French colony of Saint-Domingue, instantly Haiti) until shortly before Antoine's divergence inwards 1775. He sold Marie-Cessette Dumas, their other 2 children, together with her immature lady yesteryear some other human being to a baron from Nantes before leaving Saint-Domingue.
The solely source for her total name, "Marie-Cessette Dumas," with that spelling, is General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas's later union certificate together with contract. Her grandson's memoir gave her call as Louise, together with some other source recorded Cécile. Sources receive got spelling variations of her name, as standardization was non mutual at the time. Some scholars receive got suggested that "Dumas" was non a surname for Marie-Cessette, but, important "of the farm" (du mas), was added to her foremost names to signify that she belonged to the property. Others receive got suggested African origins of the names Cessette together with Dumas, including Gabon, Yoruba or Dahomey.
The 2 extant primary documents that province a racial identity for Marie-Cessette Dumas refer to her as a “négresse” (a dark female) as opposed to a “mulâtresse” (a woman someone of mixed race).
Secondary sources on General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, dating dorsum to 1822, nigh ever depict his woman parent as a dark African (“femme africaine”, “négresse,” “négresse africaine,” “noire,” or “pure dark African.”
Sources differ on the appointment together with circumstance of her death. Two documents signed yesteryear Alexandre Dumas – his contract together with certificate of union to Marie-Louise Labouret – province that Marie-Cessette died inwards La Guinaudée, nigh Trou Jérémie, Saint-Domingue, inwards 1772. Based on this expiry date, Victor Emmanuel Roberto Wilson speculates that she may receive got died inwards the majority outbreak of dysentery next a hurricane that struck principally the Grand Anse part of Saint-Domingue that year.
Two other documents attest that Marie-Cessette was live after 1772: a missive of the alphabet recounting her sale inwards 1775 together with an 1801 document signed yesteryear Dumas, maxim that “Marie-Cezette” volition live inwards accuse of General Dumas’s properties inwards Saint-Domingue.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas may receive got before claimed that she had died inwards monastic enjoin to avoid having to acquire her blessing before union together with revealing her slave status. In addition, he was inwards a hurry to leave of absence for the armed services front.
Early life
Thomas-Alexandre had 2 siblings yesteryear his parents: Adolphe together with Jeannette. They also had an older half-sister, Marie-Rose, born to Marie-Cessette before Davy de la Pailleterie purchased her together with began their relationship. His manlike someone parent sold Marie-Cessette together with her other 3 children before arranging to pick out Thomas-Alexandre with him to France.
In 1776 when Alexandre was xiv years old, his manlike someone parent sold the man child for 800 French livres inwards Port-au-Prince, officially to a Lieutenant Jacques-Louis Roussel (but unofficially to a Captain Langlois). This sale (with correct of redemption) provided both a legal means to receive got Alexandre taken to French Republic with Langlois together with a temporary loan to pay for his father's passage. The man child accompanied Captain Langlois to Le Havre, France, arriving on August 30, 1776, where his manlike someone parent bought him dorsum together with freed him.
From his arrival inwards French Republic until Autumn 1778, Alexandre (then using the call Thomas Retoré) foremost lived with his manlike someone parent at the Davy de la Pailleterie solid unit of measurement estate inwards Belleville-en-Caux, Normandy. After his manlike someone parent sold that estate inwards 1777, they moved to a townhouse on the rue de l'Aigle d'Or inwards the Parisian suburb of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. There, Alexandre studied at the university of Nicolas Texier de La Boëssière, where he was given the higher educational activity of a immature nobleman of the time. At this school, he learned swordsmanship from the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, some other mixed-race human being from the French Caribbean.
Flush with cash from the sale of his solid unit of measurement estate, Davy de la Pailleterie for many years spent lavishly on Dumas. His notary said wrote that the man child "cost him enormously." From 1777 to 1786, from historic catamenia fifteen to 24, cheers to his father's wealth together with generosity, Dumas lived a life of considerable leisure.
In 1784, at historic catamenia 22, Alexandre moved to an story on Rue Etienne, nigh the Louvre Palace inwards Paris, socializing at venues such as the Palais-Royal together with Nicolet's Theater. In September 1784, spell seated at Nicolet's Theater inwards the society of "a beautiful Creole" woman, he together with his companion were harassed yesteryear a white colonial naval officer, Jean-Pierre Titon de Saint-Lamain, together with i or 2 others. Following Dumas's verbal protests, the men "tried to strength him to kneel before his aggressor together with beg for his freedom." The constabulary written report on the incident shows that Titon chose non to press charges as he mightiness have, together with all participants were released.
Military career
Enlistment together with service inwards the Queen's Dragoons
In Feb 1786 his manlike someone parent Davy de la Pailleterie married Françoise Retou, a domestic retainer from the Davy de la Pailleterie estate. Dumas did non sign as witness to the union contract. According to his son's memoir, the union precipitated a "cooling off" which led the manlike someone parent to tighten Dumas's allowance.
Soon after, Dumas decided to bring together the French Army, a mutual business for gentlemen. Unlike his noble peers, who took arms as commissioned officers, Dumas enlisted as a private. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 1781 dominion enabled men who could present 4 generations of nobility on their father's side to qualify to live commissioned as officers. Dumas had this, but the French race laws "made it hard for a human being of mixed race to claim his rightful championship or noble status.") According to the novelist Dumas's account, on hearing of Alexandre's plan, his manlike someone parent insisted that his boy pick out a "nom de guerre" inwards monastic enjoin that he non drag the noble call "through the lowest ranks of the army." He signed upwards for the sixth Regiment of the Queen's Dragoons as "Alexandre Dumas" on June 2, 1786; xiii days later, his manlike someone parent died.
Dumas spent his foremost years inwards the Queen's Dragoons inwards the provincial town of Laon, Picardy, roughly the edge with the Austrian Netherlands. On August 15, 1789, next the get-go of the French Revolution, his unit of measurement was sent to the pocket-size town of Villers-Cotterêts. The town's newly formed National Guard leader, innkeeper Claude Labouret, had called for them to come upwards inwards answer to a moving ridge of rural violence known as the Great Fear. Dumas lodged at the Labourets' Hôtel de l'Ecu for 4 months, during which fourth dimension he became engaged to Claude Labouret's immature lady Marie-Louise.
Dumas' regiment was inwards Paris on July 17, 1791, where they served as riot constabulary along with National Guard units nether the Marquis de Lafayette during the Champ de Mars Massacre of the French Revolution. Troops killed betwixt 12 together with 50 people when a large crowd gathered to sign a petition calling for the removal of the French king. When, 2 years later, someone denounced Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, he claimed that his intervention inwards the conflict had saved as many as 2,000 people from massacre.
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 corporal yesteryear 1792, Dumas had his foremost combat sense was inwards a French onset on the Austrian Netherlands inwards Apr of that year. He was i of 10,000 men nether the control of the General Biron. Stationed on the Belgian frontier inwards the town of Maulde, on August 18, 1792 Dumas captured 12 enemy soldiers spell leading a pocket-size scouting political party of 4 to 8 horsemen.
In Oct 1792, Dumas accepted a committee as lieutenant colonel inwards (and second-in-command of) the Légion franche des Américains et du Midi, founded a calendar month before yesteryear Julien Raimond. This was a "free legion" (i.e., formed separately from the regular army) composed of gratis men of color (gens du couleur libre). It was variously called the "American Legion," the "Black Legion," or the Saint-George Legion, after its commanding officer, the Chevalier de Saint-George, Dumas' onetime teacher inwards swordsmanship. The immature officeholder Dumas oft commanded the legion, as Saint-George was often absent from duty. In Apr 1793, General Dumouriez attempted a coup d'état; Saint-George together with Dumas refused to bring together it together with defended the urban centre of Lille from coup supporters. In the summertime of 1793, Saint-George was defendant of misusing regime funds, together with the Legion was disbanded.
On July 30, 1793, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier full general inwards the Army of the North. One calendar month later, he was promoted again, to full general of division. In September, he was made commander-in-chief of the Army of the Western Pyrenees. In this brief assignment (September–December 1793), Dumas' headquarters were inwards Bayonne, France, where (according to his son's memoirs), he was nicknamed "Mr. Humanity" (Monsieur de l'Humanité) yesteryear local sans-culottes; they wanted to intimidate him to accommodate to their political line at a fourth dimension when French generals were extremely vulnerable to accusations of treason that often led to execution.
On Dec 22, 1793, Dumas was given control of the Army of the Alps. His displace inwards the Alps centered on defeating Austrian together with Piemontese troops defending the glacier-covered Little Saint Bernard Pass at Mont Cenis, on the French-Piedmont border. After months of planning together with reconnaissance from his base of operations inwards Grenoble, he had to hold off for snowfall weather condition to live favorable to his troops' passage. In Apr together with May 1794, Dumas launched several assaults on Mont Cenis. In the lastly attack, Dumas's army, equipped with H2O ice crampons, took the mount yesteryear scaling H2O ice cliffs together with captured betwixt 900 together with 1,700 prisoners.
Though his victory won Dumas praise from political leaders inwards Paris, he was called before the Committee of Public Safety inwards the June of 1794, for reasons unspecified but likely to seem charges of treason, as this was the catamenia of the "Great Terror," a catamenia of accelerated political executions inwards the lastly months of the Reign of Terror catamenia of the French Revolution. Dumas delayed his arrival inwards Paris until mid-July, together with was lucky plenty non to live seen yesteryear the Committee before the Terror ended with the execution of Robespierre on July 27, 1794.
In early on August 1794 Dumas was briefly assigned (for 2 weeks) to control the Ecole de Mars armed services schoolhouse (fr:Ecole de Mars) at Neuilly-sur-Seine nigh Paris. He was reassigned to Pb the Army of the West from August to Oct 1794. In this position, he was responsible for consolidating the recent regime victory over a massive insurgency inwards the part of the Vendée against the French revolutionary government. He focused on increasing armed services dependent champaign together with eliminating soldiers' abuses of the local population. One historian, despite or because of his pro-royalist sentiments, would characterize Dumas inwards this control as "fearless together with irreproachable," a leader who "deserves to transcend into posterity together with makes a favorable contrast with the executioners, his contemporaries, whom populace indignation volition ever blast to the pillory of History!”
In September 1795 Dumas served nether General Jean Baptiste Kléber inwards the Army of the Rhine. He participated inwards the French onset on Düsseldorf, where he was wounded.
General Dumas joined the Army of Italia inwards Milan inwards Nov 1796, serving nether the orders of its commander-in-chief, Napoleon Bonaparte. Tension betwixt the 2 generals began inwards this period, as Dumas resisted Napoleon's policy of allowing French troops indiscriminately to expropriate local property. In Dec 1796, Dumas was position inwards accuse of a sectionalisation besieging Austrian troops at the urban centre of Mantua. By Christmas he had intercepted a spy carrying a message to the Austrian commander with of import tactical information. On Jan 16, 1797, Dumas together with his sectionalisation halted an Austrian endeavour to intermission out of the besieged urban centre together with prevented Austrian reinforcements from reaching Mantua. The French were thereby able to maintain the siege until French reinforcements could arrive, leading to the city's capitulation on Feb 2, 1797.
Following the Jan sixteen fighting, Dumas felt insulted yesteryear the description of his actions inwards a battle written report yesteryear General Berthier, Bonaparte's aide-de-camp, together with wrote a missive of the alphabet to Napoleon cursing Berthier. Dumas was after omitted from refer inwards Napoleon's battle written report to the Directory, France's regime at the time. He was therefore given a control good beneath his rank, leading a subdivision nether General Masséna, despite a petition from Dumas' troops attesting to his valor. Under General Masséna inwards Feb 1797, Dumas helped French troops force the Austrians northward, capturing thousands of them. It was inwards this catamenia that Austrian troops began calling him the der schwarze Teufel ("Black Devil", or Diable Noir inwards French).
In belatedly Feb 1797, Dumas was transferred to a sectionalisation commanded yesteryear General Joubert, who specifically requested Dumas out of admiration for his republicanism. Under Joubert, Dumas led a pocket-size strength that defeated several enemy positions along the Adige River. Dumas' crowning achievement inwards this catamenia came on March 23, when the full general single-handedly drove dorsum an entire squadron of Austrian troops at a span over the Eisack River inwards Clausen (today Klausen, or Chiusa, Italy). It was this feat for which the French began referring to Dumas as "the Horatius Cocles of the Tyrol" (after a hero who had saved ancient Rome). Napoleon called Dumas yesteryear this nickname, together with rewarded him yesteryear making him cavalry commander of all French troops inwards the Tyrol; he also sent Dumas a dyad of pistols. Dumas spent much of 1797 as armed services governor, administering the province of Treviso, due north of Venice.
Dumas was ordered to written report to Toulon, French Republic inwards March 1798 for an unspecified assignment. He joined an enormous French armada massing at that spot inwards training for divergence to a hush-hush destination. The armada departed on May 10, 1798, destination silent unannounced. It was solely on June 23, after the fleet had conquered Malta, that Napoleon announced that the mission's main purpose: to conquer Egypt. Aboard the Guillaume Tell, inwards the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Dumas learned that he had been appointed as commander of all cavalry inwards the Army of the Orient. The armada arrived inwards the port of Alexandria at the goal of June, together with on July 3 Dumas led the Fourth Light Grenadiers over the walls as the French conquered the city. After the fighting, Napoleon sent Dumas to pay ransom to some Bedouins who had kidnapped French soldiers. The expedition's primary medical officeholder recounted inwards a memoir that local Egyptians, judging Dumas' top together with construct versus Napoleon's, believed Dumas to live inwards command. Seeing "him ride his Equus caballus over the trenches, going to ransom the prisoners, all of them believed that he was the leader of the Expedition."
From July 7 to 21, Dumas commanded the invading army's cavalry as it marched southward from Alexandria to Cairo. Conditions of heat, thirst, fatigue, together with lack of supplies for the troops on the desert march were harsh; at that spot were a issue of suicides. While camped inwards Damanhour, General Dumas met over watermelons with several other generals (Lannes, Desaix, together with Murat). They vented criticisms of Napoleon's leadership together with discussed the possibility of refusing to march beyond Cairo. Dumas presently participated inwards the Battle of the Pyramids (following which he chased retreating Mameluke horsemen) together with the business of Cairo. At some indicate during the occupation, Napoleon learned of the before mutinous talk, together with confronted Dumas. In his memoirs, Napoleon remembered threatening to shoot Dumas for sedition. Dumas requested leave of absence to render to France, together with Napoleon did non oppose it. Napoleon was reported to receive got said: "I tin easily supersede him with a brigadier."
Following the devastation of the French armada yesteryear a British fleet led yesteryear Horatio Nelson, however, Dumas was unable to move out of Arab Republic of Egypt until March of the next year. In August 1798, Dumas discovered a important cache of gilt together with jewels beneath a solid inwards French-occupied Cairo, which he turned over to Napoleon. In October, he was instrumental inwards putting downward an anti-French revolt inwards Cairo yesteryear charging into the Al-Azhar Mosque on horseback. Afterward (according to his son's account, drawn largely from the memories of Dumas's aide-de-camp Dermoncourt), Napoleon told him: "I shall receive got a epitome made of the taking of the Grand Mosque. Dumas, y'all receive got already posed as the primal figure." The Girodet painting, however, which Napoleon commissioned xi years later, shows a white human being charging into the mosque.
On March 7, 1799, Dumas boarded a pocket-size ship called the Belle Maltaise inwards the society of his beau General Jean-Baptiste Manscourt du Rozoy, the geologist Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu, 40 wounded French soldiers, together with a issue of Maltese together with Genoan civilians. Dumas had sold the furnishings of his quarters inwards Cairo, together with purchased 4,000 pounds of moka coffee; xi Arabian horses (two stallions together with nine mares) to found breeding stock inwards France; together with hired the ship.
While returning to France, the ship began to sink, together with Dumas had to jettison much of his cargo. The ship was forced yesteryear storms to ground at Taranto, inwards the Kingdom of Naples. Dumas together with his companions expected to acquire a friendly reception, having heard that the Kingdom had been overthrown yesteryear the Parthenopean Republic. But that short-lived democracy had succumbed to an internal uprising yesteryear a local strength known as the Holy Faith Army, led yesteryear Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, inwards alliance with King Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples. He was at state of war with France.
The Holy Faith Army imprisoned Dumas together with the balance of the passengers together with confiscated most of their belongings. Early on inwards the captivity, Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo tried to merchandise Dumas for a Corsican adventurer named Boccheciampe, an imposter posing as Prince Francis, boy of Ferdinand IV, inwards monastic enjoin to assist the Holy Faith movement. Boccheciampe had been captured yesteryear French forces due north of the Neapolitan kingdom, shortly after he had visited the prisoners inwards Taranto, but Ruffo lost involvement inwards a merchandise when he learned Boccheciampe had been killed yesteryear the French.
Dumas was malnourished together with kept incommunicado for 2 years. By the fourth dimension of his release, he was partially paralyzed, nigh blind inwards i eye, had been deaf inwards i ear but recovered; his physique was broken. He believed his illnesses were caused yesteryear poisoning. During his imprisonment, he was aided yesteryear a hush-hush local pro-French group, which brought him medicine together with a volume of remedies. In Nov 1799, Napoleon had returned to Paris together with seized power. Dumas' married adult woman lobbied his regime for assistance inwards finding together with rescuing her husband, to niggling result. Napoleon's forces, nether the control of Dumas' beau full general Joachim Murat, eventually defeated Ferdinand IV's regular army together with secured Dumas's release inwards March 1801.
Dumas made few political statements, but those he made advise deeply felt republican beliefs. One calendar month after the French National Convention abolished slavery (February 4, 1794), Dumas sent a message to troops nether his control inwards the Army of the Alps:
"Your comrade, a soldier together with General-in-Chief. . . . was born inwards a climate together with amid men for whom liberty also had charms, together with who fought for it first. Sincere lover of liberty together with equality, convinced that all gratis men are equals, he volition live proud to march out before you, to assist y'all inwards your efforts, together with the coalition of tyrants volition acquire that they are loathed as yesteryear men of all colors."
In Nov 1792, stationed with the Black Legion inwards Amiens, Dumas married Marie-Louise Labouret inwards Villers-Cotterêts. She stayed inwards Villers-Cotterêts with her solid unit of measurement during his armed services campaigns. Dumas bought a farm of 30 acres there. They had daughters Marie-Alexandrine (born September 10, 1794), Louise-Alexandrine (born 1796, died 1797), together with a son, Alexandre Dumas, who became a prolific together with notable author, with numerous successes inwards plays together with peculiarly adventure novels.
After he finally gained release inwards 1801, Dumas was non awarded "the pension commonly allocated to the widows of generals" yesteryear the French regime together with he struggled to back upwards his solid unit of measurement after his render to France. He repeatedly wrote to Napoleon Bonaparte, seeking back-pay for his fourth dimension lost inwards Taranto together with a novel committee inwards the military. He died of breadbasket cancer on 26 Feb 1806 inwards Villers-Cotterêts. At his expiry his boy Alexandre was 3 years together with vii months old. The boy, his sister, together with his widowed woman parent were plunged into deeper poverty. Marie-Louise Labouret Dumas worked inwards a tobacconist's store to brand ends meet. For lack of funds, the immature Alexandre Dumas was unable to acquire fifty-fifty a basic secondary education. Marie-Louise persistently lobbied the French regime to live paid her armed services widow's pension. Marie-Louise together with the immature Alexandre blamed Napoleon Bonaparte's "implacable hatred" for their poverty.
Legacy together with honors
Dumas' call is inscribed on the southward wall of the Arc de Triomphe.
In 1913, a statue of General Dumas was erected inwards Place Malesherbes (now Place du Général Catroux) inwards Paris inwards Autumn 1912 after a long fundraising displace spearheaded yesteryear Anatole French Republic together with Sarah Bernhardt. From the instant of its installation until some fourth dimension after July 1913 the statue was covered yesteryear a cover due to the difficulty of the numerous governmental agencies involved to attain understanding on the modalities of its official inauguration. It stood inwards Place Malesherbes for xxx years, with statues of Alexandre Dumas's descendants Alexandre Dumas, père (erected inwards 1883) together with Alexandre Dumas, fils (erected inwards 1906), as good as i of Sarah Bernhardt. The Germans destroyed it inwards the wintertime of 1941-1942, together with it has never been restored.
In 2009, a sculpture inwards his honor, made yesteryear Driss Sans-Arcidet, was erected inwards Paris, Place du Général Catroux (formerly Place Malesherbes). Representing broken slave shackles, it was unveiled on 4 Apr 2009. The critic Jean-Joël Brégeon has claimed that the symbolism of the statue was non appropriate because, apart from his noble upbringing, the full general had never been a slave. Documents cited above, however, present that his manlike someone parent sold together with therefore re-purchased Alexandre Dumas, disproving this claim. Dumas biographer Tom Reiss has suggested that the monument is inappropriate for other reasons: "In the race politics of twenty-first-century France, the statue of General Dumas had morphed into a symbolic monument to all the victims of French colonial slavery... There is silent no monument inwards French Republic commemorating the life of General Alexandre Dumas."
In Apr 2009, the author Claude Ribbe started an meshing petition, asking French President Nicolas Sarkozy to laurels General Dumas the Légion d'honneur. As of Feb 2014, the petition has gathered over 7100 signatories.
source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas-Alexandre_Dumas
Portrait of a Hunter inwards a Landscape, attributed to Louis Gauffier (1762-1801), is said to live a portrait of General Dumas.
Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, also known as Alexandre Dumas, (25 March 1762 – 26 Feb 1806) was a full general inwards Revolutionary France; he is the highest-ranking someone of color of all fourth dimension inwards a continental European army. He was the foremost someone of color inwards the French armed services to acquire brigadier general, the foremost to acquire divisional general, together with the foremost to acquire general-in-chief of a French army. Dumas shared the status of the highest-ranking dark officeholder inwards the Western globe solely with Toussaint Louverture (who inwards May 1797 became the 2d dark general-in-chief inwards the French military) until 1975, when the American Daniel "Chappie" James Jr became a 4 star General inwards the States of America Air Force, the closest American equivalent of Général d'Armée, Dumas' highest rank.
TIME journal called The Black Count "one of those quintessentially human stories of strength together with courage that sheds calorie-free on the historical instant that made it possible." It is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of dear betwixt a manlike someone parent together with son.
The truthful story of Alex Dumas was itself ruthlessly suppressed yesteryear his greatest enemy (General Napoleon Bonaparte)—and remained buried for 200 years. Alexandre whose uncle was a rich, hard-working planter who dealt saccharide together with slaves out of a niggling cove on the due north coast called Monte Cristo—but his father, Antoine, neither rich nor hard-working, was the eldest son. In 1775, Antoine sailed to French Republic to claim the solid unit of measurement inheritance, pawning his dark boy into slavery to purchase passage. Only after securing his championship together with inheritance did he ship for the boy, who arrived on French soil belatedly inwards 1776, listed inwards the ship’s records as “slave Alexandre.”
Gen. Alexandre Dumas, the boy of a dark slave who led to a greater extent than than 50,000 men at the top of the French Revolution together with therefore stood upwards to the megalomaniacal Corsican (Napoleon Bonaparte) inwards the deserts of Egypt. (The "famous" Alexandre Dumas is the general's boy – the author of The Three Musketeers.) Letters together with eyewitness accounts present that Napoleon came to detest Dumas non solely for his stubborn defence strength of regulation but for his swagger together with stature – over half dozen feet tall together with handsome as a matinee idol – together with for the fact that he was a dark human being idolized yesteryear the white French army. Painting yesteryear Olivier Pichat
The enlistment roll-book for the sixth Regiment of the Queen's Dragoons, which Dumas joined inwards 1786, described him as "6 feet tall, with frizzy dark pilus together with eyebrows... oval face, together with dark-brown skinned, pocket-size mouth, thick lips." According to the earliest known published description of him (1797), he was “one of the handsomest men y'all could ever meet. [...] His frizzy pilus recalls the curls of the Greeks together with Romans.” It described his seem as "something closer to ebony" than to "bronze." ” Elsewhere General Dumas has been described as “dark — real dark.
At the historic catamenia of 32 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the French regular army inwards the Alps, the equivalent of a four-star general. The immature full general from the torrid zone led 53,000 men inwards tearing glacier fighting against the best alpine troops inwards the globe together with captured the mount attain for French Republic inwards their Second Italian Campaign against the Austrian Empire. (Not content with overthrowing their ain rulers, the French revolutionaries had declared a “war of liberation” on all their neighbors.) And though the Austrians nicknamed him der schwarze Teufel—“the Black Devil” or "Diable Noir" inwards French—he was an angel to victims of oppression, no affair their side: inwards the midst of the Revolution’s bloody chaos, he pushed dorsum against those committing terror, earning the mocking nickname “Mr. Humanity” together with narrowly escaping the guillotine himself. "The French – notably Napoleon – nicknamed him "the Horatius Cocles of the Tyrol" (after a hero who had saved ancient Rome) for single-handedly defeating a squadron of enemy troops at a span over the Eisack River inwards Clausen (today Klausen, or Chiusa, Italy)."
Dumas’s incredible ascendency as a dark human being through the white ranks of the French regular army reflected a key turning indicate inwards the history of slavery together with race relations as forgotten as Dumas himself: a unmarried decade when revolutionary French Republic ended slavery together with initiated the integration of its army, its government, together with fifty-fifty its schools. General Dumas was “a living emblem of the novel equality,” wrote a nineteenth-century French historian—but his career’s tragic unraveling reflected the unraveling of that progress as well.
The agent of devastation for both was his beau general, Napoleon, who at foremost praised Dumas as a Roman hero for his battlefield feats but came to abhor him for his independence together with revolutionary values. The 2 men clashed inwards 1798, during the invasion of Egypt—where the Egyptians mistook the towering Dumas for the leader of the French forces. Then, spell Dumas languished for 2 years inwards an enemy dungeon, Napoleon made himself dictator together with dismantled France’s post-racial experiment, imposing roughshod race laws inwards France, re-instituting slavery inwards the colonies, together with sending an invasion strength to Saint-Domingue with orders to kill or capture whatever dark who wore an officer’s uniform. He went to as extraordinary lengths to bury the retentiveness of Alex Dumas, thundering, “I forbid y'all to ever speak to me of that man!” when onetime comrades tried to intervene on behalf of the full general together with his family, who were living inwards near-destitution. Barely 5 years after his render to France, Dumas died at 43 of breadbasket cancer, probable an aftereffect of his poisoning spell imprisoned.
Alexandre Dumas, boy of General Thomas Alexandre Dumas together with one of France's most widely read authors of all time. He penned The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte de Bragelonne:
Dumas’s son, the hereafter novelist together with i of France's most widely read authors of all time, would pick out a marvelous form of revenge, infusing his father’s life together with spirit into fictional characters who receive got been embraced the globe over. Yet spell every generation has heaped glory on the call Alexandre Dumas, the keen full general has remained forgotten. The solely statue of him—in a ground awash inwards marble generals—was erected inwards Paris to a greater extent than than a hundred years after his death, together with therefore destroyed yesteryear the Nazis.
The general’s grandson, Alexandre Dumas, fils, would acquire i of France's most celebrated playwrights of the 2d one-half of the nineteenth century. Another grandson, Henry Bauër, who was never recognized yesteryear the novelist Dumas, was a prominent left-leaning theatre critic inwards the same period. The General's great-grandson, Gérard Bauër, boy of Henry Bauër, was also an accomplished author inwards the twentieth century. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 great-great-grandson, Alexandre Lippmann (grandson of the playwright Dumas fils), was a two-time gilt medalist inwards fencing at the 1908 together with 1924 Olympic games (he won silverish inwards 1920).
source:http://harvardmagazine.com/2012/11/vita-alexandre-dumas
General Dumas` Full Biography
General Alex Dumas was born on 25 March 1762 inwards Jérémie, Saint-Domingue (today Haiti). His baptismal call was Thomas-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie. Alex`s manlike someone parent was a French nobleman, the Marquis Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie (Antoine) together with and his woman parent was Marie-Cessette Dumas (his father`s dark African slave) from La Guinodée, Saint-Domingue.
Alexandre Dumas, a full general inwards Revolutionary France; he is the highest-ranking someone of color of all fourth dimension inwards a continental European army.
Gen Alex Dumas` manlike someone parent Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, was born inwards 1714. He was the oldest of 3 sons of the Marquis Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie (1674-1758) together with Jeanne-Françoise Paultre, (or Pautre) de Dominon (died 1757). The Davy de la Pailleteries were provincial Norman aristocrats whose wealth was inwards decline. The solid unit of measurement had acquired the championship of "lords" (seigneurs) yesteryear 1632. The French kingdom granted the championship "marquis" to the solid unit of measurement yesteryear 1708.
Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie ("Antoine") had 2 younger brothers, Charles Anne Edouard (Charles) born inwards 1716, together with Louis François Thérèse (Louis) born inwards 1718. All 3 were educated at a armed services schoolhouse together with pursued careers as officers inwards the French military. They foremost served during the War of Polish Succession. Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, who reached the rank of colonel, notably saw activity at the Siege of Philippsburg inwards 1734.
General Alex Dumas` Father`s Career inwards Saint-Domingue
In 1732, Antoine’s younger blood brother Charles had been given a armed services posting inwards Saint-Domingue, a French colony inwards the Caribbean Area that generated high revenues from its saccharide cane plantations, worked yesteryear African slave labor. In 1738, Charles left the armed services to acquire a saccharide planter inwards that colony; he married Anne-Marie Tuffé, a rich local French Creole widow, together with took over her estate.
That twelvemonth Antoine also left the Army together with joined his blood brother together with his married adult woman inwards Saint-Domingue. He lived with them together with worked at the plantation until 1748. After the 2 brothers quarrelled violently, Antoine left Charles's plantation, taking his 3 personal slaves.
At that indicate Antoine broke off contact with his blood brother together with his solid unit of measurement for a catamenia of xxx years. During that time, Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie purchased the slave adult woman Marie-Cessette "for an exorbitant price" together with took her as a concubine. In 1762, she gave nativity to their mixed-race boy Thomas-Alexandre. During her fourth dimension with Antoine, she also had 3 daughters with him. (Some accounts say two.) The French colonist made a living inwards Jérémie, Saint-Domingue as a java together with cacao planter, nether the assumed call of "Antoine de l'Isle."
When the brothers’ parents, the Marquise Jeanne-Françoise together with the Marquis Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, died inwards 1757 together with 1758, respectively, Charles returned to Normandy to claim the championship Marquis together with the solid unit of measurement château. The British blockade of French transportation during the Seven Years' War reduced Charles' income from saccharide exports, therefore he tried to smuggle the commodity out of Saint-Domingue from his plantation. He used a wharf inwards the neutral edge territory (and tiny island) of Monte Cristo (today Monte Christi, Dominican Republic). (Some historians combat that this Monte Cristo was the "real" isle that inspired Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo). Charles died of gout inwards 1773; Louis, the youngest of the Davy de la Pailleterie brothers, died 3 months later. He had served a 15-day judgement for beingness involved inwards selling defective weapons to the French armed services (a famous scandal at the fourth dimension known as the Invalides Trial (le procès des Invalides)
General Dumas` Mother
Marie-Cessette Dumas — described as a "great matriarch to a saga of distinguished men" was a slave together with concubine of African descent owned yesteryear the Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie. They resided together at a plantation called La Guinaudée (or Guinodée), nigh Jérémie (formerly inwards the French colony of Saint-Domingue, instantly Haiti) until shortly before Antoine's divergence inwards 1775. He sold Marie-Cessette Dumas, their other 2 children, together with her immature lady yesteryear some other human being to a baron from Nantes before leaving Saint-Domingue.
The solely source for her total name, "Marie-Cessette Dumas," with that spelling, is General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas's later union certificate together with contract. Her grandson's memoir gave her call as Louise, together with some other source recorded Cécile. Sources receive got spelling variations of her name, as standardization was non mutual at the time. Some scholars receive got suggested that "Dumas" was non a surname for Marie-Cessette, but, important "of the farm" (du mas), was added to her foremost names to signify that she belonged to the property. Others receive got suggested African origins of the names Cessette together with Dumas, including Gabon, Yoruba or Dahomey.
The 2 extant primary documents that province a racial identity for Marie-Cessette Dumas refer to her as a “négresse” (a dark female) as opposed to a “mulâtresse” (a woman someone of mixed race).
Secondary sources on General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, dating dorsum to 1822, nigh ever depict his woman parent as a dark African (“femme africaine”, “négresse,” “négresse africaine,” “noire,” or “pure dark African.”
Sources differ on the appointment together with circumstance of her death. Two documents signed yesteryear Alexandre Dumas – his contract together with certificate of union to Marie-Louise Labouret – province that Marie-Cessette died inwards La Guinaudée, nigh Trou Jérémie, Saint-Domingue, inwards 1772. Based on this expiry date, Victor Emmanuel Roberto Wilson speculates that she may receive got died inwards the majority outbreak of dysentery next a hurricane that struck principally the Grand Anse part of Saint-Domingue that year.
Two other documents attest that Marie-Cessette was live after 1772: a missive of the alphabet recounting her sale inwards 1775 together with an 1801 document signed yesteryear Dumas, maxim that “Marie-Cezette” volition live inwards accuse of General Dumas’s properties inwards Saint-Domingue.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas may receive got before claimed that she had died inwards monastic enjoin to avoid having to acquire her blessing before union together with revealing her slave status. In addition, he was inwards a hurry to leave of absence for the armed services front.
Early life
Thomas-Alexandre had 2 siblings yesteryear his parents: Adolphe together with Jeannette. They also had an older half-sister, Marie-Rose, born to Marie-Cessette before Davy de la Pailleterie purchased her together with began their relationship. His manlike someone parent sold Marie-Cessette together with her other 3 children before arranging to pick out Thomas-Alexandre with him to France.
In 1776 when Alexandre was xiv years old, his manlike someone parent sold the man child for 800 French livres inwards Port-au-Prince, officially to a Lieutenant Jacques-Louis Roussel (but unofficially to a Captain Langlois). This sale (with correct of redemption) provided both a legal means to receive got Alexandre taken to French Republic with Langlois together with a temporary loan to pay for his father's passage. The man child accompanied Captain Langlois to Le Havre, France, arriving on August 30, 1776, where his manlike someone parent bought him dorsum together with freed him.
From his arrival inwards French Republic until Autumn 1778, Alexandre (then using the call Thomas Retoré) foremost lived with his manlike someone parent at the Davy de la Pailleterie solid unit of measurement estate inwards Belleville-en-Caux, Normandy. After his manlike someone parent sold that estate inwards 1777, they moved to a townhouse on the rue de l'Aigle d'Or inwards the Parisian suburb of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. There, Alexandre studied at the university of Nicolas Texier de La Boëssière, where he was given the higher educational activity of a immature nobleman of the time. At this school, he learned swordsmanship from the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, some other mixed-race human being from the French Caribbean.
Flush with cash from the sale of his solid unit of measurement estate, Davy de la Pailleterie for many years spent lavishly on Dumas. His notary said wrote that the man child "cost him enormously." From 1777 to 1786, from historic catamenia fifteen to 24, cheers to his father's wealth together with generosity, Dumas lived a life of considerable leisure.
In 1784, at historic catamenia 22, Alexandre moved to an story on Rue Etienne, nigh the Louvre Palace inwards Paris, socializing at venues such as the Palais-Royal together with Nicolet's Theater. In September 1784, spell seated at Nicolet's Theater inwards the society of "a beautiful Creole" woman, he together with his companion were harassed yesteryear a white colonial naval officer, Jean-Pierre Titon de Saint-Lamain, together with i or 2 others. Following Dumas's verbal protests, the men "tried to strength him to kneel before his aggressor together with beg for his freedom." The constabulary written report on the incident shows that Titon chose non to press charges as he mightiness have, together with all participants were released.
Military career
Enlistment together with service inwards the Queen's Dragoons
In Feb 1786 his manlike someone parent Davy de la Pailleterie married Françoise Retou, a domestic retainer from the Davy de la Pailleterie estate. Dumas did non sign as witness to the union contract. According to his son's memoir, the union precipitated a "cooling off" which led the manlike someone parent to tighten Dumas's allowance.
Soon after, Dumas decided to bring together the French Army, a mutual business for gentlemen. Unlike his noble peers, who took arms as commissioned officers, Dumas enlisted as a private. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 1781 dominion enabled men who could present 4 generations of nobility on their father's side to qualify to live commissioned as officers. Dumas had this, but the French race laws "made it hard for a human being of mixed race to claim his rightful championship or noble status.") According to the novelist Dumas's account, on hearing of Alexandre's plan, his manlike someone parent insisted that his boy pick out a "nom de guerre" inwards monastic enjoin that he non drag the noble call "through the lowest ranks of the army." He signed upwards for the sixth Regiment of the Queen's Dragoons as "Alexandre Dumas" on June 2, 1786; xiii days later, his manlike someone parent died.
Dumas spent his foremost years inwards the Queen's Dragoons inwards the provincial town of Laon, Picardy, roughly the edge with the Austrian Netherlands. On August 15, 1789, next the get-go of the French Revolution, his unit of measurement was sent to the pocket-size town of Villers-Cotterêts. The town's newly formed National Guard leader, innkeeper Claude Labouret, had called for them to come upwards inwards answer to a moving ridge of rural violence known as the Great Fear. Dumas lodged at the Labourets' Hôtel de l'Ecu for 4 months, during which fourth dimension he became engaged to Claude Labouret's immature lady Marie-Louise.
Dumas' regiment was inwards Paris on July 17, 1791, where they served as riot constabulary along with National Guard units nether the Marquis de Lafayette during the Champ de Mars Massacre of the French Revolution. Troops killed betwixt 12 together with 50 people when a large crowd gathered to sign a petition calling for the removal of the French king. When, 2 years later, someone denounced Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, he claimed that his intervention inwards the conflict had saved as many as 2,000 people from massacre.
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 corporal yesteryear 1792, Dumas had his foremost combat sense was inwards a French onset on the Austrian Netherlands inwards Apr of that year. He was i of 10,000 men nether the control of the General Biron. Stationed on the Belgian frontier inwards the town of Maulde, on August 18, 1792 Dumas captured 12 enemy soldiers spell leading a pocket-size scouting political party of 4 to 8 horsemen.
In Oct 1792, Dumas accepted a committee as lieutenant colonel inwards (and second-in-command of) the Légion franche des Américains et du Midi, founded a calendar month before yesteryear Julien Raimond. This was a "free legion" (i.e., formed separately from the regular army) composed of gratis men of color (gens du couleur libre). It was variously called the "American Legion," the "Black Legion," or the Saint-George Legion, after its commanding officer, the Chevalier de Saint-George, Dumas' onetime teacher inwards swordsmanship. The immature officeholder Dumas oft commanded the legion, as Saint-George was often absent from duty. In Apr 1793, General Dumouriez attempted a coup d'état; Saint-George together with Dumas refused to bring together it together with defended the urban centre of Lille from coup supporters. In the summertime of 1793, Saint-George was defendant of misusing regime funds, together with the Legion was disbanded.
On July 30, 1793, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier full general inwards the Army of the North. One calendar month later, he was promoted again, to full general of division. In September, he was made commander-in-chief of the Army of the Western Pyrenees. In this brief assignment (September–December 1793), Dumas' headquarters were inwards Bayonne, France, where (according to his son's memoirs), he was nicknamed "Mr. Humanity" (Monsieur de l'Humanité) yesteryear local sans-culottes; they wanted to intimidate him to accommodate to their political line at a fourth dimension when French generals were extremely vulnerable to accusations of treason that often led to execution.
On Dec 22, 1793, Dumas was given control of the Army of the Alps. His displace inwards the Alps centered on defeating Austrian together with Piemontese troops defending the glacier-covered Little Saint Bernard Pass at Mont Cenis, on the French-Piedmont border. After months of planning together with reconnaissance from his base of operations inwards Grenoble, he had to hold off for snowfall weather condition to live favorable to his troops' passage. In Apr together with May 1794, Dumas launched several assaults on Mont Cenis. In the lastly attack, Dumas's army, equipped with H2O ice crampons, took the mount yesteryear scaling H2O ice cliffs together with captured betwixt 900 together with 1,700 prisoners.
Though his victory won Dumas praise from political leaders inwards Paris, he was called before the Committee of Public Safety inwards the June of 1794, for reasons unspecified but likely to seem charges of treason, as this was the catamenia of the "Great Terror," a catamenia of accelerated political executions inwards the lastly months of the Reign of Terror catamenia of the French Revolution. Dumas delayed his arrival inwards Paris until mid-July, together with was lucky plenty non to live seen yesteryear the Committee before the Terror ended with the execution of Robespierre on July 27, 1794.
In September 1795 Dumas served nether General Jean Baptiste Kléber inwards the Army of the Rhine. He participated inwards the French onset on Düsseldorf, where he was wounded.
General Dumas joined the Army of Italia inwards Milan inwards Nov 1796, serving nether the orders of its commander-in-chief, Napoleon Bonaparte. Tension betwixt the 2 generals began inwards this period, as Dumas resisted Napoleon's policy of allowing French troops indiscriminately to expropriate local property. In Dec 1796, Dumas was position inwards accuse of a sectionalisation besieging Austrian troops at the urban centre of Mantua. By Christmas he had intercepted a spy carrying a message to the Austrian commander with of import tactical information. On Jan 16, 1797, Dumas together with his sectionalisation halted an Austrian endeavour to intermission out of the besieged urban centre together with prevented Austrian reinforcements from reaching Mantua. The French were thereby able to maintain the siege until French reinforcements could arrive, leading to the city's capitulation on Feb 2, 1797.
Following the Jan sixteen fighting, Dumas felt insulted yesteryear the description of his actions inwards a battle written report yesteryear General Berthier, Bonaparte's aide-de-camp, together with wrote a missive of the alphabet to Napoleon cursing Berthier. Dumas was after omitted from refer inwards Napoleon's battle written report to the Directory, France's regime at the time. He was therefore given a control good beneath his rank, leading a subdivision nether General Masséna, despite a petition from Dumas' troops attesting to his valor. Under General Masséna inwards Feb 1797, Dumas helped French troops force the Austrians northward, capturing thousands of them. It was inwards this catamenia that Austrian troops began calling him the der schwarze Teufel ("Black Devil", or Diable Noir inwards French).
In belatedly Feb 1797, Dumas was transferred to a sectionalisation commanded yesteryear General Joubert, who specifically requested Dumas out of admiration for his republicanism. Under Joubert, Dumas led a pocket-size strength that defeated several enemy positions along the Adige River. Dumas' crowning achievement inwards this catamenia came on March 23, when the full general single-handedly drove dorsum an entire squadron of Austrian troops at a span over the Eisack River inwards Clausen (today Klausen, or Chiusa, Italy). It was this feat for which the French began referring to Dumas as "the Horatius Cocles of the Tyrol" (after a hero who had saved ancient Rome). Napoleon called Dumas yesteryear this nickname, together with rewarded him yesteryear making him cavalry commander of all French troops inwards the Tyrol; he also sent Dumas a dyad of pistols. Dumas spent much of 1797 as armed services governor, administering the province of Treviso, due north of Venice.
Dumas was ordered to written report to Toulon, French Republic inwards March 1798 for an unspecified assignment. He joined an enormous French armada massing at that spot inwards training for divergence to a hush-hush destination. The armada departed on May 10, 1798, destination silent unannounced. It was solely on June 23, after the fleet had conquered Malta, that Napoleon announced that the mission's main purpose: to conquer Egypt. Aboard the Guillaume Tell, inwards the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Dumas learned that he had been appointed as commander of all cavalry inwards the Army of the Orient. The armada arrived inwards the port of Alexandria at the goal of June, together with on July 3 Dumas led the Fourth Light Grenadiers over the walls as the French conquered the city. After the fighting, Napoleon sent Dumas to pay ransom to some Bedouins who had kidnapped French soldiers. The expedition's primary medical officeholder recounted inwards a memoir that local Egyptians, judging Dumas' top together with construct versus Napoleon's, believed Dumas to live inwards command. Seeing "him ride his Equus caballus over the trenches, going to ransom the prisoners, all of them believed that he was the leader of the Expedition."
From July 7 to 21, Dumas commanded the invading army's cavalry as it marched southward from Alexandria to Cairo. Conditions of heat, thirst, fatigue, together with lack of supplies for the troops on the desert march were harsh; at that spot were a issue of suicides. While camped inwards Damanhour, General Dumas met over watermelons with several other generals (Lannes, Desaix, together with Murat). They vented criticisms of Napoleon's leadership together with discussed the possibility of refusing to march beyond Cairo. Dumas presently participated inwards the Battle of the Pyramids (following which he chased retreating Mameluke horsemen) together with the business of Cairo. At some indicate during the occupation, Napoleon learned of the before mutinous talk, together with confronted Dumas. In his memoirs, Napoleon remembered threatening to shoot Dumas for sedition. Dumas requested leave of absence to render to France, together with Napoleon did non oppose it. Napoleon was reported to receive got said: "I tin easily supersede him with a brigadier."
Following the devastation of the French armada yesteryear a British fleet led yesteryear Horatio Nelson, however, Dumas was unable to move out of Arab Republic of Egypt until March of the next year. In August 1798, Dumas discovered a important cache of gilt together with jewels beneath a solid inwards French-occupied Cairo, which he turned over to Napoleon. In October, he was instrumental inwards putting downward an anti-French revolt inwards Cairo yesteryear charging into the Al-Azhar Mosque on horseback. Afterward (according to his son's account, drawn largely from the memories of Dumas's aide-de-camp Dermoncourt), Napoleon told him: "I shall receive got a epitome made of the taking of the Grand Mosque. Dumas, y'all receive got already posed as the primal figure." The Girodet painting, however, which Napoleon commissioned xi years later, shows a white human being charging into the mosque.
On March 7, 1799, Dumas boarded a pocket-size ship called the Belle Maltaise inwards the society of his beau General Jean-Baptiste Manscourt du Rozoy, the geologist Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu, 40 wounded French soldiers, together with a issue of Maltese together with Genoan civilians. Dumas had sold the furnishings of his quarters inwards Cairo, together with purchased 4,000 pounds of moka coffee; xi Arabian horses (two stallions together with nine mares) to found breeding stock inwards France; together with hired the ship.
While returning to France, the ship began to sink, together with Dumas had to jettison much of his cargo. The ship was forced yesteryear storms to ground at Taranto, inwards the Kingdom of Naples. Dumas together with his companions expected to acquire a friendly reception, having heard that the Kingdom had been overthrown yesteryear the Parthenopean Republic. But that short-lived democracy had succumbed to an internal uprising yesteryear a local strength known as the Holy Faith Army, led yesteryear Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, inwards alliance with King Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples. He was at state of war with France.
The Holy Faith Army imprisoned Dumas together with the balance of the passengers together with confiscated most of their belongings. Early on inwards the captivity, Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo tried to merchandise Dumas for a Corsican adventurer named Boccheciampe, an imposter posing as Prince Francis, boy of Ferdinand IV, inwards monastic enjoin to assist the Holy Faith movement. Boccheciampe had been captured yesteryear French forces due north of the Neapolitan kingdom, shortly after he had visited the prisoners inwards Taranto, but Ruffo lost involvement inwards a merchandise when he learned Boccheciampe had been killed yesteryear the French.
Dumas was malnourished together with kept incommunicado for 2 years. By the fourth dimension of his release, he was partially paralyzed, nigh blind inwards i eye, had been deaf inwards i ear but recovered; his physique was broken. He believed his illnesses were caused yesteryear poisoning. During his imprisonment, he was aided yesteryear a hush-hush local pro-French group, which brought him medicine together with a volume of remedies. In Nov 1799, Napoleon had returned to Paris together with seized power. Dumas' married adult woman lobbied his regime for assistance inwards finding together with rescuing her husband, to niggling result. Napoleon's forces, nether the control of Dumas' beau full general Joachim Murat, eventually defeated Ferdinand IV's regular army together with secured Dumas's release inwards March 1801.
Dumas made few political statements, but those he made advise deeply felt republican beliefs. One calendar month after the French National Convention abolished slavery (February 4, 1794), Dumas sent a message to troops nether his control inwards the Army of the Alps:
"Your comrade, a soldier together with General-in-Chief. . . . was born inwards a climate together with amid men for whom liberty also had charms, together with who fought for it first. Sincere lover of liberty together with equality, convinced that all gratis men are equals, he volition live proud to march out before you, to assist y'all inwards your efforts, together with the coalition of tyrants volition acquire that they are loathed as yesteryear men of all colors."
In Nov 1792, stationed with the Black Legion inwards Amiens, Dumas married Marie-Louise Labouret inwards Villers-Cotterêts. She stayed inwards Villers-Cotterêts with her solid unit of measurement during his armed services campaigns. Dumas bought a farm of 30 acres there. They had daughters Marie-Alexandrine (born September 10, 1794), Louise-Alexandrine (born 1796, died 1797), together with a son, Alexandre Dumas, who became a prolific together with notable author, with numerous successes inwards plays together with peculiarly adventure novels.
After he finally gained release inwards 1801, Dumas was non awarded "the pension commonly allocated to the widows of generals" yesteryear the French regime together with he struggled to back upwards his solid unit of measurement after his render to France. He repeatedly wrote to Napoleon Bonaparte, seeking back-pay for his fourth dimension lost inwards Taranto together with a novel committee inwards the military. He died of breadbasket cancer on 26 Feb 1806 inwards Villers-Cotterêts. At his expiry his boy Alexandre was 3 years together with vii months old. The boy, his sister, together with his widowed woman parent were plunged into deeper poverty. Marie-Louise Labouret Dumas worked inwards a tobacconist's store to brand ends meet. For lack of funds, the immature Alexandre Dumas was unable to acquire fifty-fifty a basic secondary education. Marie-Louise persistently lobbied the French regime to live paid her armed services widow's pension. Marie-Louise together with the immature Alexandre blamed Napoleon Bonaparte's "implacable hatred" for their poverty.
Legacy together with honors
Dumas' call is inscribed on the southward wall of the Arc de Triomphe.
In 1913, a statue of General Dumas was erected inwards Place Malesherbes (now Place du Général Catroux) inwards Paris inwards Autumn 1912 after a long fundraising displace spearheaded yesteryear Anatole French Republic together with Sarah Bernhardt. From the instant of its installation until some fourth dimension after July 1913 the statue was covered yesteryear a cover due to the difficulty of the numerous governmental agencies involved to attain understanding on the modalities of its official inauguration. It stood inwards Place Malesherbes for xxx years, with statues of Alexandre Dumas's descendants Alexandre Dumas, père (erected inwards 1883) together with Alexandre Dumas, fils (erected inwards 1906), as good as i of Sarah Bernhardt. The Germans destroyed it inwards the wintertime of 1941-1942, together with it has never been restored.
In 2009, a sculpture inwards his honor, made yesteryear Driss Sans-Arcidet, was erected inwards Paris, Place du Général Catroux (formerly Place Malesherbes). Representing broken slave shackles, it was unveiled on 4 Apr 2009. The critic Jean-Joël Brégeon has claimed that the symbolism of the statue was non appropriate because, apart from his noble upbringing, the full general had never been a slave. Documents cited above, however, present that his manlike someone parent sold together with therefore re-purchased Alexandre Dumas, disproving this claim. Dumas biographer Tom Reiss has suggested that the monument is inappropriate for other reasons: "In the race politics of twenty-first-century France, the statue of General Dumas had morphed into a symbolic monument to all the victims of French colonial slavery... There is silent no monument inwards French Republic commemorating the life of General Alexandre Dumas."
In Apr 2009, the author Claude Ribbe started an meshing petition, asking French President Nicolas Sarkozy to laurels General Dumas the Légion d'honneur. As of Feb 2014, the petition has gathered over 7100 signatories.
source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas-Alexandre_Dumas
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