Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Pierre François Charles Augereau

AUGEREAU, PIEREE FEAXCOIS CHAELES, Duke of Castiglione, was the son of obscure parents, and born in 1757. After serving for a short period in the armies of France, he entered the Neapolitan service, and for some time supported himself by teaching fencing at Naples. In 1792 he joined the Republican army that watched the movements of Spain. He rose rapidly to the rank of brigadier-general, and commanded a division in the army of Italy. Here he distinguished himself in numerous engagements by his energy, skill, and vigorous rapidity of action. To him were due in great measure the brilliant victories of Millesimo, Dego, and Castiglione, and he led the decisive charges at the bloody combats of Lodi and Arcola. In 1797 he took part with Barras and the Directory, and was an active agent in the revolution of the 18th of Fructidor; but his jealousy of his former com rade, Bonaparte, prevented their intimacy ; and he was one of the general officers not privy to the noted revolution of the 18th of Brumaire (Nov. 9) 1799. He received, however, the command of the army of Holland and the Lower Rhine, but was superseded in 1801. From that time he lived in retirement, till 1804, when he was made a marshal of the French empire, and in the following year he was appointed to the command of the expedition against the Yorarlberg, which he quickly subdued. He also distinguished himself greatly in the battles of Jenaand Eylau. In 1809-10 he commanded the French in Catalonia, and tarnished his laurels by his great cruelty to the Spaniards ; but he was again more honourably conspicuous in the campaign of 1813, especially in the terrible battle of Leipsic. In 1814 he had the command of a reserve army at Lyons, and might have made a diversion in favour of Napoleon, but he preferred to submit, and retained a command under the Bourbons. In the following year he at first refused to join Napoleon on his escape from Elba, and when he would afterwards have accepted a command his services were declined. He also failed to obtain military office under the new dynasty, and after having had the painful task of being one of the commission on the trial of Ney, he returned to his estates, where he died of dropsy in 1816.