Antoine Joseph Santerre was a businessman and general during the French Revolution.
Background
The Santerre family moved from Saint-Michel-en-Thiérache to Paris in 1747 where they purchased a brewery known as the Brasserie de la Magdeleine. Antoine Santerre married his third cousin Marie Claire Santerre, daughter of a wealthy bourgeois brewer, Jean François Santerre, from the Cambrai in March 1748. The couple had six children, Antoine Joseph being the 3rd. The others were Marguerite, born in 1750; Jean Baptiste, born in 1751; Armand Théodore, born in 1753; followed by François and Claire. The future general's father died in 1770, his mother just months later. His elder brother and sister, Marguerite and Jean Baptiste took charge of the household and family business, helping their mother raise the younger children, they never married. Armand Théodore went into the sugar business, and owned a factory in Essonnes, the other members of the family remained in the brewery business. François, known as François Santerre de la Fontinelle, had breweries in Sèvres, Chaville and Paris and Claire, the youngest, married a lawyer.
Education
Antoine Joseph was sent to school at the collèges des Grassins, followed by history and physics under M. M. Brisson and the abbot Nollet.
Career
Like his father, he was a brewer, and gained great popularity in faubourg St Antoine by his beneficence. In 1789 he was given the command of a battalion of the National Guard, and took part in the storming of the Bastille. After the affair of the Champ de Mars (July 17th, 1791) a warrant was issued for his arrest, and he went into hiding. He emerged again in the following year, and took part in the events of the 10th of June and the 10th of August 1792, when he led the people of the faubourg St Antoine to the assault of the Tuileries. He, however, protected the royal family against the violence of the mob and, on the 7th of August, even attempted to bring about a reconciliation, but his efforts were frustrated by Marie Antoinette. He was made commanderin-chief of the National Guard, and appointed by the Convention warder to the king, in which position he did all in his power to alleviate Louis's captivity. He notified Louis of the sentence of death, and was present at the execution. Accounts differ as to his conduct at the execution, some stating that he ordered a roll of drums to drown the king's voice. The family tradition, however, is that he silenced the drums to enable Louis to speak to the people, and that General J. F. Berruyer, who was in sole command, ordered the drums to beat and thus drowned the last words of the king's speech. Santerre was appointed marechal de camp on the 23rd of October 1792, and subsequently general of division. In May 1793 he was temporarily replaced as commander of the National Guard in Paris, so that he might take command of a force which he had organized to operate in La Vendee. As a military commander he was not a conspicuous success, his debut being signalized by the defeat of the republicans at Saumur. He was variously reported to have been wounded and killed in this affair, and the wits of the reactionary party circulated his epitaph: Ci-git le general Santerre Qui n'eut de Mars que la biere. He was scarcely more popular among the sans-culottes of his army. Wounded soldiers, returned to Paris, reported that he was living let-bas, " in Oriental luxury, " and complained that, since their defeat had been due either to his treason or his incompetence, he should have been either guillotined "like other generals" or superseded. He was, however, not in supreme command, and therefore not responsible for the ill conduct of the war; he distinguished himself in various actions; and when, in October, he returned to Paris his popularity in the faubourg St Antoine was undiminished. But his report on this expedition, in which he drew attention to the evil plight of the republican arms in the Vendee, aroused suspicion. He was accused of "Orleanism" and imprisoned, and was not released until after the fall of Robespierre. He then gave in his resignation as general, and returned to commerce; but his brewery was ruined, and after many vicissitudes of fortune he died in poverty in Paris on the 6th of February 1809.
Connections
He married his childhood sweetheart, the daughter of his neighbour, Monsieur Francois, another wealthy brewer. Antoine Joseph was 20 years old and Marie François was sixteen. Marie died the following year from an infection derived from a fall during her 7th month of pregnancy. Years later Antoine Joseph married Marie Adèlaïde Deleinte with whom he had three children, Augustin, Alexandre and Theodore.
