Background
Claude Victor-Perrin was born at La Marche (Vosges) on the 7th of December 1764. He was a son of Charles Perrin and wife Marie Anne Floriot.
(Excerpt from Mémoire pour Monsieur le Maréchal Duc de Bel...)
Excerpt from Mémoire pour Monsieur le Maréchal Duc de Bellune, sur les Marchés Ouvrard On ne l'a pas voulu; des attaques ont été diri gée's avec violence contre mon administration et contre ma personne; toutes les convenan'ces so ciales ont été mises en oubli, etje n'ai-'pas besoin de dire pourquoi fais enfin entendre ma voix lorsque je sais que'.de to'utes parts on accuse mon silence. J'entre donc à mon tour dans la carrière; mais c'est du moins avec la certitude d'avoir fait àla modération tous les sacrifices qu'elle pouvait exiger de moi. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Claude Victor-Perrin was born at La Marche (Vosges) on the 7th of December 1764. He was a son of Charles Perrin and wife Marie Anne Floriot.
In 1781 he entered the army as a private soldier, and after ten years' service he received his discharge and settled at Valence. Soon afterwards he joined the local volunteers, and distinguishing himself in the war on the Alpine frontier, in less than a year he had risen to the command of a battalion.
For his bravery at the siege of Toulon in 1793 he was raised to the rank of general of brigade. He afterwards served for some time with the army of the Eastern Pyrenees, and in the Italian campaign of 1796-97 he so acquitted himself at Mondovi, Roveredo and Mantua that he was promoted to be general of division. After commanding for some time the forces in the department of La Vendee, he was again employed in Italy, where he did good service against the papal troops, and he took a very important part in the battle of Marengo. In 1802 he was governor of the colony of Louisiana for a short time, in 1803 he commanded the Batavian army, and afterwards he acted for eighteen months (1805 - 1806) as French plenipotentiary at Copenhagen. On the outbreak of hostilities with Prussia he joined the V army corps (Marshal Lannes) as chief of the general staff. He distinguished himself at Saalfeld and Jena, and at Friedland he commanded the I Corps in such a manner that Napoleon made him a Marshal of France. After the peace of Tilsit he became governor of Berlin, and in 1808 he was created duke of Belluno. In the same year he was sent to Spain, where he took a prominent part in the Peninsular War (especially at Espinosa, Talavera, Barrosa and Cadiz), until his appointment in 1812 to a corps command in the invasion of Russia. Here his most important service was in protecting the retreating army at the crossing of the Beresina. He took an active part in the wars of 1813-14, till in February of the latter year he had the misfortune to arrive too late at Montereau-sur-Yonne. The result was a scene of violent recrimination and his supersession by the emperor, who transferred his command to Gerard. Thus wounded in his amour-propre, Victor now transferred his allegiance to the Bourbon dynasty, and in December 1814 received from Louis XVIII the command of the second military division. In 1815 he accompanied the king to Ghent, and on the second restoraiion he was made a peer of France. He was also president of a commission which inquired into the conduct of the officers during the Hundred Days, and dismissed Napoleon's sympathizers. In 1821 he was appointed war minister and held this office for two years. In 1830 he was major-general of the royal guard, and after the revolution of that year he retired altogether into private life. His death took place at Paris on the 16th of March 1841.
(Excerpt from Mémoire pour Monsieur le Maréchal Duc de Bel...)
In Drôme, Valence, on 16 May 1791 he married Jeanne Josephine Muguet, by whom he had issue which was extinct in the male line by 1917. He married secondly in June 1803 Julie Vosch van Avesaet and had a daughter.