- Claude Pierre, comte Pajol
Claude-Pierre,
Comte de Pajol (February 3 ,1772 -March 20 ,1844 ), was a Frenchcavalry general and military commander during the French Revolutionary andNapoleonic Wars , and political figure.Life
Early life and career
Born in
Besançon , as the son of alawyer , he was intended to follow his father's profession, but the events of 1789 turned his mind in another direction. Joining the battalion of Besançon, he took part in the political events of that year, and in 1791 went to theFrench Revolutionary Army of theUpper Rhine with a volunteer battalion.He took part in the campaign of 1792 and was one of the stormers at Hochheim (1793). From the Count of Custine's staff he was transferred to that of
Jean Baptiste Kléber , with whom he took part in theSambre andRhine Campaigns (1794-96). After serving withLouis Lazare Hoche andAndré Masséna in Germany andSwitzerland (1797-99), Pajol took a cavalry command underJean Victor Marie Moreau for the campaign on the upper Rhine.First Empire
In the short years of peace Pajol, now
colonel , was successively envoy to theBatavian Republic , and delegate at Napoleon I's coronation (the start of theFirst French Empire ). In 1805, the emperor employed him with the light cavalry. He distinguished himself at thebattle of Austerlitz , and, after serving for a short time in theItalian Peninsula , he rejoined theGrande Armée as a general of brigade, in time to take part in the campaign of Friedland. The next year (1808) he was made a "Baron d’Empire".In 1809 he served on the
Danube , and in the Russian War of 1812 led a division, and afterwards a corps, of cavalry. He survived retreat, but his health was so broken that he retired to his native town of Besançon for a time. He was back again in active service, however, in time to be present at thebattle of Dresden , in which he played a conspicuous part. Again wounded in thebattle of Leipzig , Pajol was created acount of the Empire onNovember 25 ,1813 .In 1814 he fought in the
Six Days Campaign , commanding a corps of all arms in theSeine Valley . On the fall of Napoleon, Pajol gave in his adhesion to the Restoration government, but he rejoined the Emperor immediately upon his return to France. The Ist corps of cavalry under his leadership played a prominent part in the campaign of 1815, both at Ligny and in the advance on theWavre under the Marquis de Grouchy. On receiving the news of thebattle of Waterloo , Pajol disengaged his command, and skillfully retreated to refuge inParis . There he and his men played an active part in the actions which ended the war.Later life
The Bourbons, on their return, dismissed him, although this treatment was not, compared to that applied to
Michel Ney and others, excessively harsh. In 1830 he took part in theJuly Revolution and the overthrow of Charles X. He suppressed the riots in Paris in 1831 and 1832, 1834 and 1839. A general, and a peer of France, he was put on the retired list in 1842 and died two years later.His son, Count Charles Paul Victor Pajol (1821-1891), entered the army and had reached the rank of "général de division" when, during the
Franco-Prussian War , he was involved in the catastrophe of Metz (1870). He retired in 1877. Besides being judged a competent soldier, he was a sculptor of some merit, who executed statues of his father and of Napoleon, and he wrote a life of his father and a history of the wars under Louis XV (Paris 1881-1891).References
*1911
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