Jacques François Dugommier

General Dugommier

General Dugommier, portrait by François Bouchot (1836)

Jacques François Coquille named Dugommier (1 August 1738, Trois-Rivières, Guadeloupe – 17 November 1794, at the Battle of the Black Mountain) was a French general.

He entered service in 1759 in the defense of Guadeloupe against the English and fought in Martinique in the Seven Years' War. He took the name Dugommier in 1785. He joined the Revolutionaries.

Commander in the Italian Army

In September 1793, Dugommier drove the troops of Habsburg Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia from Nice. He defeated Joseph De Vins' Austrians at city of Gilette. While a Deputy of the French Convention, Dugommier succeeded General Jean François Carteaux as commander of the army besieging Toulon. Recognizing that the attack plan of a young artillery captain named Napoleon Bonaparte was the correct one, Dugommier carried it out. In December 1793, he brought the Siege of Toulon to a successful conclusion.

Campaign in the Pyrenees

In January 1794, Dugommier was named head of the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees. His assignment was to retake the territory of Rousillon from the Spanish army of Antonio Ricardos Carrillo. He reorganized the army, weakened as it was by the hard combat of the preceding year spent incessantly and fruitlessly storming the Spanish positions. The Spanish became paralyzed by a leadership crisis following the successive deaths of two Commanders-in-Chief to disease, making Dugommier's task easier.

On 28 April he was victorious at the battle of the Battle of Tech, followed by a success at the Battle of Albere on 30 April. After the decisive victory at the Battle of Boulou (or Montesquieu) on 1 May. After this defeat, Luis Firmin de Carvajal, Conde de la Union withdrew. Port-Vendres was evacuated by La Union (who had under his command 400 French noblemen of the Légion Panetier) in May. Collioure fell after a four week siege on the 26 May. He repelled a Spanish assault on 13 August in the Battle of San-Lorenzo de la Muga. He retook the Fort de Bellegarde on 17 September 1794 (the siege had lasted since 7 May). On 22 September, an audacious attack gave him the redoubt and camp of Costouge, putting the enemy to flight and capturing most of his equipment.

Dugommier fell to Spanish shells on 18 November in the Battle of the Black Mountain, in the course of which the physician Larrey distinguished himself with 700 amputations in four days of battle. After this battle, Figueras was taken by Dominique Pérignon on 28 November.

Memory

Dugommier is buried in Perpignan, and his name is inscribed in the Panthéon. Napoleon kept his souvenir, bestowing 100,000 Francs to his son for the memory of the battle of Toulon. He now rests at Perpignan in a pyramidal monument.

Persondata
Name	Dugommier, Jacques Francois
Alternative names
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Date of birth	1 August 1738
Place of birth
Date of death	17 November 1794
Place of death