Étienne Deprez-Crassier

Étienne Deprez-Crassier
Étienne Deprez-Crassier
Born	18 January 1733 Divonne-les-Bains, France
Died	6 July 1803 (aged 70) Ornex, Rhône-Alpes, France
Allegiance	Kingdom of France France
Service/branch	Infantry
Years of service	1745–1787 1792–1796
Rank	General of Division
Battles/wars	War of the Austrian Succession Seven Years' War Battle of Rossbach (1757) Battle of Sondershausen (1758) War of the First Coalition Skirmish of Fontoy (1792) Battle of Valmy (1792) Battle of Biriatou (1793)

Jean Étienne Philibert de Prez de Crassier or Étienne Desprez-Crassier (18 January 1733 – 6 July 1803) was a French politician and army commander in the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars. Despite being from the minor nobility, he entered the French Royal Army as a cadet at the age of 12 because of his family's poverty. He fought in the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War, becoming a colonel in 1785 and retiring two years later. Voltaire lent him the money needed to recover the Deprez family property. He was elected to the Estates General as a nobleman in 1789. After being promoted to lieutenant general he led a division at Valmy in 1792. He became commander of the Army of the Rhine and Army of the Western Pyrenees. Imprisoned during the Reign of Terror, he was released and restored to his former rank but retired in 1796.

Career

Deprez-Crassier was promoted maréchal de camp (brigadier general) on 1 March 1791.^[1] While leading 600 troops, he fought a skirmish with the Prussians at Fontoy on 19 August 1792. His detachment consisted of two companies of grenadiers and five squadrons of Chasseurs à Cheval. His soldiers encountered a superior force of five squadrons of the Wolffradt Hussar Regiment and were defeated with a loss of 200 killed and wounded plus 24 men captured.^[2] Nevertheless, he was promoted to lieutenant general on 5 September 1792.^[1]

During the Battle of Valmy on 20 September 1792 Deprez-Crassier led a detachment in François Christophe Kellermann's Army of the Centre. Under his command were the 1st Battalion of the 1st Line Infantry Regiment, one grenadier battalion, three squadrons each of the 3rd Hussar and 1st Chasseurs à Cheval Regiments and two squadrons of the 4th Dragoon Regiment.^[3] The day before the battle Kellermann sent the Advance Guard under Deprez-Crassier forward from his camp at Dommartin-la-Planchette toward Somme-Bionne.^[4] At his position at the La Lune tavern, Deprez-Crassier was joined the next morning by the Reserve under Jean-Baptiste Cyrus de Valence. As the Prussians advanced on his position Kellermann decided to move his main force to the mound of Valmy under cover of a morning fog and the forces of Deprez-Crassier and Valence. During this time three squadrons of Prussian hussars blundered into the covering force and were repulsed. As the Prussians brought up their artillery to fire on the La Lune position, Kellermann established his defensive lines at Valmy. Coming under fire, Deprez-Crassier and Valence fell back to take post near the hamlet of Orbeval on the left of the main position at Valmy. At this time Charles François Dumouriez sent forward nine battalions from the Army of the North to reinforce Kellermann's left flank, 16 battalions to buttress his right and another 12 battalions and six squadrons to form a reserve. When the fog lifted the Prussian generals were surprised to see the French army arrayed in great strength before them.^[5] The famous artillery duel followed, after which the Prussian commander Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel declined to press home the attack.^[6]

Notes

1. Broughton 2007.
2. Smith 1998, p. 24.
3. Smith 1998, p. 26.
4. Fuller 1955, p. 361.
5. Fuller 1955, pp. 363–364.
6. Fuller 1955, p. 365.

References

• Broughton, Tony (2007). "Generals Who Served in the French Army during the Period 1789-1815: De Das de l'Aulne to De Winter". The Napoleon Series. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
• Clerget, Charles (1905). Tableaux des Armées Françaises pendant les Guerres de la Révolution. Paris: Librarie Militaire R. Chapelot et Cie. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
• Fuller, J. F. C. (1955). A Military History of the Western World: From the American Civil War to the End of World War II. 3. New York, N.Y.: Da Capo Press, Inc.
• Phipps, Ramsay Weston (2011). The Armies of the First French Republic: Volume II The Armées du Moselle, du Rhin, de Sambre-et-Meuse, de Rhin-et-Moselle. 2. USA: Pickle Partners Publishing. ISBN 978-1-908692-25-2.
• Phipps, Ramsay Weston (2011). The Armies of the First French Republic: Volume III The Armies in the West 1793 to 1797 And, The Armies In The South 1793 to March 1796. 3. USA: Pickle Partners Publishing. ISBN 978-1-908692-26-9.
• Smith, Digby (1998). The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill. ISBN 1-85367-276-9.