NEY, MICHEL (1769-1815), duke of Elchingen, prince of the Moskowa, marshal of France, was born at Saarlouis on Jan. 1o, 1769. His father was a cooper, and he received only a rudimentary education. In 1788 he went to Metz and enlisted in a regiment of hussars; in 1792 he was elected lieutenant ; and in 1794 he became captain and was placed by Kleber at the head of a special corps of light troops. He was soon promoted chef de brigade, and in 1796 general of brigade. He commanded the right wing of Hoche's army up to the peace of Campo Formio. On the resumption of hostilities he again took the field, and for his surprise of Mannheim in 1799 received the grade of general of division. He fought in the Swiss campaign of Massena, and when Massena turned against the Russians, who were approaching from Italy, Ney was left in command holding his ground successfully against the Austrians, although his opponent was the famous Archduke Charles. In 1800 he was present at Hohenlinden. In May 1802 he married Mademoiselle Auguie, whom Josephine had chosen for him at Bonaparte's request. This event marks a change in Ney's political opinions which can only be explained by Na poleon's power of captivating men. He was henceforward as ardent and sincere an admirer of Napoleon as hitherto he had been of revolutionary principles, and was one of the very few officers of the Army of the Rhine who became a trusted lieutenant of the emperor. He carried out an important mission in Switzer land, and in 1803 he was placed in command of the camp of Montreuil. While there he begged Napoleon to declare himself emperor, and on the establishment of the empire he was made marshal of France, and received the grand eagle of the Legion of Honour. In 1805 he commanded the VI. corps of the Grand Army, and his great victory at Elchingen (for which in 1808 he was made duke of Elchingen) practically secured the surrender of the Aus trians at Ulm. He was then ordered to the upper Adige, when he led the decisive attack at Friedland. After Friedland Napoleon gave him the title, "the bravest of the brave." In 18°8, after the first disaster to the French arms in Spain, Ney accompanied Napoleon there as commander of the VI. corps. He took part in the Peninsular War from i8o8 to 1811. When acting under Massena in the invasion of Portugal in 18io–ii, he quarrelled bitterly with his former chief, and in spite of his dis tinguished service he was recalled to France by Napoleon and censured. He was re-employed with the Grande Armee in central Europe under Napoleon himself. In the 1812 expedition to Russia Ney commanded the centre at Borodino, and was created prince of the Moskowa on the evening of the victory. In the retreat he was a tower of strength, animating the rearguard with his own sublime courage, keeping the harassed and famished soldiers to gether under the colours and personally standing in the ranks with musket and bayonet. He was the last to recross the frontier, and threw the remaining muskets into the Niemen. In 1813 he com manded a corps in the German campaign, and in 1814 he shared in the campaign in France. At the fall of the Empire the fact that Ney acted in the negotiations in concert with Macdonald and Caulaincourt is sufficient proof of his desire to avert Napoleon's abdication. Less satisfactory was his loud protestation of devotion to the Bourbons, when the Restoration was a fait accompli. But he was mortified by the disdain of the returned emigres, and re tired to his country seat. While on his way to take up a command at Besancon, he heard of Napoleon's return. He hurried at once to
assure Louis XVIII. of his fidelity. With the famous remark that the usurper ought to be brought to Paris in an iron cage, he pro ceeded to Lons-le-Saulnier to bar Napoleon's progress. But he deserted with his troops, and Napoleon's march became a tri umphal progress. Ney's act was undeniably treason to his sov ereign, but it was hardly the calculated treason that his emigré detractors saw fit to imagine. Napoleon received him kindly, but did not give him a command until just before the Waterloo cam paign. The marshal took up the command of the left wing on the northern frontier on June 13. The next day the army moved into Belgium. Ney took part in the campaign successively in the roles of strategist, tactician and soldier. (See WATERLOO CAMPAIGN. ) Much controversy has raged over his actions of June 15 and 16. At Waterloo he was subordinated to the personal command of Napoleon, but his advice was often offered and sometimes ac cepted, and he personally led several charges of the French up to the British squares. But when all was lost, his courage was ex tinguished. He made no attempt to second Davout and Grouchy in the last days of Napoleon's reign, and in despair advocated the restoration of the Bourbons. Soon a fresh order was issued de nouncing him by name, and he was arrested on Aug. 5. When Louis heard of Ney's arrest he exclaimed, "By letting himself be caught he has done us more harm than he did on the 13th of March!" But neither king nor ministers were in a position to resist the clamour of the ultra-royalists for blood. Every fresh delay in the process of Ney's trial raised a new outcry at the court, in the salons and in the Chamber of Deputies; and fiercest of all in demanding immediate execution was the king's niece, the unhappy duchess of Angouleme, who lived to confess that had she known the record of Ney's services to France she would never have consented to his death. Ney was placed on trial before a court martial composed chiefly of his former brothers-in-arms, whose participation in the tragedy was probably never forgiven them by their countrymen. Others of the marshal's old comrades refused to serve, and were disgraced in consequence, until public opinion forced their reinstatement. The court took advantage of the plea of Ney's counsel that he was entitled to be tried by his equals in the Chamber of Peers. In spite of the courageous and eloquent appeal of the young duc de Broglie, the result of the trial before the latter body was a foregone conclusion; de Broglie was alone in voting for his acquittal. In the early morning of Dec. 7, 1815, .Ney was shot in the Luxembourg gardens, near the Ob servatory. He met his death quietly and with a perfect soldierly dignity.
Ney left materials for memoirs, but in an incomplete state. The Memoires du marechal Ney, published in 1833, were collected from these papers by his brother-in-law Gamot and by General Foy. They cover only the earlier pat t of his career, and end with the battle of Elchingen (October 18o5). An edition in English was published the same year.
See Rouval, Vie du marechal Ney (1833) ; Dumoulin, Histoire du proces du marechal Ney (1815, Eng. trans. 1816) ; Nollet-Fabert, Eloge du marechal Ney (Nancy, 1852) ; Welschinger, Le Marechal Ney, 1815 (1893) ; A. Delmas, Memoire sur la revision du proces di marechal Ney (1832) ; Military Studies by Marshal Ney (Eng. trans., 1833) ; G. A. B. E. H. Bonnal, La Vie Militaire du marechal Ney (191o, etc.) ; R. Androix, Ney (1914)•