SUCHET, LOUIS GABRIEL, Duc D'ALBUFERA DA VA LENCIA (177o-1826), marshal of France, one of the most bril liant of Napoleon's generals, was the son of a silk manufacturer at Lyons, where he was born on March 2, 1770. As chef de bataillon he was present at the siege of Toulon in 1793, where he took General O'Hara prisoner. During the Italian campaign of 1796 he was severely wounded at Cerea on Oct. 11. After serving under Joubert in Tirol in 1797, and also in Switzerland under Brune in 1797-98, he was made chief of the staff to Brune, and restored the efficiency and discipline of the army in Italy. In July 1799 he was made general of division and chief of staff to Joubert in Italy, and was in 180o named by Massena his second in command. His action contributed to the success of Napoleon's crossing the Alps, which culminated in the battle of Marengo on the 14th of June. In the campaigns of 1805 and 1806 he greatly increased his reputation at Austerlitz, Saalfeld, Jena, Pultusk and Ostrolenka. He obtained the title of count on March 19, 1808, married Mlle. de Saint Joseph, a niece of Joseph Bonaparte's wife, and soon afterwards was ordered to Spain. Here he was
commander of the army of Aragon and governor of the province, which in two years he brought into complete submission. He annihilated the army of Blake at Maria on June 14, 1809, and on April 22, 181o, defeated O'Donnell at Lerida. Suchet, now a marshal of France, in 1812 conquered Valencia, and received the title of duc d'Albufera da Valencia (1812). When the tide set against the French Suchet defended his conquests step by step till compelled to retire into France, after which he took part in Soult's defensive campaign. By Louis XVIII. he was made a peer of France, but, having rallied to Napoleon during the Hundred Days, he was deprived of his peerage in 1815. He died near Marseilles on Jan. 3, 1826. Suchet left unfinished Memoires dealing with the Peninsular War; these were printed by St. Cyr Nogues in 1829-34.
See C. H. Barault-Roullon, Le Marechal Suchet (Paris, 1854) Choumara, Considerations militaires sur les memoires du Marechal Suchet (1840). See also bibliography in article PENINSULAR WAR.