VATTBAN, SEBASTIEN LE PRESTRE, Marshal of France, the celebrated military engineer, was born at Saint Leger de Fongeret, in the dep. of Nievre, May15, 1633: and being left an almost destitute orphan at the age of ten, his education was carried on under the auspices of the cure of his village. Leaving Saint Leger in 1651, be set out on foot to join Conde's army, then on the Belgian frontier; and during two years of active field service, obtained large insight into the engineering methods then in practice. Taken prisoner in 1653, lie joined the royalists. and during the succeeding contest was mostly attached to the army of Turenne, who intrusted him with the sole control of the besieging operation's; and the powerful assistance which the extraordinarily rapid reduc tion of the enemy's strongholds gave to the king's little army, gained for Vauban the repute of being the most promising young engineer of the time. On the conclusion of peace in 1660, he was dispatched to the w. to demolish the rebel strongholds in Lorraine, and to take charge of Breisach; but in 1667 he appeared again in the u., capturing one after another the powerful defenses of the Belgian frontier. About this period, the all powerful Louvois, charmed by Vauban's probity, punctuality, and habits of cool calcu lation, no less than by his genius, took him firmly by the hand; and it was as much owing to the great minister's favor as to the superiority of his designs that Vauban was preferred to the highly honorable and important office of fortifying the Flemish fortres ses which had fallen into the possession of France. This labor accomplished in 1672, and the war with Holland resumed, Vauban took his old place as director of the siege operations, and for the first time introduced into practice in western Europe the method of approach by parallels (recently borrowed from the Turks), at the siege of Maestricht (1673), and with such effect, that that strong fortress capitulated in thirteen days. After tracing the plan of siege for Treves, and with remarkable sagacity foretelling the date when it must fall, he set himself with energy to strengthen the newly-acquired fortresses in the low countries, and closed a long and brilliant array of services for 1674 by throw ing himself into Oudenarde, where "William of Orange besieged him in vain. In 1675 he inaugurated a new era in military tactics by obtaining the creation of a corps of engineers, though the completion of the innovation by the establishment of companies of sappers was denied him. In 1676, be conducted the remarkable sieges of Valencien nes and Cambrai, stormed the latter in open day, against the unanimous opinion of the generals of the army; and two years later was rewarded for his long and glorious ser vices by the appointment of director-general of fortifications. This post gave him the supreme control of the department of military engineering, and the ten years of peace which followed 167'8 supplied opportunity for Vauban's rendering to France perhaps the greatest of his services, in surrounding the kingdom with a complete cordon of for tresses, fitted either for defense or for commanding weak points of the neighboring countries. At intervals during this period, he captured the almost impregnable fortress
of Luxembourg, and planned and partly executed the magnificent aqueduct of Main tenon, by which the waters of the Eure are conveyed to Versailles.
"War breaking out again in 1688, Vauban conducted the sieges of Philipsburg, Mann heim, and Frankenthal (introducing, at the last, his invention of ricochet-firing) Mons, (1691), and Namur (1692), with his usual success, though opposed at the last-named place by his great rival, Coliorn, who had fortified, and who defended it. After this period, I:tuba:1 almost disappears from the field of warfare, on which he had stood invincible for so many years, for the sieges of Charleroi (1693), At h (1697), Breisach (1704), and the construction of the intrenched camp near Dunkirk (1706), are the only professional works of importance during the last 14 years of his life. After the peace of Ryswick in 1697, he had applied his active practical mind to the consideration of various defi ciencies and anomalies in the internal government of France; and his zeal and research brought together a large mass of information and snggestion on numerous subjects, which was published under the curious title of Oleiretes de Jr de Vauban, and contained recommendations for the collection of statistics of population, commerce, and agri culture, for supplying the army by recruitment, and valuable suggestions for improving the soil by drainage, etc., etc. Another of his works which excited an immense sensa tion at the time was the Dime Royale (1707, in which lie discussed the question of taxa tion, and anticipated in the most striking manner the doctrines which, a century later, overthrew the French monarchy: such principles promulgated by a man of Vauban's sterling integrity and profound practical wisdom, could not be expected to he very pal atable to the king and court of whose conduct they furnished indirectly the severest censure; and we are not therefore surprised to learn-from Saint-Simon " that the mar shal de Vauban was very ill received when he presented himself," and that, by an edict of Feb. 14, 1707, his book was seized and confiscated. Vauban did not long survive his disgrace. dying at Paris, Mar. 80, 1707. Fontenelle calculates that lie had constructed 33 new fortresses, repaired 300 old ones, conducted 53 sieges, and had been present at 140 " actions of vigor;" and in his practice, the capture of a fortress was certainly a mere question of time and powder. His various professional works on the attack and defense of places, and on mines, have been collected under the title of CEuvres llilitaires (Paris. 1796); and besides these we have various other memoirs on professional subjects from his pen. Historical notices and eulogies of Vauban are abundant in French lit erature. See lcouvelle Biographie Generale.