LATOUR D'AUVERGNE, Trikornit-E MAL° COERET DE, b. Nov. 23, 1743, at Carhaix, in Finistere, France, of an illegitimate branch of the family of the dukes of Bouil lon. He entered the army in 1767; and in 1781 served tinder the duke de Crillon at. Port Mahon. Oh the outbreak of the revolution he attached himself to the national cause. The army of the Alps, which operated against the Sardinians in 1792, contained. no braver officer than Latour. He was the first to enter Chanabety, sword in hand, at. the Bead of his company. But he would not hear of advancement in military rank; and, in the following year, though placed at the head of a column of 8,000 grenadiers, ,in the army of the Pyrenees, he continued to wear the uniform of a captain. His corps obtained the name of the "infernal column," on account of the dread which its bayonet charges inspired. When he was subsequently with the army of the Rhine, in 1800, as he still refused all promotion, Bonaparte bestowed on him the title of "The First Grenadier of France." He was killed, on June 27 of that year, at Oberhausen, near
Neuburg, in Bavaria. The heroism and magnanimity of Latour were wonderful; and French biographies are .full of instances of his daring valor, his Spartan simplicity of life, and his chivalrous affection for his friends. When he died, the whole French army mourned for him three days; every soldier set aside a day's pay to purchase a silver urn to hold his heart; his saber was placed in the church of the Invalides; and each morning, till the close of the empire, at the muster-roll of his regiment, his name continued to be called, and the oldest sergeant answered to the call: ".Mort au champ d'honneur" (Dead on the field of honor). Latour was not only a brave warrior, but also a man of a studious disposition, and the author of two works, Nouvelles Recher ches sur la Langue l'Origine et les Antiquites des Bretons (1792), and Origines Gauloises (1801), which is, however, only a third edition of the former.