DAVOUT (and not DAVOUST as it is usually written), LOUIS NICIIOLAS, was born at Annoux in the department of the Yonne (part of the former Burgundy) in the year 1770. His family was noble, and he was sent to the military academy at Brienne, where he was a fellow-atndent with Bonaparte. In 1785 be was appointed sub-lieutenant in the Royal Champagne cavalry regiment, and in 1790 colonel of a regiment of Yonne volunteers. He had already taken the revolutionary side, and under Dumouriez at the battle of Jemappe, on the 8th of November 1792, he distinguished himself by his activity and boldness. After the check which Dumouriez received at Neerwindcn in the following March, he began to enter into negotiations with the Prince of Coburg for the surrender of his army ; this was suspected, and Devout farmed a project for seizing him in the midst of the army, which had nearly succeeded. In June 1793 he was nominated a general, but in consequence of the decree incapacitating the nobility from active service, he was forced to resign. The downfall and death of Robespierre on the 9th Thermidor (July 27) 1791, removed the impediment and restored Devout to his rank in the army. He distinguished himself in the army of the Moselle at the siege of Luxembourg, and afterwards in the army of the Rhine under Pichegru ; but when Pichegru was defeated at Heidelberg in 1795, be evacuated Manheim, and Devout was there taken prisoner ; he however soon recovered his liberty by being exchanged. In 1797 his prudent generalship in the passage of the Rhine, as well as his personal valour, wag greatly admired, and in the campaign in Italy his zeal and activity procured him the friendship and support of Bonaparte, under whom he then served. Ho accompanied that general to Egypt, where his bravery was displayed in attacking and taking the village of Aboukir after the action at that place had been fought against the Turks. After the convention of El-Arish, he embarked at Alexandria to return to France. The vessel was captured by an English frigate, and he was carried as a prisoner of war to Leghorn ; but an order was sent for his release within a month. On his return Bonaparte created him general of division and commander-in-chief of the cavalry in the army of Italy, in which capacity be contributed to the victory of Marengo. When Napoleon was declared emperor, Devout was promoted to be a marshal of France, and received the grand cross of the Legion of Honour with the colonelcy of the Imperial Grenadier Guards. He justified these favours by his conduct in the campaign of 1805, especially at the battle of Austerlitz, where he commanded the right wing of the army. After the treaty of Presburg, by which Austria surrendered large portions of her territory, Devout remained with his division in Germany ; Prussia demanded that the French troops should recross the Rhine, but instead of complying with this demand, Napoleon commenced an attack on Prussia, and, on October 14th, 1806, utterly routed the Prussian army at Jena, while Davout on the same day defeated, by his masterly manoeuvres, the Duke of Brunswick at Auerstadt, though the duke's army was greatly superior in numbers. For this exploit he was created Duke
of Auerstadt. On the breaking out of the new war with Austria in 1809, he was called on to take au active part. His march through the Upper Palatinate to the Danube and the taking of Ratisbon, was a perilous but a successful enterprise. He was engaged at Eekinithl, and for his services there was afterwards created Prince of Eckmiihl. At Aspern only one of his four divisions could engage, but at Wagram he commanded the right wing, by whose movements the retreat of the Austrians was mainly necessitated. After the battle he was made commander in Poland. In the expedition to Russia in 1812 Davout commanded one of the eleven corps of which the army was composed. He was at the battle of Borodino, where be was wounded and had several horses killed under him. After the disastrous retreat from Moscow he fixed his head-quarters at Hamburg, which was imme diately attacked by the allies, but which he held with a tenacity and defended with an ability that rendered vain all their efforts. It was not till April 1814, after the conclusion of peace, that he consented to surrender the place, not to the allied generals, but to Genera] O6rard, the bearer of orders from Louis XVIII. Davout then retired to his estate at Savigny-eur-Orge. On the return of Bonaparte from Elba he became minister of war, and in three months, in concert with the emperor, had restored the French army to the same strength it had before the events of 1814, and provided it with immense quantities of military stores. After the defeat at Waterloo he received the command of the army assembled under the walls of Paris, and would have fought, had lie not received the order of the provisional government to treat with the enemy, and signed the con vention of Paris be retired with the army beyond the Loire. He made his submission to the Bourbon government on July 14, 1815, and within a few days gave up the command to Marshal Macdonald. When the ordonnance of July 24th was issued proscribing Generals Gilly, Grouchy, Exceltnans, Clauset, Sic., be wrote to Marshal Gouvion de St. Cyr, then minister of war, demanding that his name should oe substituted for theirs, as they had only acted by his orders ; and he opposed the proceedings against Ney with much- determination. For a while he lived in retirement, but re-entered the chamber of peers in 1819. He died on June 1, 1823.
Devout was unquestionably possessed of great military talents; ho was a brave soldier and a skilful general ; but his severity and firmness too often became cruelty; his rapacity was insatiable ; and the extortions he exercised on those he was appointed to govern was such that even Bonaparte censured him for his conduct while in Poland. and his treatment of Hamburg will not speedily be forgotten.