HOCHE, LAZARE, born in 1763 near Versailles, of very humble parentage, enlisted in the French Guards at the age of sixteen. When the Revolution broke out be warmly espoused its cause, obtained a lieutenant's commission in a regiment of the line, and served in Flanders under Dumouriez. Having distinguished himself he was rapidly promoted, and at the age of twenty-four was made general in command of the army of the Moselle. He opened the campaign by attacking the Duke of Brunswick, in which however he failed. In concert with Pichegru he then attacked the Austrian army under Wurmser, and drove it out of Alsace. Upon incurring the displeasure of St. Just, the terrorist commissioner of the Convention, he was arrested and thrown into prison at Paris, when hie life was saved by the overthrow of Robespierre in July 1794. The Convention restored him to his rank, and sent him against the insurgents of La Vendde, where he showed mach firmness mixed with considerable address and a disposition to conciliate, instead of driving the royalists to despair : he defeated the emigrants who had landed at Quiberon in July 1795, and having obliged them to surrender, he wrote to the Convention advising that the leaders only should be punished, and the rest be spared ; but the Convention ordered a general Ina.ascre. liocho upon this gave up the command of that district to General Lemoine, and withdrawing to the south of the Loins, continued his operations in Vend& Proper, where he succeeded in putting down the insurrection, and seizing Charette and the other leaders, who were put to death. By a decree of the Directory, July 1796, he was declared to have well deserved of his country.
Roche now conceived the idea of effecting a landing in Ireland, and a fleet having been equipped at Brest with great secrecy, he embarked his troops in December 1796, but being separated by a storm from the rest of the fleet, he was obliged to return to France without effecting an y thing.
Upon the Directory giving him the command of the army of Sambre et-Meuse, he crowed the Rhine near Neuwied, in presence of an Austrian army, defeated the Auatrians in several battles, and advanced as far as Wexler, where he heard of the truce of Leoben, concluded between Bonaparte and the Archduke Charles, which put a stop to hostili ties. In the quarrel which was then beginning to manifest itself between the Directory and the Legislative Councils, Mocha took the part of the Executive, and he began to direct some of his forces towards Paris in order to support the Directory in the measures which it contemplated. For this he was denounced by the councils, and Bonaparte meantime having offered the support of his own army of Italy, the Directory declined Hoche'a services, and made use of Augereau to effect the coup d'dtat of Fructidor. Atleenzets.] Mocha seems to have taken to heart this slight of the Directory, and he returned to his head-quarters at Wetzlar, where he was seized by a sudden illness, of which he died on the 35th of September 1797. The symptoms of the disease give rise to suspicions of poison. His remains were removed to Paris with great pomp, and his funeral was celebrated in the Champ de Mars with great magnificence. His life has been written by Rousselin, in 2 vole. 8vo.