LEFEBVRE. FRANCOIS-JOSEPH, Duke of Danzig, and Marshal of France, was born of humble parents, at Ituffach, iu Upper Alsace, on the 25th of October 1755. Ile was designed for the ecclesiastical profession, but having lost his father, be enlisted, when eighteen years of age, as a private soldier in the regiment of French guards. lie bad attained the rank of serjeant-majer when, on the breaking out of the French revolution, that regiment was dissolved. Ile continued to serve however, and in 1792 be became a captain of his regiment. In that capacity be was enabled to render some valuable assistance to the unfortunate family of the dethroned King Louis XVI., and on two occasions he gallantly interposed in their behalf, and, at the peril of hie life, rescued them from an infuriated populace. His subsequent rise in the army was without precedent rapid, even at that period : on the 3rd of September 1793, be became adjutant general; on the 2nd of December, in the LAM year, he was a general of brigade; and on the 10th of January 1794, he rose to the rank of a general of division. While serving with the army of the Moselle, he distinguished himself at the combat of Lambach, and iu the battle of °iceberg. During the whole of the campaign in Germany and the Netherlands, under Pichegru, Moreau, Hoch; and Jourdan, he made himself conspicuous for his skill and courage. In 1796, when the French army under General Kl6ber had passed the Rhine [Kanen], the Austrians, finding themselves compelled to retire from Uckeratli, had intrenched themselves, twenty thousand etroug, on the heights which surround the small town of Altenkirchen. Their formidable position was attacked on the 9th of June by Kl6ber, who formed his army into two divisions, the first of which, the advanced-guard, ho placed under Lefebvre. The brunt therefore of the assault fell on that division, which boldly charged the enemy at the point of the bayonet, and, in spite of a most vigorous resistance, compelled them to retire in disorder, leaving behind them four standards, twelve pieces of cannon, and about three thousand prisoners. On the 25th of March 1799, was fought the memorable battle of Stockach, iu which Lefebvre acquired fresh renown ; with only eight thousand men he resisted, for many hours, the attack of thirty thousand Austrians.
At the time when Bonaparte was placing himself at the head of affairs, the Directory, who supposed Lefebvre devoted to their cause, appointed him to the command of the guards of the Legislative Assembly ; but, on the morning of the 18th Brumaire (October 14), he attended the meeting of officers at Bonaparte's private residence, and cordially co-operated in their proceedings. Ito was also instru
mental in extricating Lucien Bonaparte from his dangerous position in the stormy meeting of the Council of Five Hundred at St. Cloud. [BONAPARTE, NAPOLEON I.; BONAPARTE, LUCIEN.) These important services were rewarded by the command of the seventeenth military division, whose head-quarters were at Paris. In 1804 he was raised to the dignity of a Marshal of the Empire. He accompanied Napoleon the following year in the Austrian campaign, and in 1806 took an active part at the battle of Jena, where, though at that time upwards of fifty years of age, he fought on foot at the head of the guards.
Iu 1807 ho was sent with an army of sixteen thousand men to invest Danzig, which was garrisoned by twenty thousand troops, besides a numerous militia, and the investment was completed on the /4th of March. A body of twelve thousand Russian. were advancing to the relief of the besieged, and Lefebvre was compelled to divide his force, and to detach a portion of them to oppose the Russians. On the 15th of May a severe action took place between them and the French, when the latter, seconded by the troops of Marshal Lemma and General Oudinot, who had been sent by the emperor to their assistance, successfully repelled nine Russian regiments, and a part of the Prussian garrison by whom they had been joined. On the 21st of May, preparations having been made for a general assault, the Prussian commander General Kalkreuth offered to accept terms of capitulation, and Lefebvre willingly accorded favourable terms. A few days after these events, Napoleon, who was desirous of reviviug the high nobility in France, and to give additional lustre and more munificent rewards to the twenty-four grand dignitaries whom ho bad lately created, made Lefebvre Duke of Danzig. The siege of Danzig indeed was one of the most brilliant triumphs of the Prussian campaign, and consequently well fitted to give an honourable titlq to the general who had conducted it. Eight hundred pieces of cannon and immense magazines fell into the baud. of the conquerors, and the capture of this important fortress not only secured the left flank and rear of Napoleon's army, but left to Prussia only the stronghold of Pillau along the whole coast of the Baltic.