In 1808 Lefebvre joined the Peninsular expedition, and was appointed to the command of the fifth corps of the French army. On leaving, the emperor had given him directions to keep the Spaniards in check till his arrival; but when employed in the province of Biscay, finding that the enemy were seriously harassing the flanks of his army, lie gave them battle, and on the let of November triumphantly entered the town of Bilbao. Iris conduct however on that occasion appears to have given displeasure to Napoleon, as it interfered with his plan of operations. He was afterwards present at the battle of Tudela, where he bad the command of the cavalry. [Lances.] In the German campaign of 1809 he rendered himself conspicuous as a brave soldier and an excellent tactician, at the battles of Eckmithl and Wagram, and in the dangerous warfare among the passes of the Tyrol. He was also with Napoleon in the disastrous expedition to Russia, and had the command of the old guard, which was however seldom called into action ; but during the retreat he showed considerable military skill, and, for the most part, accompanied his corps on foot, sharing every suffering and exposing himself to every danger in common with the private soldiers.
During the campaigns of 1813 and 1814 he appears faithfully to have adhered to the declining fortunes of his master; and after the battle of Leipzig, when the remnants of the French army were called to fight for the defence of their native country, by none of hii lieutenants was Napoleon more ably seconded than by Lefebvre. Ai
the battles of Champ-Aubert (February 10, 1814), at Ards-Bur-Aube (March 20), and at Mont-Mirail (April 14), be displayed the sans( gallantry as in the more renowned but not more glorious fields 01 Jena, Tudela, and Wagram. It is however stated that Lefebvre greatly influenced the abdication of Napoleon, and at the first rate. ration of Louis XVIIL he was created Chevalier of St. Louis and peer of France. But on the return of his former chief from Elba, we find him again adhering to his fortunes, and accepting a seat in his Chamber of Peers, where however he held himself aloof from all discussions. ('J6urnal des D6bats ' of the 10th of April 1814). At the second restoration of the Bourbons, he was excluded from the Chamber of Peers, to which he was recalled in 1819, having been a few years previously reinstated in his rank of marshal. He died at Paris on the 14th of September 1820.
There was another well-known general of Napoleon, the COUNT CHARLES LEFEBVRE DESNOUETTES, whose name has sometimes been confounded with that of Marshal Lefebvre. He was condemned to death on the second restoration of the Bourbons, but he was enabled to take refuge in the United States. He perished in a shipwreck ou the coast of Ireland, as be was returning to Europe, on the 22nd of April 1822.