JOURDAN, JEAN BAPTISTE, Count (1762-1533). A French marshal. He was born April 29. 1762. at Limoges. where his father was a surgeon. Be entered the army in 1778 and served under Count d'Estaing in the war cf American independence. On returning to France in 1784 Jourdan married and opened a milliner's shop at Limoges. On the breaking • out of the Revolution he abandoned trade and became the captain of the company of National Guards raised in Limoges. Under Dumouriez he rose to he chief of battaliomand in 1793 was made sue ,e•sively general of brigade and general of di vision. Finally in the autninn of that year he obtained the command of the Army of the North and gained an important victory at Wattignies against the Austrians (October 15-16. 1793). In 1794, as head of the Army of the Sambre and Meuse, he defeated the Austrians again at 'Ileu ms and overran Belgium, forcing the enemy hack across the Rhine. In 1795 he was less successful in his eampaigns: for, having crossed the Rhine at Dilsseldorf. he was defeated by the Austrians at Iliiehst (October 11. 1795). In 1796 he pushed his way far into Germany. but was driven hack by the Archduke Charles at Wetzlar (June 15), Amberg (August 24). and Witrzburg (September 3). This discomfiture led him to resign his com mand. In 1799 the Directory intrusted him with the command of the Army of the Danube; but he was defeated by the Archduke Charles at Ostraeh and at Stoekach in March of the same year. and
was superseded. Although he opposed the coup irMat of the Eighteenth Brumaire. the First Con sul employed him in 1800 in the reorganization, and administration of Piedmont: and on the establishment of the Empire in ISO4. he was made a marshal. In 1S03 he had been given the command in Italy. but in 1805 be was replaced by MassC•na. He was sent with King Joseph to Naples (1806), and in 1%18 he went with him to Spain as chief of staff. Louis XVIII. ap pointed him commander of the seventh division, and made him a peer of France; but. his republican principles led him to enter heart ily into the revolutionary movement of 1830, and for a short time after the .July Revolution he acted as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Ilis last years were spent as governor of the HOtel des Invalides, and there he died November 23. 1833. As member and president of the Council of Five Hundred (1797.99), Jourdan was instrumental in planning and establishing the system of mili tary conscription throughout France. Unlike• many of Napoleon's marshals, Jonrdan lived and died poor. He was the author of Operations de Parmee du Danube (Paris, 1799), and Nunoires pour servir a Phistoire de lu eampagne do 1796 (Paris, 1819). His Memoires militaires, gucrrc d'Espagne were published in 1899.