ARMED WOMEN; PARTIES; and authorities where referred to under these titles.
NEY, nit, MicnEr., Duke of Elehingen and Prince of the Moskva (1769-1815). One of Napo leon's most celebrated marshals, lie was born January 10, 1769. at Saarlouis, the son of a poor cooper. He had but little education and worked as clerk to a notary and as foreman in a mine until 178S, when he joined a hussar regiment at Metz. He made the campaign of 1792 with the Army of the North and rose to be lieutenant. In April, 1794, he became captain in the Army of the Sambre and :Meuse, and distinguished himself by his energy and his cool intrepidity. Ile was wounded at the siege of Mainz, fought bravely in 1793 at Altenkirchen, and for his services in storming the citadel of Wiirzburg and forcing the passage of the Rednitz was made in 1796 brig adier-general. His capture of Mannheim (March 28, 1799) gained him the rank of general of di vision. and after being severely wounded at Win terthur in May. he was placed in September in temporary command over the Army of the Rhine, and carried on a skillful game of strategy against the Archduke Charles of Austria, whom he pre vented from uniting with Suvaroff against Nas siina. He fought subsequently under Leeourbe and :Moreau at Engen. Mo6skirch, and llohenlin den. Ney's republican principles could not with stand the blandishments of Napoleon, who per suaded him to marry. in 1802. Mlle. Auguks, a friend of Hortense Beauharnais, made him in spector-general of cavalry, and sent him on a diplomatic mission to Switzerland, where lie 1—onelit about the Act of of February, 1803. In the same year he received command of the Sixth Corps of the Grand Army raised for the invasion of England, but. soon to lie turned against Austria. in 1SO4 he was made a marshal of the Empire. In the following year lie defeated the Austrians at Ciinzburg (October 0th) and by his successful assault on the intrcnehments of Elchingen brought about the capitulation of Ulm and gained for himself the ducal title (conferred in 1808). He fought at Jena in 1800, reduced the cities of Erfurt, Magdeburg. and Thorn, and by his timely arrival on the battlefield of Eylau (q.v.) prevented a possible defeat for the French. On June 14, 1807. Ney took the village of Fried land from the Russians after a bloody combat, and thus decided the outcome of the battle. Ile now became the idol of the army. while Napoleon bestowed on him the title of Beare des beams. In 1808 lie was sent with the Sixth Corps to Spain. Ile overran Galicia. maintained an energetic war fare against the Spanish guerrillas, and added to his reputation for audacity and skill. In 1810 lie was placed under the command of Masstm, to whom was intrusted the invasion of Portugal. Ney resented what he conceived a slight toward himself, and. though he fought with splendid
courage on the retreat from Torres Vedras as commander of the rear guard (one of the greatest incidents in his career), lie was guilty of gross insubordination, and in March, 1811, returned to France in semi-disgraee. His talents, however. made him invaluable. and in the Russian cam paign (1812) he held command of the Third Corps. He distinguished himself at Smolensk and commanded the centre at Borodino (q.v.), where his efforts achieved the victory, his ser viees being rewarded with the title of Prince of the Moskva. He commanded the rear guard on the retreat from Moscow, and by vigorous disci pline and devoted heroism saved the remnants of the Grand Arinv from utter disorganization. notably at the disastrous passage of the Bere sina. In the campaign of 1813 he won a victory over the Allies at Weissen Hs (May 1, 1813), fought at Lfitzen and Bautzcn in May. but was defeated by Billow at Dennewitz (September Gth). He held the left of the French line in the battles around Leipzig and was with Napoleon in the defensive campaign of 1814 in France. After the taking of Paris by the Allies he insisted on Napoleon's abdication and hastened to offer his services to the Bourbons, lie was made a peer of France, and a member of the council of war, and was placed in charge of the sixth military division. On news of Napoleon's return from Elba he was ordered to Besancon to resist the Emperor's advance, but on the night of March 13th he went over to Napoleon. summoning his troops to follow hini, and on the 17th he joined the Emperor at Auxerre, moved to this act, no doubt, by the magic influence of his old com mander, but influenced too by the humiliations to which he had been subjected by the returned nobles of the old regime. At the head of the First and Second Corps of the new army raised by Napoleon. he fought on June 16th at Quatre bras (q.v.), and led the last charge of the Old Guard at Waterloo. After the battle he returned to Paris and advocated the recall of the Bour bons. Proscribed on July 24th, lie remained in hiding in the country till August 5th, when he was discovered and brought to Paris and ar raigned (December 5th) before a court-martial containing many of his old companions in arms. The court declared Ney out of its jurisdiction as a peer of France. and handed him over to the Chamber of Peers, which on December G. 1815. by 139 votes against 17 found him guilty of trea son and condemned him to death. He was shot the following day in the gardens of the Luxembourg.
Consult: Dumoulin, du proei's de mareehal Yell (Paris, 1815) ; Rouval, I'ie du marechat :Vey (ib.. 1833) ; Welsehinger, l.e mute chez' 1815 (ib., 1893).