Jean-Baptiste Kléber | |
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| Born | (1753-03-09)9 March 1753 |
| Died | 14 June 1800(1800-06-14) (aged 47) |
| Buried | Place Kléber, Strasbourg |
| Allegiance | Kingdom of France Holy Roman Empire French First Republic |
| Branch | French Royal Army Imperial Army French Revolutionary Army |
| Service years | 1769–1770 (France) 1777–1783 (HRE) 1792–1800 (France) |
| Rank | General of division |
| Commands | 4th Haute-Rhin Battalion Army of Sambre and Meuse Army of the Orient |
| Conflicts | |
| Awards | Inscription on theArc de Triomphe (Southern Pillar, Column 23) |
| Signature |  |
Jean-Baptiste Kléber (French pronunciation:[ʒɑ̃batistklebɛʁ]; 9 March 1753 – 14 June 1800) was a French army officer and architect who served in theWar of the Bavarian Succession andFrench Revolutionary Wars. After serving for one year in theFrench Royal Army, he joined theImperial Army of the Holy Roman Emperor seven years later. However, his humble birth hindered his opportunities. Eventually, Kléber joined theFrench Revolutionary Army in 1792 and quickly rose through the ranks.
Serving in theRhineland during theWar of the First Coalition, he also suppressed theVendée Revolt. Kléber retired to private life in the peaceful interim after theTreaty of Campo Formio, but returned to military service to accompanyNapoleon in theFrench invasion of Egypt in 1798. As the invasion started to suffer setbacks, Napoleon returned toParis in 1799 and appointed Kléber as commander of all French forces inEgypt. He was assassinated bySuleiman al-Halabi, a Syrian theology student, inCairo in 1800. Kléber, in times of peace, designed a number of buildings.[1]
Jean-Baptiste Kléber was born on 9 March 1753 inStrasbourg, in the province ofAlsace, where his father worked as amaster builder. In 1769, he enlisted in theFrench Royal Army'sBercheny's Hussar Regiment, but resigned in 1770 to studyarchitecture for four years, part of which occurred in Paris withJean-François Chalgrin. His opportune assistance to two German nobles in a tavern brawl obtained for him nomination to the military school ofMunich. From this education, he obtained a commission in theKaunitz Infantry Regiment Nr. 38 of theImperial Army of the Holy Roman Emperor. He took part in theWar of the Bavarian Succession but did not see major engagements. He was stationed alternately in the garrisons ofMons,Mechelen, andLuxembourg in theAustrian Netherlands. Finding that his humble birth hindered his chances for promotion[2] beyond that of anunterleutnant, he left the Austrian army in 1783 after serving seven years.[3]
On returning to France, Kléber received the appointment of inspector of public buildings atBelfort.[2] Between 1784 and 1792, he designed a number of buildings both on public and private commission. Perhaps the most notable is theHôtel de Ville atThann, Haut-Rhin (1787–1793), which was originally designed as a hospital but turned into an administrative building before its completion.[4] Other surviving buildings are thechâteau ofGrandvillars (often erroneously spelled "Granvillars"), built around 1790[5] and thecanoness houses of theBenedictine abbey ofMasevaux (1781–1790). Nine of these houses had been planned but due to theFrench Revolution, only seven were built.[6] TheMusée historique de Strasbourg features a room dedicated to Jean-Baptiste Kléber that also displays a number of his sketches and architectural designs.
In 1792, at the start of theFrench Revolutionary Wars, Kléber enlisted in the 4th Battalion of Volunteers ofHaut-Rhin.[7] Thanks to his military experience, he was at once elected adjutant and soon afterward lieutenant-colonel of the battalion.[2] At thedefense of Mainz in July 1793 he so distinguished himself that, though disgraced along with the rest of the garrison and imprisoned, he promptly won reinstatement, and was promoted tobrigade general in August 1793.[2]
Kléber was then posted to theArmy of the Coasts of La Rochelle and deployed to Western France, where he took part in the suppression of theRevolt in the Vendée.[7] Although beaten at theBattle of Tiffauges on 19 September 1793, he maintained good relations with therepresentatives on mission and managed to keep his command.[7] A month later, Kléber contributed to the Republican victory atCholet, earning him his promotion togeneral of division on 17 October 1793.[7] In these operations began his intimacy with GeneralFrançois Marceau, with whom he defeated theRoyalists at the battles ofLe Mans andSavenay in December 1793.[2]
When Kléber openly expressed his opinion that the Vendéans merited lenient measures, the authorities recalled him, but reinstated him once more in April 1794 and sent him to theArmy of the Ardennes.[2][7] He displayed his skill and bravery in the numerous actions aroundCharleroi, and especially in the crowning victory atFleurus (26 June 1794).[2] During the following years he served mostly in theArmy of Sambre and Meuse on theRhine frontier.[7] In the winter of 1794–1795 he besieged Mainz.[2] In 1795, and again in 1796, Kléber held the chief command of the army temporarily, but declined a permanent appointment as commander-in-chief.[2]
On 13 October 1795 he fought a brilliant rearguard action at the bridge ofNeuwied, and in the offensive campaign of 1796, he served as GeneralJean-Baptiste Jourdan's most active and successful lieutenant, with his victory atSiegburg on 1 June that year enabling Jourdan to get the bulk of the French force across the Rhine.[2] After the retreat to the Rhine, Kléber again declined a chief command, and retired into private life in early 1798.[2] He returned to service later that year, first in theArmy of England, then accepted a division in theArmy of the Orient under General Napoleon Bonaparte.[7]
Kléber followed Bonaparte in hisexpedition to Egypt but suffered a wound in the head in thefirst engagement at Alexandria, which prevented him for taking part in theBattle of the Pyramids, and caused his appointment as governor of Alexandria.[2] In theSyrian campaign of 1799, however, he commanded the vanguard, tookEl-Arish,Gaza, andJaffa, and won a great victory at theBattle of Mount Tabor on 15–16 April 1799.[2]
The campaign was not going well for the French as Napoleon withdrew and returned to France towards the end of 1799. Napoleon left Kléber in command of the French forces, without consulting Kléber before leaving.[8] In this capacity, seeing no hope of bringing his army back to France or of consolidating his conquests, he negotiated theConvention of El-Arish (24 January 1800) with CommodoreSidney Smith, winning the right to an honorable evacuation of the French army.[8] When AdmiralLord Keith refused to ratify the terms, Kléber attacked the Turks at theBattle of Heliopolis.[8] Although he had only 10,000 men against 60,000 Turks, Kléber's forces utterly defeated the Turks on 20 March 1800.[2] He then re-tookCairo, which had revolted against French rule.[2]
Kléber, son of an operative? freemason and a prominent mason himself, was attestedly instrumental in bringing freemasonry to Egypt.[9] While he was negotiating with Sidney Smith in January 1800, Kléber opened a masonic temple in Cairo and thus created the Isis lodge (La Loge Isis), serving as its firstmaster.[9][10][11] The motto of the lodge was the slogan of the French Revolution:Liberté, égalité, fraternité.[9]
Shortly after these victories, while Kléber was walking in the garden of the palace of Alfi bika, he was stabbed to death bySuleiman al-Halabi, a Kurdish[12] or ArabSyrian student living in Egypt. The assassin appeared to be begging from Kléber, but then took his hand and stabbed him in the heart, stomach, left arm, and right cheek, before running away to hide near the palace. He was soon caught, still in possession of the dagger which he had used to kill Kléber, and was later executed. The assassination happened in Cairo on 14 June 1800, coincidentally the same day on which Kléber's friend and comrade,Desaix, fell atMarengo. The assassin's right arm was burned off, and he wasimpaled in a public square in Cairo and left for several hours to die. Suleiman's skull was shipped to France and used to teach medical students what the Frenchphrenologists claimed were the cranial features indicating "crime" and "fanaticism".[13]
After his assassination, Kléber's embalmed body was repatriated to France.[14] Fearing that his tomb would become a symbol of Republicanism,Napoleon ordered it held at theChâteau d'If, on an island nearMarseille. It stayed there for 18 years untilLouis XVIII granted Kléber a burial place in his home town ofStrasbourg.[15] He was buried on 15 December 1838 below his statue located in the center ofPlace Kléber. His heart is in an urn in thecaveau of the Governors beneath the altar of theSaint Louis Chapel inLes Invalides,Paris. Kléber's name is inscribed in column 23 on the southern pillar of theArc de Triomphe.
Kléber emerged as undoubtedly one of the greatest generals of the French revolutionary epoch. Though he distrusted his powers and declined the responsibility of supreme command, there is nothing in his career to show that he would have been unequal to it. As a second-in-command no general of his time excelled him. His conduct of affairs in Egypt, at a time when the treasury was empty and the troops were discontented for want of pay, shows that his powers as an administrator were little, if at all, inferior to those he possessed as a general.[2] While Kléber himself had a mixed view of Napoleon (including cursing at him and drawing mocking caricatures of him), Bonaparte thought highly of Kléber's skill, stating that there was, "No sight so splendid as watching Kléber go into battle", and he likened him to the God of War Mars.[16]
Attribution:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Kléber, Jean Baptiste".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 845.| International | |
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