page_title: François Jean Baptiste Quesnel
section_title: Early Empire
hierarchical_section_title: François Jean Baptiste Quesnel / Early Empire
caption_attribution_description: English: Representation of the withdrawal of French troops from Porto before the onslaught of Anglo-Luso army under the command of Wellesley. May 12, 1809. No indication of author. Português: Representação da retirada das tropas francesas do Porto perante o ataque do exército anglo-luso sob o comando de Wellesley. 12 de Maio de 1809. Não tem indicação de autor.
context_page_description: François Jean Baptiste Quesnel du Torpt became a division commander under the First French Empire of Napoleon. By the time the French Revolutionary Wars began, he had been a non-commissioned officer in the French army for nearly a decade. Within less than two years he rose to the rank of general officer while fighting against Spain. His career then stagnated until the War of the Second Coalition when he led a brigade in Italy at Verona, Magnano, Cassano, Bassignana where he was wounded, and Novi.
  Promoted to division command in 1805, he filled non-combat posts in the interior. He was captured in 1808 after participating in the 1807 Invasion of Portugal. After being released, he served in the 1809 Invasion of Portugal but was later detached to lead a column of dismounted cavalrymen back to France. He led a division at Figueras in 1811. During the War of the Sixth Coalition he commanded a division under Eugène de Beauharnais in Italy, fighting at the battles of Feistritz, Bassano, Caldiero, and the Mincio. He retired from the army in 1815 and drowned in the Seine under mysterious circumstances in 1819. Quesnel is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe on Column 37.
context_section_description: On 11 December 1803 Quesnel became a member of the Légion d'Honneur and on 14 June 1804 Napoleon named him commandant of the Légion. He was promoted to general of division in February 1805. He commanded the Army of the North from 23 November 1805 until it was dissolved on 1 February 1806. In June he took charge of the 9th Military Division.
  Quesnel joined Jean-Andoche Junot's army for the 1807 Invasion of Portugal. He was named governor of Porto (Oporto) and Entre-Douro-e-Minho Province, with authority over the Spanish troops occupying the region. On 6 June 1808 news of the Dos de Mayo Uprising reached Porto and Spanish General Belesta seized Quesnel, his staff, and his 30-man dragoon escort as prisoners. After urging the Portuguese to revolt against the French, Belesta immediately marched back to Spain with his 6,000 soldiers and his prisoners. Quesnel was handed over to the British at Corunna, but was freed when French soldiers captured the city on 16 January 1809.
  Quesnel accompanied Marshal Nicolas Soult and the II Corps in the 1809 invasion of Portugal. During the Second Battle of Porto on 12 May 1809, the British army crossed the Douro right under the noses of the French. Though Soult must bear most of the blame for the lapse in security, as governor of Porto (again), Quesnel was partly responsible.  After the retreat from Portugal into northwest Spain in May 1809, the marshal reorganized the II Corps. So many horses had died that Soult made the 3rd and 4th squadrons of each cavalry regiment hand over their horses to the 1st and 2nd squadrons. The 1,100 dismounted cavalrymen were given muskets and formed into a column with Quesnel in command. A few of the weakest 3rd and 4th infantry battalions transferred their rank and file into their regiment's 1st and 2nd battalions. The superfluous officers and NCOs were formed into cadres and ordered to return to France to reform their units. These infantrymen were also attached to Quesnel's column. The force set out for Astorga and fought its way through a concentration of Spanish guerillas at Doncos. Though constantly sniped at during its march, the column made it through successfully.
  On 11 July 1809, Quesnel was ordered to Nijmegen and on 7 February 1810 was named to lead brigades of light cavalry. On 3 May 1810 he assumed command of the 11th Military Division. On 10 April 1811, Spanish guerillas under Francesc Rovira i Sala seized Sant Ferran Castle, throwing the French position in Catalonia into chaos. As commander in charge of the Pyrenees frontier district, Quesnel quickly assembled three line infantry battalions and the Gers and Haute-Garonne National Guard battalions and marched into Spain. He joined Luigi Gaspare Peyri's 1,500 men and 2,000 more under Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers to give d'Hilliers a force of 7,000 men. With this force, plus large reinforcements under Louis Auguste Marchand Plauzonne, the French began the Siege of Figueras. The besiegers repelled a Spanish relief attempt on 3 May but the operation tied up the VII Corps for the entire summer. By the time the starving Spanish garrison capitulated on 19 August 1811, 4,000 French troops had died, many from disease. During the siege, Quesnel's division included three battalions of the 79th Line Infantry Regiment, two battalions of the 23rd Light, one battalion of the 93rd Line, and three squadrons of the 29th Chasseurs à Cheval.
caption: Second Battle of Porto on 12 May 1809
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