page_title: Étienne Marie Antoine Champion de Nansouty
section_title: Campaign in France
hierarchical_section_title: Étienne Marie Antoine Champion de Nansouty / Napoleonic Wars / War of the Sixth Coalition / Campaign in France
context_page_description: Étienne-Marie-Antoine Champion, comte de Nansouty was a French cavalry commander during the French Revolutionary Wars who rose to the rank of General of Division in 1803 and subsequently held important military commands during the Napoleonic Wars.
  Of noble Burgundian descent, he was a student at the Brienne military school, then was a graduate of the Paris military school. Nansouty began his military career in 1785, as a sub-lieutenant in the regiment Bourgogne-Infanterie, where his father had served during the wars of Louis XV. A cavalry officer at the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792, Nansouty was commissioned as an aide-de-camp to Marshal Nicolas Luckner. During the First Coalition, he saw service as a lieutenant-colonel and squadron commander in the 9th Cavalry Regiment, campaigning with the French armies on the Rhine and in Germany. Promoted to Colonel in 1793 and given the command of the 9th Cavalry, he was noted for several well-led cavalry actions.
context_section_description: Nansouty's final campaign took place in 1814 on French soil, under bleak circumstances for the French, who saw huge Coalition armies invade France at the beginning of that year. During this campaign, his command, 5,000 Horse Guards, included the 1st and 2nd Chevau-légers Lanciers regiments, under General Édouard Colbert, the Chasseurs à Cheval, under General Laferrière, the Grenadiers à Cheval under General Guyot, the Dragons, under General Letort, as well as the entire Guard horse artillery.
  These men soon saw action on 27 January, at the Battle of Brienne. Here, two companies of horse artillery, under an officer called Marin, a veteran of the campaigns in Italy and Egypt and personal favourite of the Emperor, were almost completely destroyed, with their guns and commander captured by the enemy. Napoleon was extremely irritated about the failure of the heavy cavalry of the Guard to protect these gunners. A further loss of cannon of the Guard artillery occurred at the Battle of La Rothière, a rare battlefield defeat for Napoleon. Here, a part of the Guard cavalry charged and was initially successful against enemy cavalry but, faced by steady ranks of the Russian and Prussian Guardsmen and with its flank threatened by enemy dragoons, it soon had to withdraw, leaving behind some of its cannon.
  After rejoining the Emperor at Champaubert, Nansouty took part to the Battle of Montmirail, where he was at first instructed to protect the artillery. He then joined in the attack of the Guard infantry on the farm of Ėpine-au-Bois, where he suddenly wheeled left with his men and fell upon unprepared enemy infantry, charging home, routing these troops and subsequently pursuing the fugitives. This combined attack of the Guard resulted in a great number of prisoners and captured enemy guns, with Nansouty receiving a light wound in the process. A part of his men then took part to the Battle of Château-Thierry, where the Emperor ordered the Guard cavalry to make a turning move against the enemy left, and where Nansouty's subordinates General Letort and Colonel Curély brilliantly broke several enemy squares. Then, on 14 February, Nansouty personally led a brilliant charge at the Battle of Vauchamps, where he supported Grouchy in a cavalry action that decided the battle. Charging Blücher's men from the front, Nansouty allowed Grouchy to magnificently fall behind the enemy columns, which they both then sabred and crushed, with the Guard cavalry subsequently participating in a highly successful pursuit. Enemy losses reached a staggering 9,000–10,000 casualties, with 25 cannons lost. The Emperor was radiant following this battle, but, by nightfall, his mood changed when he found out of the loss of some Guard horse artillerymen. These men had been captured during their march and it was reported that their capture resulted from General Guyot (one of Nansouty's subordinates) failing to provide an escort and a guide for them. In Nansouty's presence, a fuming Napoleon summoned Guyot and then chastised him for the repeated losses in cannon during the previous battles, as well as for various other shortcomings, such as failing to properly escort the Emperor. After an angry tirade, Napoleon promptly axed Guyot and announced to Nansouty that General Exelmans would replace Guyot at the helm of his Old Guard heavy cavalry. This episode apparently strained relations between Emperor Napoleon and General Nansouty.
  Always in the thick of the action during this campaign, on 24 February, Nansouty was present near the city of Troyes. Negotiations for an armistice were ongoing in a village nearby and, despite formal orders to continue the fighting, the two armies had ceased the combat. Nansouty then took his men and attacked enemy troops, charging into the streets of the village where the negotiations were taking place. The French envoy to the armistice talks, Monsieur de Flahaut saw this development and found Nansouty, bitterly protesting against the latter's action. Nansouty responded that the Emperor was doubtlessly aware that negotiations were indeed taking 
caption: Napoleon during the 1814 military campaign in France. Painting by Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier
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