page_title: Eloi Charlemagne Taupin
section_title: France: 1814
hierarchical_section_title: Eloi Charlemagne Taupin / Empire / France: 1814
context_page_description: Eloi Charlemagne Taupin became a French soldier before the French Revolution and was killed in 1814 leading his division in battle against the British and the Spanish in southern France. After fighting in the French Revolutionary Wars, he was promoted to command an infantry regiment at the beginning of the First French Empire. He led the unit during the War of the Third Coalition in 1805. The following year he fought in the War of the Fourth Coalition. The year 1808 found him at Zaragoza in Spain where he was wounded. In 1809 he led a brigade during the War of the Fifth Coalition at Gefrees.
  Taupin transferred again to Spain where he fought in the Peninsular War including the battles of Bussaco and Salamanca. He was appointed to command an infantry division in October 1812 and in January 1813 was promoted general of division. In 1813 he led his division in the battles of the Pyrenees, San Marcial, the Bidassoa, Nivelle and the Nive. In 1814 he conducted a particularly stubborn defense at Orthez and was fatally wounded leading an attack at Toulouse. Ironically, his death came a few days after Napoleon abdicated his throne.
context_section_description: At the Battle of Orthez on 26 February 1814, Taupin's division held the French right flank at the Plassotte Knoll overlooking the village and church of Saint-Boès. Wellington planned to turn the French right flank using Lowry Cole's British 4th Division. Soon after 8:30 am, Cole's leading brigade under Robert Ross seized the church and village, but it was unable to advance beyond the village. When Cole brought up an artillery battery to suppress the French guns, the battery commander was killed and two of its guns were knocked out. Cole renewed the assault, throwing in José Vasconcellos' Portuguese brigade on the right of Ross. However, the second attack was also beaten back, Ross going down with a wound and the Allied soldiers falling back to the village. Presently Taupin counterattacked and his men recaptured part of the village. Despite being reinforced by the Portuguese 1st Caçadores from the Light Division, Cole's entire line soon collapsed and his soldiers abandoned Saint-Boès.
  His initial plan thwarted, Wellington ordered a general assault on the French position at 11:30 am. The attack on Taupin's division was renewed by the British 7th Division under George Townshend Walker. Supported by a Portuguese brigade on the right and two battalions on the left, Walker launched the 6th Foot, followed by three more battalions at Taupin's defenses. In addition Wellington sent the 52nd Foot to turn Taupin's left flank. By this time the rest of the French army was retreating. After a four-hour defense, Taupin's tired men withdrew; they were the last French soldiers to relinquish their position. At Orthez, Taupin's division lost 77 killed, 463 wounded and 51 captured. Cole's division suffered 304 British and 295 Portuguese casualties, while Walker's division reported 368 British casualties. In the Light Division, the 52nd Foot sustained 89 casualties and the 1st Caçadores lost 47.
  At the Battle of Toulouse on 10 April, Taupin's division consisted of two brigades under Jean-Pierre-Antoine Rey (3,039 men) and Joseph Gasquet (2,416) men). Wellington ordered William Carr Beresford to take the British 4th and 6th Divisions on a flank march alongside the Ers River to strike Soult's right flank on Mont Rave. The route being through muddy fields, Beresford's march was considerably delayed, causing the Spanish corps to attack prematurely and suffer a repulse. When Beresford finally reached the extreme French right, his six brigades began to advance up Mont Rave in three lines of two brigades each. Soult ordered Taupin's division to change position and then charge downhill against the Allied forces. Rey's brigade was on the right with the 12th Light leading while Gasquet's was on the left with the 47th Line leading. The outer flanks were supported by cavalry. Rather than forming his battalions into line, Taupin sent the two columns marching downhill in a narrow formation. They advanced in battalion column with the battalions one behind the other and were shot to pieces by their British opponents deployed in line. Taupin was fatally shot alongside Rey's leading battalion while trying to encourage his soldiers. The French soldiers panicked and fled uphill, followed by the British. Seeing Rey's brigade in flight, Gasquet's brigade also ran away and the soldiers manning the Sypière Redoubt fled.
  Taupin died at 11:00 am and later that day his body was left in the Cathedral of Saint-Etienne. On 12 April the official couriers arrived from Paris with news that Napoleon had abdicated and the war was over. The name TAUPIN appears on the west side of the Arc de Triomphe.
caption: Battle of Toulouse map shows the attacks of Rey's and Gasquet's brigades at lower right.
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