Michel Ordener Michel Ordener was a general of division and a commander in Napoleon ' s elite Imperial Guard . Of plebeian origins , he was born 2 September 1755 in L ' Hôpital and enlisted as private at the age of 18 years in the Prince Conde ' s Legion . He was promoted through the ranks ; as warrant officer of a regiment of " Chasseurs à Cheval " , he embraced the French Revolution in 1789 . He advanced quickly through the officer ranks during the French Revolutionary Wars . In 1804 , Ordener organized and led the controversial kidnapping of the Duke d ' Enghien . In 1805 , he commanded a regiment of the Imperial Guard cavalry at several important battles , including the Battle of Austerlitz ; although he led an energetic and opportune charge , Napoleon noted that Ordener seemed tired and predicted that the general would last only five or six years more . Ordener participated in one more campaign and then accepted a post in the Senate . Napoleon appointed him as Josephine Bonaparte ' s equerry , supervising the care and maintenance of her horses . He followed this with the post as governor of the Emperor ' s household in Compiegne , where Ordener died in 30 August 1811 . Career . Although little is known of Ordener ' s youth , he was the son of commoners and joined the legion of the Prince of Conde ( cousin to the king ) at the age of 18 ( 1776 ) . He was assigned as a private of the " Boufflers Dragoons " , part of this legion . In 1783 , he was appointed to the quartermaster corps and in 1787 , he was promoted to warrant officer . In the early days of the French Revolution , he adopted its principles with zeal and enthusiasm . Subsequently , Ordener took part in all the French Revolutionary Wars . In the War of the First Coalition , he served with distinction in the armies of the Moselle , the Rhine , the Danube and in northern Italy . He was promoted to lieutenant in the 10th Regiment " Chasseurs à Cheval " ( light horse ) on 25 January 1792 and captain the following year . In 1796 he was promoted to " chef de brigade " of the 10th Regiment . At the Battle of Lodi , in northern Italy , despite the ravaging fire of Austrian cannons , Ordener held the famous bridge until the arrival of Napoleon with the rest of the army . Ordener crossed the Adda river with a brigade to encircle and envelope the Austrians at the Battle of Pavia . Afterward , he helped to take Milan . At the onset of the War of the Second Coalition in 1799 , when the armies of the Danube and Helvetia were formed , he was assigned to the Army of the Danube under command of Jean Baptiste Jourdan . His 10th Regiment was part of Laurent de Gouvion Saint - Cyr ' s III . Division , and held the far left flank at the Battle of Ostrach , 21 March 1799 , in southwestern Germany . Although he was wounded on 14 August 1799 in Switzerland , he participated in the Second Battle of Zurich in which his 10th " Chasseurs à Cheval " routed a division of Russians , a decisive moment in the French victory . Ordener was promoted to colonel of the regiment in 1801 and on 29 August 1803 , he was promoted to general of brigade . Duke d ' Enghien affair . On Napoleon ' s orders , Ordener entered into the most controversial action of his career , leading a raid into the sovereign Grand Duchy of Baden to arrest Louis Antoine , Duke of Enghien , in 1803 . Napoleon ' s orders were specific : Ordener and Armand Augustin Caulaincourt were to take 300 dragoons into the duchy , surround the village of Ettenheim , where the Duke lived , arrest the Duke and Charles Francois Dumouriez , who Napoleon believed was present , and bring both of the men back to France . Ordener and Caulaincourt were instructed also to take their own provisions and to inflict neither harm nor damage on any of the duchy ' s inhabitants or their property . In the night of 14 – 15 March , the dragoons crossed the Rhine and surrounded the Duke ' s lodgings . Dumouriez was not there , nor had he been , but they kidnapped the Duke and took him away to France . Within a few days , the Duke was spirited into the " Chateau de Vincennes " , on the outskirts of Paris . There he was tried for treason and executed immediately after the verdict . This action , which involved the invasion of a sovereign state , the kidnapping of a duke and a sham trial for treason followed by the man ' s immediate execution , had political and diplomatic repercussions throughout Europe . Campaigns in Austria and Prussia . In 1805 , Ordener participated in the campaign against Austria as commander of a regiment of horse grenadiers of the Imperial Guard . At the Battle of Austerlitz , he led a decisive and energetic charge . He executed this , upon order of Napoleon , with impetuosity ; this was the charge that pushed the Russians onto the ice and during which , French sources maintain , 40 , 000 Russians drowned and another 30 , 000 were taken prisoner . Although this charge garnered for Ordener his promotion to general of division , Napoleon commented that Ordener was worn out . He followed this observation with the frequently quoted prediction , " I think we have no more than five or six years left of him . " In the 1806 campaign against Prussia , Ordener commanded a division of the elite Imperial Guard cavalry . After this campaign , he became a senator and was appointed to first equerry to the Empress Josephine . In this responsibility , he supervised the care of the empress ' s horses , and acted as her senior aid . Michel Ordener ' s daughter , Josephine - Eugenie Ordener , was one of Josephine Bonaparte ' s ladies - in - waiting . He also received the Order of the Iron Crown . In December 1808 , Ordener was raised to Count of the Empire by Napoleon . The following year , Napoleon nominated him as governor for the imperial Château of Compiegne , where he died in 1811 of an attack of apoplexy . He is buried at the Panthéon . François Joseph Lefebvre , Duke of Danzig , another of Napoleon ' s generals of plebian origins and with whom Ordener had developed a long - standing friendship , gave the eulogy : " It is not because of simple regrets and because of honorable mourning that we must recognize the services of a warrior who has dedicated his whole life to his fatherland and his prince . Let us give public testimony to his virtues , to his merit , to all the qualities that have made him esteemed by the Emperor and that have rendered him dear to his friends and to his family . Let us praise him today at least , because his modesty can no longer prevent us , and let us not fear to offend a virtue that he has loved so much during his life . " Family . Michel Ordener married Madeleine - Françoise Walter while he served in the quartermaster corps . They had two children , a daughter mentioned above , and a son . The son , also named Michel , was born in Huningue , on 2 ( or 3 ) April 1787 and attended the special military academy at Metz from which he graduated on 8 December 1803 with the grade of sous - lieutenant ( second lieutenant ) and an assignment to the 24th Regiment of Dragoons . He also took part in the expedition to Spain and the subsequent invasion of Portugal in 1808 . He was promoted to colonel and " chef de brigade " of the 30th Regiment of Dragoons . The Dragoons received battle honors for their participation at the Battle of Borodino . He was wounded on 28 November 1812 in the withdrawal from Russia , at the Battle of Berezina , and again prior to Napoleon ' s abdication , at the Battle of Montmartre . He later fought at the Battle of Waterloo . Despite his record in the Napoleonic wars and his father ' s common origins , he remained at his rank of colonel at the Bourbon Restoration , was confirmed as the second Count Ordener , and was acknowledged as a Knight of the Order of Saint Louis . Michel Ordener , Jr . , married Marie - Francoise - Pauline Legouis in 1829 and died in 1875 .