Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix de Castries , marquis de Castries , baron des États de Languedoc , comte de Charlus , baron de Castelnau et de Montjouvent , seigneur de Puylaurens et de Lézignan ( 25 February 1727 , Paris - 11 January 1801 , Wolfenbüttel ) was a French marshal . He was the son of Joseph François de La Croix de Castries , marquis de Castries , and his second wife , Marie - Françoise de Lévis de Charlus . Military career . Entering the régiment du Roi - Infanterie in May 1739 , he became a lieutenant on 23 August 1742 . In parallel , he was lieutenant du Roi ( king ' s lieutenant ) in Languedoc and governor of Montpellier and Sète ( from 1 December 1743 ) . He fought with distinction in the Seven Years ' War and all Louis XV ' s campaigns . " Mestre de camp " of the régiment du Roi - Cavalerie from 26 March 1744 , he was maréchal de camp and commandant général of the cavalry from 1748 . In 1756 , he commanded the expeditionary force sent to St Lucia , and the Carenage quarter of the island was renamed Castries after him . He next distinguished himself in the Battle of Rossbach ( 5 November 1757 ) , in which he was wounded twice . Becoming lieutenant général ( on 28 December 1758 ) , he became maître de camp général of the cavalry on 16 April 1759 . At the Battle of Clostercamp ( 16 October 1760 ) , through his sang - froid he saved a situation when all seemed lost . He was made knight of the Ordre du Saint - Esprit on 30 May 1762 . Shortly after the peace of 1763 , he was named governor of Flanders and Hainaut . Next , he was made capitaine lieutenant of the company of Gendarmes écossais and commandant of the Gendarmerie from 1770 until his retirement in 1788 . Secretary of the Navy . He was named Secretary of State of the Navy on 13 October 1780 on the recommendation of his friend Jacques Necker . He remained in this post until 24 August 1787 . In 1783 , he was made a marshal of France . He reorganised the fleet and had a new naval strategy adopted by the Grand Conseil , that the navy ' s ships of the line should be kept at sea whilst a flotilla blockaded the Royal Navy and kept it in port . This strategy that led to French naval successes in the American War of Independence . He also made a very important legislative effort , simplifying the navy ' s hierarchy and reorganising its recruitment . de Castries deeply studied the dossiers sent him , and was highly energetic in these roles - hence his saying " I would like to sleep more quickly " ( " Je voudrais dormir plus vite " ) . In politics , nevertheless , his views were rather conservative , if one judges by his " Réflexions sur l ' esprit public " , addressed to the King in 1785 - for him , monarchy ' s difficulties were summed up in a problem of authority problem ; it was enough for it to show firmness and everything would be back in order . French Revolution . In 1787 , he participated in the Assembly of Notables . On July 13 , 1789 , pressed to re - accept the ministry of the Navy by the king , he refused it . He emigrated on October 20 and took advantage of the hospitality of Jacques Necker at Coppet . In 1792 , at the time of the Prussian invasion of the Champagne , he and the marshal of Broglie commanded a corps in the princes ' army . He continued to serve as principal secretary to the count of Provence . He died in 1801 at the home of his old enemy Charles William Ferdinand , Duke of Brunswick , now his friend . He possessed a property at Antony where Parc Heller now is , as well as a castle at Ollainville , which he enlarged in 1782 . In Paris , he installed himself in the hôtel de Castries in 1743 , at 72 rue de Varenne , and in 1761 redecorated it out of a large inheritance from his uncle , the marshal of Belle - Isle . Descendents . On 19 December 1743 , he married Gabrielle Isabeau Thérèse de Rozet de Rocozel de Fleury , daughter of the duc de Fleury , and they had two children : He showed himself an unfaithful husband , cheated frequently on his wife .