André Joseph Boussart André Joseph Boussart or André Joseph Boussard ( 13 November 1758 – 11 August 1813 ) was a French soldier and general . He enlisted in the army of Habsburg Austria as a youth . A Belgian by birth , he joined the Brabant Revolution against Austria and fled to France when the rebellion collapsed . He soon found himself fighting for France during the French Revolutionary Wars . Promoted to general officer during the French Campaign in Egypt and Syria , he returned to France where he held several non - combat posts . He commanded a dragoon brigade during the 1805 and 1806 – 1807 campaigns . At Prenzlau he led a highly successful charge against forces of the Kingdom of Prussia , capturing many soldiers and cannon . After the battle his cavalry participated in the mopping up operations in Prussia . He was wounded fighting the Russians at Czarnowo and Pultusk . He transferred to Spain in 1808 where he was captured in the Bailén debacle . He was exchanged and fought in many battles at the head of Marshal Louis Gabriel Suchet ' s cavalry during the Peninsular War . Recklessly brave , he suffered many wounds during his military career and was nearly killed at Valencia . He died of his injuries in the summer of 1813 . Early career . A native of the Austrian Netherlands , Boussart was born on 13 November 1758 in Binche in what is now Belgium . As a young man , he joined the Austrian army and by 1789 he was a junior leutnant in the cavalry . In that year , he quit the Austrian army and transferred his loyalty to the United States of Belgium at the time of the Brabant Revolution . He served in the insurgent army as a captain and later escaped to France when the Austrians put down the Belgian revolt . In his new country he enlisted in the " Hainault " Dragoon Regiment and was promoted to lieutenant on 28 July 1792 . He became captain on 1 October . He was involved in an action against an Austrian column on 1 March 1793 . Transferred to the Army of Italy as a chef d ' escadron ( major ) of the 20th Dragoon Regiment , Boussart fought at the Battle of Mondovì on 21 April 1796 . In this action he was wounded three times by saber cuts while fighting Piedmontese cavalrymen . At the Battle of Lodi he crossed the Adda with the cavalry . At the Battle of Castiglione on 5 August , he and a party of cavalry captured a group of Austrian hussars . On 7 January 1797 he was promoted to chef de brigade ( colonel ) . Boussart went with Napoleon Bonaparte to Egypt and fought at the Battle of the Pyramids on 21 July 1798 and the Battle of Abukir on 25 July 1799 . He was named general of brigade on 23 September 1800 , which was confirmed when he got back to France . In the Battle of Alexandria on 21 March 1801 , he fought against the British . Wounded three times in the action , he required several months of convalescence . At the end of the Siege of Alexandria on 2 September 1801 , he was ordered to sign the articles of capitulation . He became a member of the legion d ' honneur on 11 December 1803 and served in the Bordeaux military district as a dragoon commander . 1805 – 1807 . In the War of the Third Coalition against Austria , Boussart led a brigade in Frédéric Henri Walther ' s 2nd Dragoon Division . He fought at the Battle of Austerlitz on 2 December 1805 . During the War of the Fourth Coalition against Prussia , Boussart led the 3rd Brigade in Emmanuel Grouchy ' s 2nd Dragoon Division . The 13th and 22nd Dragoon Regiments , each three squadrons strong , were placed under his command . Grouchy ' s division missed the Battle of Jena - Auerstedt but became deeply involved in the pursuit of the defeated Prussian armies . At Zehdenick on 26 October , Grouchy ' s division crushed a 1 , 300 - man Prussian brigade , decimating the " Königin " Dragoon Regiment Nr . 5 . The next day , the " Gensdarmes " Cuirassier Regiment Nr . 10 blundered into Grouchy ' s marching column at Wichmannsdorf near Boitzenburg . Three of Grouchy ' s regiments attacked the Prussians , trapping them against a marsh and forcing their surrender . Boussart played a key role in the Battle of Prenzlau on 28 October . Marshal Joachim Murat led Grouchy ' s division , Marc Antoine de Beaumont ' s 3rd Dragoon Division , Antoine Lasalle ' s light cavalry brigade , and 3 , 000 of Marshal Jean Lannes ' infantry against Frederick Louis , Prince of Hohenlohe - Ingelfingen ' s 12 , 000 Prussians . The Prussians approached Prenzlau from the northwest while the French came up from the southwest . Murat sent Lasalle ' s brigade directly against Hohenlohe ' s covering force while ordering one of Beaumont ' s brigades to make a wide circuit to the west . Meanwhile , he detached Boussart ' s brigade and sent it to ford a stream on the western outskirts of the town . Boussart ' s horsemen charged the Prussian marching column , smashing into it from the side . The attack was a complete success . The French dragoons hacked their way through the column and seized many prisoners . Boussart ' s troopers cleared the road as far as the city gates , inflicted about 1 , 000 casualties and captured eight guns . Meanwhile , Beaumont ' s division surrounded and captured the now - isolated Prussian rear guard . Shortly afterward , Murat bluffed a dazed Hohenlohe into surrendering with 10 , 000 men . On 2 and 3 November , the 22nd Dragoons of Boussart ' s brigade secured the surrender of the small port of Wolgast on the Baltic Sea . Hohenlohe ' s baggage train of 500 wagons with 2 , 500 teamsters and other non - combatants fell into the hands of the French . Grouchy ' s division arrived in time to take part in the Battle of Lübeck on 6 November . After the French infantry cleared the city streets , the dragoons moved through the city to fall upon a Prussian detachment at Krempelsdorf . They forced Major Ende to surrender with 360 cavalrymen and four guns . Boussart was wounded on 23 December at the Battle of Czarnowo . Three days later , he was seriously wounded at the Battle of Pultusk while serving under the command of Nicolas Léonard Beker . The dragoons of Beker fought on Lannes ' left flank . Boussart fought at the Battle of Eylau on 7 and 8 February 1807 . Grouchy ' s 2 , 200 - strong division joined in Murat ' s grand charge at a critical moment during the bloody contest . The dragoons first drove off the Russian cavalry menacing Louis Vincent Le Blond de Saint - Hilaire ' s infantry division . Then Murat led them in an attack that defeated the Russian cavalry in the center . By this time the 2nd Cuirassier Division had become isolated after carving a path through two lines of Russian infantry . Marshal Jean - Baptiste Bessières now led the Guard cavalry to the rescue . After being rebuffed by the Russian second line , Grouchy ' s troopers joined the Horse Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard and smashed their way through . Finally , the French reserve cavalry had to cut its way out from behind the Russian lines , losing between 1 , 000 and 1 , 500 troopers altogether . Spain . Napoleon appointed Boussart a Baron of the Empire on 19 March 1808 and posted the much - wounded veteran to Spain . In 1808 he was with Pierre Dupont de l ' Étang ' s corps in Andalusia . He led a cavalry brigade that consisted of the 6th Provisional Dragoon Regiment and numbering 620 troopers . On 17 July his command was detached with Dominique Honoré Antoine Vedel ' s division to march to Bailén . However , Vedel marched beyond the town in a mistaken belief that the Spanish had seized the passes to the north . In fact , Theodor von Reding ' s 17 , 000 - man Spanish corps arrived at Bailén on the 18th and occupied the town without opposition . This placed Dupont ' s 11 , 000 men squarely between Reding and Francisco Javier Castaños ' s corps . In the Battle of Bailén , Dupont failed to break out of trap and asked for terms . While the negotiations were going on , Vedel ' s division returned . Boussart ' s dragoons attacked and captured about 1 , 000 Spanish troops . When a Spanish delegation warned Vedel that there was a truce in force , he ordered his soldiers to cease fire . When Dupont ordered him to release the prisoners taken during the parley , Vedel did so . As Dupont surrendered , Vedel began retreating north in accordance with secret orders from his superior . Later , when the Spaniards threatened to massacre Dupont ' s men unless Vedel was included in the capitulation , Dupont sent an order to Vedel to return to Bailén and surrender . Amazingly , Vedel followed the order even though his division was not surrounded . This more than doubled the total of unwounded prisoners taken from 8 , 242 to 17 , 635 . While Dupont and the French generals were returned to France , the enlisted men spent the rest of the war in prison hulks or on the bleak island of Cabrera and half of them died of disease or starvation . In January 1810 , Boussart next appeared in the French order of battle in Spain at the head of Suchet ' s 1 , 899 - strong III Corps cavalry . On 23 April at Margalef in Catalonia , Suchet encountered 7 , 300 Spaniards and six artillery pieces under Henry O ' Donnell . The 6 , 000 Frenchmen included Louis François Félix Musnier ' s division and the 13th Cuirassier and 4th Hussar Regiments . In the event , the 500 cuirassiers won the battle almost single - handed . The French horsemen suffered 100 casualties but rode down O ' Donnell ' s hapless troops . The Spanish lost 500 killed and wounded , plus 2 , 000 soldiers and four colors captured . The successful Siege of Lerida quickly followed . Between 29 April and 13 May , Suchet forced García Conde to capitulate with six generals , 307 officers , 7 , 000 soldiers , and 105 cannon . During the siege operations , the Spanish lost 1 , 700 killed and wounded while the French lost 1 , 000 out of the 13 , 000 men in III Corps . On 16 December 1810 , Suchet ' s 12 , 000 - man Army of Aragon invested Tortosa . By 2 January 1811 , the Siege of Tortosa was concluded after the French inflicted 1 , 400 casualties on the defenders , while suffering only 400 killed and wounded . The French forced the 3 , 974 survivors of Conde de Alacha Lilli ' s garrison to surrender . Boussart ' s cavalry , the 13th Cuirassier , 4th Hussar , and 24th Dragoon Regiments , were present during the operation . Boussart participated in the Siege of Tarragona from 5 May to 29 June 1811 . He led his three French regiments plus the Italian " Napoleone " Dragoon Regiment . The French besiegers lost 4 , 300 killed and wounded , while the Spanish defenders lost 7 , 000 killed and 8 , 000 captured . Twice during the operation , Suchet formed expeditions to chase off armies attempting to relieve the garrison . On 15 July 1811 , Boussart commanded 1 , 876 cavalrymen in three regiments . In September , his command numbered 2 , 405 in 14 squadrons . In late summer , Suchet launched an invasion of the province of Valencia , arriving before the ancient fortress of Saguntum ( Sagunto ) on 23 September 1811 . After the garrison repelled two French assaults , a relief army of Joaquín Blake y Joyes appeared and the two sides clashed in the Battle of Saguntum on 25 October . While the French dispersed Blake ' s left flank rather easily , the fighting in the center and right of the Spanish line was much tougher . Early in the action , Suchet committed three squadrons of cavalry to retake some ground . Soon afterward , the Spanish cavalry overran a French battery and Suchet sent in 350 troopers of the 13th Cuirassiers . Leading the charge , Boussart scattered the Spanish horsemen and recaptured the guns . Hewing a path through their opponents , the armor - clad heavy cavalrymen captured a Spanish artillery battery before their impetus was spent . When Suchet ordered the 24th Dragoons to attack , the rout of Blake ' s army became general . For a loss of 1 , 000 casualties , the French inflicted 6 , 000 killed and wounded on the Spanish , not counting several hundred prisoners . The 2 , 500 - man Saguntum garrison , disheartened by the spectacle , capitulated the next day . In the operations immediately preceding the Siege of Valencia , Suchet concentrated most of his army in an envelopment of the landward flank of Blake ' s defenses . Fooled by diversionary attacks , Blake failed to detect Suchet ' s maneuver until too late . Led by one squadron of the 4th Hussars , Jean Isidore Harispe ' s division reached a position behind the Spanish left flank . Coming upon the Spanish cavalry reserves near Aldaia and Torrent , Boussart recklessly led 60 hussars to attack the vastly more numerous Spanish horsemen . Soon , he was covered in saber wounds and his bravest men were cut down around him . Luckily , Jacques - Antoine - Adrien Delort came to the rescue with more cavalry . After Harispe and the French cavalry routed the Spanish troopers , they found Boussard lying among the fallen after having been robbed of his medals and sword . Boussart received promotion to general of division on 16 March 1812 . In the middle of fall 1812 , his cavalry division counted 1 , 922 horsemen . At the Battle of Castalla on 13 April 1813 , he led 1 , 424 troopers in eight squadrons . In a preliminary action at Biar on 12 April , Frederick Adam fought an effective rear guard action at Biar , ambushing the 13th Cuirassiers and keeping the French troops in check . The next day , Suchet sent Boussart to turn John Murray , 8th Baronet ' s right flank . However , the flank was protected by waterlogged ground , so the cavalry general could only observe his enemies as Suchet ' s main attack was defeated . The French commander soon recalled Boussart and retreated . Boussart retired to Bagnères de Bigorre in order to recuperate from his battle injuries . He died there of his many wounds on 11 August 1813 .