Bertrand Clausel Bertrand , comte Clausel ( or Clauzel ) ( 12 December 1772 – 21 April 1842 ) was a marshal of France . Military career . Bertrand Clausel was born on 12 December 1772 at Mirepoix in the County of Foix , and served in the first campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars as one of the volunteers of 1791 In June 1795 , having distinguished himself repeatedly in the war on the northern frontier ( 1792 – 1793 ) and the fighting in the eastern Pyrénées ( 1793 – 1794 ) , Clausel was made a general of brigade . In this rank he served in Italy in 1798 and 1799 , and in the disastrous campaign of the latter year he won great distinction at the battles of the Trebbia and of Novi . In 1802 he served in the expedition to San Domingo . He became a general of division in December 1802 , and after his return to France he was in almost continuous military employment there until in 1806 he was sent to the army of Naples . Soon after this Napoleon made him a grand officer of the Legion of Honor . In 1808 – 1809 he was with Marmont in Dalmatia , and at the close of 1809 he was appointed to a command in the army of Portugal under Masséna . Peninsular campaigns of 1810 and 1811 . Clausel took part in the Peninsular campaigns of 1810 and 1811 , including the Torres Vedras campaign , and under Marmont he did excellent service in re - establishing the discipline , efficiency and mobility of the army , which had suffered severely in the retreat from Torres Vedras . In the Salamanca campaign ( 1812 ) the result of Clausels work was shown in the marching powers of the French , and at the battle of Salamanca , Clausel , who had succeeded to the command when Marmont was wounded , and had himself received a severe wound , drew off his army with the greatest skill . The retreat on Burgos was conducted by him so well that the pursuers failed to make the slightest impression , and had themselves in the end to retire from the siege of Burgos ( 1812 ) . Commander of the Army . Early in 1813 Clausel was made commander of the Army of the North in Spain , but he was unable to avert the great disaster of Vitoria . Under the supreme command of Soult he served through the rest of the Peninsular War with unvarying distinction . On the first restoration in 1814 he submitted unwillingly to the Bourbons , and when Napoleon returned to France , he hastened to join him . During the Hundred Days he was in command of an army defending the Pyrenean frontier . Even after Waterloo he long refused to recognize the restored government , and he escaped to America , being condemned to death in absence . He then settled in the Vine and Olive Colony in Alabama , later returning to France after the failure of that venture . Political life . He took the first opportunity of returning to aid the Orléanist Liberals in France ( 1820 ) , sat in the Chamber of deputies from 1827 to 1830 , and after the July Revolution of 1830 was at once given a military command . Clausel replaced the Legitimist General de Bourmont in charge of the invasion of Algeria . He made a successful campaign , but he was soon recalled by the home government , which desired to avoid complications in Algeria . At the same time he was made a Marshal of France ( February 1831 ) . For some four years thereafter he urged his Algerian policy upon the Chamber of deputies , and finally in 1835 was reappointed commander - in - chief . But after several victories , including the taking of Mascara in 1835 , the Marshal met with a severe repulse at Constantine in 1836 . A change of government in France was primarily responsible for the failure , but public opinion attributed it to Clausel , who was recalled in February 1837 . He thereupon retired from active service , and , after vigorously defending his conduct before the deputies , he ceased to take part in public affairs . He lived in complete retirement up to his death at Secourrieu ( Garonne ) .