Volta
Person1739 – 1823

Charles-François Dumouriez

Also called: Dumouriez

Revolutionary general who commanded at Valmy and Jemappes in 1792 and defected to the Austrians the following year

Born at Cambrai in 1739, he fought in the Seven Years’ War and served in Louis XV’s secret diplomacy. Close to the Girondins in the Revolution, he became foreign minister in March 1792 and pushed for war with Austria. As commander of the Army of the North he held off the Prussians at Valmy with Kellermann in September and defeated the Austrians at Jemappes in November, taking the Austrian Netherlands (today Belgium). After defeat at Neerwinden in March 1793 he tried to march on Paris to restore the monarchy, and when that failed he went over to the Austrians in April. After years in exile he died in England in 1823.

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1 related event

  1. 1
    1792Revolutionary Wars and the Battle of Valmycommander

    Revolutionary France declared war on Austria, and at Valmy its army halted the Prussians advancing on Paris.

People who appear alongside

  • François Christophe Kellermann1735 – 1820

    Revolutionary general who held the windmill hill against the Prussians at Valmy in 1792, later a Marshal of Napoleon

Themes this person appears in

  • The French Revolution1787 – 1799

    From the Assembly of Notables and the Estates-General to the coup of 18 Brumaire — twelve years that toppled the absolute monarchy, founded a republic, passed through Terror and reaction, and ended with Napoleon