Jean-Baptiste Eblé

Count of the Empire

Jean-Baptiste Éblé was born in Saint-Jean-Rohrbach, Lorraine, on December 21, 1758, to an officer father whose footsteps he followed by becoming a gunner in the same regiment a few years later.

In 1792, when the war began, he was still only a junior officer (lieutenant or captain, depending on the source). Like others, he was promoted in a matter of months, becoming a brigadier general in September 1793, a division general a month later, and director of artillery for the Armée du Nord. He distinguished himself during this year at the battles of Hondschoote and Wattignies.

Having pioneered the idea of distributing cannons among the army's various divisions, Éblé effectively led the artillery during the sieges of Ypres (June 1794) and Nieuport (July). He then led the sieges of L'Ecluse, Fort Crèvecoeur, Bois-le-Duc and Nijmegen.

Éblé distinguished himself again in November 1796 during the defense of Kehl. In November 1798, he was sent to command Jean-Etienne Vachier Championnet's phantom artillery in the army of Rome, an artillery he had to compose with pieces taken from the Neapolitans. In 1800, he served under Jean-Victor Moreau in the Army of the Rhine, earning the highest praise from his commander.

After several years in less exposed posts in Holland and Hanover, Éblé did not return to the battlefield until October 1806, in Halle. He was then Governor of Magdeburg.

In October 1808, Jean-Baptiste Éblé was created Baron d'Empire, one month after the newly created Kingdom of Westphalia made him its Minister of War. He left the ministry in January 1810 to take command of the artillery of the Portuguese army, under André Masséna. During this campaign, he took part in the sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida.

Returning to Paris in 1811, Éblé was made a count the following year, and in February 1812 was given command-in-chief of the pontonniers of the Grande Armée. It was at the head of this corps that he would immortalize his name, when the remnants of the retreating Grande Armée crossed the Berezina. On November 26, 1812, in sub-zero temperatures of 26°, he managed to build two boat bridges across the river, not hesitating to take to the water himself to set an example for his men. His efforts enabled the passage of over 50,000 men, all that remained of the invading forces. On the 29th, he set fire to the bridges he had just built to prevent the Russians from using them.

Appointed commander-in-chief of the Grande Armée artillery to replace Jean-Ambroise Baston de Lariboisière, who had died on December 18, 1812, Éblé held the post for just thirteen days before succumbing to exhaustion in Königsberg on the 31st.

Unaware of his death, Napoleon appointed him First Inspector General of Artillery on January 3, 1813.

Jean-Baptiste Éblé's heart is preserved in the Crypt des Gouverneurs in the Cathédrale Saint-Louis des Invalides.

A commemorative monument surmounted by a bronze bust of General Eblé was erected in front of the church in his native village, while a full-length statue by Emile Fernand-Dubois honors his memory on the north façade of the Louvre, rue de Rivoli.