Pierre François Joseph Durutte

Pierre François Joseph Durutte (13 July 1767 – 18 April 1827) was a French infantry officer and staff-trained commander who reached the rank of général de division in the Consulate and Empire, was created baron and later comte de l’Empire, and held significant operational responsibilities in the campaigns of 1799–1800, 1809, 1812–1814, and 1815. He is especially associated with three distinct phases of high responsibility: staff and advanced-guard work in the Army of the North and Holland during the Revolutionary Wars; divisional command in Italy in 1809; and, in the later Empire, the command of a field division in Germany (1813), the defence and sorties from Metz during the Coalition invasion (1814), and the right-flank divisional command of Ier corps d’armée at Waterloo (18 June 1815). His name is among those inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe.

Born at Douai in the département du Nord into a merchant family, Durutte entered service after the outbreak of war with the First Coalition. He enlisted in 1792 in the 3rd Nord Volunteer Battalion and received early advancement for conduct under fire in the opening campaigns on the northern frontier. He fought at Jemappes (6 November 1792), where he was promoted to lieutenant. In early 1793 he distinguished himself in the fighting at Klundert (1–4 March 1793), where the storming of Dutch fortifications brought him further recognition and a promotion to captain. By the autumn of 1793 he was already being used in a staff capacity: at Hondschoote (6–8 September 1793) he served as chief of staff to a division, an early sign that his superiors considered him suitable for the management of marches, orders, and the coordination of multi-brigade actions rather than merely for company command.

From 1795 Durutte’s career became closely tied to General Jean Victor Marie Moreau. He served as Moreau’s chief of staff when Moreau commanded the Army of the North, and he continued in staff employment in Holland under General Joseph Souham. This alignment with Moreau’s circle shaped both Durutte’s rise—through high-level staff exposure and battlefield responsibility—and later impediments, because of Napoleon’s suspicion of officers associated with a rival of such stature. In the 1799 operations in Holland against the Anglo-Russian expedition, Durutte moved from staff work into a more prominent combat role. On 19 September 1799, at the Battle of Bergen, he led the advance guard in a division under Herman Willem Daendels, an assignment that placed him at the point of contact in a campaign defined by rapid movement, dunes and polder terrain, and repeated meeting engagements. He also fought at Castricum (6 October 1799), one of the key actions that helped compel the eventual evacuation of the expedition. For his conduct in the 1799 campaign he was promoted général de brigade on 26 September 1799, a notably swift advancement for an officer who had begun as a volunteer only seven years earlier.

In 1800, serving again under Moreau, Durutte participated in the Danube theatre of the War of the Second Coalition, fighting at Meßkirch (5 May 1800) and Biberach (9 May 1800). At Hohenlinden (3 December 1800) he commanded a brigade in General Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen’s division, and the handling of that brigade in the developing battle contributed to the rolling up of Austrian columns. In the immediate post-campaign administration he was given responsibilities in northern France (including the département de la Lys), part of the pattern in which successful Revolutionary generals were used to stabilize and administer annexed or frontier departments.

On 27 August 1803 he was promoted to général de division. In the honours structure of the early Empire, Durutte became a member (légionnaire) of the Légion d’honneur on 11 December 1803 and was promoted to commandeur on 9 June 1804. His relationship with Moreau, however, soon had practical consequences. When asked to endorse Napoleon’s elevation to the imperial throne, Durutte refused, and his subsequent employment reflected a deliberate sidelining rather than continued field command with the main armies of the Empire. He was assigned to command the island of Elba, a posting that removed him from the decisive theatres while still giving him administrative command and responsibility for coastal security, garrison discipline, and maritime-facing defence arrangements.

Durutte returned to active field employment in 1809 in the Army of Italy under Eugène de Beauharnais during the War of the Fifth Coalition. He was given a combat division and took part in the manoeuvre fighting in northeastern Italy as Archduke John’s army fell back. In this campaign he is particularly associated with the fighting around the Piave line and the subsequent advance into Hungarian territory that culminated in Raab (Győr) on 14 June 1809. For these services he was ennobled within the imperial hierarchy: he received the title baron de l’Empire by decree dated 15 August 1809, with letters patent later formalizing the title on 14 April 1810. His decorations also included the Napoleonic Italian award the ordre de la Couronne de Fer (17 July 1809), reflecting his service under the viceroy in the Italian kingdom’s army system.

After 1809 Durutte again moved between territorial command and operational responsibility. He served as military governor of Amsterdam for a period and was then appointed to command a military division in the northern departments, an assignment consistent with his experience in both frontier administration and staff organization. These posts also reflected the strategic priorities of the Empire in the annexed and satellite territories: coastal defence, internal security, and the maintenance of troop depots and lines of communication.

In late 1812 Durutte returned to Major field command when he was given the 32nd Infantry Division in Marshal Pierre Augereau’s XI Corps. His division was detached to General Jean Louis Ebénézer Reynier’s VII Saxon Corps in the east during the crisis of the retreat from Russia and the ensuing winter operations in Poland and Prussia. In the fighting around Wolkowisk (14–16 November 1812) his division resisted repeated attacks and held key approaches and crossings, actions that mattered in a theatre where French and allied corps were attempting to preserve coherence amid rapidly deteriorating strategic circumstances. Following the destruction of the main Grande Armée in Russia, Durutte conducted withdrawals through Kalisz and toward Glogau, and later brought surviving troops back toward central Germany, rejoining Eugène de Beauharnais with a reduced but seasoned remnant on 1 April 1813.

During the 1813 campaign in Germany, still associated with Reynier’s VII Corps, Durutte commanded the 32nd Division at Bautzen (20–21 May 1813) and later in the defensive battles around Berlin. At Grossbeeren (23 August 1813) and Dennewitz (6 September 1813) his division contained late-formed battalions of the 131st, 132nd, and 133rd Line Infantry Regiments, as well as battalions of the 35th and 36th Light Infantry and elements of a Würzburg infantry regiment, organized into brigades under generals such as Devaux and Jarry. These were formations whose value depended on tight control and cohesion under heavy pressure, and Durutte’s division remained engaged through the autumn operations. At Leipzig (16–19 October 1813) he fought in the sector where French efforts were complicated by the collapse of Saxon reliability, and his division endured severe pressure while the coalition battle developed against Napoleon’s central position.

The most clearly documented independent defensive command of his career came in 1814. Durutte was given command of Metz, a Major fortress on the northeastern frontier, during the War of the Sixth Coalition. The blockade/siege operations against Metz ran from January into April 1814, with Allied forces—including Prussians, Russians, and Hessians—attempting to contain the garrison. Durutte organized the defence of the place, maintained communications with nearby fortresses, and undertook sorties and manoeuvres in the surrounding region that forced the blockading forces to disperse and react. This was a command in which his staff experience, understanding of fortress administration, and ability to coordinate garrison troops and Garde nationale elements mattered as much as tactical leadership in the field.

During the First Restoration he accepted the Bourbon regime and received honours and appointments. He was made a chevalier of the ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Louis on 27 June 1814 and was named grand officier of the Légion d’honneur on 23 August 1814. In the same period he held the command of a military division (commonly referenced as the 3rd), remaining in an important territorial post.

In 1815 Durutte rallied to Napoleon during the Hundred Days and was assigned a field division in the Armée du Nord. He commanded the 4th Infantry Division of General Jean-Baptiste Drouet, comte d’Erlon’s Ier corps d’armée at Waterloo on 18 June 1815. On the French right he faced Nassau troops under Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar positioned in and around advanced strongpoints including Papelotte and La Haye. Durutte committed his brigades against these defended localities while coordinating supporting artillery, and his division remained engaged through the prolonged struggle on the right flank as the main assault developed nearer the centre. In the final phase of the battle he suffered severe sabre wounds, including injuries that permanently maimed him. After the Second Restoration he was forced into retirement and settled in Flanders.

Durutte died at Ypres on 18 April 1827. His imperial titles were baron de l’Empire (decree of 15 August 1809; letters patent of 14 April 1810) and later comte de l’Empire (decree of 14 June 1813; letters patent of 14 August 1813). In many contemporary and later references he appears as “comte Durutte,” and his full personal name—Pierre François Joseph Durutte—remained the standard form in official and commemorative listings, including the Arc de Triomphe inscription.

Sources

• Wikipedia (English): Pierre François Joseph Durutte
• Wikipedia (French): François Durutte
• Fondation Napoléon (napoleon.org): DURUTTE Pierre-François-Joseph (1767-1827), général
• Heraldique Blasons Armoriaux: Noblesse d’Empire — DURUTTE (baron 1810; comte 1813)
• Wikipedia (English): Siege of Metz (1814)
• Wikimedia Commons: File:General Durutte by François Böhm 1.jpg