Charles Louis Dieudonné Grandjean
Command Ratings
Commands
- Commands the Third Division of II Corps at Wagram (1809, age 41)
- Commands the 17ème Division of French V Corps at La Souffel (1815, age 47)
- Commands the Seventeenth Division of French Fifth Corps at La Suffel (1815, age 47)
Charles Louis Dieudonné Grandjean was born at Nancy on 29 December 1768. He studied law at the University of Göttingen before entering military service after the outbreak of the French Revolution. He joined the National Guard and held a local command at Château-Salins, then enlisted in the regular army in May 1792 as a sous-lieutenant in the 105e Régiment d’infanterie (line infantry), serving with the Armée du Rhin in the opening campaigns of the Revolutionary Wars.
In 1793 he was placed in charge of a grenadier battalion and entered staff service as adjudant-général adjoint with Louis Desaix. He was promoted to chef de bataillon in 1794. On 12 May 1796 he was promoted to adjudant-général chef de brigade (a field-grade staff rank corresponding to chef de brigade). His service in the late 1790s included operations connected with the French armies on the Rhine and in Italy. In May 1799 he took part in fighting on the Adige; in the same period he carried out an action at Postringo (often given as a camp retrenchment or entrenched camp) and was promoted to général de brigade on the battlefield.
During the Consulate and early Empire he held territorial and garrison responsibilities within the French military divisions (administrative districts). On 14 June 1804 he was appointed Commandeur de la Légion d’honneur. On 1 February 1805 he was promoted to général de division. In March 1805 he was assigned to command the 25e division militaire. After the outbreak of the War of the Fourth Coalition, he served in northern Germany and Pomerania under Marshal Édouard Mortier. In January 1807 he took part in operations against Swedish Pomerania: advancing from Anklam, he drove back Swedish outposts as Mortier’s forces moved on Stralsund, and he participated in the opening blockade of Stralsund beginning on 30 January 1807 (often associated with the “great sortie” from Stralsund later in the year).
In 1808 he was sent to Spain. He arrived during the First Siege of Zaragoza (15 June–14 August 1808) and directed a composite force of about 2,991 men, including battalions of the Polish Legions in French service (notably elements of the Legion of the Vistula) together with French line infantry. After French forces returned to the Ebro in late 1808, he commanded the 4th Division of III Corps under Marshal Moncey. His division was present at the Battle of Tudela on 23 November 1808, though accounts commonly note that his troops did not become heavily engaged there.
In the 1809 campaign against Austria, Grandjean transferred to the German theatre. After the death-wounding of Louis-Vincent-Joseph Le Blond de Saint-Hilaire at Aspern-Essling, Grandjean took over Saint-Hilaire’s division in Marshal Oudinot’s II Corps. He led this division at the Battle of Wagram on 5–6 July 1809. On the evening of 5 July his division attacked at Baumersdorf, capturing prisoners and colors before being driven back by counterattacks that included cavalry charges directed under Archduke Charles’s supervision; on 6 July the II Corps attacks helped press back the Austrian left. Reports of the battle note that Grandjean had two horses killed under him at Wagram.
On 31 January 1810 Napoleon created him a Baron of the Empire. From May 1810 to May 1811 he commanded the 14e division militaire, then became second-in-command at Danzig and in September 1811 took command of the 7th Infantry Division (a Polish-German formation) under Marshal Davout’s overall authority in the region. In the 1812 campaign he commanded the 7th Division in Marshal MacDonald’s X Corps, operating on the northern flank of the invasion. From 24 July to 18 December 1812 the corps maintained the blockade of Riga; Grandjean’s division formed part of the forces conducting this prolonged operation while other elements of X Corps included large Prussian contingents.
Under the Bourbon Restoration he received the Order of Saint Louis (as a Chevalier) in 1814. He also sat as a deputy in 1821. Grandjean died at Nancy in 1828; sources disagree on the day, giving either 15 September 1828 or 15 December 1828, with Nancy as the place of death in both cases.
Sources
X 99 Italy – Magnano, Novi; X 00 Hohenlinden; X 05-07 - Friedland; XX 09 Spain; XX 09 Wagram; XX 10-11 Spain; XX 12 Russia; XX 13 defense of Stettin (L) (3/18 – 11/21/13)