Pierre-Benoît Soult
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Pierre-Benoît Soult (born 19 July 1770 at Saint-Amans-la-Bastide, Tarn; died 7 May 1843 at Tarbes) was a French cavalry officer of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars who ultimately reached général de division. He served for long periods as aide de camp to his elder brother, the future Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult, and later held brigade and divisional commands in the mounted arm in Spain and southern France, remaining in active military employment through the Hundred Days. His name appears among those engraved under the Arc de Triomphe as “SOULT, P.”
Soult entered the royal army on 28 September 1788 as a soldier in the régiment de Touraine-infanterie (later the 33rd Line), and he was made caporal-fourrier on 24 March 1791. During the early Revolutionary Wars he served on the Rhine front in 1792 and 1793 with the Army of the Rhine-and-Moselle. He then moved into staff employment with the advanced guard under General François Joseph Lefebvre and was present at Fleurus on 26 June 1794, a battle that fixed the strategic balance in the Low Countries and was a formative engagement for many officers who would later serve in the imperial armies.
From 1794 he became closely tied to his brother’s staff and field commands. When Jean-de-Dieu Soult took higher responsibilities in the Army of Sambre-and-Meuse, Pierre-Benoît served as his aide de camp through multiple campaigns. A frequently cited episode from the 1795 campaign places him at the Lahn crossings (20–21 September 1795), where he helped establish and hold a small bridgehead on the far bank under difficult conditions and, during the same operation, rescued général de brigade Louis Klein from drowning. This incident is one of the few precisely described actions of his early service that has persisted in later biographical summaries, and it illustrates the mixture of staff duty and personal exposure that often characterized the employment of senior aides.
By the later years of the Revolutionary Wars, Soult moved from staff attachment to regimental rank within the line, passing through junior commissioned grades while remaining connected to the operational environment of the Sambre-and-Meuse army. In the transition from Republic to Empire, he was increasingly associated with the cavalry arm. An autograph letter from Soult to Marshal Berthier dated 10 December 1804 shows him writing as the commander of a regiment and engaging Berthier on administrative questions affecting pay and deputations, a small but concrete indication that by this date he held colonel-level responsibility with the attendant burdens of personnel accounting and compliance with divisional orders from multiple higher headquarters.
Under the Empire, Soult’s advancement combined field employment with the continuing weight of his brother’s influence in postings. His later career is most clearly documented in the Spanish theatre, where he served within French mounted formations operating under the shifting arrangements of corps and “army” groupings in the peninsula. Service summaries place him in 1811 with IX Corps and then with the Army of the South, and in August 1811 he is recorded as taking provisional command of the 3rd Dragoon Division when General Milhaud departed. In the same period he is credited in French biographical compilations with a successful combat at Las Vertientes (10 August 1811), after which his activity is traced through operations at Lorca in December and into Murcia and Orihuela in January 1812. These episodes place him in the continuing French effort to hold and move mounted forces through southeastern Spain, where French cavalry commanders were frequently used to strike Spanish rear guards, break up concentrations of local forces, and cover French movements between garrisons and field columns.
In 1812 Soult’s divisional responsibilities broadened. He is described as taking command of the 3rd Cavalry Division under General Leval in the left wing of the Army of Andalusia. During this year he fought at the combat of Alba de Tormes (noted in his compiled biography as July 1812) where he was wounded by a shot to the right arm, and in October he is recorded as taking command of the 2nd Dragoon Division. This sequence—provisional divisional command in 1811, further divisional employment in 1812, and then formal elevation—fits the pattern of experienced cavalry colonels or brigade commanders being placed in divisional roles in Spain before receiving the definitive grade that matched their function.
Soult’s promotion to général de division is given as 3 March 1813. Shortly thereafter he is recorded as taking command of a light cavalry division and serving through 1813 in Spain and the Pyrenean approaches. The late-1813 fighting in the Basque region and along the frontier is among the better-attested episodes of his independent responsibility, including his role in the defensive actions at Saint-Pierre d’Irube in December 1813 as French forces attempted to slow Allied pressure near Bayonne and the Nive basin.
In the 1814 campaign in southern France, Soult remained under the overall direction of Marshal Soult’s army and is specifically connected with the battle of Orthez (27 February 1814). English-language summaries of his service assign him about 2,700 cavalry at Orthez and describe his mission as watching the river line upstream (east) of the town, indicating a role in flank security and the monitoring of crossings rather than in the main cavalry shock action. He also served in the fighting around Bayonne and in the concluding set-piece at Toulouse (10 April 1814), where Marshal Soult’s army defended the city against Wellington. Across these actions, his employment corresponds to that of a senior cavalry divisional commander whose task was to protect threatened sectors, maintain contact between infantry groupings, and provide mounted screens during withdrawals and re-formations under pressure.
Following the First Restoration, Soult received Bourbon recognition and administrative cavalry duties. He was made a knight of the Order of Saint Louis on 13 August 1814 and was appointed inspector general of cavalry for several military divisions late in 1814, placing him in a role concerned with the condition, training, remounts, and readiness of mounted units distributed across interior commands. During the Hundred Days he entered political life briefly as a representative for the Tarn (elected at Castres) to the Chamber of Representatives, serving from 16 May 1815 to 13 July 1815; however, he is also recorded as leaving this position to rejoin the field army for the Belgium campaign.
In June 1815 Soult held a mounted divisional command in the Army of the North, being assigned to the 4th Light Cavalry Division in General Pajol’s I Cavalry Corps. This appointment placed him within the cavalry structure supporting the operations that culminated in the Waterloo campaign. After the Second Restoration he was placed in non-active status, ending his principal Napoleonic-era military employment in 1815, though later biographical notices record that he was brought back into service after 1830 when his brother returned to political prominence under the July Monarchy.
Soult’s decorations and public commemoration are also consistently recorded in French references. He held membership in the Légion d’honneur and was created a Baron of the Empire; French listings of the Arc de Triomphe names identify him among the engraved officers as “SOULT, P.” He died at Tarbes on 7 May 1843.
Sources
The brother of Soult #1. Served on his brother's staff 1796-1800; X rank in 7/07; X 10 – 14 Spain – Bussaco, WL, Vittoria, Sorauren; XX rank 3/13; XX 14 Orthez, Toulouse; XX 15 Ligny. (1770-1739)