Charles Claude Jacquinot

Charles Claude Jacquinot (3 August 1772 – 24 April 1848) commanded a French cavalry division at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. He joined a volunteer battalion in 1791 and transferred to a light cavalry regiment as a junior officer in 1793. He earned promotion to squadron commander and was acting commander of his regiment at Hohenlinden in 1800. After serving in a staff position at Austerlitz in 1805, he led a light cavalry regiment at Jena in 1806. Promoted to general of brigade he led his horsemen at Abensberg, Raab and Wagram in 1809. During the French invasion of Russia he fought at Ostrovno, Smolensk and Borodino in 1812. During the 1813 German Campaign he led a cavalry brigade at Dennewitz and Leipzig. After being appointed general of division he fought at Second Bar-sur-Aube and Saint-Dizier in 1814. During the Hundred Days he rallied to Napoleon and led a light cavalry division in the Waterloo campaign. After 15 years of inactivity, he was restored to favor in 1830. Thereafter he held a number of commands and was appointed to the Chamber of Peers. His surname is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe, on Column 20.

1809
Jacquinot received promotion to general of brigade on 10 March 1809. He received command of a brigade of cavalry in Louis-Pierre Montbrun's light cavalry division in the III Corps of Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout. On 16 April he had 1,797 troopers under his command in the 1st, 2nd and 12th Chasseurs à Cheval Regiments. On 20 April, Napoleon formed for Marshal Jean Lannes a provisional corps made up of Jacquinot's detached brigade, two III Corps infantry divisions and two cuirassier divisions. In the Battle of Abensberg Lannes' corps drove the Austrian left wing back 10 mi and inflicted losses of 2,700 killed and wounded and 4,000 captured on their foes. Jacquinot's brigade fought at the Battle of Raab on 14 June under Montbrun's command. On this occasion, it included the 7th Hussars in place of the 12th Chasseurs. During the battle, the divisions of Montbrun and Emmanuel Grouchy routed the Austrian left flank cavalry. Still in Montbrun's division, Jacquinot led his 1,219-strong brigade at the Battle of Wagram on 5–6 July where it formed part of the right wing cavalry under the orders of Davout. On the second day, Davout's cavalry gained the upper hand despite the intervention of the Austrian reserve cavalry personally led by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen.

1814
On the night of 31 December 1813, Russian troops under Emmanuel de Saint-Priest executed a successful assault crossing of the Rhine River and captured Koblenz at 4:00 am on 1 January 1814. The commander of the 17th Infantry Division, Igor Maximovich Pillar sent 200 jägers, 25 Don Cossacks and one cannon to seize a convoy near Remagen on 2 January. The convoy was intercepted, but the officer directing the column continued marching toward Bonn where he bumped into a large French force under Jacquinot and Joseph Jean-Baptiste Albert. The Russians were routed, losing 120 men and the artillery piece, the first cannon lost by the Army of Silesia. At that date, Jacquinot's heavy cavalry division in the III Cavalry Corps had two weak brigades composed of single-squadron regiments. Marc François Jérôme Wolff's brigade counted 368 officers and men from five dragoon regiments. Jean Charles Quinette de Cernay's brigade numbered 467 troopers from five dragoon and one cuirassier regiments.

By mid-January, the French forces under Marshal Jacques MacDonald, which included III Cavalry Corps, were in full retreat through Namur and headed for an intended rendezvous with Napoleon at Chalons-sur-Marne. After detaching garrisons, MacDonald's command numbered no more than 11,000 men. From Chalons, MacDonald's force was chased to the west by the Army of Silesia. Around this time, Napoleon reorganized his cavalry into four corps plus an independent division and the III Cavalry Corps was suppressed. Jacquinot was placed in command of the two-brigade 4th Light Cavalry Division in the new VI Cavalry Corps under François Étienne de Kellermann. Auguste Jean Ameil's 979-strong 7th Brigade included six regiments of chasseurs à cheval while Wolff's 686-man 8th Brigade comprised three hussar, two chasseurs à cheval and one chevau-léger lancer regiments.

On 25 February 1814, Napoleon decided to leave the pursuit of the Army of Bohemia to his subordinates. The emperor assigned Jacquinot's division and Kellermann's corps to Marshal Nicolas Oudinot while distributing other cavalry units to MacDonald. Jacquinot's division fought at the Battle of Bar-sur-Aube on 27 February and at the Battle of Saint-Dizier on 26 March. During Napoleon's bid to cut the Allied communications in the last week of March, he sent the light cavalry of Jacquinot and Hippolyte Piré ahead of the army, provoking panic. At Saint-Dizier, Napoleon's cavalry routed Ferdinand von Wintzingerode's 10,000 cavalry, but it proved to be a hollow victory because the Allied generals ignored the threat to their supply line and marched on Paris. The Allies won the Battle of Paris on 30 March 1814 and this event ended the war. By 4 April the 4th Cavalry Division had shrunk badly. Ameil's brigade counted only 331 officers and men while Wolff's brigade numbered only 244.

1815
During the Waterloo Campaign, Jacquinot commanded the 1st Cavalry Division which was attached to the I Corps of Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Comte d'Erlon. The 1st Brigade of Adrien François de Bruno consisted of the 3rd Chasseurs a Cheval and 7th Hussar Regiments. The 2nd Brigade of Martin Gobrecht was made up of the 3rd and 4th Chevau-léger Lancer Regiments.