Jean Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul

Grand Eagle of the Legion d'honneur

Jean Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul was born into a noble Languedoc family on May 13, 1754, at Château de Salette (Cahuzac-sur-Vère, near Albi).

Enlisted at the age of fifteen, he became cavalry colonel in the early days of the Republic, then brigadier general in 1794, and finally division general on June 4, 1796.

He served successively under Jean-Baptiste Jourdan in 1798, Marshal Ney and Claude-Jacques Lecourbe in 1799, and Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers and Jean Victor Marie Moreau in 1800.

The First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte appointed him Inspector General of the Cavalry on July 24, 1801.

In summer 1805, Hautpoul commanded the second Cuirassiers division of the Grande Armée Cavalry Reserve under Joachim Murat. On December 2, at Austerlitz, he broke the Russian center with a cavalry charge on the Pratzen plateau.

Napoleon 1st awarded him the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honor and appointed him Senator on March 19, 1806.

That same year, Hautpoul served in Prussia, notably at Jena on October 14 and at the capture of Lubeck on November 6.

He died on February 14, 1807, following a biscaine wound received during a charge at the battle of Preussisch-Eylau.

Jean Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul was buried in the 43rd division of the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris , while his heart is preserved in the Crypt des Gouverneurs in the Cathédrale Saint-Louis des Invalides.

Hautpoul's name is inscribed on the 16th column (east pillar) of the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile.