| General Alexandre
Dumas ('Alexandre the Greatest') DASHING COMMANDER OF NAPOLEON'S CAVALRY (1762-1806) SO FULL OF ROBUST ADVENTURE is the life of General Alexandre Dumas that it reads more like that of a fabulous knight of romance than even of a Napoleonic commander. Dumas reminds one of Richard the Lionhearted of England, who fought the Turks in Palestine for the tomb of Christ. Like Richard, Alexandre was a giant in size and strength, and one of the bravest of the brave. Coming on the scene at one of the most critical and dramatic periods of history, he played an important role, during which he rose from a sergeant to general-in-chief in twenty-two months. Anatole France was so fascinated by the story of his life that he dubbed him "Alexandre the Greatest." Dumas' story goes back to the day when a certain great nobleman, tiring of the gay, empty life at the court of Louis XV, decided to get away from it all and went to settle in the far-away island of St. Domingue, now Haiti. (Note: See Toussaint) On his arrival there he was warmly welcomed by the rich planters, who were glad to have one of such rank in their society. But the nobleman, the Marquis de la Pailleterie, shunned them and went to live among the Negroes, little knowing at the time that in so doing he was to add a thousand glories to his name. The marquis, completely breaking with his past, took a consort from among his dark-hued neighbors, one whose bright, flashing eyes, supple figure, and merry laughter had captivated him. She was Marie Dumas. Perhaps he married her, perhaps he did not. It is believed, however, that humble Marie became Madame la Marquise. A year later a son, Alexandre, was born. In color he was very dark. For eleven years the couple lived happily together, and then Marie died. The Marquis, grief-stricken, remained in the West Indies eight years longer and then returned to France, taking Alexandre. And what a son was Alexandre! In three years he had become the talk of Paris. Standing six feet two in his bare feet, he was endowed with strength to match. He performed feats of incredible physical prowess; as a swordsman he eclipsed all in France save one, another Negro, the Chevalier de St. Georges. Raising his right leg, the young nobleman could support two men on his calf and hop around the room with his burden. Placing four fingers of his right hand in the muzzles of as many muskets, he would lift them all with his arm extended. Once, while on horseback, he saw a soldier misbehaving, and swooping down on him, he caught him by the back of his coat, held him at arm's length as he would a contaminated object, and rode off with him to the guardhouse. Generous, kind-hearted, but hot-headed and quick to resent insults, Dumas got into many quarrels. He was forever challenging opponents. At twenty-two he fought a duel and won. A year later he fought three duels in a single day, receiving a wound in one of them that later gave him much trouble. When his son, the great novelist, made one of his heroes, D' Artagnan, challenge three men the same day, he was merely using his father as a model. One of the young man's quarrels was with his father. This, however, was to be his making. When the marquis took another wife, Dumas hotly objected, and decided to leave his father's home. "I have but one request, young man," said the marquis coldly. "Do not take my name around with you to dishonor it." And the future general, to show his scorn, rejected his father's title and name, and took another that was to become illustrious for three generations -that of his mother. On June 2, 1786, a few days later, he enlisted as a private in the Army of the Rhine. Several republicans of St. Germain brought suit to prevent his entry because he was a nobleman, but he was allowed to remain. Immediately Dumas distinguished himself. One day while reconnoitering with four men, he found himself cut off from them with thirteen of the enemy against him. Spurring his horse into their midst he fought so vigorously that the thirteen surrendered. Tying all of them up, Dumas led them back to camp on a single string. For this he was made a regimental sergeant-major, cited for bravery by his commander, and invited to dinner. This was the period of the French Revolution, and a number of free Negroes from the West Indies had come to France to offer their services to the people. They served as a unit known as "La Legion Americaine," (The American Legion), later as "The Black Legion," and at their head was the famous Chevalier de St. Georges. The latter, eager to get Dumas, offered him a second lieutenancy, but the officer of a white regiment, Colonel Boyer, equally desirous of having him, offered him a lieutenancy. Not to be outdone, St. Georges offered him a captaincy, and so the bidding went on until Dumas gained a lieutenant-colonelship under St. Georges. At this time Dumas met the daughter of a hotel-keeper, Marie Labouret, and as he was going off to war, he married her at once. Two weeks later he won distinction again, when he and St. Georges saved Lille from the royalist sympathizer, Dumouriez, by a brilliant dash. In July of the following year he was made a brigadier general; September 3 of the same year, a general; five days later he was appointed commander of the Eastern Pyrenees; two months later he was put in command of the Arn1y of the Alps; and early in the following year he was promoted to the command third in importance, that of Commander of the Army of the West . . . all this in less than two years. Dumas was always doing something spectacular. One day in the Alps, while reconnoitering with fourteen men, he learned that two squadrons of enemy cavalry were approaching. Instead of sharing the alarm of his men, he bubbled with glee. Hiding his companions behind a hedge, he said, "You'll laugh. It's up to you now to amuse the Austrians. Stay hid! Don't move! I'm going to look for them. When I return, let me pass and then shoot all who follow me." Sword in hand, he spurred his horse to a gallop and went out alone to meet the Austrians. At the turn he met the advance guard in the narrow path. With three sweeps of his great sword he felled the first three. Four others behind instinctively stopped their horses. He did not give them time to turn. In a second he was on them, stabbing, sabering, overturning them. Saber strokes to the right! Saber strokes to the left! With a blow of his fist he smashed a head. Three more strokes, three more corpses. The survivors fly in panic before this madman who seems invulnerable. Now they meet the others and return. On the ground they see several corpses and before them the single man responsible for all that carnage. This man awaits them a moment, allows them to approach within speaking distance, then shouts, "Bonjour, messieurs," and is off at a gallop. "Now it's your turn," he calls to his men in the bushes. After him come the Austrians. A volley and the first comers drop from their horses; the others coming on, stumble over these. By this time Dumas' men have reloaded. Another volley and others fall. Before this invisible enemy, sheltered by the bushes from the cavalry attack, the Austrian commander gave the order to retreat. Dumas then returned to his men and led them safely back to camp. In Paris, meanwhile, the National Convention had been urging Dumas to make an attack on the main body of the Austrians, but he took his time, studying thoroughly the topography of the region. When, a few days later, he did attack, he won a brilliant victory, accomplishing one of the most astonishing feats in military history: the capture of Mont Cenis, one of the highest peaks in the Alps. Mont Cenis was assailable only from three sides; the fourth was so well protected by nature that the Austrians took no further precaution than putting up a stockade. Dumas decided to attack there. Feigning an assault on the other three sides, he set out one night with 300 men to capture the peak. "Understand," he warned his men, "he who slips is a dead man. Nothing can save him if he falls from such a height. It will, there fore, be useless to call for help. His cry will not be heard, and may imperil our enterprise by giving the alarm." Three men fell, but there was no sound save the hurtling of their bodies against the jagged rocks. Up the dizzy heights the little band climbed, surprising and overcoming the enemy. France was elated by the victory. The National Convention in a special bulletin said, "Glory to the conquerors of Mt. Cenis and Mt. St. Bernard. Glory to the invincible Army of the Alps, and those who have led them to victory. We do not know how to describe to you, dear comrades, the enthusiasm that has been created by your brilliant feat of arms. We rely upon you with great confidence and upon the energy and genius of brave General Dumas." On another occasion, like Horatius of old, Dumas defended the bridge at Brixen, single-handed, winning the title of "Horatius Cocles of the Tyrol" from Napoleon. He was in pursuit of the Austrians and as usual had out-distanced all his men but one, named Dermoncourt, later a general. The Austrians, seeing only two men in pursuit, stopped to defend the bridge. Dermoncourt was struck down, falling under his horse. "Having no longer to defend my own body," says Dermoncourt, "I could look back in the direction of the general; he had stopped at the bridge of Brixen and was holding it alone against the whole squadron. Because of the narrowness of the bridge the men could not come upon him except two or three at a time, the general sabering them as they came up." Dumas killed eight of them and wounded others but he was near the end of his strength, for he had received three wounds in the head, thigh, and arm; numerous small cuts; and eight bullet holes through his uniform. Besides his horse was killed. His men arrived just in time to save him. This exploit resounded through the nation, and medals were struck, depicting the action of a single man stopping a whole troop of cavalry. Soon afterward Dumas was transferred to Italy where he fought under Napoleon. Here again he was instrumental in winning a victory. One day a spy was brought into camp. Search as they would, they could find nothing on him. Then Dumas arrived. Calling four men, he ordered them to shoot the spy. Asked why, Dumas replied, "To get the message he has in his stomach." To save his life the man confessed that he had a message stowed away there . . . in a pellet. A purgative was administered and a message found disclosing just when the enemy would come to the relief of Mantua and by what route. The result was that the French won a victory in which, as usual, Dumas distinguished himself. But Marshal Berthier, his commander and rival, did not mention him in his dispatches to Napoleon. However, he was soon to come to the notice of Napoleon in another way. While pursuing the Austrians, his horse was killed under him. Crawling into a valley he found a number of guns the retreating Austrians had thrown away. With these he shot down twenty-five of the enemy, finally making his way back to camp on an Austrian horse. "He entered so weak and worn," says Dermoncourt, "that I cried, 'General, are you wounded?' 'No,' he said, 'but I have killed too many, too many.' And he fainted away." Napoleon sent him a brace of pistols made at Versailles as a souvenir and soon afterward sent him to capture the rich province of Treviso. Later, he was appointed governor of this province, a function which he performed so well that when he was to be removed, the Italians begged Napoleon to let him stay. When he did leave they gave him a fine coach-and-four as a present. Dumas, though fierce on the field of battle, was very gentle away from it, so much so that his tender-heartedness proved more than once embarrassing to him and on one occasion came near costing him his life. At Bayonne a revolutionary mob hooted him because he closed the windows of his quarters rather than see heads being chopped off by the guillotine. "Oh, Monsieur de I'Humanite," they mocked, "come to the window." At another time, when he saw a guillotine being erected to cut off the heads of four men who had been accused of refusing to hand over a church bell to be melted into bullets, he ordered the execution halted, took the prisoners in charge, gave their captors a personal receipt, and then freed the men. For this he was recalled to Paris by the Convention, which was lopping off heads on its own account, but he succeeded in clearing himself. In the Egyptian campaign the impulsive general was commander of Napoleon's cavalry. Among those serving under him were two of Napoleon's brothers-in-law, Murat and Leclerc. Dumas distinguished himself at the Battle of the Pyramids and in the taking of the Grand Mosque, but his plain speaking during this campaign was to prove his undoing. A republican at heart, he viewed with disfavor Napoleon's imperial ambitions and took no pains to conceal his attitude. The break between the two came soon after the destruction of Napoleon's fleet at Aboukir. There, cut off from France and harassed by the heat, some of the generals grew impatient. One day when several of these met in Dumas' tent to eat melons, they complained bitterly against Napoleon for having brought them to Egypt. Napoleon, hearing of this, blamed Dumas as the instigator, a charge that Dumas hotly denied. When Dumas announced his intention of returning to France, Napoleon begged him to stay on, but insisting that his wounds, particularly the old one he had received in dueling, necessitated his departure, Dumas made preparations to leave. A sudden revolt of the Egyptians brought about a temporary revival of friendship between the two men. Dumas by his courage and promptitude again saved the day for the French and Napoleon in gratitude sent for him. Greeting Dumas before the assembled officers, Napoleon said, "Good morning, Hercules . . . it is you who have beaten the hydra. ...Gentlemen, I shall have a picture painted of the taking of the Grand Mosque. Dumas, you have already posed as the principal figure." The picture was painted- but a blond cavalier was shown in Dumas' place, for by that time Dumas had left Egypt. Landing at Tarentum in the kingdom of Naples, Dumas was taken prisoner by the Italians, who, unknown to him, had retaken the city. He was kept a prisoner for two years during which time several attempts were made to poison him. When he returned to France he tried to reenter the army but Napoleon ordered that his name should never be mentioned in his presence again. He even refused to pay Dumas for the time he was held prisoner, though the Neapolitans had been made to pay heavily for it., Recalling the time when he had once embraced the diminutive Napoleon, Dumas said bitterly, "To think that I had him in my arms and how easily I could have strangled him!" Dumas wrote Napoleon In 1793 I was commander-in-chief of the Republican armies. I am the oldest general officer of my rank; feats of daring performed by me have greatly influenced the tide of affairs. I have always led the defenders of my country to victory. Tell me, who then received more marks of your esteem? And yet, now I see officers of all grades, junior to me, unreservedly employed while I am left inactive. In a letter to the Minister of War, he said: Throughout the unfortunate and difficult time I was never beaten: on the contrary, my enterprises were invariably crowned with success. ...I was the companion of the Consul-General [Napoleon] in nearly all his Italian and Egyptian wars and no one contributed more to his triumphs and the glory of his arms than did I; his letters, which I have in my possession, testify no less to the respect in which he held me than in his friendship. That friendship had been a close one. One day when Dumas was at dinner with Napoleon, Josephine being present, the two generals made an agreement that the one who had a son first should stand godfather for the other. Dumas was the first, but the two had already quarreled. Later that son was to have so great a name that he dimmed for a time even that of Napoleon. And a Napoleon of a later day was pleased to have a Dumas as a traveling companion. Even after General Dumas' death, Napoleon visited his grudge on Dumas' widow. He ordered that she should not be permitted to pass through the gates of his palace at the Tuileries. At the age of forty-four Dumas died of stomach trouble, his ailment being largely the result of his hardships at Naples. But for his quarrel with Napoleon, to what heights might he not have risen? At thirty-five, when he was a general, Napoleon was only a major. And it was only by an extraordinary twist of fate that Napoleon came to succeed Dumas as commander-in-chief of the French Army. This happened in 1793 when the Revolution had got out of hand and the Convention at Paris, seeking someone to restore order, sent for Dumas. The latter was then living at Villers-Cotteret, fifty miles from Paris, and at that time, a return journey of two days. Dumas, receiving the order by courier, set off at once for Paris, but the affair was so urgent that the Convention could not wait for him and selected Napoleon, who succeeded so well in quelling the riots that the Convention kept him in the post intended for Dumas. Napoleon who was both soldier and politician turned this coup into personal profit and became ruler of France. Whether Dumas would have done the same had he arrived in time is to be doubted. He was a republican at heart, and first and foremost a soldier, self-effacing and honest. In Egypt when he found hidden gold valued at two million francs, he turned it over to Napoleon. Napoleon, in his way, admired Dumas. He told him on one occasion, "What I like about you, Dumas, is not only your courage but your humanity. I know in the Tarentaise you rescued from the guillotine three or four poor devils who did not wish to let their church bells be melted down." Dumas' early victories contributed greatly toward keeping France republican and thus in paving the way for Napoleon. No wonder, therefore, that Dumas was so bitter against Naploeon.
Dumas' statue stands in the Place Malsherbes, Paris, near those of his son and grandson. His name is also on the Arc de Triomphe. REFERENCES
ADDITIONAL REFERENCES
The above is from: World's Great Men of Color, volume II.
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