Guilleminot, Armand Charles, count, lieutenant-general



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Statue at Townhall Dunkerque, France
Arc de Triomphe, Paris

Guilleminot, Armand Charles, count, lieutenant-general, created peer of France October, 1823,
He was born in the Belgic provinces, march 2nd 1774 (1) to Antoine Claude en Isabelle Barbara Theresia VanLandtschoote, and received a careful education. During the insurrection of Brabant against Austria, in 1790, he fought in the ranks of the patriots.

On their subjection by the power of the house of Habsburg, he fled to France, where he received a place in the staff of general Dumouriez. Being imprisoned in Lille, after the defection of this general, he escaped by flight, aud concealed himself in the ranks of the French army. He was soon received into the staff of general Morenu, to whom he remained gratefully attached, even in his misfortunes.

In the year 1805, Napoleon employed him in the army in Germany, and, in 1806, appointed him his aid-de-camp. In 1808, he served in Spain, as chief of the staff of marshal Bessieres, and after the victory at Medina del Rio-Secco, was made general of brigade, and an officer of the legion of honor.

In 1809, he was employed by Napoleon on a mission to the Persian court. He remained some time in the East, and several months at Constantinople, and received the Turkish order of the crescent and the Persian order of the sun. In the campaigns of 1812 and 1813, he distinguished himself in the battles of the Moskwa, of Lützen and Bautzen. He rendered essential service by repelling the attack of the Swedes upon Dessau (September 28, 1813), and, in consequence, was promoted by Napoleon to the rank of general of division. After the restoration, Louis XVIII named him grand officer of the legion of honor, and gave him the cross of St. Louis : he also appointed him, at the return of Napoleon from Elba, chief of the general staff in the army which the duke of Berri was to command. He held the same rank in the army which, in June, 1815, was assembled under the walls of Paris; and lie signed, in the name of marshal Davoust, the capitulation of that city. He was afterwards appointed director of the topographical military bureau in the ministry of war; and, in 1810 and 1817, in conjunction with the commissioners of the Swiss confederacy, settled the boundary line between France and Switzerland, as was stipulated by the treaty of 1815.

In the war with Spain, in 1823, general Guilleminot received the important post of major-general in the French army, at the express desire of the duke of Angoulème, but against the will of the duke of Belluno, then minister of war, who desired the place for himself. In this capacity, he directed the whole campaign, from April 7 to the liberation of king Ferdinand (October 1, 1823), who rewarded him with his order. Guilleminot then distributed the French army of occupation in the fortresses, concluded a contract with the Spanish government for its supply, &.C., and returned, in the middle of December, to Paris, where an embassy to Constantinople was given him. General Guilleminot, by his proclamation, dated Audujar (August 8, 1823), which was intended to put n stop to the arbitrary treatment of the constitutionalists by the Spanish royalists, had rendered himself obnoxious to the absolutists. The duke of Angoulême, however, reposed entire confidence in him ; for Guilleminot, as major-general, had executed, with great prudence, the plan of reducing Spain by moderation, of restraining the political fanaticism of the soldiers of the faith aud of the people; and, by a liberal policy, inducing the Spanish leaders, Morillo and Ballesteros, and the commanders of the castles, to capitulate, and the members of the cortes to disagree ; and had happily attained the object of the six months' campaign, the taking of Cadiz. In 1826, he was permitted to return from Constantinople to Paris, to defend himself before the house of peers, in the trial of Ouvrard, relative to the contracts tor supplying the French army in Spain. Being acquitted of any blame in the affair, he returned to Constantinople in August of the same year. General Guilleminot is one of the best informed of the French officers, und we may expert from him a history of the late wars. (For his conduct in the affairs of Greece, sec Greece. )

Source: Encyclopædia Americana Door Thomas Gamaliel Bradford VOL. VI. 9 Thomas Cowperttwhait & Co, Philadelphia, PA , page 97.
(1)not correct he was born at Dunkerque march 2nd 1774

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GUILLEMINOT, Armand Charles, count, a French general and diplomatist, born in Dunkirk, May 2, 1774, died in Baden, March 14, 1840. When scarcely 15 years old he took part in the insurrection of Brabant against Austria, and then, returning to France, served under Dumouriez, Pichegru, and Moreau. His known friendship for the last two generals caused his dismissal from the army on the discovery of the conspiracy in which they were implicated ; but his experience as a topographical engineer was so highly valued that he was reinstated in 1805. In 1808 he was employed in Spain, and made a brigadier-general. In 1812 ho was attached to the staff of the grand army that invaded Russia, fought at Borodino, and during the retreat from Moscow was the head staff officer of Eugène Beauharnais. His promotion to the rank of general of division took place March 28, 1813, and he participated in some of the last battles of Napoleon. He was among the first to adhere to the Bourbons, and was faithful to them during the Hundred Days. After the battle of Waterloo, he was one of the commissioners who negotiated for the capitulation of Paris, and signed the truce of July 3, 1815. In 1823 he submitted a plan for the invasion of Spain, was appointed major-general under the duke of Angoulème, and successfully led the French troops through the peninsula. He was made a peer, Oct. 9, 1823, and sent as ambassador to Constantinople, where he remained 7 years. On his recall to Franco he retired to private life.
Source: The new American cyclopædia, ed. by G. Ripley and C.A. Dana VOL. VIII Fugger Haynau , NY 1 , page 558.