Charles-François du Périer Dumouriez
Charles-François du Périer Dumouriez was born in 1739 in Cambrai. His parents were nobles and his father had served in the royal army. Dumouriez was educated at Lycée Louis-le-Grand. He joined the army as a volunteer and quickly gained a commission for good service. He served with some success in the Seven Years War at the peace being retired as a captain with a pension and the Cross of St Louis. He was later brought into the Secret Service of Louis XV when he was appointed a Lieutenant Colonel. He was sent to Poland where he established a militia with which to fight the Russians. Unfortunately these were not so successful and were badly beaten at the Battle of Lanckorona. When he was recalled to Paris he found that he was placed in the Bastille due to criticising the government in private correspondence. He was released by Louis XVI in 1774 and progressed through a series of military posts in Lille, Boulogne and Cherbourg where he served as commandant for ten years.
When the Revolution broke out Dumouriez sensed the opportunity for career advancement and so joined the Jacobin Club. In 1790 he was appointed French Military advisor to the newly independent Belgian government. By 1791 he was promoted to Major General. Sensing again the chance for a more ambitious career he switched his allegiance to the Girondins. He awarded with his switch when he was made French Minister of Foreign Affairs.
He was central to the Declaration of War against Austria in April 1792. After the storming of the Tuileries Palace, the fall of the monarchy and Lafayette’s defection Dumouriez was given command of the “Army of the Centre.” Kellermann his subordinate defeated the Prussians at Valmy on the 20th September 1792 and Dumouriez himself was victorious against the Austrians on the 6th November at Jemappes. He soon occupied Belgium and made plans to invade Holland.
He returned to Paris as the conquering hero however this was not to last. The Jacobins were suspicious of him particularly when at the king’s trial in January 1793 he tried to save him from execution. This situation was made worse when he wrote to the Convention and accused them of not properly equipping his army. His army was beginning to suffer as soldiers began deserting as some did not view an offensive war against Holland as in keeping with the call for defending France against the Great Powers of Europe. The Convention were more concerned when they heard that he was closing Jacobin clubs in Belgium hoping to recruit more conservative Belgiums to his cause.
In March 1793 he suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Neerwinden leaving his position severely weakened militarily and politically.
He chose a radical route to save himself; he arrested four deputy commissioners who had been sent by the National Convention to investigate his conduct. He then surrendered these men and the Minister of War to the Austrians and then declared he would march on Paris to remove the Revolutionary government. His troops would not follow him and he defected to the enemy alongside duc de Chartres (the future King Louis).
He became a figure of suspicion in various countries around Europe as he sought a place to stay and carry on his royalist intrigues against the Revolutionaries in France. He eventually settled in Britain where he provided assistance to the British War office in its struggles against Napoleon. He died near Henley on Thames in 1823.
Madame Roland on Dumouriez The Memoirs of Madame Roland a Heroine of the French Revolution, Barrie & Jenkins, London (1989) p96-97
Dumouriez is energetic, vigilant, amusing and brave, just made for war and for intrigue. He is a capable officer and even his jealous colleagues thought him the only one of them fit to command a great army. But in character and in morality he was more suited to the old Court than to the new Regime. He had imagination and courage but lacks stability and self-control. He can hatch a plot but he is too indiscreet to keep it to himself. In short, too hot-headed to be the leader of a party.
I am sure Dumouriez did not go to Belgium with the intention of betraying his country; he would have served a Republic or King with equal enthusiasm if he could have seen glory and profit in it for himself. But the rotten decrees of the Convention, the appalling behaviour of the commissioners and the follies of the executive destroyed our cause in that country. Everything was in turmoil there and he had the idea of changing course. He tied himself up in his own contrivances through imprudence and immaturity.