Louis-Alexandre Berthier, prince de Wagram

marshal of France

Louis-Alexandre Berthier, prince de Wagram, (born Nov. 20, 1753, Versailles,

Fr.—died June 1, 1815, Bamberg, Bavaria), French soldier and the first
of Napoleon’s marshals. Though Berthier was not a distinguished commander,
Napoleon esteemed him highly as chief of staff of the Grande Armée from 1805.
Responsible for the operation of Napoleon’s armies, he was called by the Emperor “the
man who has served me longest and has never failed me.”

The son of an ennobled court works surveyor, Berthier gained military experience in
the American Revolution, serving with Lafayette, and then in the French Revolution as
survey and staff officer and finally as chief of staff (1791–92). Sent to fight the royalists
in western France in March 1793, he was recalled, as a noble, after four months’
dangerous service and driven underground by the Revolutionary Terror. He reappeared
as general of division and chief of staff in the Army of the Alps and of Italy. Commanding
in Italy, he occupied Rome in February 1798 but later joined Napoleon in Egypt.