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4 unusual facts about Mathieu Dumas


Guillaume-Mathieu Dumas

Recalled to his native country when Bonaparte became First Consul (1799), Dumas took over the organisation of the "Army of Reserve" at Dijon.

A growing weakness of sight, ending in blindness, prevented him from carrying the work further, but he translated Napier's Peninsular War as a sort of continuation to it.

Soon after his return to France he was elected a member of the Council of Ancients in the period of the Directory.

The National Constituent Assembly entrusted him with the command of the escort which conducted King Louis XVI to Paris after the Flight to Varennes (June 1791).


Jacques MacDonald

This achievement is described by Mathieu Dumas, his chief of staff, and is as noteworthy as Bonaparte's passage of the St Bernard before the Battle of Marengo, although MacDonald did not fight a battle.


see also