Editing Lazare Hoche

{{Short description|French general (1768–1797)}}
{{redirect|Hoche|other meanings|Hoche (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox military person
| name          = Lazare Hoche
| image         = Lazare Hoche par David.jpg
| caption       = Portrait attributed to [[Jacques-Louis David]], 1793
| birth_date    = 24 June 1768
| death_date    = 19 September 1797 (aged 29)
| placeofburial_label =
| placeofburial =
| birth_place  = [[Versailles, Yvelines|Versailles]], [[Kingdom of France|France]]
| death_place  = [[Wetzlar]], [[Holy Roman Empire]]
| placeofburial_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} -->
| nickname      =
| birth_name    =
| signature     = Signatur Lazare Hoche.PNG
| allegiance    = [[File:Royal Standard of the King of France.svg|22px]] [[Kingdom of France]]<br>[[File:Flag of France (1790-1794).svg|22px]] [[Kingdom of France (1791–92)|Kingdom of France]]<br>[[File:Flag of France.svg|22px]] [[French First Republic|French Republic]]
| branch        = [[French Army|Army]]
| serviceyears  = 1784–1797
| rank          = [[General of division]]
| servicenumber =
| unit          =
| commands      = [[Army of Moselle]]<br>[[Army of the Rhine]]<br>[[Army of the Coasts of Cherbourg]]<br>[[Army of the Coasts of Brest]]<br>[[Army of the West (France)|Army of the West]]<br>[[Army of the Coasts of the Ocean (1796)|Army of the Coasts of the Ocean]]<br>[[Army of Sambre and Meuse]]
| battles       = 
{{tree list}}
* [[French Revolutionary Wars]]
** [[Low Countries theatre of the War of the First Coalition|Flanders campaign]]
** [[War in the Vendée]]
** [[Invasion of France (1795)|Invasion of France]]
** [[Chouannerie]]
** [[French expedition to Ireland (1796)|French Expedition to Ireland]]
{{tree list/end}}
| battles_label =
| awards        =
| relations     =
| laterwork     = [[Minister of War (France)|Minister of War]]
}}

'''Louis Lazare Hoche''' ({{IPA|fr|lwi la.zaʁ ɔʃ|}}; 24 June 1768 – 19 September 1797) was a French military leader of the [[French Revolutionary Wars]]. He won a victory over Royalist forces in Brittany. His surname is one of the [[names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe]], on Column 3. [[Richard Holmes (military historian)|Richard Holmes]] describes him as "quick-thinking, stern, and ruthless... a general of real talent whose early death was a loss to France."<ref>Richard Holmes, ed. ''The Oxford companion to military history'' (2001) p 411.</ref>

==Early life==
[[File:18 Rue Satori à Versailles.jpg|thumb|left|Lazare Hoche's birthplace in Versailles]]

Hoche was born on 24 June 1768 in the village of Montreuil, today part of [[Versailles]], to Anne Merlière and Louis Hoche, a [[Groom (profession)|groom]] at the royal hunting grounds.<ref name=Charavay>{{cite book|title=Lazare Hoche: notice sommaire|author=Charavay, Étienne|year=1894|language=fr|publisher=Impr. Maretheux|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tkt56d0CRs0C}}</ref> His mother died when he was two years old, and Hoche was mostly raised by an aunt, who was a fruit-seller in Montreuil, and was educated by his maternal uncle, the parish priest of [[Saint-Germain-en-Laye]], who arranged for Hoche to become a [[choirboy]] at his church.<ref name=Bonnechose>{{cite book|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k63505179|language=fr|author=Bonnechose, Émile de|year=1867|location=Paris|publisher=[[Hachette (publisher)|Hachette]]|title=Lazare Hoche}}</ref>

==Early career==
In 1782, Hoche began working as an aide at the royal stables, but soon left in order to join the [[French Royal Army|Army]]. He entered the [[French Guards]] regiment as a ''[[fusilier]]'' in October 1784, although he originally intended to serve with the colonial troops in the [[East Indies]].<ref name=Bonnechose/> He was promoted to [[grenadier]] in November 1785 then to [[corporal]] in May 1789, just before the outbreak of the [[French Revolution]].<ref name=Charavay/>

After the French Guards were disbanded at the start of the Revolution, Hoche joined the new [[National Guard (France)|National Guard]] in September 1789. During the [[October Days]] protests, he was among the Guardsmen under the command of [[Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette|La Fayette]] who escorted King [[Louis XVI]] and his family out of the [[Palace of Versailles]].<ref name=Charavay/> He thereafter served in various [[line infantry]] regiments until he received a commission in 1792.<ref name=Charavay/><ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Hoche, Lazare|volume=13|pages=553–554}}</ref>

==French Revolutionary Wars==
===Flanders campaign===
[[File:Lazare Hoche, 1801.jpg|thumb|left|Hoche by [[Jean-Louis Laneuville]], c. 1801]]

Hoche first saw action in the [[Siege of Thionville (1792)|defence of Thionville]] in 1792, as a lieutenant, in the early stages of the [[Low Countries theatre of the War of the First Coalition|Flanders campaign]] of the Revolutionary Wars, and took part in the [[Siege of Namur (1792)|Siege of Namur]] at the end of the year.<ref name=Charavay/> After serving with distinction in the [[Siege of Maastricht (1793)|Siege of Maastricht]], Hoche became an ''[[aide-de-camp]]'' to General Le Veneur in March 1793, and further distinguished himself later that month at the [[Battle of Neerwinden (1793)|Battle of Neerwinden]].<ref name=Charavay/>

When [[Charles Dumouriez]] defected to the [[Habsburg Monarchy|Austrians]], Hoche, along with Le Veneur and others, fell under suspicion of [[treason]].<ref name=Charavay/> After being kept under arrest from 8 to 20 August, he took part in the successful [[Siege of Dunkirk (1793)|defence of Dunkirk]], for which he was promoted successively to [[colonel]] and [[brigade general]] in September, and to [[general of division]] in October 1793.<ref name=Charavay/> In November, Hoche was provisionally appointed to command the [[Army of the Moselle]],<ref name=Charavay/> and within a few weeks he was in the field at the head of his army in [[Lorraine (province)|Lorraine]].<ref name=EB1911/> His first battle was that of [[Battle of Kaiserslautern|Kaiserslautern]] during 28–30 November 1793 against the [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussians]].<ref name=Charavay/><ref name=EB1911/> The French were defeated, but even in the midst of the [[Reign of Terror]] the [[Committee of Public Safety]] retained Hoche in his command.<ref name=EB1911/> In their eyes, pertinacity and fiery energy outweighed everything else, and Hoche soon showed that he possessed these qualities.<ref name=EB1911/>

On 22 December 1793 he won the [[Battle of Froeschwiller (1793)|Battle of Froeschwiller]],<ref name=Charavay/> and the [[representatives on mission]] with his army at once added the [[Army of the Rhine]] to his sphere of command.<ref name=Charavay/> In the [[Second Battle of Wissembourg (1793)|Second Battle of Wissembourg]] on 26 December 1793, the French under his command drove [[Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser]]'s Austrian army from [[Alsace]].<ref name=Charavay/> Hoche pursued his success, sweeping the enemy before him to the middle [[Rhine]] in four days. He then put his troops into winter quarters at [[Bouzonville]].<ref name=Charavay/>

===Arrest===
Before the next campaign opened, Hoche married Anne Adelaïde Dechaux at [[Thionville]] on 11 March 1794.<ref name=Charavay/> The day before his marriage, he had been invited to command the [[Army of Italy (France)|Army of Italy]].<ref name=Charavay/> However, upon arriving in [[Nice]] to receive the assignment, he was arrested on orders of the Committee of Public Safety,<ref name=Charavay/> charges of treason having been proffered by [[Charles Pichegru]], the displaced commander of the Army of the Rhine.<ref name=EB1911/> He was sent to Paris' [[Carmes Prison]] on 11 April, was later transferred to the [[Conciergerie]], and was only released on 4 August, after the [[fall of Maximilien Robespierre]] and the end of the Reign of Terror.<ref name=Charavay/>

===War in the Vendée and Chouannerie===
Shortly after his release, Hoche was given the command of the [[Army of the Coasts of Cherbourg]] with the mission of suppressing the Royalist [[Revolt in the Vendée]].<ref name=Charavay/> He set up his headquarters at [[Rennes]], [[Brittany]], and put his initial effort into reorganizing the troops.<ref name=Charavay/> In addition, he received the command of the [[Army of the Coasts of Brest]] in November 1794.<ref name=Charavay/> Hoche completed the work of his predecessors in a few months by the [[Treaty of La Jaunaye]] (15 February 1795), but soon afterwards the war was renewed by the rebel leadership.<ref name=Charavay/><ref name=EB1911/>

[[File:Hoche à Quiberon.jpg|thumb|right|Hoche at the Battle of Quiberon, by [[Charles Porion]] (1879)]]

Between June and July 1795, Hoche led the defense against the [[Invasion of France (1795)|Quiberon Expedition]] by [[Armée des Émigrés|Royalist émigrés]] assisted by the British [[Royal Navy]], which he decisively defeated at [[Saint-Pierre-Quiberon|Fort Penthièvre]] on 21 July.<ref name=Charavay/><ref name=EB1911/> In late August, he was appointed commander of the [[Army of the West (France)|Army of the West]] with the order to "act offensively against [[François de Charette|Charette]]'s army". In December 1795, when the three armies previously under his command (Armies of the West, of the Coasts of Brest and of the Coasts of Cherbourg) merged to form the new [[Army of the Coasts of the Ocean (1796)|Army of the Coasts of the Ocean]], Hoche became the supreme commander of all Republican forces in Western France.<ref name=Charavay/>

Thereafter, by means of mobile columns (which he kept under good discipline), he gradually eliminated the [[Catholic and Royal Army|Catholic and Royal Armies]].<ref name=Charavay/><ref name=EB1911/> Hoche directed the operations that led to the capture (and subsequent execution) of rebel leaders [[Jean-Nicolas Stofflet]] (24 February 1796) and François de Charette (23 March), bringing an end to the War in the Vendée.<ref name=Charavay/> With the surrender of the leaders of the [[Chouannerie]], in May and June 1796, Hoche concluded the pacification of Western France, which had for more than three years been the scene of civil war.<ref name=Charavay/><ref name=EB1911/>

===Expedition to Ireland===
[[File:Irish-Invasion-Gillray.jpeg|thumb|In ''End of the Irish Invasion; – or – the Destruction of the French Armada'' (1797), [[James Gillray]] caricatured the failure of Hoche's Irish expedition.]]

On 20 July 1796, Hoche was rewarded by the [[French Directory]] for his immense service.<ref name=Charavay/> That same day, he was appointed to organize and command the [[Expédition d'Irlande|Expedition to Ireland]],<ref name=Charavay/> to assist the [[United Irishmen]] in a rebellion against [[British rule in Ireland|British rule]]. He survived an assassination attempt in Rennes on 16 October, when a worker at the local arsenal fired at him but missed.<ref name=Charavay/>

In [[Brest, France|Brest]], Hoche gathered an army and forty-eight vessels for the expedition, under the command of Vice Admiral [[Justin Bonaventure Morard de Galles]].<ref name=Charavay/> The fleet set sail for Ireland on 15 December 1796, with Hoche and Morard de Galles aboard the frigate ''[[French frigate Aglaé (1788)|Fraternité]]''.<ref name=Charavay/> Due to a [[gale]], however, the frigate was separated from the expedition the day after its departure, and was afterwards chased by a British ship.<ref name=Charavay/> By the time it reached the Irish coast, on 30 December, the rest of expedition had already dispersed after a failed landing attempt.<ref name=Charavay/> The ''Fraternité'' re-entered France through the [[Île de Ré]] on 11 January 1797 without having effected its purpose.<ref name=Charavay/><ref name=EB1911/>

With the United Irish leader, [[Wolfe Tone]], who was to have landed with him in Ireland, Hoche reflected critically on the violent course of the Revolution. Tone, "heartily glad" to find Hoche of "a humane temperament", wrote in his memoirs:<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mansergh|first=Martin|title=The Legacy of History|publisher=Mercier Press|year=2003|isbn=9781856353892|location=Cork|pages=127}}</ref><blockquote>Hoche mentioned, also, that great mischief had been done to the principles of liberty and additional difficulties thrown in the way of the French Revolution, by the quantity of blood spilled: "for", he added, "if you guillotine a man, you get rid of an individual, it is true, but then you make all his friends and connections enemies for ever of the government".</blockquote>

===Later career===
On his return, Hoche was at once transferred to the Rhine frontier as commander of the [[Army of Sambre and Meuse]],<ref name=Charavay/> where he defeated the Austrians at the [[Battle of Neuwied]] on 18 April 1797, though operations were soon afterwards brought to an end by the [[Preliminaries of Leoben]].<ref name=EB1911/>

In July 1797, Hoche was appointed [[Minister of War (France)|Minister of War]] by the Directory.<ref name=Charavay/> In this position he was surrounded by obscure political intrigues, and, finding himself the dupe of [[Paul Barras]] and technically guilty of violating the constitution, he resigned after less than month in office, and returned to his command on the Rhine frontier.<ref name=Charavay/><ref name=EB1911/> It was his denunciation during that time that had led to [[Jean-Baptiste Kléber|Kléber]]'s removal from command. The compromising letter was found by [[Jean Baptiste Alexandre Strolz]] in Hoche's papers.<ref>Librairie R. Roger et F. Chernoviz, Feuilles d'Histoire du XVII au XX Siècle, Tome 6, Paris 1911, p. 332.</ref><ref>Lubert d' Héricourt: La Vie du Général Kléber, Paris 1801, p.122.</ref>

===Death and funeral===
[[File:Weißenthurm, Monument General Hoche 001x.jpg|thumb|''Monument General Hoche'' in Weißenthurm]]

On 2 September, Hoche received the command of the [[Army of the Rhine and Moselle]] and set up his headquarters at [[Wetzlar]], near [[Koblenz]].<ref name=Charavay/> Following his return from [[Frankfurt]], on 13 September, his health grew rapidly worse, and he died at Wetzlar on 19 September of consumption ([[tuberculosis]]), aged 29.<ref name=EB1911/> The belief spread that he had been poisoned, but the suspicion seems to have been unfounded.<ref name=EB1911/> He was buried four days later next to his friend [[François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers|François Marceau]] at Fort Petersberg in Koblenz.<ref name=EB1911/>

A funeral procession to Hoche was held on the [[Champ de Mars]], Paris on 1 October.<ref name=Charavay/> In 1919, the French Army in [[Occupation of the Rhineland|occupied Rhineland]] reburied his mortal remains into the 1797-built ''Monument General Hoche'' in [[Weißenthurm]], near [[Neuwied]], where he had started his last campaign against the Austrians.

==Memorials==
[[File:Statue hoche quiberon (1).jpg|thumb|Statue of Hoche commemorating his victory in Quiberon, by [[Jules Dalou]] (1902)]]

Hoche is commemorated by a statue on Place Hoche, a gardened square not far from the main entrance to the [[Palace of Versailles]], and another in the [[Louvre Palace]]. Another statue, the last major work by [[Jules Dalou]], is in [[Quiberon]], Brittany. In [[Les Invalides]] there is also a memorial to Hoche. A station on the [[Paris Metro]] is also called ''[[Hoche (Paris Métro)|Hoche]]''. French navy had a namesake [[French_ironclad_Hoche|ironclad]].

Hoche's motto was ''Res non verba'', which is Latin for "Deeds, not words".<ref name=Charavay/><ref>D.J.A. Westerhuis (1957) Prisma Latijns Citatenboek.</ref>
[[File:Jenny Hoche.jpg|thumb|Jenny Hoche, daughter]]

==In popular culture==
* Brown, Leah Marie, ''Silence in the Mist: A Novel of the French Revolution'', Eternal Press, 2011

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book |last=Clerget |first=Charles |title=Tableaux des Armées Françaises pendant les Guerres de la Révolution |year=1905 |location=Paris |publisher=Librarie Militaire R. Chapelot et Cie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dwAbAAAAYAAJ |access-date=3 July 2015 }}

== External links ==
* {{Commons category-inline}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-mil}}
{{succession box |title=Commander-in-chief of the [[Army of the Moselle]]
|before=Jacques Charles René Delaunay |after=[[Jean-Baptiste Jourdan]] |years=31 October 1793 – 18 March 1794 }}
{{succession box |title=Commander-in-chief of the [[Army of the Coasts of Cherbourg]]
|before=Pierre Vialle |after=[[Jean-Baptiste Annibal Aubert du Bayet]] |years=1 September 1794 – 30 April 1795 }}
{{succession box |title=Commander-in-chief of the [[Army of the Coasts of Brest]]
|before=[[Thomas-Alexandre Dumas]] |after=[[Gabriel Venance Rey]] |years=10 November 1794 – 10 September 1795 }}
{{succession box |title=Commander-in-chief of the [[Army of the West (1793)|Army of the West]]
|before=[[Jean Baptiste Camille Canclaux]] |after=[[Amédée Willot]] |years=11 September – 17 December 1795 }}
{{succession box |title=Commander-in-chief of the [[Army of the Coasts of the Ocean (1796)|Army of the Coasts of the Ocean]]
|before=New organization |after=Discontinued |years=5 January – 22 September 1796 }}
{{succession box |title=Commander-in-chief of the Army of Ireland
|before=New organization |after=[[Emmanuel Grouchy]] |years=1 November – 23 December 1796 }}
{{succession box |title=Commander-in-chief of the Army of Ireland
|before=[[Emmanuel Grouchy]] |after=Discontinued |years=19 January – 9 February 1797 }}
{{succession box |title=Commander-in-chief of the [[Army of Sambre-et-Meuse]]
|before=[[Jean Victor Marie Moreau]] |after=[[François Joseph Lefebvre]] |years=9 February – 18 September 1797 }}
|-
{{S-off}}
{{S-bef|before=[[Claude Louis Petiet]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Minister of Defence (France)|French minister of War]]|years=15 July 1797 – 22 July 1797}}
{{S-aft|after=[[Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{French Revolution navbox}}
{{French Directory}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoche, Lazare}}
[[Category:1768 births]]
[[Category:1797 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Versailles]]
[[Category:People of the Irish Rebellion of 1798]]
[[Category:Military leaders of the French Revolutionary Wars]]
[[Category:French military personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars]]
[[Category:Republican military leaders of the War in the Vendée]]
[[Category:Names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe]]
[[Category:18th-century French politicians]]
[[Category:18th-century deaths from tuberculosis]]
[[Category:Tuberculosis deaths in France]]
[[Category:Ministers of war of France]]