Moreau, Jean Victor 1761-1813
French general

Born in Morlaix, he studied law, but at the Revolution in 1789 commanded the volunteers from Rennes, served under Charles Dumouriez in 1793, and in 1794 was made a general of division. He took part, under Charles Pichegru, in reducing Belgium and the Netherlands. He drove the Austrians back to the Danube, but was forced to retreat and later deprived of his command (1797). In 1798 he took command in Italy and skilfully conducted the defeated troops to France. The party of the Abb� Siey�s, which overthrew the Directory, offered him the dictatorship. He declined it, but lent his assistance to Napoleon I in the coup d'�tat of 18th Brumaire. Commanding the army of the Rhine, he repeatedly defeated the Austrians in 1800, drove them back behind the Inn, and at last won the decisive Battle of Hohenlinden. Napoleon, grown jealous of Moreau, accused him of sharing in the plot of Georges Cadoudal and sentenced him to two years' imprisonment (1804). The sentence was commuted to banishment, and Moreau settled in New Jersey. In 1813 he joined the Russian service and accompanied the Russian attack on Dresden, where he was fatally wounded by a French cannonball.