General of Brigade Antoine Edmé Adam de Barbazon, Consulate. 32715

BRIGADIER GENERAL ANTOINE EDMé ADAM DE BARBAZAN, Consulate. 32715

Oil on oval canvas, H 28 cm x 31 cm.
Full-length portrait of Brigadier General Antoine Edmé Adam de Barbazan in full dress uniform of a general officer according to the regulations of the 1st Vendémiaire AN XII (24 September 1803) (1769-1829).
Presented in a black waxed wooden oval frame, H 37.5 cm, W 39.5 cm.

Autograph letter from the general of the Army of Mayence on 24 Fructidor An VI to Citizen Barras Director, in which he requests to be transferred to the Army of Italy.

France.
Consulate.
Good condition.

BIOGRAPHY:
Son of Antoine-Edmé-Adam, assistant major of the place of Strasbourg, ANTOINE-EDMÉ-ADAM BARBAZAN was born in Paris on August 8, 1749.
He entered service in the Regiment of Bretagne on July 14, 1767 as a simple soldier. After participating in the campaigns in Corsica from 1767 to 1769 under the command of Count de Marboeuf, he returned to the mainland at the beginning of the latter year and joined the Grenadiers of France on July 1, where he soon distinguished himself by his zeal and excellent conduct. When this unit was disbanded in 1771, Barbazan joined the Commissary-General Cavalry Regiment.
Transferred to the Gendarmerie Company of Monsieur on March 2, 1775, he served there until November 1, 1781 when he was promoted to cavalry captain.
He took part in the expedition sent to India under the command of Marquis de Bussy and distinguished himself during the wars from 1782 to 1786, notably at the Battle of Gondelour on June 13, 1783. On April 1, 1782, he was appointed major of the Cipayes battalion attached to the Royal-Roussillon Regiment.
Having landed in Lorient on July 10, 1786, he received only a modest retirement pension of 300 livres from the Invalides fund. In 1789, Barbazan enthusiastically embraced the cause of the Revolution and became a member of the Jacobins society. When the Parisian paid National Guard was formed on November 1, 1787, he joined as a simple volunteer and was chosen among his comrades on July 18, 1790 to serve as assistant major of the battalion known as the Carmes. On February 23, 1791, he was awarded the Knight of Saint-Louis. Appointed as second in command of this battalion on November 1 of the same year, he was promoted to Captain of the King's Infantry Regiment (103rd) on the 23rd of that month, and was then promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel of the King's Cavalry Regiment on May 27, 1792.
On August 10, he commanded a squadron of the 6th Cavalry Regiment in Saint-Germain-en-Laye; from that location, he sent several orders to the members of the Paris Commune to offer his services.
Appointed Colonel of the 16th Dragoon Regiment on October 9, 1792, he quelled with firmness the disturbances that had erupted in Orléans, where he was then garrisoned.
His brilliant conduct in the Army of the Coasts of the Ocean was praised by the government, and on May 6, 1793, he received the rank of Brigadier General.
As a brigadier general, he was deployed in the Army of the West under General Biron, participating in the battle of Viée (Vihiers) against the Vendéens, where General Berthier, acting as Chief of Staff, gave him orders that he executed with such precision that La Roche-Jaclin, the commander of the Vendean army, was repelled with substantial losses. He had a horse killed under him, and an aide-de-camp killed by his side. A few days later, he was tasked with the retreat of the army to Tours after General Menou was shot in the body.
Suspended from his duties on July 3, for lack of patriotism, he was first incarcerated at the Madelonnettes, then at the Saint-Lazare prison, from which he was only released on September 3 of Year II of the Republic. It was during this time that Barbazan dropped the name Barbazan and adopted Adam, one of his first names.
Reinstated in his rank on the 1st Vendémiaire of Year IV, based on a report to the Committee of Public Safety on 3 Nivôse of Year III by the Minister of War, he was assigned to the Army of the Coasts of Cherbourg, and then to the Army of the Ocean, where he had previously served. Within the Army of the Coasts of Cherbourg in Year IV, under the orders of General Aubert-Dubayet, he was sent to Bayeux to organize counter-Chouan companies. With General Hoche taking command of the Army of the Coasts of the Ocean, he harassed and pursued Captain La Terreur, the leader of the Chouans in Calvados, so vigorously that he captured him with 40 of his remaining men.
On Thermidor 6 of Year IV, Carnot wrote to him expressing the Directory's satisfaction for his services in the civil war in the West. On Vendémiaire 21 of Year V, General Hoche announced to him that, according to a decree of the Directory, a pair of pistols (from the national Versailles manufactury) would be delivered to him as a token of admiration and appreciation for his conduct in the Western departments.
Barbazan showed great valor in the Army of Rhine-et-Moselle in Year V and VI, and was assigned to the 19th military division during Years VII and VIII.
Appointed as the Commandant of Arms in Lyon on the 1st Vendémiaire of Year IX, he was designated by the First Consul on the 1st Prairial of Year X to command Calais, a post of great importance at the time.
He was appointed a member of the Legion of Honor on the 19th Frimaire of Year XII, and an officer of the Order on the 25th Prairial of the same year. The English bombarded Calais on the night of September 25 to 26, 1804. Barbazan's measures thwarted the enemy's plans, and General Brune expressed his satisfaction in writing.
Barbazan retired on December 24, 1814, at the age of sixty-five with forty-eight years of service.