Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/43

 DESAIX June 14, 1800. He was educated at the mili- tary school of Effiat, where he remained seven years, leaving at the age of 15 to enter the regiment of Brittany under the name of the chevalier de Veygoux. He continued to be a diligent student in the garrisons of Briancon and Huningue. At the breaking out of the revolution he became the aide-de-camp of Prince Victor de Broglie in the army of the Rhine. He favored the principles of the revo- lutionists, but deprecated their violent acts, and having signed a protest against the decree of Aug. 10, 1792, by which the legislative assem- bly suspended the authority of the king, he was cashiered and imprisoned for two months, but was reinstated by Carnot. All through the reign of terror his head was in peril on account of his aristocratic connections. His mother and sister were sent to prison by the commit- tee of public safety, but he escaped with a second brief suspension from the service. He was restored at the intercession of Pichegru, under whom he served with distinction, and of Saint- Just, and was employed in 1796 in de- fending the Alsatian frontier against the Aus- trians. When Moreau took command of the army of the Rhine, Desaix became his lieu- tenant as commander of a division, and took an important part in the campaign in Bavaria and the famous retreat with which it closed. On the return of the army to the Rhine, Desaix defended the fort of Kehl ; and notwithstand- ing its dilapidated condition, he held it two months against the repeated efforts of the archduke Charles, and finally concluded a highly honorable capitulation. The next year he again led the army across the Rhine, an operation in which he showed consummate skill. After passing some months at Strasburg, recovering from a severe wound, he was sent at his own request on a mission to Bonaparte in Italy. On the formation of the army for the invasion of England he was made chief of staff to Bonaparte, who was to be its commander. In the expedition to Egypt he received the command of a division, and after the storming of Alexandria marched to Cairo with the van- guard. He took part in the battle of the pyra- mids, and being ordered to pursue Murad Bey, defeated him in several encounters, drove him into Nubia, and conquered the whole of Upper Egypt in eight months. Here he established a regular government, and inspired the Egyptians with such esteem that they called him "the just sultan." When Bonaparte embarked from Egypt, he sent Desaix a sword with the inscrip- tion, Conquete de la haute figypte, and ordered him to return home in the following November. He arrived at Toulon May 3, 1800, and hastened to join Bonaparte in Italy, where he arrived June 11, and was put in command of a division, with orders to prevent the army which had just taken Genoa from joining that under Me- las at Alessandria. He was at some distance from the main army on the morning of June 14, but on hearing the artillery hastily returned, DESAULT 35 and arrived in time to change the nearly lost battle of Marengo to a complete victory. He was shot through the heart as he was entering the action. Bonaparte had a medal struck in his honor, and decreed that a statue should be erected to his memory in the place des mctoires at Paris, and that his grave should be placed on the summit of the Alps, under the care of the monks of St. Bernard. DESAUGIERS, Marc Antoine Madeleine, a French songwriter and dramatist, born at Frejus, Nov. 17, 1772, died in Paris, Aug. 9, 1827. At the age of 17 he produced a successful one-act comedy in verse. During the revolution he went to Santo Domingo, where his sister had married a planter ; and when the insurrection of the blacks broke out, he barely escaped with his life to the United States, where he earned a living by teaching music. He returned to France in 1797, and wrote songs and light comedies. Some of his plays, such as Les pe- tites Dana'ides, La chatte merveilleuse, and M. Vautour, had an unprecedented success ; while his songs were more popular than those of any other writer except Beranger. DESAULT, Pierre Joseph, a French surgeon, born at Magny-Vernais, a village of Franche- Comte, in 1744, died in Paris, June 1, 1795. He commenced his education for the church in a Jesuit school, but exhibiting a strong inclina- tion for surgery, he was permitted to acquire the rudiments of the art from the barber-sur- geon of his native village. He was then sent to. the military hospital at Belfort, where he re- mained three years, giving special attention to gunshot and sword wounds. While here he translated Borelli's treatise De Motu Anima- lium, adding notes and illustrations. In 1764 he went to Paris, and availed himself of the fa- cilities for dissection with such success that he soon opened a very popular school of anatomy. In 1776 he became a member of the college of surgery. Thereafter he made rapid progress, becoming successively chief surgeon to the hos- pital of the college, consulting surgeon to that of St. Sulpice, chief surgeon to La Charite, and finally to the Hotel-Dieu, with the repu- tation of being the most skilful operator in France. In connection with the H6tel-Dieu he instituted a clinical class which attracted many students. The most important cases that came before the class were reported in a serial, entitled Journal de CMrurgie, edited by the pupils. In the revolution he was arrested while lecturing, May 28, 1793, and carried to the Luxembourg, from which he was liberated at the end of three days. On the establish- 1 ment of the school of health he was appointed clinical professor for external diseases. While attending the dauphin, then a prisoner in the Temple, he was seized with illness, which al- most immediately terminated in delirium and death. The rumor of the time asserted that he was poisoned because he refused to lend him- self to the murder of his patient. An autopsy showing no trace of poison, his death was set