Étienne-Marie-Antoine Champion, comte de Nansouty (French pronunciation: [etjɛn maʁi ɑ̃twan ʃɑ̃pjɔ̃ kɔ̃t də nɑ̃suti]; 30 May 1768 – 12 February 1815) was a French cavalry commander during the French Revolutionary Wars who rose to the rank of General of Division in 1803 and subsequently held important military commands during the Napoleonic Wars.
Of noble Burgundian descent, he was a student at the Brienne military school, then was a graduate of the Paris military school. Nansouty began his military career in 1785, as a sub-lieutenant in the regiment Bourgogne-Infanterie, where his father had served during the wars of Louis XV. A cavalry officer at the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792, Nansouty was commissioned as an aide-de-camp to Marshal Nicolas Luckner. During the First Coalition, he saw service as a lieutenant-colonel and squadron commander in the 9th (heavy) Cavalry Regiment, campaigning with the French armies on the Rhine and in Germany. Promoted to colonel in 1793 and given the command of the 9th Cavalry, he was noted for several well-led cavalry actions. Finally made a brigadier general in 1799, after he had refused the promotion several times in the past, Nansouty fought the next year under General Jean Victor Moreau in southern Germany, in a decisive campaign of the Second Coalition.
Promoted to the top military rank of General of Division in 1803, Nansouty was called to the command of the 1st Heavy Cavalry Division in Emperor Napoleon I's newly created Grande Armée. Commanding this division from 1804 to 1809, Nansouty was present at some of the most significant battles of the Third, Fourth and Fifth coalitions, leading cavalry actions at the battles of Austerlitz, Friedland, Eckmühl, Aspern-Essling and Wagram. In 1812, during the campaign in Russia, Nansouty commanded the I Cavalry Corps, which he led with distinction at such battles as Ostrovno and Borodino, where he received a severe knee wound. The next year, he commanded the Imperial Guard cavalry, which he led at Dresden, Leipzig and Hanau, where he was again wounded. In 1814 he led his men in several engagements, including La Rothière, Montmirail, Vauchamps and Craonne until his incapacitation from wounds that year.
A member of the military elite of the First French Empire and a recipient of the Grand Aigle de la Légion d'Honneur, Comte de Nansouty was a member of the Military Household of the Emperor as First Squire of the Emperor, and also held the position of Colonel-General of Dragoons. During the Bourbon Restoration, Louis XVIII awarded him additional honours and commands, including one in the Military Household of the King of France. Nansouty died in February 1815 and is buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. His name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe and a street in the 14th arrondissement of Paris is named after him.
Étienne de Nansouty was born on 30 May 1768 in Bordeaux. His father had served France for fifty years in Louis XV's wars of the Polish Succession and Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War, and had subsequently been appointed "major" (commander) of the Château-Trompette fortress in Bordeaux. Typically for a member of the minor nobility of the Ancien Régime, young Étienne de Nansouty chose to follow his father's footsteps in the military. He was admitted at the military school of Brienne-le-Château in 1779, aged ten, where he was noted for being a well-behaved and assiduous student. On 21 October 1782, he transferred to the École Militaire in Paris, where he obtained excellent grades. Two years later, Nansouty became a Chevalier (Knight) of the Order Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel and had the honour of being decorated by Monsieur, the future King Louis XVIII, in person. Upon his graduation on 30 May 1783, he was appointed sub-lieutenant and, on 26 May 1785, Nansouty was sent to the Bourgogne-Infanterie regiment, where his father had served with distinction.
Throughout his childhood and youth, the Nansouty family led a tranquil yet modest life in Bordeaux, where his father held the position of commander of Château-Trompette, in which he lived with his family, additionally receiving a pension of 1000 livres. He was still holding the position as commander when he died suddenly in 1785, after more than 60 years of active service. His widow had no revenue with which to raise their son and two daughters. However, influential people such as the Duchess of Brancas and the wife of Marshal Beauvau contacted the Minister of War, Marshal de Ségur, regarding the situation of the young Nansouty. As a result, in 1788, Nansouty was named interim captain in the light cavalry Franche-Comté Cavalerie Regiment (later rebaptised 4th Chasseurs à Cheval). He was soon transferred to the Lauzun Hussar Regiment (which became the 6th Hussars in 1791, then the 5th Hussars in 1793). In 1791, Nansouty then left the regiment to fill two consecutive military staff positions, first as deputy aid to Adjutant General Poncet de la Cour Maupas in the Army of the centre on 20 December, then as aide-de-camp of Marshal Luckner at the beginning of 1792. He was then promoted to lieutenant-colonel and took up the command of a squadron of the 2nd Chasseurs à Cheval (on 5 March), before being transferred to the command of a squadron of the 9th Cavalry Regiment on 4 April, a regiment in which he would serve for the next seven and a half years.
As the French Revolutionary Wars broke out, Nansouty soon found himself in the position of having to take provisional command of the whole 9th Cavalry Regiment, as he was the most senior chef d'escadron (Lieutenant-Colonel) of the regiment when the commander, Colonel Badda de Bodosalva, fell ill at the end of May 1792. His regiment was a part of the "Army of the Rhine" and was integrated in General Custine's Corps, which was to march towards the Palatinate, where the first military manoeuvres took place. As Colonel Badda de Bodosalva died at the end of October that year, Nansouty naturally expected to be appointed commander of the regiment in his place. However, Custine appointed the more senior Lieutenant-Colonel Loubat de Bohan as commander of the 9th Cavalry and, despite Nansouty's protestations, maintained his decision. With Loubat in command, the 9th saw action against the Prussians in an engagement at Ober-Flörsheim on 30 March 1793. After a first successful charge, Nansouty's 1st squadron was counter-charged by enemy hussars; the remaining squadrons under Loubat quickly caught up with Nansouty's squadron and together they broke the enemy. Corps commander Custine was then called up to command the Army of the North but, before leaving his command, he attempted a last daunting move against the Habsburg army. This required a night march, not usually undertaken by cavalry, and poorly coordinated manoeuvres of cavalry, infantry and artillery. This led to total failure of the action of 17 May. During this action, though, the initial charge of the corps cavalry, which included the 9th, successfully took a number of enemy guns. However, a Habsburg counter-charge forced them back in disorder, which spread panic among the ranks of oncoming infantry.
Despite this setback, a few days later, Lobat de Bohan was promoted to the rank of General and Nansouty again took provisional command of the regiment. When General Alexandre de Beauharnais took command of the Army of the Rhine, he directed his troops towards Mainz. Some fighting took place near Landau and the 9th Cavalry charged several times. Just after this event, the commander of the 2nd Squadron of the regiment invoked the provision of an equivocal new law, demanding that he be given command of the regiment instead of Nansouty. His request was rejected and Nansouty's provisional command was confirmed.
Now holding the rank of chef de brigade (colonel) in command of the 9th Cavalry Regiment, Nansouty took part in several successful cavalry skirmishes around Strasbourg in November and December 1793. He then participated to the Battle of Geisberg, at the end of December. Following this battle, General of Division Donnadieu, who had commanded the cavalry division of which Nansouty's regiment was a part, was tried and executed for alleged cowardice in front of the enemy. Nansouty was not involved in the incident. Furthermore, despite being a member of the Ancien Régime nobility, he was not harassed at any time during the radical phase of the French Revolution.