General Louis-Sébastien Grundler

Général de brigade and notable staff officer

Born: July 20, 1774

Place of Birth: Paris, Paris, France

Died: September 27, 1833

Place of Death: Troyes, France

Arc de Triomphe: GRUNDLER on the north pillar

Pronunciation:

Louis-Sébastien Grundler first joined the army in September of 1792 when he became a sous-lieutenant in the 1st Battalion of Friends of the Republic. Serving with the Army of the North and then the Army of the Rhine for a number of years, he was promoted to lieutenant in 1793 and then to capitaine in 1794. In March of 1799 Grundler was serving with the Army of the Danube when he was wounded by a shot that fractured the right side of his jaw at Stockach.

In 1800 Captain Grundler was put on non-activity until the 1st of January of 1801 when he was put at the disposition of the chief of staff of the Army of Italy. Grundler was then employed in the Army of the Observation of the South and then in 1802 he became an aide-de-camp to General Bonet. Grundler remained as Bonet's aide-de-camp for the next few years and during this time he was promoted to chef de bataillon and sent to the Army of the Coasts.

In November of 1805 Grundler joined Marshal Berthier's staff in the Grande Armée. Three years later in 1808 he was sent to Spain where he joined the IV Corps and then that December he became chief of staff to the 4th Dragoon Division. Grundler returned to France in 1809 where he was sent to the staff of the Army of the North, and then in 1810 he served in Holland. The next year Grundler commanded the département of Simplon and was named deputy chief of staff at the camps of Utrecht and Ost-Frise. In the meantime he received many awards, including being named a Commander of the Order of Saint Joseph of Wurzburg and a Knight of the Order of Military Merit of Bavaria.

For the Russian campaign of 1812, Grundler served with the II Corps of the Grande Armée. During the campaign he was promoted to général de brigade and served at Polotsk where he seized the defile of Bononia. That November he served with the 8th Division of II Corps.

Grundler continued to serve in staff positions during the campaigns in Germany of 1813. Serving as chief of staff of XI Corps, he was named a Baron of the Empire in May of 1813 and continued his service throughout the year and into the defense of France of 1814.

After Napoleon's abdication in 1814, the returning Bourbons named Grundler a Knight of Saint Louis and he did not rally to Napoleon for the Hundred Days in 1815. After the Second Restoration of the Bourbons, Grundler was tasked to investigate and gather evidence on the conduct of Marshal Ney during the Hundred Days.¹ Grundler continued to lead an active military career in later years.

Notes

Raymond Horricks, Military Politics From Bonaparte to the Bourbons: The Life and Death of Michel Ney, 1769-1815, (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1995), 256.

Bibliography

Six, Georges. Dictionnaire Biographique des Généraux & Amiraux Français de la Révolution et de l'Empire (1792-1814). 2 vols. Paris: Gaston Saffroy, 2003.

Updated June 2014