"The Good Officer"

1735 May 28 - Born at Strasbourg
1752 - Enlisted as volunteer cadet in the Lowendahl Regiment
1753 - Became an ensign in the Royal Bavarian Regiment
1756 May 6 - Received rank of lieutenant in the Alsatian Volunteers
1758 April 9 - Became junior captain in regiment of dragoons
1758-62 - Active service in Germany
1761 April 13 - Captain in the Volunteers of the Dauphine
1763 April 12 - Captain in the Conflans Legion
1765 and 1766 - Went on important missions to the Poles and Tartars
1769 March 24 - Became captain of hussars
1771 - Served in Poland with a corps of volunteers
1772 March 24 - Received rank of lieutenant-colonel in the cavalry
1780 April 2 - Lieutenant colonel in the Colonel-General's Hussars
1788 March 9 - Promoted marechal de camp (major-general)
1791 February - Commander of the Upper Rhine, later the Lower Rhine
1792 March 20 - Received rank of lieutenant general
1792 August 20 - Appointed commander of l'Armee du Centre
1792 September 20 - Battle of Valmy
1792 November 11 - Commander of l'Armee des Alpes
1793 May 20 - Commander of les Armees des Alpes et d'Italie
1793 October - Arrested and imprisoned
1795 January 15 - Reinstated at his former rank
1795 March 3 - Again commander of les Armees
1797 September 13 - Withdrew from service in the field
1798 September 15 - Inspector general of the cavalry of l'Armee d'Angleterre
1799 December 24 - Became a senator
1804 May 19 - Appointed Marechal d'Empire (fifteenth in the order of promotion)
1808 June 3 - Created duke of Valmy
1815 June - Honored as a peer of France
1820 September 13 - Died in Paris; buried in Cementery of Pere Lachaise

Kellermann "I think I was probably the boldest general who ever lived, but I wouldn't have dared to take post there [the ridge topped by a windmill at Valmy, 1792]".

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by Gipsy