La Bataille d' Eggmuhl 1809

during the Battle of Wagram. However, despite his various successes, Vandamme was overlooked when Napoleon created a number of new marshals in 1809. He was angry and the whole empire knew about it.

Dominique Vandamme, perhaps the most impolitic man in the French Empire

In the Russian campaign in 1812, Vandamme was Jerome’s second in command of the Westphalian contingent. However, he only lasted a few weeks before Jerome fired him, for among other things, allegations of looting and other financial improprieties. He was sent home to Paris and did not rejoin the French army until the Fall of 1813 campaign.

Though serving Napoleon well at Dresden, Vandamme failed miserably just a few days later to pursue the defeated Army of Bohemia and was captured at Kulm. Brought before Tsar Alexander, Vandamme, was his usual cantankerous self. Accused by Alexander of looting, Vandamme said that Vandamme was at least not accused of killing his father, a reference that Alexander was somehow involved with the death of his father Tsar Paul.

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