Charles-François du Périer Dumouriez

Charles-François du Périer Dumouriez (born Jan. 25, 1739, Cambrai, France—died March 14, 1823, Turville Park, Buckinghamshire, Eng.) was a French general who won signal victories for the French Revolution in 1792–93 and then traitorously deserted to the Austrians.

The son of a war commissary, Dumouriez entered the French army in 1758 and served with distinction against the Prussians in the Seven Years’ War (1756–63). King Louis XV sent him on secret diplomatic missions to Madrid (1767), Poland (1770–72), and Sweden (1773), but he was recalled and imprisoned (1773–75) for engaging in intrigues. In 1778 he was appointed commander at Cherbourg, where for the next 11 years he supervised the development of the port.

The Revolution of 1789 opened new opportunities to the ambitious Dumouriez. He joined the Jacobin Club in 1790, and in March 1792 he was appointed minister of foreign affairs at the head of a largely Girondin cabinet. On April 20, 1792, war was declared on Austria. Dumouriez probably planned to win quickly and then use his army to overthrow the Legislative Assembly (successor to the National Assembly) and rule in the king’s name. But French forces suffered a series of setbacks in the initial campaign. Dumouriez was made minister of war on June 12, 1792, but he resigned three days later and assumed command of the army in the north. Meanwhile, Prussia had entered the conflict on the side of Austria. With François-Christophe Kellermann, Dumouriez was able to defeat an invading Prussian army in the Battle of Valmy (September 20) and force it to withdraw from French soil. Dumouriez then conquered Belgium by crushing an Austrian army in the Battle of Jemappes (November 6).

On Feb. 26, 1793, Dumouriez invaded Holland. Forced to retreat into Belgium, he was defeated by the Austrians at Neerwinden (March 18) and at Leuven (March 21). He then concluded an armistice with the enemy and made plans to march on Paris and overthrow the National Convention, which had succeeded the Legislative Assembly in September 1792. When the Convention sent the minister of war, Pierre Riel, Count de Beurnonville, and four commissaries to relieve him of his command, Dumouriez handed them over to the Austrians on April 2. His troops deserted, and on April 5 he went over to the Austrians. His defection discredited his Girondin associates, and on June 2 the Jacobins had the leading Girondins expelled from the Convention.

After traveling throughout Europe for several years, Dumouriez settled in England, where he was granted a pension in the early 1800s. Upon the restoration of the French monarchy in 1814, King Louis XVIII refused to allow him to return to France.