Situational Report April 1809 3e Regiment d'infanterie Ligne

Officer Nominations April 23rd,1809, and April 25th, 1809. Four adjudant sous-officiers were promoted to fill the gaps of the 3 officers killed (1 Lt, 2 S.Lt.'s) and S.Lt. Sugier who was promoted to Lieutenant. These men were Adj.Sous Officiers Courtol, Merlet, Rasteau, and Hourt.  Adj. Sous Officier Junot would replace Sous-lieut. Antoine Leroux who had to have his right leg amputated due to his wounds received on April 19th, 1809.

3e Ligne Officers killed and wounded st the Battle of Thann on April 19, 1809

Lt. Cesar Claude Beluze who served in the 1st Battalion/ 1st Grenadier company, was wounded on April 19th, 1809. He has two service records in his LdH file and one says he was wounded le 19 Avril 1809 a l'affair Thann, but without any explanation and the other only cites his wound on May 22, 1809, at the Battle of Essling. His wound may have been so slight that he never left the ranks and only reported his wounds later on during his retirement.

Sous-Lieut. Jacques Gilbert Felder one of the three officers from the 3e Ligne killed on April 19, 1809. Sous-Lieut. Felder served in the 2nd Battalion/ 2nd Grenadier company.

      So far during my research, I found 3 officers killed which are Lieut. Alexis, Sous-Lieut. Uzes and Sous-Lieut. Felder. At the moment I also have found 2 NCOs killed which are sergeant-major Fournioux and sergeant Naudin and 4 soldiers killed. The majority of the wounded officers seem to have stayed with the regiment or at least recovered enough to serve at the Battle of Essling a month later as some were wounded again. However, at least one officer Lieut. Leroux retired in 1809 due to his wound that caused his right leg to be amputated. Also, Sous-Lieut. Jean-Joseph Jeandel's wound was severe enough to fracture his left arm and keep him out of the rest of the campaign.

     As you can see by the killed and wounded from the first table the elite companies of the four battalions took the brunt of the officer casualties. The Grenadiers had one officer killed and 6 wounded and the Voltigeurs had six officers wounded from a total of 3 officers killed and 25 wounded. Also, we can look at the casualties per battalion and take an educated guess which two battalions were fighting on the Hausner Berg on the right of the 57e Ligne. The 2nd and 3rd battalions altogether accounted for 18 officer casualties which attest to the intensity of the fighting on the hill against the larger Austrian forces. With the least amount of casualties of 1 officer killed and 4 wounded, the 1st battalion seems to have been the battalion left as a reserve and were able to coordinate with the 10e Legere to push back and outflank the 1. Batt. Erz. Karl Legion and II. Batt. 9th Peterwardein Grenzer near Roith. It is possible that during this pursuit of the retreating Austrians that Capit. Jean-Bernard-Louis Mac-Shechy and Lt. Alexis became casualties when the 1st battalion exited the woods and was met by a hail of cannonballs from batteries on hills surrounding Hausen and battalion volleys from the counter-attacking IR 20 Kaunitz. This would make sense as the third company would be one of the two front companies when the battalion was traversing the woods in the more maneuverable Colonne de Division.

      The location of the 4th Battalion's elite companies is unknown, but due to the terrain on the french left near Roith, perhaps the grenadiers and voltigeurs were engaged against the Grenzer. Précis historique de la guerre entre la France et l'Autriche, en 1809 backs up this hypothesis, " Several times the enemy pushed back the skirmishers of the 3e; but each time, a battalion of this regiment which was in reserve (1st Battalion), starting from the end of the arc formed by the woods, traversed it, at the run, and overwhelmed everything that had gone forward." Wherever these companies were located it must have been in the thick of the fighting as 4 out of the 6 officers became casualties during the battle. Also, three officers named Capt. Thomas, Lt. Dorange, and S.lt. Jeandel who was wounded at the battle was detached from the fusilier companies of the 4th Battalion who still remained at the depot in Strasbourg. I am unable to find out which company they served during the battle, but due to the fact that Capt. Hugues retirement was signed on April 19th, 1809 at the depot in Strasbourg, one could presume Capt. Thomas commanded the 3rd Voltigeurs in his place.  Sadly, this is all a guess due to the lack of exact details on the fighting, but the casualties returns allow us to decipher where and how the battle occurred.

     I would like to spotlight one of our officer casualties named Capt. Jean-Bernard-Louis Mac-Shechy. He was born in 1783, making him the youngest captain in the regiment at the age of 26. He must have been a very talented officer since the next youngest captain in the 1st Battalion was 12 years older than him! Granted the 3e Ligne had many old officers such as the 52-year old Capit. Henri Baujeux and Capt. Martin-Joseph Thomas, 51-year old Lieut. Louis-Francois Gorget, 50-year old Capt. Joseph Fontaine and 49-year old Voltigeur Capt. Jean-Pierre Hugues. Mac-Shechy at 26 years had an interesting career before joining the 3e Ligne in 1808.

   He started his career with the 10th Chasseur a Cheval as a trooper in 1801 and was promoted to the officer ranks in the 1st Battalion of the Irish Regiment two years later. He was promoted Captain in 1803 at the age of 20 and served as an aide de camp to General Desjardin in January 1807 and then transferred to the Legion du Nord in February 1807. He would join the 3e Ligne on 31st March of 1808. By the time of the battle Capt. Mac-Shechy had already been a captain for almost 6 years! His next promotion to Chef de Batallion would take him over five years when he was promoted to the 81e Ligne in 1813 and a lateral move to 44e Ligne in 1814. He was appointed on August 9th,1809 Knight of the Legion d'honneur for his actions at the battle of Wagram. During the Battle of Thann, he was wounded with a shot in the left forearm and later wounded in Spain on July 1812.

    Below is his service record from Base Leonore. The slightly frustrating thing about searching for Mac-Shechy and other officers of the regiment is their names are spelled in so many different ways. I have seen his name spelled three different ways such as Mac-Shechy and Mac-Sheehy on his Base Leonore record and Mac-Sechy on the regimental rolls!

Sources:
1) XB347 Administrative des corps de troupe 3.Ligne 1809
2) 2YB120 3.Ligne An X.1810
3) 2C 506 2e&3e Corps April 1809
4) HISTORIQUE DU 3 Regiment d'Infanterie EX-PIEMONT 1569-1891 pg. 273-276.
5) Tableaux, par corps et par batailles, des officiers tués et blessés pendant les guerres de l'Empire (1805-1815) /A. Martinien pg. 121
6) Tableaux, par corps et par batailles, des officiers tués et blessés pendant les guerres de l'Empire (1805-1815) : supplément / A. Martinien pg.27
7)  Précis historique de la guerre entre la France et l'Autriche, en 1809 pg. 52-59