François-Xavier Donzelot
During the French Revolutionary Wars Donzelot served in the campaigns of the Army of the Rhine under the command of Pichegru and Moreau.
[7] In 1807, French general César Berthier with 17,000 men landed in Corfu and took over control of the Russian-backed Septinsular Republic, according to the Treaty of Tilsit.
[8] By order of the French Emperor Napoleon, Donzelot was entrusted with overseeing the reinforcement of the many fortifications of Corfu in anticipation of the British blockade.
[9] The French garrison in Corfu consisted of approximately 20,000 men, who were put under the leadership of General Donzelot, who was acknowledged as an intelligent, charming and capable leader.
[10] Captain Moubray, a British naval officer in command of HMS Active, after the refitting of his ship, was ordered to participate in the blockade of Corfu.
During the blockade, the British captain captured several French ships, one of which carried the personal library of General Donzelot.
[9] After the fall of Napoleon, Donzelot did not surrender, hoping that the French would be able to continue reinforcing their fortifications and use Corfu as a waypoint to Malta.
[8][11] After the departure of the French forces from Corfu, the British under Sir James Campbell's command seized control of the Ionian islands.
[12] During the Hundred Days, Donzelot was the commander of the 2nd Infantry Division in the Army of the North, returning to active duty for Waterloo after a 16-year hiatus that saw him in the administrative role of Governor of the Ionian Islands while his colleagues were fighting in campaigns all over Europe.
[14] During his tenure as governor of Martinique, Donzelot was also involved in an incident which gave rise to British concerns over French policy in the Caribbean.
On the other hand, another French respondent by the name of Jean-Baptiste de Villèle admitted that Donzelot acted, on orders from Paris, to help Spain maintain control of Cuba.
[15] On 3 February 1819, a ministerial dispatch instructed the Governor Administrator to examine the question of introducing the use of steamships in the western colonies.
On 2 August 1820, he signed a contract for the construction of a steamboat, the hull of which was built in Bordeaux and the twenty-horsepower "fire engine" in Chaillot.
After In 1826, Donzelot was replaced and he retired to Mamirolle (Near Besançon, France) and above all to his château de Ville-Evrard in Neuilly-sur-Marne (near Paris, France), where he spent his retirement as a patron of the arts, surrounded by artists and writers (he was to serve as a model for Alfred de Vigny's Servitude and Military Grandeur).
He was a major donor to his childhood church, to the Besançon Museum of Fine Arts and to the commune of Neuilly-sur-Marne, where his château de Ville-Évrard was located; it was there that he died on 21 June 1843.
