An army groom at Valmy, he earned in the retreat from Russia the nickname Napoleon gave him: “the bravest of the brave”. He had promised Louis XVIII to bring the Emperor back in an iron cage, and went over to him. Condemned by the Chamber of Peers, he gave the order to fire himself, on 7 December 1815.
The story
Michel Ney was born at Saarlouis on 10 January 1769, a cooper's son. He enlisted in the hussars at eighteen, was at Valmy in 1792, an officer by that October, and a brigadier general four years later: the Revolution made careers the old order had forbidden.
Elchingen in 1805, Jena in 1806, Friedland in 1807, Borodino in 1812: marshal, Duc d'Elchingen and then Prince de la Moskowa, he was one of the great sabres of the Empire.
It was the retreat from Russia that gave him his name. Commanding the rearguard, he kept contact with the Cossacks for weeks on end and saved what was left of the Grande Armée: Napoleon called him then the bravest of the brave.
In 1815 he promised Louis XVIII he would bring Napoleon back in an iron cage, and then went over to him instead. During the Hundred Days that gesture was his death warrant: tried by the Chamber of Peers, he was condemned and shot on 7 December 1815, on the place de l'Observatoire, where he gave the firing order himself.
He was buried first in Division 42, then moved to Division 29, where he lies with his brother-in-law, the prefect Charles Guillaume Gamot. A stubborn legend, which the inventories report as an unverified rumour, holds that a conspiracy saved him from the firing squad and that he emigrated to the United States.
The grave
A monument adorned with a marble bas-relief by an unknown hand: the marshal's medallion is set there in a laurel wreath that supports a cross of the Légion d'honneur. Only two battle names are engraved, “Hohenlinden 1800” and “Iéna 1806” — neither Elchingen, nor the Moskva, nor the retreat from Russia that earned him his nickname, nor of course 7 December 1815. The burial place is not the original: Ney was first buried in Division 42 before being transferred here, and his brother-in-law the prefect Charles Guillaume Gamot, who died in 1820, lies with him.
On site, do not miss
The two battle names engraved in the bas-relief — Hohenlinden 1800, Iéna 1806 — and the Légion d'honneur hanging from the wreath.
Visitors' questions
Where is Marshal Ney's grave?
In Division 29, chemin Masséna, first row, in the old, upper part of the cemetery. This is not his original resting place: he was first buried in Division 42, before being moved here.
Marshal MassénaWhy was Ney shot?
For rallying to Napoleon during the Hundred Days, after promising Louis XVIII to bring him back in an iron cage. Tried by the Chamber of Peers, he was executed on 7 December 1815 at the place de l'Observatoire.
Marshal AugereauWhy was he called “the bravest of the brave”?
The nickname dates from the retreat from Russia in 1812: commanding the rearguard, he held off the Cossacks for weeks and saved what was left of the Grande Armée. It was Napoleon who gave him the name.
Augustin-Daniel BelliardDid he really escape the firing squad?
No, but the legend persists: a conspiracy is said to have saved him and he is supposed to have emigrated to the United States. The cemetery inventories expressly record it as an unverified rumour, without a shred of documentary evidence.
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