No other General Beaupuy is recorded in the history of the Revolution, so far as I have been able to ascertain.  The moral character of the officer, whose life I shall relate, answers to Wordsworth’s description, and is worthy of his high estimate.

Armand Michel de Bachelier, Chevalier de Beaupuy, was born at Mussidan, in Perigord, on the 15th of July 1757.  He belonged to a noble family, less proud of its antiquity than of the blood it had shed for France on many battlefields.  On his mother’s side (Mlle. de Villars), he reckoned Montaigne, the celebrated essayist, among his ancestors.  His parents having imbibed the philanthropic ideas of the time, educated him according to their principles.

  He had four brothers, who were all destined to turn republicans and do
  good service to the new cause, though their interest certainly lay in
  the opposite direction.

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  He was made sub-lieutenant in the regiment of Bassigny (33rd division
  of foot) on the 2nd of March 1773, and lieutenant of grenadiers on the
  1st of October of the same year.

In 1791 he was first lieutenant in the same regiment.  Having sided with the Revolution, he was appointed commander of a battalion of national volunteers in the department of Dordogne.  I have not found the exact date of this appointment, but it must have taken place immediately after his stay at Orleans with Wordsworth.

  I have found no further mention of his name till September 1792, when
  he is known to have served in the “Armee du Rhin,” under General
  Custine, and contributed to the taking of Spire.

He took an important part in the taking of Worms, 4th October; of Mayence (Maenz) 21st October.  He was among the garrison of Mayence when this place was besieged by the Prussians, and obliged to capitulate after a long and famous siege (from 6th April 1793 to 22nd July 1793). [A]

During the siege he wrote a journal of all the operations.  Unfortunately, this journal is very short, and purely military.  It has been handed down to us, and is found in the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris in the ‘Papiers de Merlin de Thionville’, n. acq. fr.  Nos. 244-252, 8 vol. in-8 deg..  Beaupuy’s journal is in the 3rd volume, fol. 213-228.

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In the Vendean war, the “Mayencais,” or soldiers returned from Mayence, made themselves conspicuous, and bore almost all the brunt of the campaign.  But none of them distinguished himself more than Beaupuy, then a General of Brigade.

The Mayencais arrived in Vendee at the end of August or beginning of September 1793.  To Beaupuy’s skill the victory of Chollet (Oct. 17, 1793) is attributed by Jomini.  In this battle he fought hand to hand with and overcame a Vendean cavalier.  He himself had three horses killed, and had a very narrow escape.  On the