Pierre Guillaume Gratien (Paris, January 1, 1764 - Plaisance, April 24, 1811) was a French military.
He served from 1787 to 1789 as a soldier in the regiment dragons of the Dauphin. The French Revolution enabled him to make a career as an officer. He fought in the Army of the Meuse and remained faithful to the revolution when his commander General Dumouriez drew the matter of freedom.
On August 16, 1793, Gratien, now Lieutenant Colonel, saved the day when the entire French army was driven back by the Dutch and English enemy at the village of Lincelles, collecting the battalion that he commanded and stormed in a hail of charter fire the chances and enemy artillery. He then forced into the village and prevented the Dutch army from re-grouping. The French government was impressed with its cold bloodiness and appointed him as Brigadier General.
He distinguished himself at Wattignies but commissioners Carnot and Duquesnoy, observers for the French parliament, dismissed him because he had not been fanatically enough. The Pas-de-Calais Revolutionary Court spoke freely to refuse to accuse the defenders of the despots and to use delay tactics. Under General Hoche he took part in the failed expedition in Ireland.
Gratien joined the Legion of Honor on the 19th Frimaire of the Year XII (1804). On July 19th, 1806, with the leave of Napoleon, he became Lieutenant General in the Batavian army.
In June 1809 General Gratien of Stralsund stormed the Swedish propositions. The Sweden were embarking on and were destructively defeated. The proud Louis Napoleon awarded General Gratien a costly, four and a half thousand guilds, commander cross of the Order of the Union. The king of Denmark gave him the great cross of the Order of the Danes.
Again in France, he fought under the command of the duke of Abrantès in 1810 and 1811 at Caxèirias and Sobral (Portugal), on October 11, 1810, defeating the English with a decisive balljonette charch at a time when the battle for France lost lay.
Napoleon made him a baron and during the trip to Russia, Gratien undertook a division. After returning from Russia, the emissary Emperor Gratien ordered his kingdom to rescue Italy. On October 16, he was injured in a fight at the Italian Bassano. The following eleventh April, Gratien died in placement on the consequences of a disease. His name was cited on the northern part of the Arc de Triomphe. Footnotes
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