Jacques Anne Joseph Le Prestre de Vauban

Who was Jacques Anne Joseph Le Prestre de Vauban?

Jacques Anne Joseph Le Prestre de Vauban was a French general of the Ancien Regime and the French Revolutionary Wars. He was the grandson of Antoine Le Prestre de Vauban - Antoine was nephew to the military architect Vauban.

Entering military service in 1770, he was Rochambeau's aide de camp during the American War of Independence and was sent back to France with the general's dispatches in 1782. He became colonel and second in command of the régiment d'Agenors, and shortly afterwards, the duc d'Orléans, whose chamberlain he was, made him colonel in command of the régiment d'infanterie that took his name and knight of the order of Saint-Louis on 13 June 1784.

Like most other officer of his corps, he emigrated around the time of Louis XVI's flight to Varennes, going to Ath, then Koblenz, where the comte d'Artois made him his aide de camp. He accompanied him in this role during the campaign of 1792 and on his trip to Russia in 1793, where they were well received by Catherine II of Russia. He then went to England, and in spring 1795 joined the Quiberon expedition.