Pierre Yrieix Daumesnil

Who was Pierre Yrieix Daumesnil?

Pierre Yrieix Daumesnil was a French soldier in the armies of Napoleon during the first Empire and Restoration, eventually rising to the rank of brigadier general. He participated in the Battle of Wagram, in the course of which he lost a leg, which was replaced by a wooden prosthesis; hence his nickname jambe de bois. Assigned to the defense of the Château de Vincennes in 1812, he faced down the allies of the Sixth Coalition marching on Paris in 1814 in the aftermath of the Battle of the Nations with the famous words "I shall surrender Vincennes when I get my leg back".