Hoche, Gen Louis Lazare (1768-97). Son of a groom, Hoche was an assistant groom in the royal stables before joining the Gardes Françaises. A corporal in 1789, he rose rapidly in the French Revolutionary wars: he was a captain by 1792 and a general of division within a year. As C-in-C of the Army of the Moselle he was beaten at Kaiserslauten on 28-30 November 1793 but defeated the Prussians at Froeschwiller and the Austrians at Geisberg in December, pushing the invaders back over the Rhine.
Imprisoned in 1794 as a result of intrigues by his rival Pichegru, he was released on the fall of Robespierre. Sent to repress the Vendée rebellion which had spread to Brittany, he defeated the émigré force landed on the Quiberon promontory in June 1795, butchering royalists who could not be rescued by the British fleet. In December 1796 he commanded an expedition to Ireland, but his ship became separated from the others, waiting to land troops at Bantry Bay, and then the weather scattered the fleet. Hoche was commanding the Army of the Sambre et Meuse with distinction when he died of consumption at the age of 29. Quick-thinking, stern, and ruthless, he was a general of real talent, whose early death was a loss to France.
— Richard Holmes
