#OTD in 1800 Napoleon, then the 1st Consul of the Republican of France, almost lost the crucial battle of Marengo. The final victor was due to the Austrians celebrating too early, and the timely arrival and a superb charge by general Desaix, which cost him his life. When Desaix 
arrived at the battlefield there was the following conversation between him and Bonaparte (according to Bourienne)
Bonaparte: Well, what do you think?
Desaix: “This battle is completely lost, but it is only two o’clock - there is time to win another.”
The death of general Desaix
Bonaparte: Well, what do you think?
Desaix: “This battle is completely lost, but it is only two o’clock - there is time to win another.”
The death of general Desaix
was a great blow to Napoleon. He was not only considered one of the most brilliant of the younger officers in revolutionary France, but he was also one who very deliberately and farsightedly attached his future to Bonaparte’s. At the time when Napoloeon was making his name in
his first campaign in Italy in 1797, Desaix was serving under The renowned general Moreau. He had a close young friend, general of brigade Louis Nicholas Davout. The two had a lot in common: they both belonged to the same social class: they both came from poor military
nobility (of whom it was said they had served in all of France’s wars and got nothing but a collection of swords to hang on the wall) who joined the revolution (both were influenced by reading Russeau), both changed their aristocratic names (d’Avout to Davout, Des Aix to Desaix)
to plebeian ones, both were nearly guillotined (Desaix’s troops wanted to shoot the jacobin commissars sent to arrest him and they had to be rescued by their intended victim). The younger Davout modeled him self in all respects on his older friend. In a letter to Davout, Desaix
wrote:”I am convinced that Moreau will never accomplish anything great and that we must always play an inferior role under his command; whereas the other one (Bonaparte) is destined to rise to such fame, to acquire so much glory, that some of it will have to reflect on his
lieutenants.” Desaix deliberately sought out Bonaparte and introduced Davout to him. The two of them accompanied Bonaparte on his Egyptian expedition. There Desaix commanded an division in a famous campaign against Murad Bey, while Davout commanded his cavalry. Desaix won a great
reputation among the fell sheen and the nickname “the Just Sultan”.
His death at Marengo deprived Napoleon of what would surely have been one of his greatest marshals. But when on a May 19 1804 Emperor Napoleon , announced a list of 18 Marshals of the Empire, it contained a surprising name - that of general a Davout, younger than all the others
and even than the Emperor himself. At this point Davout’s achievents did not appear to justify this elevation so it was assumed that he received the post that was intended for a Desaix. He was soon to prove that he thoroughly deserved it.
