Étienne Pierre Sylvestre Ricard (; 31 December 1771 – 6 November 1843) was a prominent French division commander during the 1814 Campaign in Northeast France. In 1791 he joined an infantry regiment and spent several years in Corsica. Transferred to the Army of Italy in 1799, he became an aide-de-camp to Louis-Gabriel Suchet. He fought at Pozzolo in 1800. He became aide-de-camp to Marshal Nicolas Soult in 1805 and was at Austerlitz and Jena where his actions earned a promotion to general of brigade. From 1808 he functioned as Soult's chief of staff during the Peninsular War, serving at Corunna, Braga, First and Second Porto. During this time he sent a letter to Soult's generals asking them if the marshal should assume royal powers in Northern Portugal. When he found out, Napoleon was furious and he sidelined Ricard for two years.
In 1811 Soult got Ricard reinstated and he fought at Tarragona. He participated in the 1812 French invasion of Russia, was promoted general of division and fought at Krasnoi. In 1813 he led a division in the III Corps at Lützen, Bautzen, Leipzig and Hanau, briefly leading the corps that winter. In 1814 he led a VI Corps division at La Rothière, Champaubert, Montmirail, Vauchamps, Gué-à-Tresmes, Laon, Reims, Fère-Champenoise and Paris. During the Hundred Days he went into exile with Louis XVIII, after which he was made a count by the restored king. He led troops in the 1823 French invasion of Spain. His surname is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe, on Column 26.
Early career Ricard was born on 31 December 1771 in Castres, France in what later became the Tarn department. In 1791 he joined the French Royal Army as a sous-lieutenant in the Le Fère Infantry Regiment. Within a year he was promoted to captain. He was soon transferred to Corsica for several years. In 1799 he emerged as an aide-de-camp to Louis-Gabriel Suchet. That year Suchet was made chief of staff to André Masséna in June and soon after chief of staff of the French Army of Italy under Barthélemy Catherine Joubert. When Joubert was killed at the Battle of Novi, Suchet was at his side. Suchet continued as chief of staff under Jean Étienne Championnet who lost the Battle of Genola on 4 November. Championnet fell ill and died of fever on 9 January 1800. Ricard's promotion to Adjutant General Chef de brigade came through on 31 December 1799. Ricard fought at the Battle of Pozzolo in December 1800. After the war ended, he was given assignments in the 12th Military Division. Later he served at the Camp of Bruges before going to the Camp of Saint-Omer in 1803.
Under Soult In 1805 Ricard became aide-de-camp to Marshal Nicolas Soult and participated in the campaigns of the War of the Third Coalition. In 1806 his noteworthy actions at the Battle of Jena in October earned him an elevation in rank to general of brigade. The promotion came on 13 November 1806. This was followed by being awarded the Commander's Cross of the Légion d'Honneur on 7 July 1807 and being named a Baron of the Empire on 7 June 1808. When Soult was sent to Spain to take command of the II Corps, Ricard was his chief of staff.
After his long pursuit of a British army across northwest Spain, Soult was defeated at the Battle of Corunna on 16 January 1809. After the Royal Navy evacuated the British army, Napoleon ordered Soult to invade northern Portugal and the marshal began his march south on 4 March. In the Battle of Braga on 20 March, the French routed a large but poorly armed body of Portuguese militia, inflicting severe losses. On 29 March, Soult's corps attacked the Portuguese defenders in the First Battle of Porto and the slaughter was even worse. The French easily broke through the Portuguese defenses and 7,000–8,000 Portuguese were killed or drowned in the massacre and stampede that followed.
Before Braga, the French captured Chaves, where Soult proclaimed himself the viceroy of Portugal. Historian Charles Oman believed there was ample evidence that Soult's ambitions included crowning himself King of Northern Portugal. Since Napoleon appointed Marshal Joachim Murat the King of Naples in 1808, it did not seem so far fetched that a French general could become a monarch. There was a small pro-French faction which would have supported Soult's royal claim and the marshal did his best to curry favor with the local Portuguese leaders. In Porto posters were put up on the walls declaring that Soult should be appointed king. One witness claimed that, for a week, Ricard threw coins to the crowds from the balcony of Soult's headquarters as they shouted, "Long live King Nicolas". On 19 April 1809, Soult directed Ricard to send a circular letter to his generals of brigades and divisions that encouraged them to cooperate with the program of making the marshal a king. The letter was careful to note that there would be no disloyalty to Napoleon if the movement was a success.
The proceedings were interrupted when Arthur Wellesley, later known as Wellington appeared with a British army. On 12 May, Wellesley's army defeated Soult in the Second Battle of Porto and drove the French out of the city. After a week-long retreat that included two hair-raising escapes, Soult's corps avoided destruction, though it lost 5,700 men killed or captured. When Napoleon received a copy of Ricard's letter, he became enraged and wrote to Soult, harshly rebuking the marshal. The angry emperor pointed out that Soult had no right to assume royal powers without his permission. Napoleon ended by favorably recalling Soult's past battlefield performance, "I remember nothing but Austerlitz". Ricard did not get off so easily and was recalled from Spain in disgrace.
1811–1812 Ricard went into semi-retirement at Villefranche-de-Rouergue. He was restored to favor when Soult asked for his services in 1811. He returned to Spain where he fought under Suchet's command at the Siege of Tarragona. In the French invasion of Russia he served as a brigade commander in Charles Louis Dieudonné Grandjean's 7th Infantry Division which was part of Étienne MacDonald's X Corps. Beginning on 24 July 1812, MacDonald's command operated against Riga in the north. Ricard's brigade included two battalions of the 13th Bavarian Regiment and four battalions of the 5th Polish Regiment. His troops occupied the Russian camp of Dünaburg in August. He was promoted general of division on 10 September 1812. Two months later he assumed command of the 2nd Infantry Division in I Corps and led the troops at the Battle of Krasnoi where he was wounded. This action was fought on 14–18 November.
1813
For the 1813 spring campaign, Ricard took command of the 11th Infantry Division in Marshal Michel Ney's III Corps. The 1st Brigade consisted of the 3rd and 4th Battalions of the 9th Light Infantry and two battalions each of the 17th and 18th Provisional Regiments. The 2nd brigade was made up of four battalions each of the 142nd and 144th Line Infantry. There were 7,608 infantrymen, 175 gunners, 152 sappers and 305 wagon drivers. Both attached foot artillery companies were armed with six 6-pounders and two 5½-inch howitzers. In the Battle of Lützen on 2 May 1813 the Russo-Prussian army achieved surprise when it attacked the III Corps. Joseph Souham's 8th and Jean-Baptiste Girard's 10th Divisions absorbed the force of the initial assault. Girard's artillery was not immediately available so the guns of Antoine François Brenier de Montmorand's 9th Division and Ricard's division were utilized in support. Savage fighting revolved around four villages which were repeatedly taken and retaken. Ricard's troops recaptured the village of Kaja in the afternoon.
In the Battle of Bautzen on 21 May 1813, the III Corps was ordered to envelop the Russo-Prussian right wing. The maneuver almost succeeded when Souham's division seized the key village of Preititz at 11:00 am, but then lost it to Allied counterattacks. At this time, Ney faltered, ordering his divisions to halt. Three divisions, including Ricard's, recaptured Preititz at 3:00 pm. By this time, the Allied right wing succeeded in escaping Napoleon's intended trap. Between 25 April and 31 May, the III Corps dwindled from 49,189 men to 24,581 men due to combat losses and sickness. Though part of the III Corps was at the Battle of Katzbach on 26 August, Ricard's division was not engaged.
Ricard's division fought at the Battle of Leipzig on 16–19 October 1813 with a strength of 4,357 men and 12 guns. On the 16th, Napoleon intended for the III Corps, now led by Souham, to aid his attack to the south of Leipzig. However, when fighting unexpectedly broke out to the north of the city, Ney held the corps back then later changed his mind. Consequently, Napoleon launched his main assault without III Corps, and it was only in the evening that Ricard's division belatedly intervened on the southern front. The division participated in the Battle of Hanau on 30–31 October. Subsequently, Napoleon's wrecked army retreated across the Rhine River. The III Corps, now led by Ricard, was at Höchst on 1 November. Crossing the Rhine on 3 November, the III Corps took position at Bechtheim.
1814
On 30 December 1813, Ricard commanded the 3,000-man 1st Division in Marshal Auguste Marmont's VI Corps. That day his troops left Koblenz and moved south, to be replaced by Pierre François Joseph Durutte's division. During this transfer, the Allies launched a successful crossing of the Rhine on 1 January 1814 and threatened to capture the isolated French. By hard marching, Ricard and Durutte managed to elude the Allies and reach Saarbrücken. On 14 January, believing he was about to be surrounded, Ricard evacuated Pont-à-Mousson without orders. His worst mistake was not destroying the bridge over the Moselle River. The French forces withdrew toward the Meuse River. On 19 January Ricard's rear guard ambushed some Prussian cavalry in a brisk skirmish at Manheulles.
When Napoleon arrived at the front on 26 January 1814, Marmont's 12,051-man command included Jean-Pierre Doumerc's I Cavalry Corps and the VI Corps with the divisions of Ricard and Joseph Lagrange. Hoping to surprise Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher's army, Napoleon launched an advance in three columns. The right column led by Étienne Maurice Gérard consisted of the divisions of Ricard and Georges Joseph Dufour. Marmont guarded the army's rear with Lagrange's division. On 1 February the Allies with 120,000 troops defeated Napoleon with 45,000 at the Battle of La Rothière. Only 85,000 Allies came into action. Gérard's ad hoc corps held Dienville on the right flank with 8,300 men. Their opponents were the Austrian III Corps under Ignaz Gyulai with one division on the west bank of the Aube River and the brigade of Franz Splény de Milháldy on the east bank. The west bank division briefly captured Dienville's bridge before being thrown back. The Austrians only took Dienville at midnight after Gérard abandoned the village. Both sides suffered about 6,000 casualties in the battle, but Napoleon lost 60 field pieces and was forced to retreat. A battle map showed Dufour in the first line and Ricard in the second line. A Russian attempt to cut off the French retreat the next day was blocked by Emmanuel Grouchy's cavalry and Ricard at Piney.