François Amédée Doppet

François Amédée Doppet
Born	16 March 1753 Chambéry, Savoy
Died	26 April 1799 (aged 46) Aix-les-Bains, Mont-Blanc, France
Allegiance	Kingdom of France France
Service/branch	Cavalry
Years of service	1770–1773 1792–1797
Rank	General of Division
Battles/wars	War of the First Coalition Siege of Lyon (1793) Siege of Toulon (1793) Battle of Villelongue (1793)
Other work	Council of Five Hundred

François Amédée Doppet (16 March 1753 – 26 April 1799) was a Savoyard who briefly commanded three French armies during the French Revolutionary Wars without distinction. During the 1770s he enlisted in the French cavalry. Quitting the army after three years, he became a physician after studying medicine at Turin. Later moving to Paris, he became a writer of poems, romances and medical works while also dabbling in aphrodisiacs and mesmerism.

Doppet threw himself wholeheartedly into the French Revolution, was elected to the Legislative Assembly and became a Jacobin. Appointed commander of a volunteer battalion, he took part in the French invasion of Savoy in 1792. Rapidly promoted to general officer in 1793, the government appointed him to command the Army of the Alps in the Siege of Lyon, the army engaged in the Siege of Toulon and the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees. In no case did his time in command last long. During the last appointment he became ill and was replaced, though he was later employed as a division commander. The government used him because he was politically safe but it finally became clear that his military talent was almost non-existent. In 1797 he was elected to the Council of Five Hundred and he died two years later.

References

• Phipps, Ramsay Weston (2011). The Armies of the First French Republic: Volume III The Armies in the West 1793 to 1797 And, The Armies In The South 1793 to March 1796 3. USA: Pickle Partners Publishing. ISBN 978-1-908692-26-9.
• Smith, Digby (1998). The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill. ISBN 1-85367-276-9.