Henriette-Françoise-Clémentine de Damrémont (1824-1898)
Charles-Marie Denys, comte de Damrémont (8 February 1783–12 October 1837) was a French general and military governor of
French Algeria. He was killed in combat during the
siege of Constantine.[1][2]
His father was Antoine Denys de Damrémont (1730-1807)[5] who belonged to a family of merchants from
Bologna and who got rich in forges in the 17th century.[6][7]
In 1811 and 1812 Damrémont served in the
Peninsular War but in 1813 he transferred to the
Grande Armée with which he fought in the campaigns in Germany (1813) and France (1814).[12][13]
In 1830 he commanded an infantry brigade in the
French invasion of Algeria.[20] On 13 December 1830 Damrémont was promoted to lieutenant-general.[15][21]
Damrémont was to resume the attempt to besiege and submit this city in the impregnable
Constantine until then.[26]
Governor Charles-Marie Denys had in his new mission to gather human reinforcements and adequate resources in order to succeed in the conquest of the
Constantinois region.[27]
The alliance between
Ahmed Bey (1786-1851) in the Constantinois with the
Emir Abdelkader (1808–1883) in
Orania was a stake and a squirrel that General Damrémont had to overcome in order to establish the French colonial power over the entire
Algerian territory.[28]
General Damrémont spent the first half of 1837 in partial engagements with rebels affiliated with
Emir Mustapha (1814–1863) in the Algerian Sahel and
Mitidja.[29][30]
Indeed, the Emir Mustapha organized from his stronghold of
Médéa in the
Titteri massif, guerrilla attacks against the French camps in Mitidja and harassed the villagers who came to collaborate with the colonial authorities.[31][32]
This conflicting situation at the gates of the
Casbah of Algiers caused worry and hassle in Damrémont which could not quickly organize decisive expeditions and military campaigns outside the Mitidja.[33][34]
This is how took place on 8 May 1837 the
attack on Reghaïa in Mitidja against a colonial farm of 3000 hectares in area by the Kabyles of Beni Aïcha,
Issers and Amraoua.[38][39]
General Damrémont took advantage of the disarray which settled in
Algiers among the French, the day after the raid on
Reghaïa, to organize a punitive expedition to pacify the eastern region of Mitidja which borders the
Kabylia of rebels subservient to the Emir Mustapha and the marabouts.[40]
Governor Damrémont decided in the aftermath of the Mitidja troubles in 1837 to hold General
Alexandre Charles Perrégaux (1791-1837) responsible for the mission to subdue the coastal town of
Dellys from where the Amraoua Kabyles left to devastate the French agricultural concessions in the
Mitidja.[41][4]: 474
Instructions were given to General Perrégaux to divide the
troupes coloniales involved in this punitive expedition against the Kabyles into two distinct military columns.[42][31]
The first maritime column was to be commanded by Perregaux himself, and was going to embark on 17 May 1837 on ships from the port of Algiers in order to land on the shore of
Oued Isser then move forward to disembark in the port of
Dellys.[41][43]
The second pedestrian column of infantry and cavalry, which was to be commanded by Colonel
Maximilien Joseph Schauenburg (1784-1838), would also begin a sustained march on 17 May 1837 from
Boudouaou to reach the
Col des Beni Aïcha to meet the naval forces disembarked from Perrégaux in the
Issers valley in order to continue the expedition to the Amraoua dens around the
Casbah of Dellys.[44][45]
Damrémont married Clémentine Baraguey d'Hilliers (25 October 1800[24]–4 February 1892[6]), the daughter of General
Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers, on 7 February 1819.[5] The couple had two children:[56][57]
Auguste-Louis-Charles, born 11 December 1819 in
Paris and died in 1884.
Henriette-Françoise-Clémentine, born 11 March 1824 also in Paris and died in 1898.[57][58][59]
^Tardieu, Ambroise (1894).
"de Damrémont". Grand dictionnaire historique, généalogique et biographique de la Haute-Marche (in French). Herment. pp. 274–275.