Pierre Silvestre de Villeneuve
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Footnotes
This order appears to have been written shortly after the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798, where Villeneuve commanded the rear division and managed to escape, saving his own ship and four others from the general destruction. He then retreated to Malta and organized its defences. The order informs his officers that Vice-Admiral Decres has been named commander of the forts of Manuel and Rizacoly, occupied by the troops and marines of his squadron. He adds that Decres is charged with "the organization and inspection of the 400 reserves who must furnish the battalions of the Republic, ready at the first order to move wherever it might be necessary". Seven years later Villeneuve was to face Nelson again at Trafalgar, where he was taken prisoner. Following his release, he committed suicide at Rennes in April 1806: "In England some sympathy was felt for the melancholy French Commander-in-Chief, who had been observed as 'a tall, thin, English-looking Frenchman'. Even Collingwood, who had him as guest under adverse conditions, thought that a person who had admitted that his nation could not contend with Britain at sea had seemed a good officer and a well-bred man" (Carola Oman, Nelson, 1947, p.636).