If you would like to know a little more about the life of this character, I invite you to read the .pdf document at the bottom of the page. (In French)
Jean-Baptiste-Louis-François Boulanger, Sieur Du Hamel, son of Jean Baptiste Nicolas Du Hamel and Marie Angélique Filleux, was born on February 6, 1732 in the city of Amiens (Picardie)
He began his military career on February 11, 1747 when he was incorporated into the Laval infantry regiment. This unit was then stationed in Condé-sur-L'Escaut (Nord-Pas-de-Calais, on the course of the Escaut in the suburbs of Valenciennes). Its colonel owner, since August 22, 1743, was none other than Brigadier Guy André Pierre de Montmorency, Duke of Laval.
Duhamel left this regiment when it was reformed in 1749.
On October 1, 1756, Duhamel joined the Royal-Roussillon cavalry regiment (regular line unit) as a cornet: standard-bearer of a cavalry company.
On May 16, 1758, Mr. Duhamel was appointed infantry aide-major in the light troops corps of the Volunteers of Clermont-Prince. Duhamel obtained the rank of captain there on December 15, 1758.
On March 1, 1760, he was appointed assistant captain of a company of cavalrymen (nicknamed "dragoons" since 1759) of this mixed regiment.
Towards the autumn of 1763, the mounted companies of this Clermont-Prince regiment were stationed and distributed in Languedoc, like the majority of the companies of the Legions and Volunteers, who were no longer known what to do with on the eastern border at the end of the Seven Years' War. In October 1764, however, the four mounted companies of the Clermont-Prince Volunteers were stationed between Langogne and Pradelles.
It was during this autumn cycle that a devouring beast appeared in the Langogne area, attacking humans. The riders and their dismounted colleagues were then asked by the local authorities to participate in its hunt and in the hunts.
On 14 October 1764, a well-respected officer in the person of Staff Captain Duhamel, who had volunteered to track down the animal, received an order from Lieutenant-General (Divisional General) Count Jean-Baptiste de Marin de Moncan, second in command of the troops of the province of Languedoc following the Duke of Fitz-James, to pursue the cannibalistic monster.
Six weeks later, after hearing the testimony of the young and courageous girl from Civergols who had victoriously fought a beast on December 18, 1764, Duhamel and his men found themselves in the Bois de la Baume area on December 22, not far from the castle of the same name, where the beast had been reported. Suddenly, the captain saw the beast, visualized it in the barrel of his service rifle, but three of his horsemen (including his trumpeter) who had not noticed him in ambush and who had also seen the animal, accidentally cut off his firing trajectory.
Duhamel empties his rifle at a loss because his shot is imprecise, the beast has moved. His orderly, left behind with the horses, urgently hands him his mount. Duhamel sets off hastily at a gallop with his pistol at the ready but takes the wrong path in the woods. Two of his quartermasters, however, have taken the beast's pace. They empty their four pistols in its direction, in vain, it is already too far away. They pursue it, their fearsome German hussar sabres in hand, but it keeps enough distance from its trackers so that they cannot saber it.
Following this hunting fiasco involving Duhamel and his soldiers in the Bois de la Baume, the Count of Eu, governor of the province, ordered them to return to their quarters in Langogne by December 27. To justify this dismissal, the governor claimed that their employment was costing the community far too much.
In January 1765, the Governor of Eu reported through a letter the presence of a second beast moving in the Saint-Poncy area, possibly coming from Haute-Auvergne. At the same time, the first beast was still raging in the Saint-Flour region.
Faced with the resurgence of attacks, the governor of the province had no choice but to recall Duhamel and his horsemen, who returned to Saint-Chély-d’Apcher on 10 January 1765, although with a smaller number of horsemen than in the previous period. Faced with the ravages of bad weather and the peasants’ unwillingness to march to the hunts on an empty stomach, the soldiers remained ineffective in the field.
At that time, Captain Jean-Baptiste-Louis-François Boulanger Duhamel still hoped to defeat these devouring beasts as he suggests in his correspondence.
After many unsuccessful hunts and beats carried out since December 1764, and a situation of failure resulting mainly from the desertion of the people of the Prince of Conti during the great general beat of February 7, 1765, the captain assistant-major Duhamel and his horsemen were dismissed from the field of action on the orders of the Count of Eu (governor of the province) on the following April 7.
Date of death unknown to this day.
Illustration & text Patrick Berthelot
This translation was made with a digital translator. It's not perfect, I know that. If you want to help me make it more understandable, I would be honored with your help. Please contact me. 👍🏻
Document in French distributed free of charge by its author, Patrick Berthelot. Commercial use prohibited.
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