Moreau, Jean Victor [key], 1763–1813, French general in the French Revolutionary Wars. Despite his successes on the Rhine and in Germany (1796–97), he was dismissed for withholding compromising information about General Pichegru after the coup of 18 Fructidor (1797); he was later reinstated (Apr., 1799) at the head of the French army in Italy. After helping Napoleon Bonaparte in the coup of 18 Brumaire he was given command (1800) in Germany and routed the Austrians at Hohenlinden. At the conclusion of the war Moreau began to oppose Bonaparte. Informed of the royalist Cadoudal plot, he neither joined nor revealed it; after its discovery he was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment for two years. The sentence was commuted to exile, which he spent in Spain and America. Returning to Europe in 1813, he assisted the allies as an adviser in their war against Napoleon, but was killed in battle.
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