Pierre-Augustin Hulin

Early life

Pierre Augustin Hulin, the son of a Parisian draper, was born on 6 September 1758. He entered the army in 1771, serving in a Champagne infantry regiment. In 1772 he was transferred to the French Guards, in the ranks of which he rose to sergeant. In 1787 he had already retired from the guards and was a successful operator of the Royal Laundry. During the week that preceded the storming of the Bastille Hulin was several times spotted agitating the mob against the Crown. Madame de Staël wrote that Hulin told her: "I want to take revenge for your father on these bastards who want to butcher us." Louis Abel Beffroy de Reigny recorded similar inflammatory speeches addressed to the royal soldiers, Louis-Guillome Pitra dramatized Hulin's speech into "The Parisians are slaughtered like lambs, and you are not marching with us?"

On the day of the storming of the Bastille Hulin offered his services to the Hôtel de Ville. He assembled a company of seventy men armed with five cannons. Around 3 o'clock he led his men from Les Invalides to the Bastille. Two hours later artillery fire and pressure from the Bastille personnel persuaded its governor Marquis de Launay to capitulate. By this time the attacking mob lost around a hundred men, the defenders of the Bastille had only one man killed. Hulin and his deputy Jacob Job Elie defended De Launay from the mob and sent him under an armed escort to the Hôtel de Ville. According to Pitra, Hulin and Elie saved De Launay from lynching at least once, when the mob attacked them near the church of St. Louis. The mob finally forced their way past the convoy on the Place de Grève, when it was near its destination. A cook named Denót or Desnot killed De Launay, royalist provost Jacques de Flesselles was killed too. Although five were lynched, most of the Bastille's defenders were escorted safely to the Hôtel de Ville. The governor's head was severed and carried around the city on a pike.

The next day, 15 July 1789, Hulin was appointed company commander of the Volontaires de la Bastille, an armed force paid by the city government which later evolved into the National Guard. This permanent core of the newly created Paris militia was recruited from certified veterans of the Bastille Day such as Hulin, plus former French Guards. Hulin's own performance made him a national hero, a "herculean victor", and a staple of patriotic leaflets and magazines issued since 1790. Republican historians of the 19th century amplified popular perception and downplayed the excesses of the mob and underscored Hulin's own moderation.

As aristocrats left the army in large numbers, new officers were promoted from the enlisted ranks. Hulin, however, did not escape the excesses of the Reign of Terror and was incarcerated for almost a year, 1793–1794. When Robespierre's radical government fell in 1794, Hulin was released. During the French Revolutionary Wars, Hulin served in the Army of Italy and fought against the Austrians in the defense of Genoa and commanded troops in Milan, eventually rising to the rank of colonel.