François-Christophe, Duke of Valmy, one of the most distinguished generals of the French Revolution, was born at Strasbourg in 1735. Choosing the career of arms, he rose slowly through the various grades, and when the Revolution broke out he obtained a command in the army of the Moselle. The Duke of Brunswick, with an army of 60,000 Austrians and Prussians, was then advancing towards the French frontier, and the raw levies of the republic were vastly inferior, both in number and discipline, to his well-trained warriors. Success at first attended his manoeuvres, and Kellermann was cut off from the main body of the French under Dumouriez. By forced marches he effected a junction with the commander-in-chief on the 19th September 1792; but taking up a position different from that which had been assigned to him, he found himself on the following morning on the plateau of Valmy, "projected like a cape into the midst of the lines of the Prussian bayonets." In this position the French maintained a desperate struggle during the whole day, and being reinforced at night by Dumouriez, they drove the Prusso-Austrian troops from the field. The victory of Valmy is memorable as the first of that great series of victories achieved by the arms of revolutionary France. Goethe, who was present during the engagement, told the troop to which he was attached, "From this place, and from this day forth, commences a new era in the world's history; and you can all say that you were present at its birth." Professor Creasy has given Valmy a place among the fifteen decisive battles of the world. The victor of that day afterwards rose to still higher commands in the French army, and, in 1795, became general-in-chief of the armies of the Alps and Italy. Under Napoleon, he rose to be a peer and senator of the empire; and when the Bourbons were restored, he continued to retain office under them. He died in 1820; and, in accordance with his last wishes, his heart was buried in the field of Valmy, the scene of his greatest triumph.