Louis-Alexandre Berthier (20 November 1753 – 1 June 1815), Prince of Neuchâtel and Valangin, Prince of Wagram, was a French Marshal of the Empire who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was twice Minister of War of France and served as chief of staff to Napoleon Bonaparte. Born into a military family, Berthier served in the French Army and survived suspicion of monarchism during the Reign of Terror before a rapid rise in the ranks of the French Revolutionary Army. Although a key supporter of the coup against the Directory that gave Napoleon supreme power, and present for his greatest victories, Berthier strongly opposed the progressive stretching of lines of communication during the Russian campaign. Allowed to retire by the restored Bourbon regime, he died of unnatural causes shortly before the Battle of Waterloo. Berthier's reputation as a superb operational organiser remains strong among current historians. Early life Berthier was born on 20 November 1753 in Versailles to Lieutenant-colonel Jean-Baptiste Berthier (1721–1804), an officer in the Corps of Topographical Engineers, and his first wife (married in 1746) Marie Françoise L'Huillier de La Serre. He was the eldest of five children, with the three brothers also serving in the French Army, two becoming generals during the Napoleonic Wars. Military career As a boy, Berthier was instructed in the military art by his father, an officer of the Corps de genie (Engineer Corps). At the age of seventeen, he entered the army, serving successively in the staff, the engineers, and the Prince of Lambesc's Royal Allemand-Dragoon Regiment. In 1780, Berthier went to North America with General Rochambeau, and on his return, having attained the rank of colonel, he was employed in various staff posts and in a military mission to Prussia. During the French Revolution, as chief of staff of the Versailles National Guard, he protected the aunts of Louis XVI from popular violence, and aided their escape in 1791. In 1792, Berthier was at once made chief of staff to Marshal Nicolas Luckner, and he bore a distinguished part in the Argonne campaign of Generals Dumouriez and Kellermann. He served with great credit in the War in the Vendée of 1793–1795, and the next year was made a general of division and chief of staff (major-général) to the Army of Italy, which Bonaparte had recently been appointed to command. He played an important role in the