Луи Александр Бертье: Наполеонның бас штабы және Франция маршалы

General and politician of the First French Empire (1753–1815)
the American privateer named after him

Louis Alexandre Berthier (20 November 1753 – 1 June 1815), Prince of Neuchâtel and Valangin, Prince of Wagram, was a French military commander who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was twice Minister of War of France and was made a Marshal of the Empire in 1804. Berthier served as chief of staff to Napoleon Bonaparte from his first Italian campaign in 1796 until his first abdication in 1814. The operational efficiency of the Grande Armée owed much to his considerable administrative and organizational skills. Born into a military family, Berthier served in the American Revolutionary War 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.

Berthier was born in Versailles on 20 November 1753. He was the eldest of five surviving children of 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. Three of his brothers also served in the French Army, with two, César (1765–1819) and Victor Léopold (1770–1807), becoming generals during the Napoleonic Wars.

As a boy, Berthier was instructed in the military art by his father, an officer of the Corps de genie (Engineer Corps). In 1764 he was admitted to the Royal Engineering School of Mézières, as a second lieutenant, graduating as a topographical engineer two years later, at the age of 12. At the close of the campaign, he was employed in civil and diplomatic business. This included a mission to Spain in August 1800, which resulted in the retrocession of Louisiana to France by the Treaty of San Ildefonso on 1 October 1800, and led to the Louisiana Purchase.

Berthier is mentioned and/or appears in several of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Brigadier Gerard stories, including How the Brigadier Was Tempted by the Devil (1895), and in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.

Berthier is prominently featured in the 2010 video game Napoleon: Total War, where he serves as the narrator of the campaign/story mode. He is also featured prominently in the three tutorial missions in the game, and also appears in two of the game's historical battles. The game is slightly inaccurate in Berthier's life, in that Berthier gives the narration about the Battle of Waterloo, regardless of a win or a loss, while in real life, Berthier died shortly before the battle from a fall in his home.

The Berthier collection is conserved in the archives of the State of Neuchâtel. It contains more than 2'000 items inventoried in 1895–1896 by Albert Dufourcq. The collection contains correspondence sent and received by the prince in connection with the general affairs of the Principality or particular affairs.