Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino , ( 23 August 1747 , Craveggia – 28 June 1816 , Paris ) , was a general and politician of France . Born in the Savoy , he was the son of a low - ranking officer in the Habsburg military . In 1789 , during the French Revolution , he went to France , where he received a commission in the French Army . In 1793 , his troops deposed him , for his strict discipline , but he was immediately reinstated and rose rapidly through the ranks of the general staff . He helped to push the Austrians back to Bavaria in the 1796 summer campaign , and then covered Moreau ' s retreat to France later that year , defending the Rhine bridge at Hüningen until the last units had crossed to safety . Ferino commanded the southern - most wing of Army of the Danube in 1799 , and participated in the battles of Ostrach and Stockach . Napoleon awarded him the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor in 1804 ; in 1805 , Ferino became a Senator , and in 1808 , raised him to " Count of the Empire " . His name is engraved in the Arc de Triomphe . Family . Barthélemy Ferino was born in Craveggia , in the Vigezzo valley , near the border of the Swiss Confederation . This section was known as the Piedmont which , at the time of his birth , was under the rule of the House of Savoy . His father , Bernardo Ferino , was an officer of the so - called " Bender " regiment and served in the Austrian military during the Seven Years War . Barthélemy Ferino entered Austrian military service in 1768 and in 1779 he was brevet ted as captain . His promotions in the Habsburg military were few . Responding to perceived inequalities , at the time of the French Revolution he moved to France and , in 1792 , acquired a commission in the French army . Service in French Revolutionary Wars . On 1 August 1792 , he was named lieutenant colonel of the Legion of Biron , also called the " Chasseurs of the Rhine " , part of the Army of the Rhine under the over - all command of Philippe Custine . Ferino was named general of brigade in December , and on 23 August 1793 , he became general of division , in command of the advance guard . Although he was deposed for maintaining discipline too strictly , he was immediately reinstated ; he was assigned to the Army of the Moselle under the command of Jean Victor Moreau . In 1795 , he was appointed Lieutenant General of the Army of the Rhine and Moselle , and in 1796 , Commander of the Army of the Rhine and Moselle , Right Wing . With this force , he participated in the Battle of Landau , and helped Moreau and Jean - Baptiste Jourdan to push the Austrian army from the Rhineland into Bavaria in the 1796 summer campaign . He defeated the Conde ' s Emigré Army at Bregenz , on Lake Constance . In the subsequent Austrian resurgence , he maintained the right flank ' s protective cover of Moreau ' s main army as the French retreated through southern Germany in August and September of that year ; he participated in the Battle of Schliengen . When the French withdrew after Schliengen , he defended the Rhine crossing at Hüningen , north of the Swiss city of Basel , until the last French units crossed the river to safety . During the attempted royalist coup in 1797 , Ferino was accused of having royalist leanings and removed from his command , but restored to active duty in 1798 as part of the Army of the Mainz ( ) . He continued the rigorous discipline for which he became known and his troops maintained good order , despite the many abuses by other troops that occurred in the Rhine region . In late 1798 , he commanded the former Army of the Mainz , now called the Army of Observation when , in November , Jean Baptiste Jourdan assumed command and organized the army for the planned invasion of southern Germany in 1799 . In the War of the Second Coalition , as commander of the I . Division of the Army of the Danube , Ferino led the division across the Rhine River at Hüningen , passed through the Duchy of Baden and marched toward Schaffhausen . He was familiar with this territory from the 1796 campaign . His division secured the right flank for Jourdan ' s main force for the Battle of Ostrach on 21 March 1799 . Although his troops remained outside of the primary battle zone , during the retreat , a portion of his column was cut off by Archduke Charles ' army , and captured . In the French withdrawal from Ostrach , he again secured the flank , and retraced his steps west toward Bodman , a small village on the furthest western point of Lake Constance , near Stockach . From there , he guarded the main army against an Austrian approach from Switzerland at the Stockach in March 1799 . While maintaining a cordon between the Austrian forces approaching from Switzerland , under command of Baron von Hotze , most of Ferino ' s division participated in a simultaneous assault in the first hours of the engagement at Stockach . With part of Joseph Souham ' s Center ( the II . Division of the Army of the Danube ) , they assaulted the Austrian left , but were stopped by overwhelming numbers . Ferino tried to attack again , initiating his assault with a cannonade , followed by an attack through the woods on both sides of the road between Asch and Stockach . Two columns made two attacks , both of which were repulsed ; finally , Ferino added his third column to the assault , which resulted in the Austrian reformation of the line , cannons at the center firing a heavy cannonade . Ferino could not respond , because he had run out of artillery ammunition , but his troops fixed bayonets and charged the village of Wahlwiess , capturing it despite the heavy fire and massive numbers . They were forced to relinquish the village at darkness . Relationship with Napoleon . Immediately after the coup of 18 " brumaire " , Napoleon appointed Ferino as commander of the 8th Division . He became a member and grand officer of the Légion d ' honneur on 19 " frimaire " , and 25 " prairial " , respectively . Napoleon appointed him to the Senate of Florence , and made him a Count of the Empire in 1808 , and then appointed him as military governor of the Netherlands . In 1813 , Ferino organized the National Guard of the Netherlands . Relationship in the Restoration . As a member of the French Senate , Ferino voted to request Napoleon ' s abdication in 1814 and in 1815 did not participate in the Hundred Days , Napoleon ' s return from exile on Elba . After the restoration , Louis XVIII maintained Ferino ' s honors and rank , and awarded him a certificate of naturalized citizenship . This allowed him to continue to sit in the new Chamber of Peers . Férino died in Paris on 28 June 1816 . His name is engraved on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris .