François Étienne de Kellermann François Étienne de Kellermann , 2nd Duc de Valmy ( 4 August 1770 – 2 June 1835 ) was a French cavalry general noted for his daring and skillful exploits during the Napoleonic Wars . He was the son of François Christophe de Kellermann and the father of the diplomat François Christophe Edmond de Kellermann . Early life and French Revolutionary Wars . Born in Metz , Kellermann served for a short time in his father ' s regiment of Hussars before entering the diplomatic service in 1791 . In 1793 he again joined the army , serving chiefly under his father ' s command in the Alps , and rising in 1796 to the rank of chef de brigade . In the latter part of Bonaparte ' s celebrated Italian campaign of 1796 - 1797 the younger Kellermann attracted the future emperor ' s notice by his brilliant conduct at the forcing of the Tagliamento . He was made general of brigade immediately , and continued in Italy after the Peace of Campo Formio , being employed successively in the armies of Rome and Naples under Macdonald and Championnet . At the Battle of Marengo ( 1800 ) , he commanded a heavy cavalry brigade under the First Consul and he initiated and implemented one of the most famous cavalry charges of history , which , with Desaix ' s infantry attack , and decided the issue of the battle . On this occasion , Kellermann ' s depleted cavalry brigade , joined by a few squadrons of dragoons and other elements , in a perfectly timed charge , rode down three Austrian grenadier battalions . Then , he rapidly reformed his troopers , charged and routed an Austrian dragoon regiment . The dragoons stampeded through the Austrian array , causing a general rout . He was promoted general of division at once , but as early as the evening of the battle he resented what he thought to be an attempt to belittle his exploit . A heated controversy followed as to the influence of Kellermann ' s charge on the course of the battle , and in this controversy he displayed neither tact nor forbearance . However , his merits were too great for his career to be ruined either by his conduct in the dispute or by the frequent scandals , and even by the frauds , of his private life . Napoleonic Wars . Unlike his father ' s , his title to fame did not rest on one fortunate opportunity . Though not the most famous , he was perhaps the ablest of all Napoleon ' s cavalry leaders , and distinguished himself at the Battle of Austerlitz in command of a light cavalry division on the left flank . Kellermann commanded a cavalry division under Jean - Andoche Junot in the 1807 Invasion of Portugal . At the Battle of Vimeiro he led the grenadier reserve and , after the French defeat , used his considerable diplomatic skills in negotiating the Convention of Cintra . At the Battle of Alba de Tormes on 28 November 1809 , he led 3 , 000 troopers in a brilliant cavalry charge that routed Duke Del Parque ' s Spanish army . He served with distinction on other occasions in the Peninsular War . His rapacity was notorious in Spain , yet Napoleon met his unconvincing excuses with the words , " General , whenever your name is brought before me , I think of nothing but Marengo . " He was on sick leave during the French invasion of Russia in 1812 . However , in 1813 and 1814 he led the IV Cavalry Corps with conspicuous skill . He retained his rank under the first Restoration , but joined Napoleon during the Hundred Days , and commanded the III Cavalry Corps in the Waterloo campaign . He led his squadrons in a famous cavalry charge at the Battle of Quatre Bras on 16 June 1815 . In this action , Kellermann was peremptorily ordered by Marshal Michel Ney to make a frontal charge on the Anglo - Allied line with the 770 troopers of Guiton ' s cuirassier brigade . Against cavalry doctrine , Kellermann called for an immediate gallop so that his men would not see how badly they were outnumbered . In four separate charges , the 8th and 11th Cuirassiers broke the 69th Foot and captured a color , scattered a Hanoverian battalion and sent the 33rd and 73rd Foot fleeing for the safety of a nearby wood . The horsemen briefly seized the crucial crossroads , but the odds were too great . Unhorsed , Kellermann narrowly escaped by holding onto the stirrup of one of his cavalrymen . At Waterloo , he was wounded . Initially , Kellermann ' s two divisions were deployed in support of the infantry in the left center of the line . Early on , cuirassiers — either Kellermann ' s or Milhaud ' s — destroyed a carelessly deployed Hanoverian infantry battalion . In the afternoon , Ney sent the III Cavalry Corps into a mass attack against the British infantry squares between Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte . At some time in the late afternoon , cuirassiers — possibly Kellermann ' s — rode down the 5th and 8th King ' s German Legion battalions . But the futile and repeated charges against the main Allied line failed to break a single square and used up the magnificent French cavalry . Kellermann was disgraced at the second Restoration , and , on succeeding to his father ' s title and seat in the Chamber of Peers in 1820 , at once took up and maintained till the fall of Charles X in 1830 an attitude of determined opposition to the Bourbons . He died on 2 June 1835 .