Charles Leclerc Charles Victoire Emmanuel Leclerc ( 17 March 1772 , Pontoise – 2 November 1802 ) was a French Army general and husband to Pauline Bonaparte , sister to Napoleon Bonaparte . Biography . To 1801 . Leclerc started his military career in 1791 during the French Revolution as one of the army volunteers of Seine - et - Oise and passed through the ranks of sous - lieutenant in the 12th Cavalry , then aide - de - camp to general Lapoype . He was made a captain and divisional chief of staff during the siege of Toulon , at which he first allied himself to Napoleon Bonaparte . Following the revolutionary success there , he campaigned along the Rhine . He began serving under Napoleon Bonaparte in the Alpine and Italian campaigns , fighting at Castiglione della Pescaia and Rivoli and rising to général de brigade in 1797 . He was then charged with announcing to the French Directory the signature of the peace preliminaries at Leoben . Pauline Bonaparte was at this time receiving a large number of suitors , thus pressing her brother Napoleon Bonaparte to have her married off . On Leclerc ' s return , he accepted Bonaparte ' s offer of Pauline ' s hand in marriage and they married in 1797 , having one child , Dermide , and occupying the Château de Montgobert . He became chef d ' état - major to generals Berthier and Brune and served in the second unsuccessful French Army military expedition to Ireland led by Jean Joseph Amable Humbert in 1798 . On Bonaparte ' s return from the Egyptian expedition in 1798 , he made Leclerc a général de division and sent him to the armée du Rhin under Moreau . At this rank Leclerc was able to participate in the coup d ' etat of 18 Brumaire ( in November 1799 ) that made his brother - in - law Napoleon First Consul of France - supported by Murat , he ordered the grenadiers to march into the room of the Council of Five Hundred . He was next noted for his participation in the Rhine campaign and the battle of Hohenlinden , receiving the supreme command of the 17th , 18th and 19th military divisions . He then passed from that post to being commander - in - chief of an army corps that Napoleon meant to send to Portugal to force it to renounce its alliance with England , though that expedition never took place . Saint - Domingue . Leclerc ' s brother - in - law , the first Consul , then appointed him commander of the expedition to re - establish control over the French colony of Saint - Domingue ( now Haïti ) . French officials had abolished slavery in Saint - Domingue in August to October 1793 , and the former slave , general Toussaint Louverture , had established a government with constitution appointing himself President for life , although he still swore loyalty to the French nation . Leclerc set off from Brest in December 1801 and landed at Cap - Français in February 1802 , with other warships and a total of 40 , 000 troops , publicly repeating Bonaparte ' s promise that " all of the people of Saint - Domingue are French " and forever free . L ' Ouverture ' s harsh discipline had made him numerous enemies and Leclerc played off the ambitions of L ' Ouverture ' s younger key officers and competitors against each other , promising that they would maintain their ranks in the French Army and thus bringing them to abandon L ' Ouverture . The French won several victories and regained control in three months after severe fighting , with L ' Ouverture forced to negotiate an honorable surrender and to retire to tend his plantations under house - arrest . However , Napoleon had given secret instructions to Leclerc to arrest Toussaint Louverture , and so Leclerc seized L ' Ouverture - during a meeting - for deportation to France , where he died while imprisoned at Fort - de - Joux in the Jura mountains in 1803 . Despite his superiors ' warnings , Leclerc did not consolidate his victory by disarming L ' Ouverture ' s old officers and they and the black and Creole population rose up again when news reached the island of the reestablishment of slavery on Guadeloupe , bringing the prospect of a similar restoration on Saint - Domingue and swinging the tide inexorably against French hopes for reimposing control . Leclerc ' s reports to France about his counter - insurgency campaign included such statements as , " Since terror is the sole resource left me , I employ it " , and , " We must destroy all the mountain negroes , men and women , sparing only children under twelve years of age . We must destroy half the negroes of the plains . . . " He faced the new organised and powerful insurrection but fell victim to the yellow fever which effectively destroyed the French army . He was succeeded in command by General Rochambeau , whose brutal racial warfare drove more leaders back to the rebel armies , including black and mulatto army officers Jean Jacques Dessalines , Alexandre Pétion and Henri Christophe . On 18 November 1803 , François Capois defeated Rochambeau ' s forces in the Battle of Vertières . Dessalines proclaimed the independence of Haïti and its new name on 1 January 1804 . In the meantime Leclerc ' s body had been transported to France by his widow and buried on one of his estates . Memorials . A statue at Pontoise shows him in Napoleonic uniform , his scabbard touching the earth . It was put up by marshal Davout and his second wife ( Leclerc ' s sister ) at the top of a staircase built in 1869 by François Lemot . Around 3m high , the statue is on a square stone pedestal inscribed with information on him in gold majuscule letters . It adjoins the south side of city ' s cathedral . There is also a statue of him by Jean Guillaume Moitte in the Pantheon de Paris .