Jean - Pierre Firmin Malher Jean - Pierre Firmin Malher ( 29 June 1761 – 13 March 1808 ) joined the army of the First French Republic and fought in the French Revolutionary Wars . During the Napoleonic Wars he rose in rank to command a division . He was accidentally killed in 1808 while on campaign in Spain . His surname is one of the Names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe . Early career . Born in Paris , Malher enlisted in the French army . During the War of the First Coalition , he became a colonel in 1794 . He received promotion to general of brigade in 1799 and to general of division in August 1803 . At the latter date , he commanded the 2nd subdivision of the 13th Military Division , headquartered in Rennes . Napoleonic Wars . 1805 . When Emperor Napoleon I of France ' s Grande Armée moved against Habsburg Austria during the War of the Third Coalition , Malher commanded the 3rd Division in Marshal Michel Ney ' s VI Corps . His 8 , 000 - man division included six battalions of the 27th , 50th , and 59th Line Infantry Regiments and three battalions of the 27th Light Infantry Regiment , plus six cannons . His subordinates were Generals of Brigade Mathieu Delabassé and Pierre - Louis Binet de Marcognet . On 8 October , the VI Corps marched to Giengen , northwest of Ulm . The following day , Ney ordered Malher to move south and seize the bridges over the Danube near Günzburg . To accomplish this task , Malher formed three columns . The western column under Etienne Nicolas Lefol aimed for the bridge at Leipheim . This force gave up after following a road that ended in a marsh . The 59th Regiment formed the eastern column , which was directed toward a bridge on the east side of Günzburg . The central column , which contained most of three regiments , marched straight at Günzburg . These troops collided with a force of Tyrolean jagers under Konstantin Ghilian Karl d ' Aspré to start the Battle of Günzburg . Alarmed by the French , the defenders of Günzburg destroyed all the bridges . Cut off , d ' Aspré surrendered with 200 jagers and two cannons . Malher tried to rebuild the two bridges at Günzburg but was forced to give up under the intense fire of 20 cannons and the " Archduke Charles " Infantry Regiment # 3 . Later that day , the Austrian commander Karl Mack von Lieberich ordered the bridge on the eastern outskirts of the town to be reconstructed by Ignaz Gyulai . As soon as Gyulai ' s men rebuilt the span , the 59th belatedly appeared and rushed the bridge . Though outnumbered three - to - one , the attack led by Delabassé crashed through Gyulai ' s defenses and captured the span . The 59th deployed in square formation to repel the Austrian cavalry charges that followed . Malher moved the rest of his division to support the success and the French troops held the bridge against Austrian counterattacks . Mack retreated to Ulm on 10 October , conceding victory to the French . On 13 October , Malher clashed with an Austrian force led by Johann Laudon at the Elchingen bridge . The next day , he led his troops at the Battle of Elchingen , but his division was only lightly engaged . After the successful conclusion of the Ulm Campaign , Napoleon sent the divisions of Malher and Louis Henri Loison of Ney ' s corps to the County of Tyrol . On 4 November , the Austrians defeated Ney ' s attacks at Scharnitz with heavy losses . However , on the same day the French wiped out a second Austrian force at Leutasch . Ney went on to capture Innsbruck the following day . 1808 . On 30 November 1807 , a French army occupied Lisbon in the Kingdom of Portugal . It had been allowed to cross the Kingdom of Spain by agreement and Spanish forces occupied parts of Portugal . But Napoleon also plotted to add Spain to his empire by replacing the unpopular regime of King Charles IV of Spain . On the pretext of supporting the occupation force in Portugal , 75 , 000 French troops crossed into Spain in early 1808 and took over key strategic locations . On 13 March , Malher was accidentally killed during a military exercise in Valladolid . The name MALHER is engraved on Column 7 of the Arc de Triomphe . An urn with Malher ' s heart resides in the Panthéon in Paris .