Charles Edward Jennings de Kilmaine Charles Edward Jennings ( 19 October 1751 – 11 December 1799 ) , commonly known as Brave Kilmaine , was a revolutionary and one of the greatest Irish soldiers to serve France in the eighteenth century . A gallant and celebrated general , philanthropist and baron , he was committed both to the cause of Irish independence and to that of the French Revolution . A devoted friend to Theobald Wolfe Tone and a close confidant of Napoleon I , he has been described as the only officer Bonaparte ever trusted completely . Kilmaine is remembered and honored for his services in the American War of Independence and more significantly in the French Revolutionary Wars , to which he devoted most of his life . Often Irish historians fail to recognize the importance Kilmaine ' s contribution also brought to the ignition of an Irish Republic . Early life . Son of Dr . Theobald Jennings and Lady Eleanor Saul , he was born on 19 October 1751 at his mothers residence at Sauls Court , Dublin . His father , a prominent physician , descended from an ancient Irish family ' Mac sheoinín ' ( meaning " son of little Sean " , a subset of the great Burke family ) which had always been strongly attached to the Irish Catholic religion , and opposed to the interests of England . His father was of Polaniran ( Ironpool ) , Tuam , County Galway - see Soraca Jonin - left Ireland in 1738 and settled in the town of Tonnay - Charente in the south west of France with his wife . The latter , finding that she was about to become a mother , left France for Dublin in 1751 in order that her child might be born in his native land . Young Jennings was reared in Dublin with his relatives . So deep was the animosity of his father to the church and government as established in Ireland , that in 1762 he took Charles to France . Kilmaine was educated in Tonnay - Charente , quickly becoming very proficient in the French language Military career . When only in his 14th year , he joined the French cadets and entered the service of Austria , a country which held strong alliances with France during this time , in the regiment of Imperial Emperor No . 1 . In 1775 he returned to his hometown in France following the sudden death of his father , Dr . Theobald Jennings . Subsequently , he rejoined service , and entered the French army , but he broke tradition and joined the prominent 5th Dragoon Regiment , not the Irish Brigade of France , in which other members of the Jennings family had been previously officers . Three years later he was made adjutant to the general of the master legion of foreign volunteers in the navy and that same year he left for Senegal on a campaign with the Duc de Lauzun , Armand Louis de Gontaut , returning safely in 1779 . American War of Independence . The following year he was appointed to the grand position of sous - lieutenant of the master legion of foreign volunteers of the Navy and entered a campaign in the United States under Rochambeau and Marquis de Lafayette , Grand Provost of the kingdom of France to assist the Americans in the War of Independence . He was present in most of those battles in which George Washington and his generals so signally discomfited the troops of Great Britain . Association with officers of the United States army greatly affected him , and added to those impressions made upon him during his youth in Ireland and the teachings of his father , caused Kilmaine to imbibe strongly the sentiments of a revolutionist . And so it was during this time that he developed strong republican principles . He returned to France after three years and became an important zealous supporter of the new ideas of freedom , liberty and Justice . Chef d ' Escadron . In 1786 he was awarded the title lieutenant in command , and took control of the regiment of Hussars of Duc de Lauzun ( the first cavalry regiment in France ) . Two years later he made the rank of captain . A growing military reputation brought him promotion as " Chef d ' escadron " , which in the Armored Cavalry Corps is equal to the rank of a Captain - Major . On March 21 , 1791 and seven months shy of his 40th birthday , he honorably retired from the army , was given the title of Baron and took a civic oath ( a civic oath is sworn by all citizens as a pre - condition for citizen status , this was especially important leading up to and during the French revolution , especially among foreigner ' s and nobility , both of which Kilmaine was ) . For almost an entire year he pursued family life and philanthropic interests . By personal invitation of General Lafayette , he rejoined the French army when the war broke out in 1792 between France and monarchic Europe . Reinstated as a chef d ' escadron , Kilmaine served throughout the first campaigns of the Revolution , and under Dumouriez and Lafayette commanded a corps of that army which burst into the Netherlands and annexed that territory to republican France . His next great conflict was at Valmy in September of that year . A notable part in that brilliant victory for France was played by Kilmaine with some squadrons of the splendid cavalry regiment to which he belonged , and during the day a body of hussars under his command saved a whole French division from annihilation . A few months later ( November , 1792 ) at the battle of Jemappes , he fought with remarkable bravery , when that battle seemed lost , Kilmaine and the Duke of Chartres ( the future king of France as Louis Philippe ) turned apparent defeat into victory . On the field he was raised to the rank of chief colonel , and from that day was ever afterwards known as , " les brillant et courageux Kilmaine " . Kilmaine the Generous . He continued to serve with this army , and to be one of its most active and able officers , during all the sufferings which occurred succeeding the victory at Jemappes . It consisted of forty - eight battalions of infantry , and three thousand two hundred cavalry . In December , by the neglect of the Revolutionary Government , these troops were shirtless , shoeless , starving and in rags . Fifteen hundred men deserted . The cavalry of Kilmaine were soon destitute of boots , saddles , carbines , pistols and even sabres . The military chest was empty , and six thousand troop and baggage horses died at Lisle and Tongres , for want of forage . Honourable testimony has been given to the unceasing efforts of Kilmaine to preserve order among his soldiers amid these horrors , he frequently endeavoured by private contribution to make out a day ' s subsistence for his men , who roved about in bands , robbing the villages around their cantonments at Aix - la - Chapelle , and in revenge many were murdered by the peasants when found straggling alone beyond their out - post . After the defection and flight of General Charles François Dumouriez , Kilmaine adhered to the National Convention , and by that body was appointed a General of division . He now redoubled his energies to restore order in the army , which by the defection of its leader was almost disbanded , thus , in one month after General Auguste Marie Henri Picot de Dampierre took command , so ably was he seconded by Kilmaine , the discipline was completely established . Kilmaine the Brave . He commanded the advance - guard of de Dampierre in the new campaign against the allied powers , on the failure of the congress at Antwerp on the 8th of April , 1793 and his leader bears the highest testimony to the gallantry and noble conduct of Kilmaine , in the " murderous affairs of the 1st and 2nd May " in which , according to the official report , he had two chargers killed from under him as he managed to fight off a determined attack . Six days of incessant skirmishing succeeded , during which Kilmaine never had his boots off , nor returned his sabre once to the scabbard , and he displayed the most reckless valour on the 8th of May , in that battle fought by de Dampierre to deliver Conde . The French were routed with great loss , de Dampierre was slain , and on Kilmaine as an active cavalry officer and general devolved the task of covering the retreat of the infuriated and disorderly army , which fell back from Conde - sur - I ' Escaut , which is a barrier town , and was then the nominal lordship of the unfortunate Duke d ' Enghien . On General Lamarche succeeding de Dampierre , he sent Kilmaine with his division to the great forest of Ardennes , which formed a part of the theatre of war , on the invasion of France by the allies but he remained there only a short time , and rejoined the main army , which he found in the most critical circumstances . The fall of de Dampierre and the arrestment of Custine acted fatally on the army of the North , which was now reduced to about thirty thousand rank and file , and these remained in a disorderly state , without a proper chief , and without aim or object , its manoeuvrings committed to chance or directed by ignorance , for with the exception of Kilmaine , its leaders were destitute of skill , experience , and energy . Quitting the camp of Caesar , they returned to their fortified position at Famars , three miles distant from Valenciennes , the approach to which it covered . Here they were attacked on the 23rd of May , driven back , and obliged to abandon the city to its own garrison under General Ferrand . Commander - in - Chief of the Army of the North . A month later he was named Commander - in - Chief of the Army of the North . It was on the banks of the battle of Scheldt that Kilmaine rejoined the army early in August , with his division from Ardennes , and his position became almost desperate . In presence of the scaffold erected by the ferocious mutineers for all the vanquished generals , and in a camp where no suspected person dared to assume the precarious office of leader , when pressed upon him , he accepted the baton provisionally , and in the meantime the representatives who were sent from Paris to manage affairs ( and act as spies upon the army ) , reported " that there be no other more skillful than Kilmaine to take the great responsibility of leading the troops of the Republic . " His presence for a time appeased the disorder in the army . Though upon the banks of the Scheldt , and having before him both the Duke of York and the Prince of Coburg , Kilmaine , with only twenty - four thousand ill - appointed troops , he dared not attempt to attack them . The enemy in much superior numbers was threatening it on all perceivable sides , and only 40 leagues lay between it and Paris . If he fought and lost the day , he could thereafter assume no position of sufficient strength to prevent the allies from penetrating to Paris and crushing the power of the Convention . He dared not abandon the capital or retire beyond the Loire , as the tides of war and politics were setting in against them . Kilmaine The Brave , accordingly carried out a masterly retreat , the Convention styled it ( at the time ) " completely mutinous " Imprisonment and release . Even at this epoch of deception and duplicity , and when political insanity and revenge were rampant , Kilmaine , who had rendered such gallant services to that new and most faithless Republic , had by a judicious retreat ( executed against the advice of the meddling and presumptuous representatives of the people , and in consequence thereof perilled his life ) , preserved to France her most important army . And precisely for that reason , was ceremoniously denounced to the Convention . It didn ' t help that he had also became the object of suspicion on account of his foreign birth and his relations abroad . He was immediately deprived of his command and relieved from the army and sent into exile to Luxembourg . He accepted it all with calm dignity , saying , In a short time , Kilmaine returned to Paris undercover , and retired with his wife to the Parisian suburb of Passy . There they lived quietly for some months . When the Reign of Terror began , he and his wife were arrested and flung into a loathsome prison in Paris , where he passed a year . One would think that being imprisoned as a foreigner , was an act of injustice which would weigh heavily on an officer who had given 30 years of unselfish devotion to France , had gone through nine campaigns and had fought in 46 battles . However in the obscurity of his dungeon , he got his reward , however strange , in that he had not perished on the scaffold like the gallant Custine , his predecessor in the command , like his old colonel and protector Biron , and like Houchard , who for the brief period of fifteen days had been his successor , and who , after winning a signal and decided victory over the Duke of York , suffered but a cruel death of his own people . Kilmaine narrowly escaped the guillotine and recovered his liberty after the fall of Robespierre . By the influence of the more extreme revolutionary party , he was released immediately on an order signed personally by Carnot and remained for sometime in Paris with his wife . Without military employment , though eagerly and anxiously seeking it , he was not about to settle into his second retirement . Italian Campaign . Kilmaine found himself there at the epoch of the insurrection of the 22nd May , 1795 , and with much zeal and valor he seconded General Pichegni in the struggle made by that officer to defend the National Convention against the excited mobs of the Parisian fauxbourgs . Amid a thousand dangers Kilmaine continued to fight for the Convention until the 13th Vendemaire of the year following , actively co - operating with Bonaparte and the revolutionary party . Early in 1796 he set out with Bonaparte on the Italian campaign , and at Lodi ( Lombardy ) , contributed to the great victory by a brilliant cavalry charge . Later in September of the same year he was appointed to the onerous position of commander of all northern Italy . This campaign increased his high reputation throughout Europe as a truly brilliant officer , In October , while in action before the Austrians , who were commanded by the former French soldier turned Austrian veteran Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser , the bravest of all brave men . Kilmaine had his horse killed under him , and a rumor was spread through France and British Isles that he was killed . Wurmser made several furious sallies , and on one occasion was severely routed by Bonaparte . In the Courier du Bas Rhiuy we are told that the French repulsed him with the loss of eleven hundred men and five pieces of cannon , and that " their dispositions were made by great General Kilmaine , commander of the siege of Mantua . " Bonaparte , in his dispatch to the Directory , dated the firat day of October wrote thus , Le General Kilmaine who commands the two divisions which press the siege of Mantua , remained on the 29th ultimo in his former position , and was still in hopes that the enemy would attempt a sortie to carry forage into the place , but instead they took up a position before the gate of Pradello , near the Carthusiaii convent and the chapel of Cerese . The brave General Kilmaine made his arrangements for an attack , and advanced in two columns against these two points , but he had scarcely begun to march when the enemy evacuated their camps , their rear having fired only a few muaket - shots at him . The advanced posts of General Vaubois have come up with the Austrian division which defends the Tyrol , and made one hundred and ten prisoners " Early in December , Wurmser led an army , sword in hand , against Kilmaine . The Imperialists sallied out of Mantua before seven in the morning , and almost in the dark , under a furious cannonade , which lasted all day . Bonaparte noted " But Kilmaine made him return , as usual , faster than he came out , and took from him two hundred men , one howitzer , and two pieces of cannon . This is his third unsuccessful attempt . " So energetic were the measures , and so able the precautions of Kilmaine , that Wurmser , seeing all hope of success end , surrendered , after a long , desperate , and disastrous defense , at ten o ' clock on the morning of the 3rd February , 1797 , giving up his soldiers as prisoners of war . The following is a translation of Kilmaine ' s brief letter on this important acquisition , " Kilmaine , General de Division and Commandant of Lombardy , to the Minister of War . Milan , 17 Pluviose , 1797 " " Citizen Minister " , " I avail myself of a courier which greneral Bonaparte sends from Romagna ( in order to announce to the Directory the defeat of the Papal troops ) , to acquaint you with the capture of Mantua , the news of which I received yesterday evening by a courier from Mantua itself I thought it necessary to announce this circumstance , because General Bonaparte , who is occupied in Bomagna annihilating the troops of his Holiness , may probably have been ignorant of this fact when his courier departed . Tho garrison are our prisoners of war , and are to be sent into Germany in order to be exchanged . I have not yet received the articles of capitulation , but the commander - in - chief will not fail to send them by the first courier . " " Kilmaine . " The capture of Mantua was celebrated in Paris by the firing of cannon and the erection of arches in honour of Bonaparte and Kilmaine ' the Irish Commandant of Lombardy ' , and a grand joy was diffused through every heart in the city on the fall of what they styled the Gibraltar of Italy , while Bonaparte , loaded with the diamonds of the vanquished corrupt Pope , and the spoils of our Lady of Loretto , pushed on to seek fresh conquests and new laurels . Celebrated Kilmaine remained for some time in command at Mantua after its capitulation before returning to Paris where he was duly appointed the title of Baron de Kilmaine Jennings . Commander - in - Chief of the Armée d ' Angleterre . In the spring of 1798 , the French Government was seriously employed in preparations for a descent upon Britain and Ireland and planned to place Kilmaine in charge . In the February of that year , a grand march to the coast of the Channel took place . Forty demi - brigades of infantry , thirty - four regiments of cavalry , two regiments of horse artillery , two regiments of foot artillery , six companies of sappers and pioneers , six battalions of miners and pontooniers . The forces were led by eighteen distinguished generals of division , and forty - seven generals of brigade the most brave and able in France . Among the former were Kilmaine , Berthier , Marescat , Kleber , Massena , Macdonald , Ney , Victor , and others whose names were to become famous in future wars as the marshal dukes of the great military empire . Headed by bands of music , the soldiers marched through Paris , displaying black banners , indicative of a war of extermination , and inscribed , " Descent upon England , long live the Republic ! May Britain perish " On St . Patrick ' s day , the 17th of the following month , Kilmaine hosted a great banquet in Paris . Along with many Irish generals , O ' Cher , Colonel O ' Shee , and all the Irishmen in Paris . Other guests in attendance were Irish rebels James Bartholomew Blackwell , William Corbet and Napper Tandy , also there was the notorious American radical and intellectual Thomas Paine ( then a political fugitive and pseudo - anarchist , who had been invited to attend by Kimaine ) . Irish republican Wolfe Tone had not been present at the banquet . He was hiding in Paris around this time and had been holding secret meetings with Napoleon ( set up through Kilmaine ) to discuss an Irish Revolution , as he detested many of the Irishmen in Paris , describing them as “ sad , vulgar wretches , and I have been used to rather better company in all respects ” he stayed well away . However all the corresponding members of the Irish clubs and malcontent party at home were also present . Many fierce end stirring political toasts were drunk , amid vociferous enthusiasm , among these , one in particular , " Long live the Irish Republic , long live the Republic " Speeches were made expressive of the rapid progress which republicanism had made in their native country , and of the strong desire of the Catholics and Dissenters to throw off the yoke of England , ( that yoke which Kilmaine in his boyhood had been taught by his father to abhor and to hate ) . Irish rebel leader Napper Tandy , was in the chair for most of the night , on his left sat none other than Thomas Paine , and on his right sat Kilmaine , who , immediately after the banquet , had to leave Paris to rejoin his column of the army on the coast . The future Irish Republic was enthusiastically saluted by Kilmaine that night , and every confidence ( though merry ) expressed in the accomplishment of his most ardent desire for the magnificent emancipation of Ireland . Within days hundred ' s of gunboats were ordered to be prepared , and transports were to be collected at Dunkirk , to be protected from the British fleet by a Dutch squadron then at the mouth of the Scheldt . All of Britain was up in arms on hearing of an armament so formidable . Meanwhile the condition of France was then absolutely desperate and wild . In April , Kilmaine returned to Paris , after having executed , by order of the government , a survey of all the coasts of France and Holland ( then reduced to a province of the former ) . He was promptly appointed Commander - in - Chief of the Armée dAngleterre destined for the invasion of British Isles . The position of which had been given to the Joseph Marie , Count Dessaix , the hero of Marengo , was now bestowed upon him . As the supreme chief of command of this famous militia force , the eyes of all Europe were now fixed firmly on him . French whispers throughout Europe at the time asserts that this expedition was destined , not for Britain , but in fact for Egypt , and that Kilmaine received the command of it , not so much for his great military skill , but as to deceive the ministry , supposing that the name of an Irishman would cause them to believe that the armament was destined for Ireland and so they named him General in Chief of the Arniee d ' Angleterre , which never existed at all . Even if this was the case Kilmaine didn ' t know it . The number of transports was soon increased to over a thousand , and all the naval and military resources of Holland were pressed into the French service and managed by Kilmaine . Colonel Shee , Wolfe Tone , General Clarke , General Humbert and Kilmaine , were by this time hard at work planning an Irish invasion . They were well acquainted with the extent of the military organization of the United Irishmen , and knew that by the close of the preceding year the people were well provided with arms , and knew the use of them . In the beginning of 1797 , great quantities were discovered and seized by the British Government , who , in Leinster and Ulster alone , captured 70 , 630 pikes , with 48 , 109 muskets . If the Irish managed their projected rising , one cannot for a moment doubt what the result would be , once Kilmaine ' s formidable expedition landed in Ireland . Irish Assault . Meanwhile Kilmaine ' s health was slowly declining . The duties of a 47 year old Kilmaine were alike harassing and arduous , as he had to superintend the equipment and organization of this vast force , composed of men of all arms and several nations , and he was repeatedly summoned to Paris , even in the middle of the night , by couriers who overtook him in his progresses , thus , though suffering under severe ill health . The Directory once brought him on the spur from Bruges early in July , and again from Brest about the end of the same month only to bring him back a few days later . During the summer of 1798 , the European press were full of words expressing admiration for Kilmaine . Citizen d ' Arbois , an officcer on the staff of Kilmaine , in a letter published a glowing account of Jennings in the Parisian papers of the 7th August , 1798 , stating ; " The eagerness with which our troops , both by sea and land , await the moment when , under the brave and brilliant warrior Kilmaine , they will engage the English , is the best pledge of our approaching success , and the defeat of our enemies . " Around this time too , a Brussels print states , " We are assured that the French republicans shall be able to make a successful descent upon Ireland , the Belgian youth will be employed in that country under General Kilmaine , who , being a native of it , will there have the command of the French and Irish forces . " Doubts hovered in the minds of the Directory , even if there were none in the hearts of their soldiers and generals and long delays ensued . General Hoche , who was the main spring of the projected movement in favor of Ireland , had died . And Bonaparte , to whom Kilmaine , Tone , Shee , and others of the Irish patriots turned , had no longer any sympathy with their cause , as all his views were now directed towards a warfare in the East . Paddy Kilmaine . By the beginning of autumn 1798 , the Directory began to begin breaking up their boasted Armee d ' Angleterre , and withdraw Kilmaine ' s troops . Upon this , Jennings came anxiously and lustily to Paris to plea with the government and the minister of Marine concerning the embarkation of the troops and departure of the fleet . His questions were waived , or left unanswered . They had now more important plans for him . Of chef - commander Kilmaine ' s forces that did ' independently ' sail to Ireland , their fate was sealed from the onset . The first attempt from Brest , On 22 August , initially got off to a good start , about 1 , 000 French soldiers under General Humbert landed in the north - west of the country , at Kilcummin in County Mayo . They joined up to 5 , 000 local rebels , and drove the British from Castlebar , setting up a short - lived " Republic of Connaught " . They were defeated at the battle of Ballinamuck , in County Longford , on 8 September 1798 . The French troops who surrendered were repatriated to France in exchange for British prisoners of war , but hundreds of the captured Irish rebels were murdered by execution . A second attempt in September , accompanied by Napper Tandy , came to disaster on the coast of Donegal and was unable to land , before eventually returning to France . The third and final attempt , On 12 October 1798 , under Admiral Bompard , with General Hardy in command of a larger force of about 3000 men , including Wolfe Tone himself , never had a chance . They attempted to land in County Donegal near Lough Swilly , but were intercepted by a bigger Royal Navy squadron , and eventually surrendered after a three hour battle without ever landing in Ireland . Tone was captured , taken prisoner and was tried in court - martial . For some time all of Britain supposed the troops were led by the commander - in - chief in person and all the press of England and Scotland teemed with blustering or scurrilous remarks on " Paddy Kilmaine and his followers " . In truth General Kilamine never embarked , although he certainly wanted to , as commander in Chef , a master tactician and without the blessing of his commander Napoleon , he superintended the departure of 6 , 000 of his troops from Rochfort and Brest . Broken Dreams . By the end of 1798 the army of England and its expedition were alike completely dissolved , and The Directory turned their ambition totally eastwards and to the middle East . Napoleon now wished to give Kilmaine command of the forces assembled for the great war in Egypt . But for the present his career finished on the coasts of France and Holland , looking out toward fighting Ireland . The Directory ' s outright decision to abandon the project completely shattered all of Kilmaine ' s hopes of helping to achieve the independence of his native land . For some years an intimate friendship had existed between him and fellow Irishman Wolfe Tone ( while the latter lived in Paris ) and upon hearing of his friends arrest in Ireland , he strongly urged the French government to intervene in his case and to hold for Tones safety , hostages of equal rank chosen from the British military prisoners then in France . He assembled a petition and wrote a brilliant letter to the President of the Executive Directory , it reads , " Head - Quarters at Rouen 27th Brumaire , 7th year of the Republic . Kilmaine , General in Chief of the Army of England to the President of the Executive Directory Citizen President , From the assurances which the executive Directory has given , that the Adjudant General Smith , taken on board the Hoche , shall be claimed in a peremptory manner , it would be superfluous in me to request your interference a second time . But , as Commander in Chief of the Army , in which he served with such distinction , I consider myself as in duty bound to acquaint the Directory more particularly with that officer . His real name is Tone ; that of Smith was assumed to conceal from the English Government his residence in France , and spare to his family in Ireland those persecutions which would infallibly inflicted upon them . Obliged , as he had been one of the most zealous and respectable apostles of the cause of liberty in his country , to seek a refuge from its tyrants in North America , he was called from thence , on the demand of the French Government , to co - operate with General Hoche in his first expedition to Ireland . He was then promoted to the rank of Adjutant General , and served the Republic in that capacity in the Army of England , where he was known to me in the most advantageous light , and had acquired , by his talents and social qualities , the esteem and friendship of all the Generals with whom he served . He was employed in the expedition of General Hardy , merely as a French officer , and ought to be acknowledged in that character ; he had adopted France as his country ; his right to be considered as a French prisoner of war is undoubted , and no one can regard him in any other light . I know not what treatment the British Government may reserve for him , but if it were other than such as any French officer , in a similar situation , has a claim to expect , I am clearly of the opinion that the Directory should designate some British prisoner of superior rank to serve as a hostage , and to undergo precisely the same treatment that Adjutant General Smith may suffer from the British Government . By this measure you may save to the Republic one of its most distinguished officers ; to liberty , one of her most zealous and most enlightened defenders , and a father to one of the most interesting families which I have ever known . Health and respect , Kilmaine . " Even though he garnered much support from prominent Frenchmen and even Napoleon , his appeal was strangely ignored much to Kilmane ' s profound disapproval . Subsequently Tone was found guilty and was sentenced to be hanged . He pleaded in virtue of his status as a French officer to die by the musket instead of the rope . Denied his wish , and before the sentence was carried out , he cheated and attempted suicide by slitting his own throat and died of his severe wounds days later . Generalissimo of the army of Switzerland . At the beginning of 1799 Kilmaines health was now further deteriorating , he also had become greatly saddened by his friend , Wolfe Tone ' s death . In the Spring of that year , the Directory appointed him supreme generalissimo of the army of Helvetii , as they chose to designate Switzerland , thus reviving the ancient name of the people whom Julius Caesar conquered . The French troops already occupied Lombardy on one side , and the Rhenish provinces on the other . Thus they never doubted their ability to conquer the Swiss and remodel the Helvetic constitution . 48 year old Kilmaine accepted the command , and ignored his condition for quite sometime , until his rapidly failing health forced him to give up his baton to Massena and he was compelled to retire from active service for good . With a sorrow which he could not conceal , he saw that army march which penetrated into the heart of the Swiss mountains , and imposed on their hardy inhabitants a constitution in which Bonaparte , under the plausible title of Mediator , secured the co - operation of the valiant descendants of the Celtic tribe of Helvetii in his further schemes of conquest and ambition . Death . In a fragile condition Generalissimo Kilmaine left Switzerland and returned to Passy in Paris , where his domestic griefs and chagrins added to the poignancy of his bodily sufferings , for his constitution was now completely broken up . Struck by a deadly malady he developed chronic dysentery , and died on the 15th of December , 1799 , in the forty - eight year of his age , at the very moment when the triumphant elevation of Bonaparte was opening up to his comrades a long and brilliant career of military glory . He was interred with all the honors due to his rank and immense bravery , and a noble monument was erected in his memory . He had surely been the greatest of officers of all The Wild Geese . Legacy . He is historically honored at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris , where his name can be seen on the inside triumphal arch , on the Northern pillar , Column 05 , Underneath is the tomb of the unknown soldier from World War I . In the memories of Captain Landrieux , his aide - de - camp , Kilmaine is described as " the only officer in whom Napoleon ever placed complete and utter confidence . " In the Memoirs published by General Charles Tristan , marquis de Montholon , he wrote of Jennings , " Brave and noble Kilmaine , being an excellent cavalry officer , had coolness and foresight , he was well fitted to command a corps of observation , detached upon those arduous or delicate commissions which require spirit , discernment , and sound judgment . He rendered important services to the army , of which he was one of the principal generals notwithstanding the delicacy of his health . He had a great knowledge of the Austrian troops , familiar with their tactiques , he did not allow himself to be imposed upon by those rumors which they were in the habit of spreading in the rear of an army , nor to be dismayed by those heads of columns which they were wont to display in every direction , to deceive as to the real strength of their forces . His political opinions were brilliantly moderate . " Wolfe Tone wrote of Kilmaine in his private Journal , one of his diary entries read , " Clarke then said there were some Irish officers yet remaining in France , who might go , and he mentioned Jennings , who used to call himself Baron de Kilmaine , God knows why . I answered , that in Ireland we had no great confidence in the officers of the old Irish Brigade , so many of them had either deserted , or betrayed the French cause , that , as to Jennings , he had had the unfortunate misfortune to command after Custine , and had been obliged to break up the famous " Camp de Caesar " , that , though this might probably have been no fault of his , it had made an impression , and , as he was at any rate not a fortunate general but a typical Irish soldier of fortune , I thought it would maybe better to have a Frenchman . " There is a personal portrait of General Kilmaine in the ' Hotel de Ville ' ( City Hall ) at Tonnay - Charente , where his father Dr . Theobald Jennings practiced as a physician . A monument was erected in his memory in Tonnay - Charente in the 19th century . Rue du Général Kilmaine , a street in Tonnay - Charente was named in his honor , in the 19th century . Descendants . Kilmaine married when he was relatively young and had at least one child . There is reason to believe that his wife ' Broness de Kilmaine ' died a few years before he did . There are likely numerous descendants of Jennings in Ireland , and as the pseudo - surname " de Kilmaine " ( minus Jennings ) survives to this day , also too in France . References . city