Jean Augustin Ernouf Jean Augustin Ernouf ( Manuel Louis Jean Augustin or Auguste Ernouf ) ( 29 August 1753 – 12 September 1827 ) was a French general and colonial administrator of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars . He demonstrated moderate abilities as a combat commander ; his real strength lay in his organizational and logistical talents . He held several posts as chief - of - staff and in military administration . He joined the military in 1791 , as a private in the French Revolutionary Army ; from September 1791 to September 1793 , he was promoted from lieutenant to brigadier general . He and his commanding officer were accused of being counter - revolutionaries , disgraced , and then , in 1794 , restored to rank . In 1804 , Napoleon I appointed him as governor general of the French colony in Saint - Domingue and Guadeloupe , following the suppression of a widespread slave insurrection . Although he was able to reestablish some semblance of order and agricultural production , the British overwhelmed the colony in 1810 and , after a brief engagement , forced him to capitulate . He returned to France on a prisoner exchange , but was charged with treason by Napoleon I , enraged by the loss of the colony to the British . Before he could be exonerated by a court , the First Empire fell ; with the Bourbon Restoration , he retained his honors , and received command of the III Corps , in Marseille . After the second restoration , he held an administrative position in one of the occupation zones , and later he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of France . Military career . After completing school , Ernouf received entered military service as a private in the Revolutionary army . He was commissioned as a lieutenant of infantry in the 1st Battalion of Volunteers of the Orne on the 24 September 1791 , and as a captain on 22 March 1792 , and 5 May 1793 he became an " aide - de - camp " of General Barthel ' s Army of the North . On 30 July 1793 , he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel . Initial successes in the Lowlands and the lower Rhine . In 1793 , during the War of the First Coalition , Ernouf was sent to Cassel to strengthen the French position . The Duke of York laid siege to Dunkirk and blockaded the town of Bergues , on the Belgian border , which had insufficient garrison to fend off the British . Ernouf assembled a force of a thousand men and joined Jean Nicholas Houchard ; together they marched to the relief of Dunkirk . Once there , he led a column in attack on the British camp . On " 5 complémentaire an I " ( 21 September 1793 ) , which would have been the last day of the first year of the new Republic , he was raised to the rank of Brigadier General and was appointed on " 9 vendémiaire an II " ( 30 September 1793 ) as chief of staff to the Army of the North . It was also by his advice that the commander in chief , Jean - Baptiste Jourdan , discovered Josias , Prince of Coburg ' s unfortunate position behind the Wattignies forest , compelled him to retreat across the Sambre and subsequently lifted the siege of Maubeuge : Ernouf ' s part in this action , the Battle of Hondschoote , earned him his promotion to Major General on 23 " frimaire an II " ( 13 December 1793 ) . When Jourdan did not order an aggressive pursuit , both he and Ernouf were recalled by the Committee of Public Safety in disgrace . He was suspended on suspicion of being a counter - revolutionary , but reinstated upon the end of the Reign of Terror in 1795 . Upon his reinstatement , he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Army of the Moselle and the army of Sambre and Meuse . He held several administrative posts , including a stint in which he helped to develop the topographical and geographical military maps . Action in Swabia and Switzerland . In 1798 , Jourdan appointed him as chief of staff for the Army of Observation . Ernouf was with the Army of Observation when it crossed the Rhine river , in what British historians have called a violation of the Treaty of Campo Formio , resulting in the War of the Second Coalition . On 2 March , the Army was renamed Army of the Danube , and it marched to Upper Swabia , where it engaged Archduke Charles ' Habsburg force at Ostrach on 21 March , and again on 25 March at Stockach . In both battles , the Habsburg manpower , superior to the French numbers by three to one and two to one respectively , overwhelmed the French lines ; Jourdan , the commander of the Army , was unable to concentrate his forces sufficiently to counteract the Habsburg numbers , and withdrew to the Black Forest in late March . Ernouf took command of the Army of the Danube while Jourdan returned to Paris to request more troops . He was replaced as commander of the Army of the Danube by André Masséna , and served as Massena ' s chief of staff in the Swiss campaign of 1799 , during which he saw action in Zurich and central Switzerland ; he was again at Zurich for the French victory over Alexander Rimsky - Korsakov . Caribbean appointment . In 1804 , Ernouf became a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor . Shortly afterward , he was sent to Guadeloupe and Saint - Domingue as Captain General of the colony , to restore order in the wake of the slave and mulatto rebellion and the Saint - Domingue campaign of Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc . Within a year , Ernouf had restored order and agricultural production . From his base on Guadeloupe , he dealt largely with many of the refugee planters who escaped the previous years ' carnage . He also mastered the Swedish island of St . Barts , where the rebels of St . Domingo had taken refuge , and from which they coordinated privateering against British and American shipping . In all , he confiscated 134 vessels , and proceeds from their sale amounted to 80 million francs . There is some evidence to suggest that he either actively encouraged , or at least permitted , the earlier practice of privateering against British and American shipping ; British officers later found open commissions , signed by Ernouf , which suggested he was granting commissions to pirates for " services " rendered . The privateer ship " General Ernouf " ( formerly the British purchased sloop - of - war HMS " Lilly " ) , further underscores his possible commitment to privateering as a legitimate military means . His task was further complicated by the failure of the Treaty of Amiens and the outbreak of war with Britain . To protect Guadeloupe , he raised coastal batteries . The capture of the French colony on Martinique by the British in 1809 marked a critical point for the French force on Guadeloupe ; blockaded on all sides by the naval forces of the British , the French civilians and soldiers were reduced to near starvation . In January 1810 , the British initiated an invasion of Guadeloupe ; Sir Alexander Cochrane ' s naval force landed 11 , 000 British troops under the command of Lieutenant General George Beckwith at the so - called " Capesterre " , or the eastern side of the islands . Attacked on three sides at the end of January , Ernouff ' s force mounted a spirited , although short , defense and capitulated on 6 February 1810 , after which he was transported to Britain . He was repatriated to France in a prisoner exchange in 1811 . Irritated at the loss of Guadeloupe to the British , Napoleon accused him of abuse of power , embezzlement , and treason . Ernouf spent 23 months in captivity in France while the courts debated how to proceed . Restoration . At the Bourbon Restoration , Louis XVIII suspended the proceedings against him for lack of evidence and Ernouf entered into Bourbon service . He was created " Chevalier " of Saint - Louis , on 20 August of that year , and he was appointed Inspector General of Infantry . On 3 January 1815 , he went in that capacity in Marseille . In March 1815 , he received a command in the 1st Corps , under the general command of Charles , Duke of Angoulême . Napoleon ' s return . Ernouf was on an inspection away from this command when Napoleon landed at Cannes . Upon his landing , many of the soldiers of Angoulême ' s army flocked to Bonaparte ' s banner , beginning the Hundred Days . The mere news of Napoleon ' s escape from Elba and the defection of some of the troops caused Charles , Duke of Angoulême , to panic and capitulate . Ernouf returned to Marseille , where he learned that André Masséna also had chosen the imperial cause , after which he left for Paris . Napoleon rescinded Ernouf ' s honors and titles , and dismissed him from his post in the military on 15 April 1815 . After Napoleon ' s final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo , the second restoration of the Bourbons that summer also restored Ernouf ' s rights and property . Later years . On 3 May 1816 , Louis XVIII granted him the title of Baron with the Commander ' s Cross of the Order of Saint Louis , which entitled him to wear a red sash ( right shoulder to left hip ) ; he automatically received a pension , and hereditary nobility was granted to the son and grandson of knights . On 11 November 1816 , Enrouf received command of the III Division , located at Metz , which was occupied by Allied troops as a condition of the Second Treaty of Paris ; his role was to maintain harmony between residents and the foreign soldiers . Elected by the Moselle , in 1816 , he obtained in 1818 permission to sit in the Chamber of Deputies , and left the command of the III Division when he became eligible for retirement on 22 July 1822 . He died in Paris on 12 September 1827 . Family . Ernouf was married to Geneviève Miloent ( d . 22 November 1822 ) . Ernouf ' s son , Gaspard Augustin ( 8 December 1777 – 25 October 1848 ) , was also a military commander during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars . Gaspard and his wife , Adelaïde Guesdon , were the parents of the 19th century historian , Alfred Auguste Ernouf ( 1816 – 1889 ) .