François Séverin Marceau - Desgraviers François Séverin Marceau - Desgraviers ( 1 March 1769 – 21 September 1796 ) was a French general of the Revolutionary Wars . Biography . Early life . Desgraviers was born at Chartres , Eure - et - Loir . His father served as a legal officer , and Marceau received an education for a legal career , but at the age of sixteen he enlisted in the regiment of Savoy - Carignan . Whilst on furlough in Paris , Marceau joined in the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 – after that event he took his discharge from the regular army and returned to Chartres , but the opposition of his family soon compelled him to seek new military employment . He became a drill instructor and later a Captain in the Eure - et - Loir départemental regiment of the National Guard . In March 1792 , Marceau was elected Lieutenant Colonel of one of the French Revolutionary Army battalion s of the Eure - et - Loir . He took part in the defence of Verdun in 1792 , and it was his troop that was ordered to bear the proposals of capitulation to the Prussia n camp . The defenders ' lack of morale provoked the anger of the revolutionary authorities , and Marceau was fortunate to find re - employment as a Captain in the regular service . However , early in 1793 , he along with other officers under suspicion were arrested and spent some time in prison . Vendée . On his release , Marceau hurried to take part in the defence of Saumur against the Vendéean Royalists , distinguishing himself at Saumur on 10 June 1793 by rescuing the representative Pierre Bourbotte from the hands of the insurgents . The National Convention voted him the thanks of the country and he received rapid promotion . His conduct at Chantonnay ( 5 September 1793 ) won him the provisional rank of Brigadier General . On 17 October , he bore a great part in the victory of Cholet , and on began his friendship with Jean Baptiste Kléber while on the field of battle . Kléber was made a " général de division " , and Marceau confirmed as a Brigadier General . Marceau in turn became a " général de division " on 10 November ; then succeeded to the commander - in - chief " ad interim " , and , with Kléber , won important victories near Le Mans ( 12 – 13 December ) and Savenay ( 23 December 1793 ) . Love affairs . In the wake of Le Mans , Marceau had rescued and protected a young Royalist lady , Angélique des Mesliers , with whom it has been supposed Marceau fell in love – however , even his help could not save her from the guillotine . He and Kléber themselves were saved from arrest and execution only by the intervention of Bourbotte . Around this time Marceau became engaged to Agathe Leprêtre de Châteaugiron , but the marriage was prevented by his constant military employment , his broken health and the opposition of both Auguste - Félicité Le Prestre de Châteaugiron and Marceau ' s devoted half - sister Emira , wife of the Republican politician Antoine Joseph Sergent . Battles of 1795 – 1796 . After spending the winter of 1793 – 1794 in Paris , Marceau accepted a command in the army under Jean - Baptiste Jourdan alongside Kléber and took part in the various battles near Charleroi . During the battle of Fleurus on 26 June 1794 he had a horse shot from under him . He distinguished himself at Jülich , at Aldenhoven and at Koblenz , where he stormed the enemy lines on 23 October . He took part in the - with the armies of the Sambre and Meuse , fighting on the Rhine and the Lahn and distinguishing himself alongside Kléber near Neuwied and Sulzbach . Death . In 1796 , Jourdan and Jean Victor Marie Moreau ' s invasion of Germany ended in disaster and Marceau ' s men covered Jourdan ' s retreat over the Rhine . Marceau fought in the desperate actions on the Lahn ( 16 – 18 September 1796 ) until at Altenkirchen on 19 September , he received a mortal wound . He died two days later , aged only twenty - seven . The Austrians competed with Marceau ' s own countrymen to honour to the dead general . His body was burned and the ashes placed under a pyramid in Koblenz designed by Kléber . They were transferred to the Panthéon in 1889 . Marceau was immortalized in Byron ' s " Childe Harold ' s Pilgrimage " : References . The 1911 " Britannica " , in turn , gives the following references :