and the erection of arches in honour of Bonaparte and the Irish
Commandant of Lombardy, and a general 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
Pope, and the spoils of our Lady of Loretto, pushed on to seek fresh
conquests and new laurels.
Kilmaine remained for some time in command at Mantua after its
capitulation.
During the siege and other events, a revolutionary spirit had pervaded
the Venetian States. Peschiera, a fortified town in the province of
Verona, and Brescia, a large city in the beautiful plain on the Garza,
had been both seized, garrisoned, and republicanized by the French.
The people rose in arms, fired by new and absurd ideas of liberty and
equality, and frightful scenes of bloodshed ensued when the more loyal
and sensible inhabitants resisted these new patriots; but the latter,
on being joined by fifteen hundred banditti from Bergamo, pressed the
Venetian troops, who were driven out with great slaughter.
On hearing of these things, the politic Kilmaine wrote from Mantua
to the French general commanding in Brescia, desiring him "_not_ to
interfere in behalf of these insurgents, lest by so doing he might
infringe that strict neutrality which the generals of the French
Republic were bound to observe."
In April, however, he was compelled, by the violent proceedings of the
Italians against the French garrison in Verona, to unite his forces
to those of Generals Victor and La Hotze, and march to the succour of
General Ballaud, who was there assailed by forty-five thousand men,
whose war-cry was _Viva San Marco!_ who had cut to pieces six hundred
Frenchmen, taken two thousand more after a four hours' contest, and
driven the rest into the castle. From its ramparts Ballaud threatened
to lay in ruins the unfortunate city, which had enjoyed profound peace
for ages, until Bonaparte arrived on the banks of the Adige, and added
it to the new kingdom of Italy.
On the 24th the insurgent Veronese capitulated, for on the approach of
Kilmaine the governor, the two proveditori, and the Venetian general
Stratico, fled with all their cavalry; on which he took as hostages
the bishop, four of the principal nobles of the city, and several
cavaliers of distinction, and peace was thus restored for a time. He
disarmed all the insurgents, and seized three thousand slaves, whom he
marched under an escort to Milan. In every way Kilmaine aided Napoleon
most efficiently in these operations which preceded the capture and
subjugation of Venice; and thus gave his great leader a thousand causes
to admire and appreciate him during those campaigns which were so
disastrous to Italy, but so glorious to the arms of France. During his
command in Lombardy he settled or compromised the contested question of
the free navigation of the Lake of Lugano, in the south of Switzerland,
which had occasioned many angry disputes between the jealous Switzers
and the aggressive generals of the French army in Italy. By his
intervention it was satisfactorily arranged that France should have
the open navigation of the lake by boats of any size: but the cantons
violated the treaty; on which Napoleon threatened to send a column of
his troops among them, if they did not behave more amicably towards
their faithful and ancient allies.
At this time General Sir John Acton, the favourite minister of Naples
at Milan, was a soldier of fortune, and the intimate friend of
Kilmaine. The story of Acton is rather a singular one.
He was the son of a Jacobite gentleman who had emigrated to France
and settled at Besançon. An unsuccessful love adventure forced him
to leave that city, at the college of which he was studying physic
with every prospect of distinction. Repairing to Toulon, he enlisted
in a battalion of French marines. From this corps he passed into the
Neapolitan service, and distinguished himself at sea against a Barbary
corsair; on which he received a commission in the marines of Naples,
and rose to the rank of general, Counsellor of State, and Knight of San
Gennaro and Saint Stephen. He possessed a high spirit, great courage,
good address, and a handsome figure; and he soon became at the Court of
Naples what the Prince of Peace was at Madrid--the favourite and lover
of the Queen. He died in 1811. Another of Kilmaine's friends was the
veteran general O'Cher, a _chef de brigade_, who had been upwards of
forty years in the service of Louis XVI. and of the Republic, and held
an important command in the army of Italy.
In the _Memoirs_ published by General Count Montholon, and which were
written by that faithful officer at St. Helena, we have the following
descriptive reference to the Commandant of Lombardy:--
"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 rumours 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 very moderate."
These are the words of a brother soldier, who must have known him well
in the land of his adoption.
In the spring of 1798, the French Government was seriously employed
in preparations for a descent upon the British Islands; and, in the
February of that year, marched to the coast of the Channel 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. These 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 Charles Kilmaine, Berthier,
Marescat, Kleber, Massena, "the son of Rapine;" Macdonald, Ney, Victor,
and others whose names were to become famous in future wars as the
marshal dukes of the great military empire.
The brave but blustering Jean Baptist Kleber, who had originally been
an architect of Strasbourg, commanded the right wing of this _Armée
d'Angleterre_, which was to stretch from Calais to the mouth of the
Scheldt, while another corps assembled at Flushing.
Kilmaine commanded the centre.
These forces were partly composed of troops returned from Italy, and
were all experienced soldiers, the victors of Mantua, Lodi, and Arcola.
Headed by bands of music, the _étât-majors_ marched through Paris,
displaying black banners, indicative of a war of extermination, and
inscribed, "_Descent upon England_--Live the Republic! May Britain
perish," &c.
On St. Patrick's day, the 17th of the following month, Kilmaine,
O'Cher, Colonel Shee, and all the Irishmen in Paris celebrated their
ancient national and religious festival by a grand banquet, at which
the notorious Thomas Paine--then a political fugitive--assisted. All
the corresponding members of the Irish clubs and malcontent party at
home were also present. Many fierce and stirring political toasts
were drunk, amid vociferous enthusiasm; and among these--one in
particular--"Long live the Irish Republic!" and 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 to abhor and to hate. Napper Tandy, a
_general de brigade_, was in the chair; on his left sat Tom Paine, and
on his right sat Kilmaine, who, immediately after the banquet, left
Paris to rejoin his column of the army on the coast.
Five hundred gunboats were ordered to be prepared, and three hundred
sail of transports were collecting at Dunkirk, to be protected from the
British fleet by a Dutch squadron then at the mouth of the Scheldt; and
all Britain was in arms on hearing of an armament so formidable.
The condition of France was then desperate; assignats were at 6500
livres the louis; she had to maintain a million of men in arms from
an empty treasury; the ruffian demagogues and savage soldiers of the
Republic, men steeped to the lips in the blood of women and priests,
nobles and aristocrats, hardened by the atrocities in La Vendée, and
trained to the war in the campaigns of Austria and Italy, occupied
every post and place under the unstable government; a rabble of
brutal ministers occupied the palaces of the fallen line of St. Louis,
armed with sabres and pistols, to which they resorted in every trivial
dispute and on every difference of opinion, and while warring against
all manner of title and form, appeared on the rostrum in cassocks and
stockings of rose-coloured silk, with knots of scarlet ribands in their
shoes; and, with that mixture of ferocity and tom-foolery which caused
Paris to be characterized as a city of monkeys and tigers, debated on
the cut of a coat and the massacre of a city.
In April, Kilmaine repaired to Paris, after having executed, by order
of the government, a survey of the coasts of France and Holland, then
reduced to a province of the former; and the chief command of this
famous Armée d'Angleterre on which the eyes of all Europe were fixed,
and the command of which had been given to the noble Dessaix, the hero
of Marengo, was now bestowed upon him.
A French writer asserts that this expedition was destined, not for
Britain, but for Egypt; and that Kilmaine received the command of it,
not so much for his great military skill, as to deceive our 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 Armée d'Angleterre, which never existed at all.
Unfortunately for this writer, history affords abundant proof to the
contrary. The number of transports was soon increased to a thousand,
and all the naval and military resources of Holland were pressed into
the French service.
Colonel Shee, Wolfe Tone, Generals Clarke and Kilmaine, were by this
time 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. Had the Irish managed
their projected rising with the vigour which has ever characterized
the Scottish insurrections, we cannot for a moment doubt what would
have been the result, had this formidable expedition once landed in
Ireland, where no yeomanry were organized; where the militia were not
to be depended upon; and where the king's troops, on whom the ministry
mainly relied, were so little superior to the French in tact and skill,
that Humbert, with less than a thousand men, was able to defeat double
that number, and immediately after received into his ranks 250 of the
drilled and attested Irish militiamen.
On the 12th April, Kilmaine, with General Bonaparte, had a long
audience with the Directory at Paris, reporting on the state of their
armaments. The appointment of the former to the chief command relieved
Britain of the apprehension that the conqueror of Italy would cross the
Channel in person, and great was the disappointment of the malcontents
at home.
The duties of 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.
Citizen d'Arbois, an officer on the staff of Kilmaine, in a letter
published in the Parisian papers of the 7th August, 1798, states that
his general "is on his return," after having made a tour of the coast,
from Port St. Malo to L'Orient; that he was well satisfied with the
state of the French ports and armaments, and had enjoyed with delight
the magnificent aspect of Brest, in the harbour of which he saw thirty
sail of the line, with a fleet of frigates and transports. D'Arbois
states that Kilmaine had been surveying Brittany, where all was then
peaceful, by the "wise measures" of the constituted authorities. "The
eagerness with which our troops, both by sea and land, await the moment
when, under the brave Kilmaine, they will engage the English, is the
best pledge of our approaching success, and the ruin of our enemies."
It is evident that Citizen d'Arbois had then no thought of fighting in
Egypt.
But doubts hovered in the minds of the Directory, if there were none in
the hearts of their generals, and long delays ensued. General Hoche,
under whom the future Dukes of Rovigo and of Vicenza were serving as
private soldiers, and who was the main spring of the projected movement
in favour of Ireland, died in September, 1797; and Bonaparte, to whom
Kilmaine, Tone, Shee, and others of the Irish patriots turned, had no
sympathy with their cause, as all his views were now directed towards
a warfare in the East. By the beginning of autumn the Directory began
to break up their boasted Armée d'Angleterre, and withdrew their
troops to reinforce their columns on the Rhine. Upon this, Kilmaine
came anxiously and hastily to Paris to confer with the government and
the Minister of Marine concerning the embarkation of the troops and
departure of the fleet from Brest; but his questions were waived, or
left unanswered, although the division of Bompard, consisting of the
_Hoche_ of 74 guns and eighteen frigates, filled with troops under
General Hardy, destined for Ireland, remained with their cables hove
short, and all ready for sea at a moment's notice.
Of the forces that really sailed for Ireland, and their fate, we need
not inform the reader. For a time all Britain supposed they 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;" but the general never embarked, though he
certainly superintended the departure of a body of troops from Rochfort.
"We are assured," says a Brussels print, "that in case the French
republicans shall be able to make a successful descent upon Ireland,
the Belgic youth will be employed in that country under General
Kilmaine, who, being a native of it, will there have the command of
the united French and Irish forces." Citizen Macdonagh was to have
a high command in the corps of Irish Marines. He held the rank of
Lieutenant-Colonel in France.
By the end of 1798 the army of England and its expedition were alike
dissolved, and the Directory wished to give Kilmaine command of the
forces assembled for the war in Egypt; but for the present his career
finished with the military examination of the coasts of France and
Holland.
In 1799 the Directory appointed him generalissimo of the army of
Helvetia, as they chose to designate Switzerland; thus reviving the
ancient name of the people whom Julius Cæsar 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. Kilmaine accepted the
command with satisfaction, but his failing health compelled him to give
up his bâton to Massena; and 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 Helvetii in his further
schemes of conquest and ambition.
In a feeble condition Kilmaine returned to Paris, where his domestic
sorrows and chagrins added to the poignancy of his bodily sufferings,
for his constitution was now completely broken up.
Struck by a deadly malady, he died on the 15th of December, 1799, in
the forty-ninth 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
honours due to his rank and bravery, and a noble monument was erected
to his memory.
COUNTS O'REILLY, O'DONNEL,
AND THE IRISH IN SPAIN.
Ireland, says a popular Scottish writer, can boast not only of having
transplanted more of her sons to the soil of Spain than either of the
sister kingdoms, but of having acquired by the deeds of her exiles a
degree of renown to which the others cannot aspire.
True it is, that in every land brave men find a home!
The deeds of the Irish regiments in the Spanish service, during the
War of the Succession, like those of the O'Donnels in the war of the
Peninsula, and the civil strife of more recent times, would fill
volumes. Of the Spanish Lacys I have already given a memoir; and of
many other brave Irish soldiers of fortune, who won distinction on the
soil or in the service of Spain, I can here give but the names alone.
Owen Roe O'Neil, of Ulster, rose to high rank in the Spanish Imperial
service and held an important post in Catalonia. He defended Arras
against Louis XIII. in 1640, and when forced to surrender, he did so,
says Carte, "upon honourable terms; yet his conduct in the defence
was such as gave him great reputation, and procured him extraordinary
respect even from the enemy;" and the brave O'Sullivan Bearra of
Dunbuy, who fled in the days of James I., became Governor of Corunna
under Philip IV.
Lieutenant-General Don Carlos Felix O'Neile (son of the celebrated Sir
Neil O'Neile of Ulster, slain at the battle of the Boyne), was Governor
of Havannah and favourite of Charles III. of Spain; he died at Madrid
in 1791, after attaining the great age of one hundred and ten years.
In 1780, Colonel O'Moore commanded the Royal Walloon Guards of Charles
III. In 1799, Field-Marshal Arthur O'Neil was Governor-General
of Yucatan under the same monarch, and commanded the flotilla of
thirty-one vessels which made an unsuccessful attack on the British
settlements in the Bay of Honduras. In the same year, Don Gonzalo
O'Farrel was the Spanish ambassador at the Court of Berlin, and in
1808 he was Minister of War for Spain. In 1797, O'Higgins was Viceroy
of Peru, under Charles IV., one of whose best generals was the famous
Alexander Count O'Reilly.
Don Pedro O'Daly was Governor of Rosas when it was besieged by Gouvion
St. Cyr in 1809; and General John O'Donoughue was chief of Cuesta's
staff, and one of the few able officers about the person of that
indolent and obstinate old hidalgo, whose incapacity nearly caused the
ruin of the Spanish affairs at the commencement of the Peninsula war.
He died Viceroy of Mexico in 1816.
O'Higgins was Viceroy of Peru under Ferdinand VI. and the third and
fourth Charles of Spain. He signalized himself with great bravery in
the wars with the Araucanos, a nation on the coast of Chili, who were
ultimately subdued by him and subjected to the Spanish rule. John
Campbell, a midshipman who escaped from the wreck of the _Wager_, one
of Commodore Anson's squadron which was lost on the large island of
Tierra del Fuego, and who arrived, after inconceivable sufferings, at
St. Jago de Chili, furnished O'Higgins with various notes and outlines
of the coast, and other memoranda concerning the natives, all of which
he had ingeniously written on the bark of trees. These observations,
which were afterwards printed in England, were of the greatest value to
O'Higgins, who was wont to affirm that by the knowledge they gave him
of the barbarians under his government, "he owed the foundation of his
good fortune to Campbell."
In 1765, he marched against the Araucanos with a battalion of Chilian
infantry, and fifteen hundred horse, named Maulinians. He was thrice
brought to the ground by having three horses killed under him; but the
Araucanos were routed, and the Spanish rule extended over all Peru, of
which he died viceroy in the beginning of the present century, after
fighting the battles of Rancagua and Talchuana, which secured the
independence of Chili.
Few names bear a more prominent place in Spanish history than those of
Blake, the Captain-General of the Coronilla, and O'Reilly, a soldier
of fortune, who saved the life of Charles III. during the revolt at
Madrid, and who re-formed and disciplined anew the once noble army of
Spain.
ALEXANDER COUNT O'REILLY was born in Ireland about 1735, of Roman
Catholic parents, and when young entered the Spanish service as a
sub-lieutenant in the Irish regiment with which he served in Italy
during the war of the Spanish Succession, and received a wound from
which he was rendered lame for the rest of his life. In 1751 he went
to serve in Austria, and made two campaigns against the Prussians,
under the orders of Marshal Count Lacy, his countryman. Then in 1759
he passed into the service of Louis XV., under whose colours was
still that celebrated Irish Brigade whose native bravery so mainly
contributed to win for France the glory of Fontenoy.
O'Reilly distinguished himself so much that the Marshal de Broglie
recommended him to the King of Spain, with great warmth of expression,
on his retiring to Madrid. The marshal's interest won him the rank of
Lieutenant-Colonel, and as such he served in that war which conduced
so little to the glory of Portugal, though favoured by the alliance
of Britain. Nevertheless, O'Reilly found many opportunities for
distinction at the head of the light troops which were confided to him,
and soon won the proud reputation of being one of Spain's most gallant
officers. He was now named Brigadier of the Armies of the King, with
the post of _aide major de l'exercise_. In these capacities he drilled
the Spanish infantry according to the best system of tactics and
exercise then practised in the British service.
At the peace he was appointed Mariscal de Campo, and named Commandant
en Seconde of Havannah, which was to be given up to Spain by the treaty
of Fontainbleau. On arriving there, he restored and strengthened the
fortifications of the colony, and soon after returned to Spain, where
the king named him Inspector-General of Infantry, and desired him to
assist in the manoeuvres of a great camp, of which he gave him command.
He then sent him to New Orleans, where the inhabitants had scarcely
become accustomed to the Spanish yoke, and where the rigorous means
employed by O'Reilly to subdue them gained him many enemies. The count
returned again to Madrid, and was treated with every mark of favour
by Charles III., who knew all his talents, capacity, and courage; and
could never forget that it was to the strong hand and stout heart of
O'Reilly he owed his life during the fiery sedition at Madrid in 1765,
when the people rose in arms. Every honour Charles could bestow upon
a foreigner was showered upon O'Reilly, who now gave the Spanish army
(which was many years behind every other in Europe in the march of
progression and improvement) a new spirit, vigour, and impulse. In this
task he was assisted by his brother-in-law, Francisco Xavier Castanos,
afterwards Duke of Baylen, Captain-General of Estremadura, Old Castile,
and Galicia, whom he took with him to Prussia when he visited that
country, like all the principal officers of Europe, to witness and
examine the manoeuvres practised by the troops of the Great Frederick.