Irish Legion officers of Kilkenny origin - Thomas Jackson

Irish Legion officers of Kilkenny origin Thomas Jackson of Ballyreddin Nicholas Dunne-Lynch On 18 October 1813, as the Battle of the Nations was raging at Leipzig a thousand kilometres away,1 Colonel William Lawless, recently arrived at the regimental depot at Bois-le-Duc sat down to write a return of the officers of the regiment,2 and to note the officers killed, wounded and taken prisoner. He had returned with the skeletons of his two war battalions, shattered in Napoleon’s Saxon campaign. In the conflicts at Goldberg, Lowenberg and the debacle on the Bober River,3 the regiment had lost as many as 1700 all ranks—two full battalions all but annihilated. Since he himself headed the list of officers, Lawless began with his own wound, at Lowenberg on 21 August. Struck by round shot, his lower left leg was carried away. The Battle of Leipzig Napoleon, who had witnessed the ‘A spectacle such as has not been seen event, summoned his chief surgeon, for thousands of years.’ Baron Larrey,4 head of the medical The battle that finally broke Napoleon’s power in Central Europe was contested services and one of the fathers of milon 16-18 October 1813 by half a million itary surgery, who amputated Lawcombatants, a fifth of whom became caless’ leg just below the knee. sualties. The largest battle before World Next on the list came a sad task War 1, involving troops from twenty nations, which gave rise to the name ‘The for Lawless in recording the death of Battle of the Nations’, Leipzig boasted the largest cavalry charge before WW1, his close friend and comrade of aland the fiercest artillery barrage of the most sixteen years, Lieutenant Napoleonic Wars. The Saxon Campaign Colonel John Tennent, commander of of 1813, also known as The War of the st Sixth Coalition, involved three great con- the 1 Battalion. Formerly prominent tinental powers, Prussia, Russia and Aus- United Irishmen in Ireland, Lawless tria, acting in concert to drive Bonaparte and Tennent had been friends since back to Paris, thus forcing his First Abditogether as lieutenant cation on 6 April 1814, and giving rise to serving the First Restoration of the Bourbons colonels (chefs de bataillon) in the (1814-15). Stunned by the aggression of the al- Army of the Republic of Batavia, belied attack at Leipzig, Bonaparte ex- tween 1798 and 1800. Tennant was claimed, ‘One should not believe this, but ‘almost cut in two’ by round shot at they are really attacking me.’ Goldberg on 19 August, and Lawless 141 had wept bitterly as he watched his comrade in arms being laid in the shallow grave his grenadiers had opened with their bayonets.5 Immediately below Tennant, Lawless recorded only one of the two wounds sustained in the campaign by Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Ware, who had served in the Irish rebellion of 1798 as second-in-command of the rebel force of north Kildare. With ‘an ensign,’6 Ware had saved the Imperial eagle at the Bober debacle on 29 August, as Lawless and Terence O’Reilly had done at Flushing in 1809. Ware had been wounded a second time, and had two horses killed under him. The regiment never lost its eagle. We should be surprised if Lawless, as he moved down the list of names on the return, did not feel again the deep chagrin of that dreadful campaign, a disaster for his regiment. Just before he came to the name of his own brother-in-law, Hamden Evans, who, like Tennent, had perished in the fierce Prussian artillery barrage, Lawless wrote starkly beside the name of Captain Thomas Jackson, ‘Killed on the Field of Honour, 16 September.’ On the next line, Lawless recorded the capture by the Russians of Captain William Burke, a native of Cork, a year older than Jackson and his close friend, also variously known as Henderson-Burke and BurkeHenderson. So, history was recorded, and Martinien, when he compiled his monumental work, which lists all French officers killed, wounded or taken prisoner during the Napoleonic Wars, put into print the details Lawless had written,7 though he fails to mention William Burke. Figure 1: The Lawless return of 18 October 1813 shows Jackson killed on 16 September, William Bourke Henderson (Burke) captured on 29 August and Charles Mullany (‘Mullauney’) captured on 3 September. 142 Byrne dates Jackson’s death, not on the 16 September, but on ‘21 August’ 1813, at Lowenberg. ‘On top of a hill,’ Byrne tells us they found Jackson’s ‘pocketbook, with his brevet and papers […] beside several dead bodies, which were naked and disfigured, with half their faces shot off.’8 Jackson had to be one of these. Because of conflicting reports, Martinien goes into a state of confusion, giving a Captain ‘Jackson’ wounded at Lowenberg on 23 August and a Captain ‘Jacson’ killed in ‘combat de Saxe,’ on 16 September. The report in the Lawless return of Burke’s capture was an error, as he had been killed, not on the 23 August, but at the Bober, in the disaster of the 29th. Miles Byrne, in command of the carabineer company of the 2nd Battalion, writes The Irish regiment during this action was continually engaged, and Captain Burke, who defended a village on the left flank of the division during the whole day in the most brilliant manner, and who received the highest praise from the general for his bravery, was killed at the close of the action with almost all the men under his orders.9 There was, however, no error in the case of Charles Mullany, captured by the Russians on 3 September.10 What about Jackson? That his body had not been recovered was hardly unusual in the warfare of the time, when the dead, often stripped naked by scavengers and relieved of all their possessions, were interred in mass graves with little or no ceremony. Jackson’s death had been assumed from the circumstantial evidence. Was he, in fact, dead? Thomas Jackson’s Military Career Born in Ballyreddin, Co. Kilkenny, on 16 April 1786, Thomas Jackson was about 23 on his entry to the French army. His father was also Thomas and his mother, Mary, née Cash. He was serving in the British army or the Royal Navy when taken prisoner and had been the subject of correspondence between the Bureau of Prisoners of War and the Ministry for War.11 Having received a favourable response to his request to be admitted into the French service, on 28 April 1809,13 he was reported by the head of the Bureau of Prisoners of War to be in Paris at Hotel d’Europe, 143 Rue de Lycée, ‘under surveillance’ and awaiting further instructions. These soon came, and Jackson was provisionally commissioned a lieutenant on 13 May 1809.14 He wrote on 17 May to the Minister for War, Henri Clarke, Duke of Feltre, also of Kilkenny origin. The letter, in English, is to the point and lacks the erudition that Jackson displays in later correspondence: ‘According to your wishes, I am happy to inform you that I depart tomorrow for the town of Landau.15 I have the honour to be Your Excellency’s most humble and obedient servant.’16 Jackson’s commission was confirmed by Imperial Decree of 17 August.17 The 3rd Battalion was forming at Landau under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Jean François O’Mahony, French-born son of a former grenadier captain of Bulkeley’s regiment, later Berwick’s, who had defected to the ‘Princes beyond the Frontier’ after the Revolution and the absorption into the army of the line of the old Irish Brigade.18 JeanFrançois served in the British Army, first as a lieutenant in the Irish Catholic Brigade,19 and later as a captain in the Queen’s German Regiment. Fighting against the French in the Egyptian campaign, he was severely wounded at the battle of Alexandria. Having sold his commission, he returned to France in 1803 during the Peace of Amiens. Rejoining the army in 1809, reportedly when his funds had run out, he was made lieutenant colonel in the Irish regiment, under the patronage of Clarke. When the British invaded the island of Walcheren in July 1809, laying siege to the town of Flushing in an attempt to blockade Antwerp, Henri-Jacques-Guillaume Clarke (1765-1818) Count d’Hunebourg, Duke of Feltre, Marshal of France. Born in Landrecies, France, son of Thomas Clarke of Courtnabooly, Co Kilkenny, and Laetitia, of the Shees of Killoragh,12 Co Limerick, Clarke entered Berwick’s regiment of the Irish Brigade in 1782. After the Revolution, he served in the Army of the Rhine rising to brigade general and became Bonaparte’s chief topographical officer in 1795. During the Consulate (1799-1804), Clarke headed the Topographical Bureau and became secretary for the army and navy. During the war against Austria in 1805, he was governor successively of Vienna, Erfurt and Berlin. In 1807, Napoleon appointed Clarke Minister for War, later creating him Duke of Feltre. When the allies neared Paris in 1814, Clarke mounted an ineffectual defense and was one of the generals pressing for Napoleon’s abdication. On the First Restoration, he was replaced as minister of war but made a Peer of France. On Napoleon’s return, he was again minister for war but followed the King to Ghent. On the Second Restoration, Clarke became minister again, serving until 1817. He took a very close interest in the Irish legion, Matilda Tone accusing him of using it as ‘one of his hobby-horses.’ 144 Europe’s largest port, then in French hands, part of the garrison of Flushing was the 1st Battalion of the Irish Regiment. On 13 August, the British began a savage bombardment, devastating the city.20 The newly raised 3rd Battalion, under O’Mahony, was ordered to march from Landau as part of a relieving force. The surrender of Flushing on 15 August made futile any further advance. O’Mahony received orders to proceed to Spain, and the battalion set out on the thousand-kilometre march. Among the defenders of Flushing, the 1st Battalion went into captivity. The 3rd Battalion was newly formed of prisoners of war from many European countries who, like Jackson, had defected to the French rather then spend years in prison. Indeed, many had been conscripts in their home armies and welcomed the conditions the French offered. To bring it up to battle strength, a few hundred men of the 4th Battalion had been incorporated into the 3rd. The unit had, unfortunately, been sent on the march before there was time to settle. Officers and men were strange to one another, and a wide variety of languages was spoken. On top of this, most of the men had spent months in prison camps and were not marching fit, so the prospect of such a long march would have been daunting. O’Mahony had led a life of idleness far from military discipline for eight years and had been away from the French army for eighteen. He had never commanded a force as large as his battalion.21 The prognosis was not good. O’Mahony was destined to become colonel of the Irish regiment, and universally reviled, because of his poor management of the unit and his royalist politics. An abject failure at the head of a battalion of the Irish Regiment, O’Mahony was soon recalled by the commander of the 8th Corps of the Army of Portugal, Lieutenant General Junot. Jean François O’Mahony, however, would re-enter the story of Thomas Jackson. The Peninsular War Before they reached the Spanish frontier, the battalion had lost a quarter of its strength and, by the time it reached Burgos, losses exceeded thirty percent. Total deficiencies ran much higher, but many of the missing were stragglers, who might show up later if they were not intercepted by Spanish irregulars, but the unit suffered one of the highest desertion rates in the life of the regiment. 145 The Peninsular War (1808-14) In 1807, the Iberian peninsula became a focal point in the struggle for European domination. Setting out to destroy British trade with Portugal, Bonaparte’s army invaded that country occupying Spain and placing Napoleon’s brother, Joseph, on the throne, with some Spanish support. The Peninsular War began on 2 May 1808, when the Spanish people launched a revolt known as El Dos de Mayo (2 May), in Madrid, which spread across Spain and was met by ruthless and ultimately futile French attempts at suppression. Convincing Secretary for War Castlereagh that the defence of Portugal would strike a blow against French ambitions, Major General Sir Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington, Chief Secretary for Ireland, led a small force from Cork, which defeated the French in Portugal. Recalled to answer charges regarding the evacuation of the defeated French (The Cintra Affair), Wellington was in London when Bonaparte entered Spain, recapturing Madrid. Fearing annihilation by Bonaparte’s massive army, Wellington’s replacement, Sir John Moore, retreated to la Corunna, where he was killed in battle before his army was evacuated (16 January 1809). Returning in May of that year, Wellington conducted an evasive campaign, defeating one French army at a time, in five years pushing the French out of Spain (7 October 1813), bringing an end to The Peninsular War, though the campaign continued in southern France until 10 April 1814. The Peninsular War became known to Napoleon as ‘The Spanish Ulcer’ because it cost France almost 400,000 troops, against British losses of only 35,000. However, the war ravaged Spain and Portugal and the toll on the civilian population was enormous. The 3rd Battalion was the fourth contingent of the regiment to be directed to Spain since late 1807. Three of these had merged to become the 2nd Battalion, which, at this time, was engaged mainly in fighting Spanish guerrileros. In the 3rd, Lieutenant Jackson was second-in-command of the 4th Chasseur company, which had no captain, making Jackson the de facto commander.22 Ravaged by desertion, the 3rd Battalion was, on 10 November 1810, incorporated into the 2nd Battalion, under former Wexford rebel, Lieutenant Colonel Jeremiah Fitzhenry. Thomas Jackson seems to have been an educated, well-read young man, always ready for a lively exchange. He was also a morale booster, who, ‘by his humour and gaiety, made his comrades often forget their miseries and privations.’ In the 2nd Battalion, campaigning in the rugged conditions in Spain and Portugal, he soon caught the attention of Miles Byrne,23 in whose words the story is best told: It was on this march from Madrid that, passing by the town of Segovia, Lieutenant Jackson seized the occasion to show off his wit and turn for bantering. Seeing a group of Spaniards, with their brown cloaks thrown over their shoulders, examining and counting the troops that halted 146 on the place, as was their custom on such occasions, he addressed these solemn gentlemen, saying, pointing to the tower, that he wished to know if it was there that Gil Blas was imprisoned.24 They replied, it was the town prison. He then very politely begged one of them to accompany him that he wished to ascertain the precise room which had been occupied by that truly enlightened Spaniard during his confinement in the tower. ’Oh, Señor,’ one said, ‘Gil Blas is a mere romance’, to which Jackson replied, he was sorry to find they did not know the history of their country better: that it was a true narrative, and that, only for the Inquisition, Le Sage would have published it in quite a different form and given the real names of the persons alluded to. One of the Spanish gentlemen, seeing Jackson so serious and bent upon visiting the tower, accompanied him through every part of it, whilst Jackson made notes, and he fain would have persuaded his comrades that the Spaniards were delighted with the information he gave them. This was only one of many instances when Jackson by his humour and gaiety made his comrades often forget their miseries and privations.25 That incident occurred as Masséna’s Army of Portugal bore down on Wellington, who began a forced march in retreat towards Portugal, where he was preparing a grand surprise for the French, even for his own army. Expecting such a contingency, he had long since sent a colonel of the Royal Engineers with secret orders that would save the entire campaign and establish Wellington as one of the finest military planners of his age. The concept was so radical that the mere possibility had not even entered the minds of anyone apart from that of the wily Irish general, who was seldom caught unprepared. He would not be forced into the corner, as Sir John Moore had been at Corunna. Wellington had learned from the tragic predicament of the man he admired, and under whom he had declared he would be happy to serve. Expecting to trap Wellington in the narrowing peninsula between the River Tagus and the Atlantic, and to force him to abandon Portugal 147 The Irish in the Peninsular War The Irish fought on every side in the Peninsular War. The Spanish Army had several Irish regiments, and, though these had become diluted, many of the officers were of Irish descent, with a few native Irishmen. Celebrated Irish actions include the Defence of Rosas by Colonel Pedro O’Daly of the Ultonia (Ulster) Regiment. Wellington’s army was up to 40% Irish, with several Irish regiments playing a leading role, such as the 87th, the Prince of Wales’ Own Irish, and 88th, the Connaught Rangers, while the 27th, the Inniskilling Fusiliers, was the largest contingent from the British Isles. Wellington’s English battalions were 2050% Irish, including the elite Light Division, the 43rd, 52nd and 95th. An Irish infantryman stood a greater chance of becoming a casualty than a soldier from any other part of the British Isles. Actions in which the Irish played an important role were: Busaco, Fuentes de Oñoro, Salamanca (88th), and Barossa and Tarifa (87th). On the French side, the numbers of Irish were small. The old regiments of the Irish brigade, the 87th, 88th and 92nd had a large proportion of officers of Irish descent. The Irish Legion began life with mainly Irish officers, but had fewer and fewer either Irish officers or troops as time went on. The Legion’s most celebrated action was the assault on Astorga. Wellington was assisted by his ‘religious irregulars,’ Catholic priests and seminarians, many of whom were Irish, the most notable being Dr Patrick Curtis, Rector of the Irish College at Salamanca, who should be seen as a Spanish resistant, since he had been living in Spain for 40 years. Curtis later became Primate of All Ireland. by sea, Masséna, who had taken his mistress with him for the entertainment, could not have been more shocked when his adversary retreated across the scorched earth of Portugal, like a fox gone to ground, slipping behind the lines of newly constructed earthworks and fortifications that ran from the Tagus to the sea and would become known to history as ‘The Lines of Torres Vedras.’ Wellington and his engineers had achieved one of the great feats of military engineering. Typical of him, it was simple, practical, improvised and thoroughly effective. Now the tables were turned. Wellington, supplied and reinforced through Lisbon, soon had the upper hand, while Masséna’s army, accustomed to living off the land, in other words, on the resources they could extort from the population, starved on scorched earth. In these deprived circumstances, Thomas Jackson caught the attention of his brigade commander, General Thomieres,26 though, perhaps, less praiseworthy this time. Once again, Miles Byrne’s words are best One morning, at the bivouac of the Irish regiment at the lines of Torres Vedras, whilst waiting for orders, the officers stood chatting together, when General Thomieres beckoned one of them to come to him and tell him what the very animated conversation 148 The Army of Portugal Commander: Andre Masséna (17581817) Duke of Rivoli, Prince of Essling, Marshal of the Empire Of the French armies that Wellington encountered during the Peninsular War, some of his worst problems came from the Army of Portugal, 60,000 strong, under one of Napoleon’s ablest generals, Andre Masséna. Fearing that he would be forced into Portugal in 1810, Wellington prepared the Lines of Torres Vedras, an improvised chain of forts and earthworks just north of Lisbon. Slipping behind the lines on 12 October 1810, Wellington left Masséna’s army to starve on the scorched earth of northern Portugal. Compelled to retreat on 3 March 1811, Masséna was pushed out of Portugal and defeated by Wellington at Fuentes de Oñoro (3-5 May 1811), which ended his career in the Peninsula. Fighting in the 8th Corps under Androche Junot, the 3rd Foreign Regiment (Irish), formed part of the vanguard that harassed Wellington’s retreat, and part of the rearguard in Masséna’s own retreat. In reserve at Fuentes de Onoro, they had to stand idly by as Wellington’s 3rd Division, spearheaded by the Connaught Rangers, brought the battle to an abrupt and bloody end. The Army of Portugal was later commanded by Marshal Marmont, who was defeated by Wellington at Salamanca in 1812, after the Irish Legion had been recalled, the Connaught Rangers shattering Thomieres Brigade. was about which he observed going on. He was told that it was Lieutenant Jackson holding forth and maintaining that there could be no comparison between roast mutton and roast beef, provided the latter was under-done, ‘a l’anglaise. Oh ! par exemple, c’est un peu trop fort.’ ‘What,’ he asked, ‘did Captain O’Malley say on the matter?27 ‘Oh, that it was cruel and inhuman to talk of roast meat of any kind to men who were starving, and when none could be had for love or money.’ ‘Captain O’Malley is right,’ said the general.28 Byrne adds that Jackson always ‘bore up against adversity in the same gay manner,’ a resilience that would be sorely tested one day, far away from the rugged mountains of Spain. A year after the 3rd Battalion had been absorbed into the 2nd, an argument arose between the lieutenants of the 3rd and those of the old 2nd as to who had seniority.29 Jackson, for example, had been confirmed in his lieutenancy by decree on 17 August 1809, but lieutenants who had been merely nominated on 6 August, were claiming seniority. The officers requested the Minister for War to put an end to the arguments and pronounce on the matter, but no record of such a pronouncement appears in the archives. On 8 April 1812, however, soon after the battalion returned from Spain, good news came, when ‘The Duke of Feltre, on the recommendation of Colonel Lawless, recompensed many of the 149 subaltern officers coming out of Spain.30 Lieutenants Malony (Mullany), Delany, Dowling, Burke and Jackson received their brevets of captains; and Ensigns MacEgan, Brelivet, etc., theirs of lieutenants.’31 Jackson had done well, rising to captain after just under three years as a lieutenant, while it had taken some of the senior captains, such as Miles Byrne, John Allen and Edmond Saint-Leger, four and a half years.32 Three of the officers mentioned, Mullany, MacEgan and Brelivet,33 had come up from the ranks. All, including Dowling and Delaney, had been in the old 2nd before the merger, and were probably the lieutenants to whom Jackson was referring in his letter of 5 November 1811.34 The Minister’s response had been to promote them all, and Jackson, equally. However, one officer, whom Jackson mentions in his letter as early as 11 September 1810 as not having seniority over him, is John Reilly,35 who was raised to lieutenant on 29 May 1809, two weeks later than Jackson’s nomination, and had to wait until 1813 for his promotion to captain. In that letter, Jackson recognizes only the seniority of Michael Sheridan, a lieutenant since 16 December 1808.36 The Saxon Campaign Though the Irish Regiment, now the 3rd Foreign Regiment (Irish),37 was left out of Napoleon’s Grande Armée as it marched out on its catastrophic Russian campaign of 1812, the regiment was called on to provide two battalions for the Saxon Campaign of 1813. After the engagement at Bauzen, the regiment suffered losses at Goldberg and Lowenberg, including Lieutenant Colonel John Tennent. It was on the 29 August that the regiment suffered the worst casualties in its history when pinned by a massed Russian attack. Byrne describes the chaos as General Puthod’s 17th Division of the Army of the Bober was overwhelmed. The river in his rear increasing instead of diminishing, no prospect of assistance from the town of Lowenberg, where there were Westphalian troops that seemed occupied constructing a bridge; the enemy’s army forming a complete half-moon round his division, each of their flanks joining the river, and no retreat possible, the general, in the centre of his division, fought until the last cartridge was fired, 150 and even then, when the fire of his division ceased, the enemy hesitated an instant before venturing to advance. All of a sudden, at last, thirty thousand men ran forward on their prey, of whom none but those who knew how to swim could attempt to escape. […] Great numbers of men were drowned endeavouring to cross the torrent; however, about 150 of the division escaped. Eight officers and thirty men of the Irish regiment, with Commandant Ware and the ensign who saved the Eagle of the regiment had the good fortune to get out of the bed of the river, but had to walk through a sheet of water which covered the other side for more than half a mile under the fire of the enemy, and many were wounded in this passage; had not the enemy been at this time in such disorder plundering the unfortunate prisoners, it would have been difficult for anyone to have escaped. The brave General Puthod and all his division, except those who escaped by swimming across the river, were taken prisoners and sent into Russia.38 Puthod would later speak very highly of the heroic defence of an untenable position by ‘le 3eme Étranger.’39 Though Byrne records it and appears to be justly proud, such honour can have been but small consolation to a unit that had suffered such loss. However, as he later declares, ‘honour to a soldier is more important than life,’40 and the surviving Irish could hold their heads up after such a campaign in which the regiment had been continually employed in the vanguard and in the most dangerous and conspicuous situations, and frequently under the eyes of Napoleon himself; who mentioned to his Minister of War, Clarke, the Duke of Feltre, when he returned to Paris, how well the Irish regiment had served, and the duke told Colonel Lawless all this, and concluded, ‘All the honour reflects upon me.41 Honour aside, the entire campaign had been an unmitigated disaster and the sacrifice of the Irish had achieved nothing. The engagements in 151 which the regiment had suffered so much had been incidental and la Grande Armée had incurred a serious defeat at Leipzig, and had been forced to retreat into France in the face of strong coalition forces. In the south, Wellington had already led his army, a great part of it Irish, across the River Bidassoa and into France.42 The Peninsular War had ended and the battle for France had begun, the eleventh hour of the eleven-year conflict known as the Napoleonic Wars had arrived and, having claimed millions of lives in Europe and beyond, the long struggle entered an endgame. A year passed after the disasters of 1813. Napoleon had abdicated, a semblance of order reigned in Europe, but it was the old regime that had come back ‘having learned nothing and forgotten nothing.’ It was early 1815 before the prisoners returned from Moscow, including General Puthod and his ADC, an Englishman and former Irish Regiment adjutant, Captain James Perry, who had twice swum the raging flood on that dreadful August day. From the Irish regiment, Captain Charles Mullany, Assistant Surgeon Victor Cordier, Lieutenant Patrick Lynch and Second Lieutenant Alfred de Wall,43 made their way back. With them, returned from the dead after a year and a half as a prisoner of war, to the great rejoicing of his comrades, was Thomas Jackson.44 His arrival at Montreuil-sur-Mer in late February 1815,45 was eclipsed within a few days by an event that once more threw Europe into turmoil: the return of Napoleon from Elba on 1 March.46 Within three weeks, the Emperor was back in power. Jackson’s reputation Jackson’s efforts to help his fellow prisoners overcome their miseries and privations in Russia were never forgotten. Byrne reports that ‘Captain Hutteau, the Mayor of Malesherbes,47 took infinite pleasure in talking to us about Jackson and his courage and vivacity in very trying circumstances.’48 There were others, such as Monsieur de Buisson, a French magistrate, who wrote ‘some excellent articles to the Siecle newspaper on his sufferings whilst a prisoner of war in Russia, when a sous-lieutenant of only nineteen years of age. He speaks of Captain Jackson in every trial and hardship they had to undergo with the greatest admiration and gratitude.’ Many reports tell of Irishmen in the British 152 Army during the Peninsular and other wars acting as morale boosters in time of great hardship. A rifleman who participated in Moore’s gruelling retreat across the Galician highlands to Corunna in the winter of 1808-9 comments, ‘even in this dreadful business, (the Irish) kept up the spirits of many men who would have been broken-hearted.’49 During The 100 Days, the Irish were ‘The 100 Days’ inactive and in a state of confusion. UnThe period between Napoleon’s arrival in Paris on 20 March 1815, able to participate, they remained at Monafter escaping from Elba, to the treuil-sur-Mer, but events there, as we Second Restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815, in fact 111 shall later examine, turned out to be very days. The name was coined by the dramatic. The Second Restoration Prefect of Paris, the Count of sounded the death knell of the regiment, Chabrol, in his speech welcoming the King on his return. The most and the unit was disbanded on 29 Septemsignificant event during ‘The 100 ber 1815, the Irish officers being placed on Days’, was the Battle of Waterloo half pay and dispersed throughout France. on 18 June. Denunciation When, on 14 November 1815, Jackson wrote to Minister for War Clarke requesting employment in another unit, in France or the French colonies,50 he was responding to an announcement of the 13th that the army was reorganising and that half-pay officers should address themselves to the Ministry for War. Captain Luke Lawless applied on the 16th, as we shall see later. He and Jackson were oblivious to the storm that was about to break on their heads. In late November, Brinville de Fresnay, head of the Bureau of Infantry, reported to Clarke that, ‘Six officers of the Irish Regiment were noted at the disbandment of that corps, by the Count of Turenne, Chief of the General Staff of the Department of Pas-de-Calais, acting commander of that department, in a manner that should be brought to the special attention of the Minister.’51 The six were, Lieutenant Colonel John Allen, Captains Miles Byrne, Luke Lawless,52 Thomas Jackson and David William Towne,53 and Lieutenant Laurence Esmonde.54 A description of each officer followed, accusing them of subversion, Bonapartism and even Jacobinism.55 The description of Jackson reads: ‘This officer shares with the preceding (Luke Lawless) the same principles, the same spirit, and, like him, must be kept under close surveillance. A fanatical Bonapartist, he is totally incapable of being employed [in His Majesty’s Army].’ 153 Many of the officers of the Irish regiment had been partisans of Bonaparte, which seems natural enough since they were part of an army that worshipped the Emperor. How much they carried such opinions into the Second Restoration is hard to ascertain, but there must have been many fervent Bonapartists. How could a regime that had executed Marshal Ney and purged Bonapartists throughout the forces and the administration allow such a pocket of contagion to remain in its armed forces? Purging was one response, deportation a different matter. That any of the accused Irish, or indeed English, since Towne was an Englishman, had been Jacobins is doubtful, and the contradiction in calling an officer a Bonapartist and a Jacobin, seems lost on the accusers. It was, perhaps, because the word ‘Jacobin’ engendered such loathing and, indeed, a justifiable paranoia among the returned émigrés that its use had probably been carefully calculated. Who was behind such an accusation is difficult to establish. De Fresnay’s accusation goes on, ‘These notes, given by the Count of Turenne,56 are the result of varied information obtained from reliable and educated persons, loyal to the King, through long acquaintance with the officers concerned (during which) they acquired sufficient knowledge of their methods, their opinions and their conduct.’ Someone who had ‘long acquaintance’ with the accused? A brother officer, most likely, and a royalist. De Fresnay’s next comment gives a further clue, if it does not clear up the matter. ‘It must be added that Mr. O’Mahony, former colonel of the regiment, has already indicated that these officers must not be employed in the service of the King.’ To understand this fully we must go back to 1813, and the destruction of the senior battalions in the Saxon Campaign. William Lawless, a popular and capable colonel in command, was severely incapacitated by the loss of his lower leg, and the twice-wounded Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Ware, who had commanded throughout the long march back to Bois-le-Duc, had taken his place provisionally. The confirmation of Lawless’ promotion to general of brigade, was expected soon,57 and he left the regiment. Minister for War Clarke now committed one of the many blunders that marred the life and character of the corps. He promoted O’Mahony in command,58 a man reviled by almost the entire officer corps who had served in Spain, who had once been recalled by General Junot as commander of the 3rd Battalion because of 154 complaints of incompetence from his officers. Not only was O’Mahony less than competent, he was an unashamed royalist, who had been imprisoned during the defence of Antwerp for colluding with the enemy. ‘In consequence of some correspondence of Colonel Mahony’s being intercepted, he was put under forced arrest […] and the command of the Irish regiment given to Commandant (Lieutenant Colonel) Hoyne.’59 The first abdication of Napoleon and the Bourbon restoration had ruled out the pursuit of O’Mahony’s activities, which would have constituted treason, and he was back in command and in a strong position. However, he ran into the opposition of his officers on almost every occasion. Some sought transfers. Captain François Brelivet, the young Breton who had volunteered in 1803 at the age of 15, advancing through the ranks, found his position untenable and moved on when, in May 1814, French-born officers were given the opportunity of transferring to a French regiment. Several other French-born officers, not on good terms with O’Mahony, transferred or resigned. It is not clear what O’Mahony held against some of the officers to whom he took exception, for example, Luke Lawless. On the 25th of August, 1814, the fete of Saint-Louis, the King’s birthday, the corps of officers gave a dinner to the general and the authorities at Avesnes, and a ball and supper in the evening at the theatre, which was splendidly decorated for the occasion. Unfortunately, at the opening of the ball, Colonel Mahony insulted Captain Lawless with the grossest language and then ordered him away under arrest. On Lieutenant-Colonel Ware, however, observing to the colonel that on a day of rejoicing like that they were then celebrating, it would be better if it passed over without having anyone punished, he consented to raise the captain’s arrest, and to allow him to remain at the ball, for which Lieutenant-Colonel Ware thanked him; but in less than fifteen minutes after, on Colonel Mahony meeting Captain Lawless, he again insulted him worse than before, and ordered him to quit the room immediately. Lieutenant-Colonel Ware wishing to remonstrate, the moment he spoke, Colonel Mahony ordered him also 155 under arrest. Upon which Lieutenant-Colonel Ware said to him : “ I will go home and guard my arrest, but I must tell you, before I go, that your conduct this evening is unworthy of a gentleman, and it is both cowardly and scoundrelly (sic) of you to insult an officer like Captain Lawless, whom you know cannot bring you out.” The ball became rather dull in consequence of this unpleasant affair, for almost all the Irish officers went away when they heard of Colonel Mahony’s insolent conduct.60 Byrne thought that O’Mahony ‘was probably the person who has denounced me,’61 and it may have been O’Mahony who informed on the others, as Luke Lawless seems to assume.62 Apart from O’Mahony, however, others might have denounced Lawless, Jackson and their comrades. Chief among these were the royalist defectors who had left the regiment during The Hundred Days, some without the permission of Commander Hugh Ware. Lawless seems to have been one of those who took a stand against them, accusing them of cowardice. Name Jean F O’Mahony Charles de Jeetze (Baron) Born France Prussia Patrice Magrath (Baron) Charles Gustav de Bohnen Hercule de Roche Maurice, Chevalier de Ste. Colombe 63 Henri-Jean Thompson France Sweden France Edouard de Morand France England (raised in France) France Rank Colonel Lieutenant Colonel Captain Captain Captain Date 25/3/1815 Captain 12/6//1815 Captain Lieutenant 12/6/1815 15/4/1815 ?/5/1815 12/6/1815 29/3/1815 6//8/1815 Figure 2: Irish Legion officers who defected to the King during The 100 Days. Though no officer was Irish born, many were of Irish parentage or descent, and it is among these that the informers might have been. Though these officers were Frenchmen, yet the indignation of the Irish was not the less. In consequence, eight captains of the regiment waited on Captain Magrath and reproached him with his infamous and dishonourable conduct. He could not deny that he corresponded with the 156 Bourbon party at Ghent, nor that he had accompanied Captain Saint-Colombe on the road the day he deserted. The eight captains told Magrath that they were resolved not to serve with traitors, and said he must resign. They also informed Captain de La Roche, another French emigrant, that he was accused of corresponding with the enemy.64 Since Magrath was a cousin of O’Mahony, it would not be without the bounds of possibility that he was at least one of the defectors who took exception to the criticism of the eight officers, though only six were accused. Hugh Ware mentions the denunciations to the Minister stating that ‘I know that several officers of the regiment have denounced their brother officers, and I declare that these denunciations were made to revenge for private quarrels without connection to political events.’65 However, politics seem to have been at the heart of the denunciations, though O’Mahony, if he denounced Lawless, probably did it for private reasons. Jackson had served under O’Mahony in the 3rd Battalion in Spain, and was among the officers who brought about his recall by Junot. However, he was only one of six officers involved in that affair who were still serving when the regiment was disbanded, and the only one to be denounced. Immediately after the Second Restoration, a group of officers composed mainly of Prussians and Germans and led by Lieutenant Colonel Braun, a native of Hesse-Cassel, who had returned after leaving the regiment during The 100 Days, signed their own declaration of loyalty and later denounced several Irish officers. ‘Several disputes took place between the Irish officers and those Prussian officers who had been put into the regiment after the Restoration. Captains Jackson The Second Restoration Beginning with the return of Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815, the period known as the Second Restoration lasted until 1830. The First Restoration, between the First Abdication of Bonaparte on 6 April 1814 and his return to Paris on 20 March 1815, had been a constitutional monarchy, but the Bourbons returned in 1815, ‘having learned nothing and forgotten nothing.’ The White Terror was unleashed, and the armed forces and administration were purged of Bonapartists. However, the regime did not become ultra reactionary until Charles X succeeded his brother in 1824. By 1830, France was ready for a change, and Charles was forced to abdicate in ‘The July Revolution’. He was replaced by Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orleans, from a junior branch of the Bourbon dynasty, who agreed to rule as a constitutional monarch, setting right many of the grievances caused by the previous regime. 157 and Towne had duels with two of those Prussians, and wounded them dangerously. Fortunately, the Marquis de Bryas listened to Colonel Ware’s advice and put an end to all this by refusing to receive any further denunciations of these Germans against the Irish.’66 The fact that two of the officers who opposed the Prussians were Jackson and Towne, both of whom were denounced and later deported, casts some suspicion on the Prussian officers. The slight that Minister Clarke felt seems to have been a major reason for his inflexible stance. Byrne reports Captain Lawless’ crime was, that he did not go to Ghent when he knew that the Duke of Feltre was there, and that he despised those mean fellows who deserted and joined the enemies of France at Waterloo, and were not ashamed to boast of their cowardly treason; and not having the courage to meet Lawless in the field when he told them the great contempt with which all honourable officers must regard their conduct, they wrote all kinds of falsehoods against him to the Minister of War, as they did of several of his comrades. His case was one of the many instances of injustice and persecution occurring every day to the brave officers of the French army during that cruel period of Bourbon reaction.67 Had Lawless gone to Paris to protest his innocence and attempt a reconciliation, the outcome might have been different. Clarke might have been all too ready to believe what the officers told him about Lawless, or he might not have believed a word of it, but no remonstrations in writing on the part of his former protégé could save him. Thomas Jackson was linked to Lawless after the accusation of Bureau of Infantry head, Brinville de Fresnay,68 but admitted nothing, except the part he had ‘taken in favour of the Emperor on his return from the Island of Elba, and to my fidelity to the national flag.’69 However, in being the only officer, apart from Lawless, to opt for a domicile at Rouen, and to write joint letters of appeal, seems to have linked Jackson irrevocably to Lawless in the mind of the Minister. Similarly, it might have been the Minister’s earlier favourable treatment of Lawless that alienated O’Mahony, another favourite of the Minister of longer standing, who saw Lawless as a rival, and was disposed to denounce him. 158 No evidence is apparent that suggests Jackson tore down the white flags of the Bourbon, as Lawless had done, ‘almost before the eyes of the King,’ as he passed through the town on his return from exile in England. De Fresnay reports that there were six officers involved in that incident, but names only Lawless, who had already written to Clarke, giving his reasons for his action.70 This letter is dated 16 November, five days before de Fresnay’s report of the 21st, before which it may have been read by the Minister. However, Jackson’s plea that he was defending public order, perhaps justified at the time, would have rung a little hollow some months later, in November. The assumption of Lawless that such a letter would smooth things over, also seems to have been a grave mistake. Jackson is not mentioned in this letter, as he, too, was yet unaware that he had been denounced. He is not named individually as having opposed O’Mahony, or incurred his wrath, when the latter returned to the regiment after declaring for the King, handing over the military chest and departing for Lille, ‘sur le chemin d’honneur.’ His return and demand to have the military chest restored and his command reinstated was resisted, ‘without exception,’ by the officers, who surrendered their swords to Colonel Taupin, commander of Montreuil-sur-Mer, declaring that ‘no power on earth would oblige them to serve one instant under his (O’Mahony’s) orders.’71 Figure 3: Lawless is in the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Company and Jackson the 1st Battalion, 3rd Company. Both have elected to reside in Rouen, the only officers to have made this choice.72 159 The Reprieves Of the six men named by de Fresnay, Allen, Byrne, Lawless, Jackson, Towne and Esmonde, three were deported. Arthur O’Connor stormed nobly to the aid of his former critic,73 John Allen, and remonstrated successfully with Minister of War Clarke, but it was Byrne’s direct approach to Clarke, in May 1817, that brought about the revocation of his own expulsion order, and his restoration to the army list.74 The reconciliation raised Byrne’s hopes of being favoured by Clarke, Thomas Markey,75 another protégé and former ADC of Clarke, and an officer in the Irish Regiment until 1809, intimating to Byrne that the Duke often favoured those with whom he had become reconciled. Unfortunately for Byrne, Clarke lost office soon after. Given Jackson’s penchant for expressing his opinion rather theatriArthur O’Connor and Thomas Addis Emmet cally, it is not surprising that he atHaving been released from Fort George after three and a half years as State Pris- tracted the attention of the informers. oners, and then banished for life, O’Con- However, if ‘Jacobins’ such as Esnor and Emmet, became bitter rivals in monde and Allen, could be reprieved, France while they lobbied Bonaparte to invade Ireland and establish a republic. and indeed, Byrne, it is probable that The result of this was the formation of the Jackson’s friendship with Luke LawIrish Legion in 1803. Emmet left for the United States, but Bonaparte made less greatly contributed to his undoO’Connor a major general in the French ing. Clarke might have been more Army. He supervised the Legion in its forgiving to him if he had not been so early days, but lost interest when the planned invasion was called off. O’Con- close to the man that the Minister nor married Eliza Condorcet. After 1815, seems to have grown to revile. If he retired to his country estate. Clarke’s desire to expel all Bonapartists was sincere, he would have started with the regimental commander, Hugh Ware, whose letter of 20 January 1815 was an acceptance of responsibility for the events that had taken place within the regiment during The 100 Days. With Esmonde, it is difficult to establish what came about, but the damning accusations seem to have been easily forgotten. For someone denounced as ‘a Jacobin’ and, ‘very dangerous’, Esmonde’s army career inexplicably continued almost without interruption, and the incident left not a blot on his record. His commission as lieutenant of 1813 was confirmed by the King in 1816 and he was recalled to active service in 1817, rising to lieutenant colonel. He was one of the former comrades 160 of Miles Byrne, who sent a letter of condolence to Byrne’s widow, on the death of her husband nearly fifty years later.76 For the remaining three, Lawless, Jackson and Towne, there was to be no reprieve. ‘General Lawless, remonstrated with the minister, saying that his nephew who had been two years on his Excellency’s staff, should be well known to him as a man of honour, and could not have merited such treatment, etc., etc. But all to no avail.’77 Jackson and Lawless themselves pleaded in writing from Rouen, and, though Miles Byrne writes that Jackson’s departure was in November 1815, one letter to Minister for War Clarke, signed by both men and declaring that they had not the means to live or to buy their passage to the United States, is dated in late January 1816, some weeks after Minister for Police Decazes wrote to Clarke stating that he had put the expulsion process into force.78 The Rouen letters are in the angular handwriting of Lawless, and not the rounded hand of Jackson, a fact probably not lost on Clarke. After that, everything seems to fall silent concerning the two. The Deportation Regardless of who had denounced the three officers deported, it seems clear that their actual deportation had more to do with the character of Clarke than his position as Minister for War under a new Bourbon government that was far less forgiving of Bonapartists than the government during the First Restoration. Napoleon’s return, the further humiliation of the royalists and the bloody Waterloo campaign had hardened attitudes. The White Terror followed, with the execution of Marshal Ney and the purging of the forces and the administration. However, if Clarke wanted to fly his newly acquired royalist colours, reprieving the ‘Jacobin’ Esmonde, and the ‘incurable Bonapartists’ Byrne and Allen was hardly the way. Had the other three gone to Paris, spoken to Minister of Police Decazes and obtained a short reprieve, as Byrne would later do, then appealed in person to Clarke, they would almost certainly have won a cancellation of the expulsion orders. Every official involved in the expulsion, including police spies, local officers of the police and the army, after the initial accusations had passed, behaved with scrupulous fairness.79 In what appears to have been a moment of Pilatesque hand washing, General Deboulard, Lieutenant of the King at Rouen, 161 wrote of Jackson and Lawless, ‘I have learned nothing that would cast suspicion on their conduct or their political opinions. To further confirm my opinion, I enquired of the Chief of Police of the town, who, having means of surveillance not available to me, might have on these officers information more revealing, but he has responded that he has found nothing unfavorable …’ Deboulard adds the telling phrase, ‘nor does he expect it.’ He could not have made his position more clear had he further added, ‘Look you to it?’ Clarke, however, would not bend. Byrne had no doubt as to who alone was responsible for the expulsions, but he was not slow to acknowledge a debt Colonel O’Neill, after reading my notes, asked me to make one change only, which was, to say that it was the Ministry, and not the Minister of War, Clarke, the Duke of Feltre, who had in the most brutal manner given orders in 1815 to have several distinguished Irish officers arrested and sent out of the French territory, the land of their adoption, and after all their campaigns and honourable services. I was sorry I could not comply with his request, as it would have been inconsistent and ungrateful of me. For one of the Ministers, the Duke Decazes, who was then charged with the police of all France, allowed me to stop at Paris, in order that I might have time to remonstrate against the crying injustice of the Duke of Feltre, the War Minister, who persevered in insisting that I should quit France, and so late as 1817, when it was expected at least the persecution of the half-pay officers had abated. Alas ! that was not the case […] I repeated to Colonel O’Neill my regret that I could not make the change in my notes he desired.80 Arriving in the USA, Lawless resumed the legal career he had abandoned on leaving Ireland for France, later becoming a leading attorney and judge in Saint Louis,81 but Jackson was not heard of again for more than 15 years, until a letter arrived at the Ministry in Jackson’s elegant hand, dated 25 October 1831 and signed ‘Thomas Jackson, Colonel. Kingston, Jamaica’.82 Jackson explains that he has heard that those ban- 162 ished because of political opinions are allowed to return to France in the wake of the July Revolution of 1830, and relates that he had taken up the cause of the independence of Columbia, becoming a colonel in the army of that country. No response appears to be minuted in the archives, and no further letters present themselves. At that moment in 1832, Thomas Jackson of Ballyreddin, Co. Kilkenny, seems to have disappeared from the pages of French history,83 though he was, without doubt, making an impact elsewhere, and there is much to be discovered of his life and career. Epilogue The following letter was offered for sale on www.biblio.com in 2006. IRISH MILITARY: IRISH REGIMENT IN FRANCE. AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED By Capt. Jackson of Irish Regiment. Montreuil-surMer, 28 May 1815. One page (on single folio sheet, folded to make four pages), to ‘Sir,’ ‘To Henry Jackson Esq. Charge d’Affairs des Etat Unis.’ The letter states: We received your answer to our letter, my comrades desire me to request that you will not speak upon the subject we wrote about and as the Governments who are friends today may be enemies tomorrow in case the occasion presents and that you think our [word?] may be well received by your Government. They desire me to assure you that their sentiments shall be always the same. I remain, Sir, your most obedient servant, Jackson, Capt. [word?] Islands. Verso of letter is signed: ‘Jackson, 20 May [word] Capt of Irish Regiment.’ The subject remains a mystery, but the answer may lie in the archives of the United States Foreign Service. 163 Appendix Documents84 1: Commander 5th Division, POW Bureau, to M. Tabarié, Head of the 2nd Division, Ministry for War, Paris, 28 April 1809, SHD 2Ye2037. I have the honour to inform you that, according to the Minister’s order, it is his intention to admit to the service of France, Mr. Thomas Jackson, Irish lieutenant and prisoner of war, who solicited this favour. Mr. Jackson may remain in Paris under surveillance until the Minister assigns him a posting, following the proposal you have submitted to him in this regard. [Margin note: Jackson resides at rue de Lycée, Hotel Europe.] 2: Extract from Report to the Minister for War from the Bureau of Infantry, 8 May 1809, SHD 2Ye2037. In a report received today, which contains an account of the reorganization of the 1st Battalion of the Irish Regiment, His Excellency is advised that two vacancies for lieutenant exist in that battalion. Mr. Jackson, an Irish lieutenant and prisoner of war, has asked for service in France. His Excellency is disposed to grant him such service, and has authorized him to remain under surveillance in Paris until he can assign him a posting. […] Awaiting the orders of the Minister, etc. [Margin note : He is posted to the 3rd Battalion.] 3. Jackson to the Minister for War Clarke, 17 May 1809, SHD 2Ye2037. According to your wishes, I am happy to inform you that I depart tomorrow for the town of Landau. I have the honour to be Your Excellency’s most humble and obedient servant. 4. Administrative Council of the 2nd Battalion, the Irish Regiment, to Minister for War Clarke, Placentia, 5 November 1811, SHD Xh16c. We have the honour to present for your decision the difficulty that has arisen among the officers among the 2nd and 3rd Battalions since the 3rd was absorbed by the second. Mr. Jackson received from Your Excellency a provisional nomination as lieutenant dated the 15 March 1809 for the 3rd Battalion, then organizing at Landau. That nomination was confirmed by Imperial Decree of the 17 August of that year. Several second lieutenants of the 2nd Battalion were promoted to the grade of lieutenant by Imperial decree of 6th August 1809. 164 Mr. Jackson, like the officers of the 3rd Battalion in the same situation, claims seniority from the date of the provisional nomination of Your Excellency and not from the confirmation by His Majesty. The officers of the 2nd Battalion hold to the contrary. Finally, during the amalgamation that took place on the 10 November 1810, the officers of the 3rd Battalion were classed as in reserve of the second. Please, Your Grace, put an end to all discussion and pronounce that the seniority of officers of the 3rd Battalion dates either from the provisional nomination of Your Excellence or from the confirmation of His Majesty. We have the honour of saluting you with great respect. Signed : Jackson (Lieutenant), Byrne (Captain), Chatelin (Staff Sergeant), Captain in Command, O’Malley. 5. Captain Thomas Jackson to Minister for War Clarke, 14 November 1815, SHD 2Ye2037. The regiment to which I belonged being disbanded, I find myself without employment at a time when the reorganisation is beginning. I take the liberty in consequence to assure Your Excellency that, if he considers it suitable to employ me in France or in French colonies, I will serve His Majesty faithfully. 6. Captain Luke Lawless to Minister for War Clarke, Rouen, 16 November 1815, SHD 2Ye2349. The invitation contained in ministerial decision of 13 November (1815) to all officers desiring to resume active service offers me an opportunity that I eagerly seize to address myself to Your Excellency. In the explanation that I am about to make, I do not seek to conceal from Your Excellency the injuries that I have sustained in allowing myself follow the fatal errors that have caused much harm to France. I know that my conduct and that of my compatriots has been painted in the blackest of colours. I know that men who have themselves done nothing more than obey circumstances, and who, misled by false speculation and a belated desertion, have denounced me to Your Excellency. I do not know that a chief who had been ejected from the corps that he commanded by the unanimous voice of the regiment who would have been assassinated by the non-commissioned officers and soldiers without the generous intervention of the officers who had themselves been the objects of his hate and tyranny. I do not know what the colonel has done to betray the Irish officers. I have confidence, therefore, in the clear-sighted justice of Your Excellency as a protector against such accusation. 165 Surely a man, decorated with the Cross of Saint Louis and showered with the King’s bounty, having forgotten his sacred oaths and taken up again the tri-coloured cockade, such a man should not be able to reproach us for doing the same. We feel more than he does how much he appealed to our honour and our duty to keep the white cockade to the very last. Such a thing was impossible when, following superior orders, we were forced to give it up. The Tricolour was already flying on the Town Hall of Montreuil, and the civil authorities had recognised the new government. We would have been unable to remain [in] our position very long without compromising public order and the safety of civilians. We were formally told that the King had already crossed the border and that the country around us was occupied by the troops and partisans of Napoleon. I must also observe that the King, in passing Abbeville and Hesdin, ordering us to follow him, led us to understand, in the silence of His Majesty, his intention to absolve us of our oath. Without doubt, we would have obeyed his order, if we had been informed. We, Irish officers, all of us love the King and were ready to defend his sacred person to the last drop of our blood. It was with sorrow that we saw this dignified sovereign depart, without a commander who possessed our confidence to lead us in his footsteps. But, Sir, how could we succeed in uniting our destiny with that of a colonel who is for us an abhorrent tyrant? How could we believe in the word of a man who had so often shown himself a cruel enemy of the officers and especially the Irish officers. Such a commander was there to lead us far from every cause that he would sustain, and to push us towards some fault to protect us from his capricious tyranny. For myself, I declare, on my honour, that my feelings towards him strongly influenced my conduct, and which arose almost involuntarily from my being, when I took the opportunity that seemed to present itself to break forever my connection with Colonel O’Mahony. Such are the circumstances in which I find myself, and the true motivation of my conduct. I took the liberty to explain them to Your Excellency as quickly as possible, in the hope of demonstrating to Your Excellency that the faults of which I am guilty sprung from my exasperation and from the circumstances with which I saw myself surrounded. If Your Excellency could see my conduct in this light, he would find himself able to return me to activity. I undertake to prove that his confidence will not be misplaced and that the King will find in me a faithful servant. 166 7. Extract of Report by Brinville de Fresnay, Head of the Bureau of Infantry, to Minister for War Clarke, 21 November 1815, SHD Xh16a. At the disbandment of Irish Regiment, six officers of that corps were reported by the Count of Turenne, Chief of the General Staff of the Department of Pas-de-Calais and acting commander of that department, to have acted in a manner that should attract the particular attention of the Minister. […]85 Jackson (Thomas), Captain; born in Ireland; 29, leaving for Rouen (Lower Seine) in the service of France as a lieutenant since 1809; Captain, 8 April 1812; has made six campaigns. Noted : This officer shares with the preceding [Luke Lawless] the same principles, the same spirit, and, like him, must be kept under close surveillance. A fanatical Bonapartist, he is totally incapable of being employed. […] These notes, given by the Count of Turenne, are the result of information obtained from reliable and educated persons, loyal to the King, through long acquaintance with the officers concerned (during which) they acquired sufficient knowledge of their methods, their opinions and their conduct. It must be added that Mr. O’Mahony, former colonel of the regiment, has already indicated that these officers must not be employed in the service of the King. 8. Major General Baron Destabenrath, Commanding the Department of the Lower Seine,86 and Acting Commander of the 15th Military Division, to Minister for War Clarke, 16 December 1815, SHD Xh16a. By your letter of 30 November, Your Excellency commanded me to report on the measures I have taken to put under surveillance Messers Lawless and Jackson, captains of the former 3rd Foreign Regiment, I have asked the Chief of Police at Rouen and to M. the Lieutenant of the King of that town, to closely examine their conduct. The latter has sent me information, and I hasten to transmit these to Your Excellency. 167 9. General Deboulard, Lieutenant of the King, to General the Baron Destabenrath, Acting Commander, 15th Military Division, 15 December 1815, SHD Xh16a. Received with the letter above [Document 8]. In accordance with your orders, I have collected information on the conduct of Messers Lawless and Jackson, Irish officers domiciled in Rouen by the authority of His Excellency the Minister for War. I have learned nothing that would cast suspicion on their conduct or their political opinions. To further confirm my opinion, I enquired of the Chief of Police of the town, who, having means of surveillance not available to me, might have on these officers information more revealing, but he has responded that he has found nothing unfavorable, nor does he expect it. Their conduct appears moderate and they seldom go out, nor do they spend any more than their situation allows. 10. Minister of Police Decazes to Minister for War Clarke, Paris, 5 January 1816, SHD Xh16a. I have received the letter that Your Excellency gave me the honour by writing to me on 12 December to inform me of the decision that had been taken concerning Messers Allen, Lieutenant Colonel, Byrne, Towne and Lawless, captains in the former 3rd Foreign Regiment, identified as enemies pronounced by the government of the King, and important partisans of the usurpation. I hasten to inform Your Excellency that I have given the necessary orders for their immediate ejection from the kingdom. 11. Lawless and Jackson to Minister for War Clarke, Rouen, 10 January 1816, SHD Xh16a. On the disbandment of our regiment, we were promised 4/5 of our pay, but have received only half. We have been able to live modestly with this arrangement. Today, however, the Prefect of this department informed us in the name of the Minister of Police that we must quit the kingdom immediately. Not having pronounced any charge against us, Your Excellency, we must consider ourselves dependent upon you. That is why, in the precarious position in which we now find ourselves, we implore you to take this into consideration and to relieve our situation by 1. Ordering an immediate payment in cash of about 1300 francs due to one of us and of 500 due to the other, to cover payment accrued in and before 1814. 168 2. Giving the orders by which we will be paid at Havre while waiting for you to pronounce on our just claims, for which we now solicit your bounty. 3. Obtaining from His Excellency the Minister for the Navy our free passage to the United States of America, the government having two free places on every ship sailing from her ports. In compliance with the orders of Monsieur le Prefét, we leave tomorrow for le Havre, where we will await the outcome of our claim, and upon your justice and humanity. We are, My Lord, without resource, neither that necessary to continue living here (Rouen) nor the means to live in Havre if we leave, not to mention paying our passage to the United States, a country we must choose in the belief that we will not be made welcome by any government in Europe. 12. Thomas Jackson to Minister for War, written in Kingston, Jamaica, 25 October 1831, SHD 2Ye 2037. Long-time victim of an arbitrary government that has long imposed itself on France; compelled by injustice to quit my adoptive Fatherland, I see that the term of persecution that I have suffered because of the principles I hold which have been proclaimed in France in the Revolution of 1830. I served in the Irish Regiment, which, since its name changed to the 3rd Foreign Regiment in August 1812, I was promoted to captain. I served in all the campaigns in which my regiment was present, whether in Spain or in Germany. My service records are to be found in the regimental books or in the Archives de Guerre,87 and, if necessary, my record may be established by consulting officers of that corps who are still in service or, ultimately, in any other manner. When I was in Rouen in 1816, the Prefect, by order of the Minister of Police informed me that I must quit France immediately because of the part I took in favour of the Emperor Napoléon on his return from Elba, and of my well known fidelity to the flag. Exiled thus from my home, without resources and without protection, I took service among those who sought independence and whose principles were in harmony with my own, and I attained the rank of colonel in the Colombian army. The moment that I heard that all the French banished for their political opinions have been recalled, I presented myself at the office of Monsieur Brachet-Martingy, Consul General of France in Bogota, capital of the Republic of Columbia, to reclaim a passport in order to enter France freely. 169 Therefore, I address myself to you, Minister, protector of the rights of military men, in the hope that you will take into consideration the situation of an old soldier, ever faithful to France in the days of its danger, who desires to see again the Fatherland he chose above all, and to demonstrate that his former service is no longer cause for banishment. I await your orders that I may know whether I may return to France and enjoy my rights. Additional note A prisoner of war dossier for Thomas Jackson also exists at Vincennes (Code: Yj57) and contains 1. A minute of two letters dated 27 April 1809, from the Minister for War to two officials, one of whom appears to be Minister for Police Fouché, to whom Michel Tabarié, Head of the 3rd Division of the Ministry, passes on the decision of the Minister allowing Jackson to remain at liberty in Paris under surveillance. 2. A letter in English dated 11 May 1809, addressed to the Minister for War and signed by Thomas Jackson, who states that he has been in Paris for almost a month and is short of funds, since he ‘lost everything when he was made prisoner.’ He will be leaving to join the Irish Legion ‘on Saturday or Sunday’, and requests an advance in pay to cover his expenses and uniform. 3. A letter in French dated 25 May 1809, signed by Alexander Devereux of the Irish Legion and addressed to the Minister for War, states that James Carroll is the servant of Lieutenant Thomas Jackson and requests a ‘feuille de route’ so ‘he can join his master.’ James Carroll is not mentioned further in archived documents. 170 Figure 4: The letter from Minister of Police Decazes to Minister for War Clarke stating that orders had been given for the deportation of the five officers named.88 However, only Jackson, Lawless and Towne were deported. For a translation, see Document 10 of this appendix. Decazes to Minister for War Clarke, 5 January 1816, SHD Xh16a. 171 Notes 1 No part of the Irish Legion [Le 3eme Régiment Étranger (Irlandais)] took part in the Battle of Leipzig, 16-18 October 1813. 2 Etat des Officiers existent au Régiment à l’époque du 18 Octobre 1813, avec une indication de ceux morts, blessés et faits prisonnier, pendant la campagne de 1813, Bois-le-Duc, Service Historique de la Défense (hereinafter SHD) Xh16a. Bois-le Duc is the French name for ‘s-Hertengenbosch, in the province of Noord Brabant, The Netherlands. 3 In Lower Silesia (Województwo Dolnośląskie), south-western Poland, Goldberg is Zlotoryja, Lowenberg is Lwówek Śląski and the River Bober, Bóbr. 4 Dominique Jean Larrey (1766-1842), Surgeon-in-Chief of la Grande Armée and professor at the École de Médecine Militaire at Val-de-Grâce. Baron of the Empire, 1809. The acknowledged father of military medicine. 5 Miles Byrne (Stephen Gwynn ed.), The Memoirs of Miles Byrne, 2 vols, (1907) 131. All references are to this edition, which may be downloaded free of charge from Google Books. References will be as follows, volume one: Byrne, i, #; and volume two, Byrne ii, #. 6 The name of this officer has not yet been discovered. 7 A. Martinien, Tableaux par Corps et par Batailles des Officiers Tués et Blesses pendant les Guerres de l’Empire (1805-1815) (1899) 499. 8 Byrne, ii, 134. 9 Byrne, ii, 136. Martinien does not report the death of Burke, nor does he copy the William Lawless report that he was captured. 10 Mullany does not appear on any nominal roll of officers during 1814, but appears again in 1815. 11 Jackson’s British service has yet to be investigated. The findings will be reported in this journal. 12 Thomas Clarke was a colonel in Dillon’s Regiment. The Shee’s of Killoragh, or Camas, were also of Kilkenny origin. 13 Commander 5e Division, POW Bureau, to M. Tabarié, Head of the 2nd Division, Ministry for War, 28 April 1809. Thomas Jackson, SHD 2Ye2037. See Appendix, Document 1. 14 Extract from Report to the Minister for War from the Bureau of Infantry, 8 May 1809, SHD 2Ye2037. See Appendix, Document 2. 15 Depot of the 3rd and 4th Battalions of the Irish Regiment, which were then forming. Landau or Landau in der Pfalz, is in the German federal state of Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate). On the west bank of the River Rhine, Landau was occupied by the French from 1680 to 1815, and was endowed with modern fortifications by Louis XIV’s military architect, Vauban, in 1688-99, making the city one of Europe’s strongest citadels. 172 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Jackson to the Minister for War Clarke, 17 May 1809, SHD Xh16c. See Appendix, Document 3. Administrative Council of the 2nd Battalion to Minister for War Clarke, 5 November 1811, SHD Xh16c. See Appendix, Document 4. In 1791, the three remaining regiments were taken from their ‘colonels proprietors’ and given line numbers as follows: Dillon’s - 87th; Berwick’s - 88th and Walsh’s - 92nd. La Brigade Catholique Irlandaise, also known as Pitt’s, or King George’s, Irish Brigade. Brigade General Pierre Jacques Osten, Prise de Flessingue, Rapport de 30 August 1809, SHD C2 103. Osten mentions the 1st Battalion of the Irish regiment, and the wounding of their ‘brave officer’ in command, William Lawless. For an Irish, and sometimes irreverent, description of the siege of Flushing from the British side, see Harry Ross-Lewin, With the ‘Thirty-Second’in the Peninsula and other Campaigns (Dublin 1904) 125-31. O’Mahony’s provisional appointment as lieutenant colonel occurred on the same day as Jackson’s nomination as lieutenant. The confirmation was also by Imperial decree on 17 August, SHD 8Yd2495. Nominal roll, 2 & 3rd Battalions, Astorga, 29 April 1810, SHD Xh15. Byrne became commander of the carabineer company on 1 June 1810. The carabineers where the light infantry equivalent of grenadiers. L’Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, a popular picaresque novel by Alain-René Lesage (1668-1747). Byrne, ii, 133-4. The 2nd Battalion formed part of Thomieres’ brigade in Solignac’s division of the 8th Corps of the Army of Portugal. Brigade General Thomieres was later to die in the Battle of Salamanca (22 July 1812) when his brigade was shattered in a charge of Wellington’s ‘fighting’ 3rd Division, under an Irishman, Major General Edward Pakenham, spearheaded by the Connaught Rangers. The Irish Regiment had left Spain at the beginning of the year. Austin O’Malley, born at Burrishoole, Newport, in 1775, was a Mayo rebel appointed provisional colonel by Humbert in 1798. A captain in the Irish Regiment, he commanded the 2nd Battalion provisionally after the defection of Lieutenant Colonel Fitzhenry in April 1811. Fitzhenry returned to Ireland with a free pardon. As he was the most respected field officer in the Irish Regiment, Fitzhenry’s defection, which enraged Napoleon, was a huge blow to the morale of the Irish officers. See Byrne, ii, 216-8, also Lawless to Minister for War Clarke, 19 June 1811, and Minister for War Clarke to Lawless, 7 September 1811, SHD Xh16b. Byrne, ii, 104. 173 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Administrative Council of the 2nd Battalion to Minister for War Clarke, 5 November 1811, SHD Xh16c. See Appendix, Document 4. Byrne is referring to the junior or subordinate officers, and not to a specific ‘subaltern’ rank. ‘Superior’ officers began with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Byrne, ii, 105. Byrne, Allen and Saint Leger were promoted to lieutenant on 22 March 1803, and to captain on 16 December 1808. See SHD dossiers: Miles Byrne, 3Yf45404, John Allen, 3Yf39170 and Edmond Saint-Leger, 2Ye3674. Luke Lawless would rise from lieutenant to captain within months, thanks to the patronage of Minister for War Clarke. The Malony mentioned was, in fact, Charles Mullany, born Balleybofay, Co. Donegal, in 1775, who fought under Humbert in 1798. Taken prisoner at Ballinamuck, he joined the Prussian Army as an alternative to transportation. Captured by the French at the battle of Jena, he joined the Irish Legion, and rose from lieutenant to captain in 3 years. See SHD 2Ye (1791-1843) and Byrne ii, 26. François Brelivet, born at Brest, Finisterre, in 1788, joined the Irish Legion at 15. His father, Jacques René, was the unit’s first master bootmaker. Brelivet was the longest serving officer who did not have an Irish background, with 126 months, SHD 2Ye551. James MacEgan, born Borrisokane, Co. Tipperary, in 1787, was not quite 17 on admission, SHD 2Ye2617. At least three had been nominated as lieutenants on 6 August 1809. See their SHD dossiers: Jerome Dowling, 2Ye1232; James MacEgan, 2Ye2617; and Alain Francois Brelivet, 2Ye551. John Reilly, born in Kilcock, Co. Kildare, in 1765, had been a Kildare rebel, imprisoned at Kilmainham between 1798 and 1802. Byrne, ii, 71. Michael Sheridan was convicted for distributing false banknotes. He is also reported to have been a ‘captain of insurgents.’ Dalton’s notes 1803, SHD Xh14. There appears to be no record of Sheridan rising higher, and he disappears from the nominal rolls in 1811. Le 3e Régiment Étranger (Irlandais). Byrne, ii, 137-8. Major General Baron Puthod, Précis des Operations de la 17e Division […], SHD 1M 685. Byrne to Minister for War Clarke, 24 February 1817, SHD 3Yf45404. Byrne reports Clarke’s precise words: ‘Tout ce que vous avez fait de bon rejaillit sur moi.’ Byrne, ii, 140. Victory at the Battle of the Bidassoa, on 7 October 1813, enabled Wellington to cross the River Bidassoa and gain a foothold in France for the first time. 174 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 Other returnees were Lieutenants Guillaume Keller, Jean O’Brien, François Marechal, Anthony Dwyer and Daniel Salomez; Second Lieutenants Armand Swanton, Jean Baptiste Canillot, Daniel Glashin and Hypolite Noël. It would appear that there had been a simple error, the transposition of Jackson’s name with that of Burke. Jackson was reported dead but had been captured, while Burke was reported captured but had been killed. However, Miles Byrne seems to have known about the death of Burke in 1813. Montreuil, in the Département de Pas-de-Calais, northern France, was the last depot town of the Irish Regiment. The town was often referred to as Montreuil-sur-Mer, though the sea is some distance away. Byrne, ii, 173-4. Malesherbes, Département du Loiret, in central France. Byrne, ii, 104-5. Benjamin Harris, A Dorset Rifleman (1995) 126-8. Rifleman Harris served in the rearguard of Moore’s army in retreat across the Galician highlands during the winter of 1808-9. For a more thorough discussion on Irish humour in the Napoleonic Wars, see Nicholas Dunne-Lynch, ‘Humour and defiance, Irish troops and their humour in the Peninsular War’ in Journal of the Society of Army Historical Research (Spring 2007, Vol. 85, No. 341) 62-78. Jackson to Minister for War Clarke, 14 November 1815, SHD 2Ye2037. See Appendix, Document 5. Brinville de Fresnay, Report to Minister for War Clarke, 21 November 1815, SHD Xh16a. See Appendix, Document 7. Born in Dublin in 1783, Luke Lawless, a nephew of Colonel William Lawless, served in the Royal Navy, ‘in Nelson’s fleet’, up to the Peace of Amiens in 1802. He then studied law in Ireland and was called to the bar in 1805, practicing law for some years. In 1811, he immigrated to France, SHD 2Ye2349. Born Hereford, England, 1790. Laurence [Laurent] Achille Esmonde (also Esmond or d’Esmonde), born in Co. Kildare in 1796, was a son of executed Kildare rebel, John Esmonde and Helen, née Callan, and stepson of United Irishman Harvey Morris. Laurent d’Esmonde, SHD 2Ye (1791-1843). Morres (Herve de Montmorency-Morres), was at this time a colonel in the service of France and a staunch partisan of Bonaparte. Morres was one of the four Irishmen arrested in Hamburg after the Anacreon expedition of September 1798, and imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail until 1802. 175 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 In revolutionary France, a ‘Jacobin’ originally meant a member of the revolutionary Jacobin Club (1789-1794), but the term was soon applied to everyone with revolutionary opinions, especially regarding republicanism, centralized government, suppression of religious cults, regional languages and cultural differences. To the royalists and returned émigrés, a Jacobin was an extreme revolutionary and a regicide. Henri-Amedee-Mercure de la Tour d’Auvergne, Count de Turenne, 1776-1852, General de Brigade, 1815; Count of the Empire, 1813. One of Napoleon’s generals who declared for the King. He is the subject of a very flattering portrait by Jacques-Louis David (1816). Byrne, ii, 142. A major in the French army of the day was a senior lieutenant colonel, usually in charge of the headquarters depot. William Hoyne, born in Kilkenny city in 1768, son of John, and Mary, née Edmond, joined Walsh’s regiment in 1785. He served in America and later in Napoleon’s Italian campaign. He became a French citizen in 1817. See ANF NAT B3 8427. (Archives Nationales de France; Naturalisation Dossier) Byrne, ii, 156-7. Ware confirms that opposition to O’Mahony was unanimous. See Hugh Ware to Minister for War Clarke, 20 January 1816, SHD 3Yf39169. The content of Ware’s letter might not have been available to Byrne, but he was aware of its contents, and, since they were still serving together, they most certainly discussed the matter. They finally left the Legion in May 1816 and moved to Tours, as did Lieutenant Colonel William Hoyne. See Byrne, ii, 246. Byrne ii, 253. Luke Lawless to Minister for War Clarke, Rouen, 16 November 1815, SHD 2Ye2349. See Appendix, Document 6. Ware reports that Sainte-Colombe had his permission to present himself to the King at Ghent and that Thompson left without permission. A further number surrendered their swords to the Commander of MontreuilSur-Mer, refusing to place them at the disposal of Napoleon. Not all of those who left the regiment were defectors. For example, Lieutenant Colonel Braun received Ware’s permission to reside in Etaples ‘until the affair clarified.’ Ware to Minister for War Clarke, 20 January 1814, SHD 3Yf39169. 176 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 Byrne ii, 169. Byrne is referring to the status of Hercule la Roche as a returned émigré, which description covers the three officers he mentions in the extract. No Irish-born officer of the Irish Regiment appears to have changed sides during ‘The 100 Days’. A cousin of J.F.O’Mahony, Patrice Magrath was born in Calais in 1765, and was a baron of France (Marie Patrice Thomas Nicholas, le Baron Magrath de Moyecques de Lendrethien [See SHD 2Ye158986]). Formerly of Berwick’s Regiment, Magrath fought with the Royalist Army and became an émigré, later joining the Austrian Army. An overwhelming proportion of those born in France of Irish origin opposed the Revolution, and, though many joined the Napoleonic forces after returning during the Peace of Amiens (18023), most took a Royalist position during the First Restoration and The 100 Days. ‘I know that several officers of the regiment denounced their brother officers, and I declare that such denunciations were revenge in personal quarrels not connected to the events of the time.’ Hugh Ware to Minister for War Clarke, 20 January 1816, SHD 3Yf39169. Byrne, ii, 171. There were many Prussian and German officers in the regiment before the Second Restoration, including Braun. This group independently declaring loyalty, however, included Alfred de Wall, whose father, Richard, a captain in the Irish Regiment, was born in Kilkenny. Byrne, ii, 231. Hugh Ware announced that any officer who felt in conscience that he could not support Napoleon was free to leave the regiment. Several took advantage of the offer, having presented their resignations, and a few did so without resigning. See Hugh Ware to Minister for War Clarke, 20 January 1816, SHD 3Yf39169. ‘Luke Lawless was then a lieutenant on the staff of the Duke of Feltre, Minister of War. He was handsome, and had a distinguished air, speaking and writing French quite like a Frenchman, and well fitted to be a staff officer. The Duke seemed greatly pleased with him, and soon after promoted him to the rank of captain.’ Byrne, ii, 230. Clarke sent Lawless on a spying mission to Ireland between September and November 1811, and promoted him because of his success. Jackson to Minister for War Soult, 15 October 1831, SHD 2Ye2037. Jean-de-Dieu Soult (1769-1851) Marshal of France, Duke of Dalmatia, Minister for War, 17 November 1830 - 18 July1834. Luke Lawless to Minister for War Clarke, 16 November 1815, SHD 2Ye2349. See Appendix, Document 6. Byrne, ii, 165. 177 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 ‘Nominal roll of officers in service on 20 March 1815 and desiring to serve are awaiting the orders of His Excellency the Minister for War.’ Dated 29 September 1815, the day the regiment was disbanded, and signed by the administrative council, SHD Xh16a. In the early days of the Irish Legion, the officers were mainly divided between the faction that supported O’Connor, and that which supported the more moderate Thomas Addis Emmet. O’Connor, however, did not step in to help Miles Byrne, who had been a supporter of Emmet, though not much of a partisan, and was embarrassed by the feud. Byrne, ii, 252. Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Markey, born Ardee, Co. Louth, in 1773. His sentence of death for treason and rebellion was commuted to perpetual exile. Lieutenant in the Irish Legion in 1804, he rose to lieutenant colonel on the staff of Minister for War Clarke in 1810. Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, 1814. French citizen, 1816, SHD 2Ye2175. This letter is given in Byrne, ii, 153, footnote 1. Byrne, ii, 231. See Appendix, Document 11. Élie Decazes, also de Cazes (1780-1860). Declared Royalist in 1814. Succeeded Joseph Fouché as Minister of Police (Ministre et Secrétaire d’Etat au parlement de la Police Générale) in September 1815; 1st Count Decazes, 1815; 1st Duke of Decazes, 1820; Prime Minister of France, November 1819-February 1820. For example, see Deboulard, Lieutenant of the King, to Destabenrath, 15 December 1815, SHD Xh16a. The full text appears in the Appendix, Document 9. Lieutenant of the King (Lieutenant du Roi) was a representative to the King in an administrative area or a specific place. The rank was subordinate to Lieutenant Général or Goveneur. At least three Irish Legion officers finished their careers as Lieutenants du Roi. Destabenrath (Jean Marie Eleanor Leopold) 1770-1853, Adjutant General, Chef de Brigade, 1795, General de Brigade, 1807; Baron of the Empire, 1808. Byrne, i, 332-3. The later career of Luke Lawless is outlined in J. Thomas Scharf, History of Saint Louis city and county, from the earliest periods to the present day: Including biographical sketches of representative men. 2 Vols (1883) ii, 1474. Jackson to Minister for War Clarke, 25 October 1831, SHD 2Ye2037. See Appendix, Document 12. Had Jackson returned to France, Miles Byrne would certainly have known it and commented in his memoirs. 178 84 85 86 87 88 The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Felix Pariente in the preparation of these documents. The charges against the other officers have been omitted to save space. The modern Département de Seine Maritime. Service Historique de la Défense, Château de Vincennes. John Allen is still on the list, though Esmonde is not, suggesting that he had become reconciled with the authorities. The chronology of the process against Allen may be consulted in his military police dossier, included in his general dossier, SHD 3Yf39170. 179