Local history: Kilmaine narrowly escaped death on the guillotine

Part 2

By Tom Gillespie

KILMAINE was named Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the North on July 17, 1793. He rejoined the army with his division from the Army of Ardennes, and his position became almost desperate. Kilmaine's presence for a time appeased the disorder in the army.

The Army of the North occupied positions on the banks of the Scheldt, facing a much larger opposing force jointly commanded by the Duke of York and Albany and the Prince of Coburg. Kilmaine, with only 24,000 ill-appointed troops, dared not attack them.

Only 40 leagues lay between Kilmaine's position and Paris. If he fought and lost the day, he could thereafter assume no position of sufficient strength to prevent the allies from penetrating to Paris and crushing the Convention. Kilmaine's position was untenable. He dared not abandon the capital or retire beyond the Loire, as the tides of war and politics were setting in against him. Kilmaine was forced to withdraw.

Although he carried out a masterly retreat, the Convention styled it (at the time) ‘completely mutinous’.

Even at this epoch of deception and duplicity, and when political insanity and revenge were rampant, Kilmaine, who had rendered such gallant services to that new and most faithless Republic, had by a judicious retreat (executed against the advice of the meddling and presumptuous representatives of the people, and in consequence thereof perilled his life), preserved to France her most important Army. Some say that it was precisely for this reason he was denounced to the Convention. It didn't help that he had also become the object of suspicion on account of his foreign birth and his relations abroad.

He was immediately relieved of his command, discharged from the army and sent into exile to Luxembourg. He accepted it all with calm dignity, saying: “I am ready to serve the cause of the Republic in whatever rank I am placed, and wherever set I shall do my duty.”

In a short time, Kilmaine returned to Paris under cover, and retired with his wife to the Parisian suburb of Passy. There they lived quietly for some months.

When the Reign of Terror began, he and his wife were arrested and imprisoned. One would think that being imprisoned as a foreigner was an act of injustice which would weigh heavily on an officer who had given 30 years of unselfish devotion to France, served gallantly in nine campaigns, and fought in 46 battles.

However, in the obscurity of his dungeon, Kilmaine got his reward, however strange, in that he had not perished on the scaffold like the gallant Custine, his predecessor in the command, like his old colonel and protector Biron, and like Jean Nicolas Houchard, who for the brief period of 15 days had been his successor, and who, after winning a signal and decided victory over the Duke of York and Albany, was nevertheless executed. Kilmaine narrowly escaped the guillotine and recovered his liberty after the fall of Robespierre in July 1794.

He and his wife were released on an order signed personally by Lazare Carnot and remained for some time in Paris.

Kilmaine was involved in quelling the Jacobin Uprising in May 1795. He assisted Jean-Charles Pichegru in the defence of the National Convention against excited mobs of Parisian faubourgs.

Kilmaine continued to fight for the Convention until the 13th Vendemiaire, 1796, actively cooperating with Napoleon Bonaparte and the Revolutionary Party.

Early in 1796 he set out with Bonaparte on the Italian Campaign. He fought at the Battle of Lodi on May 10 and contributed to the victory by leading a cavalry charge. In September, he was appointed Commander of Northern Italy. This campaign significantly increased his reputation throughout Europe as a truly brilliant officer.

In October, Kilmaine was one of Napoleon's subordinate commanders during the Siege of Mantua. The Austrians, who were commanded by Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser, attempted to breakout and were repulsed with the loss of 1,100 men and five pieces of cannon. Kilmaine played a key role in repulsing them.

Bonaparte, in his dispatch to the Directory on October 1, 1796, wrote: “General Kilmaine, who commands the two divisions which press the siege of Mantua, remained on the 29th ultimo in his former position, and was still in hopes that the enemy would attempt a sortie to carry forage into the place, but instead they took up a position before the gate of Pradello, near the Carthusian convent and the chapel of Cerese. The brave General Kilmaine made his arrangements for an attack, and advanced in two columns against these two points, but he had scarcely begun to march when the enemy evacuated their camps, their rear having fired only a few musket-shots at him. The advanced posts of General Vaubois have come up with the Austrian division which defends the Tyrol, and made one hundred and ten prisoners.”

Early in December, Wurmser attempted another breakout. The Austrians began their operation just before dawn, advancing under a furious cannonade. However, as Bonaparte noted: “Kilmaine made him return, as usual, faster than he came out, and took from him two hundred men, one howitzer, and two pieces of cannon. This is his third unsuccessful attempt.”

Kilmaine energetically and ably commanded troops involved in the Siege of Mantua for over five months. Wurmser finally surrendered on February 3, 1797. In a dispatch notifying the Minister of War about this important victory, Kilmaine wrote: 'Kilmaine, General de Division and Commandant of Lombardy, to the Minister of War. Milan, 17 Pluviose, 1797.

Citizen Minister,

I avail myself of a courier which General Bonaparte sends from Romagna (in order to announce to the Directory the defeat of the Papal troops), to acquaint you with the capture of Mantua, the news of which I received yesterday evening by a courier from Mantua itself. I thought it necessary to announce this circumstance, because General Bonaparte, who is occupied in Romagna annihilating the troops of his Holiness, may probably have been ignorant of this fact when his courier departed. Tho garrison are our prisoners of war, and are to be sent into Germany in order to be exchanged. I have not yet received the articles of capitulation, but the commander-in-chief will not fail to send them by the first courier.'

The capture of Mantua was celebrated in Paris by the firing of cannon and the erection of arches in honour of Bonaparte and Kilmaine, 'the Irish Commandant of Lombardy', and a grand joy was diffused through every heart in the city on the fall of what they styled the Gibraltar of Italy, while Bonaparte, loaded with the diamonds of the vanquished corrupt Pope, and the spoils of our Lady of Loretto, pushed on to seek fresh conquests and new laurels.

Kilmaine briefly remained in command in Mantua after its capitulation. Upon returning to Paris, he was awarded the title Baron de Kilmaine.

NEXT WEEK: Kilmaine’s association with General Humbert