Charles Edward Jennings de Kilmaine - Generalissimo of The Army of Switzerland

Generalissimo of The Army of Switzerland

At the beginning of 1799 Kilmaines health was now further deteriorating, he also had become greatly saddened by his friend, Wolfe Tone's death. In the Spring of that year, the Directory appointed him supreme generalissimo of the army of Helvetii, as they chose to designate Switzerland, thus reviving the ancient name of the people whom Julius Caesar conquered. The French troops already occupied Lombardy on one side, and the Rhenish provinces on the other. Thus they never doubted their ability to conquer the Swiss and remodel the Helvetic constitution.

48 year old Kilmaine accepted the command, and ignored his condition for quite sometime, until his rapidly failing health forced him to give up his baton to Massena and he was compelled to retire from active service for good.

With a sorrow which he could not conceal, he saw that army march which penetrated into the heart of the Swiss mountains, and imposed on their hardy inhabitants a constitution in which Bonaparte, under the plausible title of Mediator, secured the co-operation of the valiant descendants of the Celtic tribe of Helvetii in his further schemes of conquest and ambition.