[1] The Legion was created on the orders of General Lazare Hoche to take part in a three-pronged attack against Ireland and Britain and was commanded by William Tate.
According to the prisoner returns submitted by Lieutenant General James Rooke after the invasion, the legion numbered 46 officers and 1178 men.
[2] The legion's equipment came from British army materiel, arms and uniforms captured at the unsuccessful Franco-British landings at Quiberon in 1795.
[3] A second diversionary force, La légion des Francs, under General Quantain, received instructions to attack Newcastle upon Tyne and to destroy local shipping.
The force set out from Dunkirk in November 1796 but turned back at Flushing, the Netherlands, after bad weather caused the loss of several invasion barges.