Mathurin-Léonard Duphot

Léonard Mathurin Duphot (21 September 1769 – 28 December 1797) was a French general and poet, whose Ode aux mânes des héros morts pour la liberté was highly fashionable at the time.

He was made chef de bataillon adjudant-général in November 1794 and fought with distinction in several actions of the Italian campaign in 1796.

On 13 June 1795 he came off the list of active officers and in February 1796 he was drafted back into the army for home service, though he returned to Augereau and Italy in August 1796, fighting at Mantua, Rivoli and La Favorita.

On December 29, 1797, the 250th Roman Catholic Church Pope Pius VI moved quickly and sent a formal apology to the French Directory for the death of Brig General Duphot.

However, the apology was not accepted by the 1st Republic, and thus his death gave Bonaparte the pretext he needed to occupy Rome, abolish the Papal States and set up the Roman Republic - in Le Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène, Napoleon said of him "he was a general of the greatest promise.