Jean Joseph Amable Humbert (1767-1823) was a French general responsible for commanding the French invasion of Ireland during the 1798 rebellion. He had previously served under Lazare Hoche and sailed in the failed expedition to Bantry Bay alongside Hoche and Theobald Wolfe Tone in 1796. He would return to Ireland however in command of only 1,109 French troops, landing in Killala and proclaiming the Irish Republic. He would capture Killala, before going on an incredible military campaign against a much more numerous and superior British army, quickly advancing towards Ballina, before routing the British forces at Castlebar, the battle famously known afterwards as “The Castlebar Races”, a reference to the speed of the British retreat. He would defeat the British once more at Collooney on 5 September, his force now numbering as high as 3,000, owing to the number of local United Irishmen who had joined to swell up his ranks. However, Humbert would finally surrender at the Battle of Ballinamuck, once surrounded by 30,000 British forces. Humbert is revered in local folklore, and a monument stands in his honour in the town of Ballina.
Writings
Humbert’s Proclamation To The Irish People (1798)
General Humbert’s Reports to the Executive Directory of France (1798)