formation of an Irish battalion. The colonel of the battalion, 'named by the first consul', was the now 43-year-old James Bartholomew Blackwell. However John G. Gallaher argues that: "Despite his title and rank, it was not Blackwell, but MacSheehy, who ran the Irish Legion. MacSheehy issued the orders of the day, secured promotions for the men, communicated with army headquarters, and made all serious decisions affecting the battalion." On 3 June 1804 the Council of Administration of the Legion was assembled to take the new oath to Napoleon who had been proclaimed emperor on 10 May. They also had to sign a report (the Procés Verbal) that declared that all the officers and men of the Legion had taken the oath. However Captain Thomas Corbett provoked trouble by declaring that he could not sign a document he knew to be false. Similarly, Captain Sweeney questioned whether the oath lessened in any way their Irish loyalty. Blackwell, who had signed the Procés Verbal, wrote to MacSheehy on the 6th saying that he "was of the same opinion as the other two members," and that he wished to retract his signature from the document. MacSheehy recommended the removal from the Legion of Blackwell "for his feeble debauchery" and it consequently cost Blackwell his command. Military campaigns and later years He then rejoined the main French army and served in the cavalry corps in the Prussian and Austrian campaigns of Napoleon. In the year 1806, when the Irish legion was based at Boulogne-sur-Mer prior to their departure for the Spanish campaign, Blackwell was advancing on Warsaw in an effort to crush what remained of Prussian resistance. In 1810 we find him styled "Major General in the Grand Army, 7th Corps, Officer of the Légion d'honneur, Chevalier of the Empire, Chief of Squadron." On 29 January 1812, Blackwell in an Order headed "Napoleon, Emperor of France, King of Italy, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, and Mediator of the Swiss Confederation" was confirmed in the rank of Chef de bataillon. It is also possible that he participated in the Russian Campaign, and was probably wounded, for an Order dated September 1813 appoints him Commander of the town of Bitche in Northeast France (Alsace) "when his period of convalescence would have expired." Hayes speculates that "ill health, as a result of his wounds, compelled him to give up this office after a few months,