country home, the Chateau de Courcelles-le-Roy in Beaulieu-sur-Loire commune, Loiret, where he died on 25 September 1840, aged 74. Personal life In 1791, he married Marie-Constance Soral de Montloisir (died 1797) and had 2 daughters: Anne-Charlotte Macdonald (1792–1870) Adele-Elisabeth Macdonald (1794–1822) In 1802, he married Felicité-Françoise de Montholon (1780–1804), the widow of General Joubert, and had a daughter: Alexandrine-Aimee Macdonald (1803–1869) In 1821, he married Ernestine-Therese de Bourgoing (1789–1825) and had a son: Louis-Marie Macdonald, 2nd Duke of Taranto (1824–1881) Scottish legacy On 30 April 2010, a plaque was unveiled to the memory of Marshal of France Jacques Macdonald on the Outer Hebridean island of South Uist, the familial home of Macdonald. Macdonald had visited South Uist in 1825 in order to find out more about his family roots. Assessment Macdonald was assessed in the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1911, which argued: Macdonald had none of that military genius that distinguished Davout, Masséna and Lannes, nor of that military science conspicuous in Marmont and St Cyr, but nevertheless his campaign in Switzerland gives him a rank far superior to such mere generals of division as Oudinot and Dupont. This capacity for independent command made Napoleon, in spite of his defeats at the Trebia and the Battle of Katzbach, trust him with large commands till the end of his career. As a man, his character cannot be spoken of too highly; no stain of cruelty or faithlessness rests on him.Military historian Gunter E. Rothenberg wrote that although he overstated his own abilities, Macdonald was an excellent commander. Richard Dunn-Pattison praised Macdonald for his "keen military insight" while A. G. MacDonell called his career a string of defeats. John M. Keefe blamed his defeat at Katzbach on a general lack of staff officers in French armies not commanded by Napoleon, arguing that Macdonald had fought successfully in the rest of his career. Notes References Clausewitz, Carl von (2020). Napoleon Absent, Coalition Ascendant: The 1799 Campaign in Italy and Switzerland, Volume 1. Trans and ed. Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. Clausewitz, Carl von (2021). The Coalition Crumbles, Napoleon Returns: The 1799 Campaign in Italy and Switzerland, Volume 2. Trans and ed. Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. Heraldica.org – Napoleonic heraldry Macdonald was especially fortunate to have accounts of his military exploits recorded by Mathieu Dumas and Ségur who were on his staff