Joachim-Napoléon Murat was a Marshal of the Empire and Admiral during the reign of Napoleon. He was the 1st Prince Murat, Grand Duke of Berg from 1806 to 1808, King of Naples from 1808 to 1815. Murat received his titles in part by being Napoleon's brother-in-law through marriage to his younger sister, Caroline Bonaparte, as well as personal merit, he was noted as a daring and charismatic cavalry officer as well as a flamboyant dresser, for which he was known as "the Dandy King". Joachim Murat was born on 25 March 1767 in La Bastide-Fortunière, in Guyenne to Pierre Murat-Jordy, an affluent innkeeper and postmaster, his wife Jeanne Loubières, daughter of Pierre Loubières and of his wife Jeanne Viellescazes. Pierre Murat-Jordy was the son of his wife Marguerite Herbeil. Joachim Murat's parents intended that he pursue a vocation in the church, he was taught by the parish priest, after which he won a place at the College of Saint-Michel at Cahors when he was ten years old, he entered the seminary of the Lazarists at Toulouse, but when a regiment of cavalry passed through the city in 1787, he ran away and enlisted on 23 February 1787 in the Chasseurs des Ardennes, which the following year became known as the Chasseurs de Champagne, or the 12th Chasseurs.

In 1789, an affair forced him to resign, he returned to his family, becoming a clerk to a haberdasher at Saint-Ceré. By 1790, he had joined the National Guard, the Canton of Montaucon sent Murat as its representative to the celebration of the first anniversary of Bastille Day, he was subsequently reinstated in his former regiment. Because part of the 12th Chasseurs had been sent to Montmédy to protect the royal family on its flight to Varennes, the regiment had to defend its honor and loyalty to the Republic. In 1792, he left it that same year. An ardent Republican, Murat wrote to his brother in 1791 stating he was preoccupied with revolutionary affairs and would sooner die than cease to be a patriot. Upon his departure from the Constitutional Guard, he reported to the Committee of Surveillance of the Constitutional Assembly that the Guard was guilty of treason and that his Lieutenant Colonel, a man named Descours, had encouraged him to serve in the émigré army of Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé stationed in Koblenz.

This garnered for him the support of the Republicans, for he rejoined his former regiment and was promoted to Corporal in April of that year, to Sergeant in May. By 19 November 1792, he was 25 years old and elated at his latest promotion; as a sous-lieutenant, he thought, his family must recognize that he had no great propensity for the priesthood, he was hoping to prove that he had not been wrong in wishing to be a soldier. One of the Ministers had accused him of being an aristocrat, confusing him with the noble family of Murat d'Auvergne, an accusation that continued to haunt him for the next several years. In the autumn of 1795, three years after King Louis XVI of France was deposed and counter-revolutionaries organised an armed uprising. On 3 October, General Napoleon Bonaparte, stationed in Paris, was named commander of the French National Convention's defending forces; this constitutional convention, after a long period of emergency rule, was striving to establish a more stable and permanent government in the uncertain period after the Reign of Terror.

Bonaparte tasked Murat with the gathering of artillery from a suburb outside the control of the government's forces. Murat managed to take the cannons of the Camp des Sablons and transport them to the centre of Paris while avoiding the rioters; the use of these cannons – the famous "whiff of grapeshot" – on 5 October allowed Bonaparte to save the members of the National Convention. For this success, Joachim Murat was made chef de brigade and thereafter remained one of Napoleon's best officers. In 1796, with the situation in the capital and government stabilised and the war going poorly, Napoleon lobbied to join the armies attempting to secure the revolution against the invading monarchist forces. Murat went with Bonaparte to northern Italy as his aide-de-camp, was named commander of the cavalry during the many campaigns against the Austrians and their allies; these forces were seeking to restore a monarchy in revolutionary France. His valour and his daring cavalry charges earned him the rank of général in these important campaigns, the battles of which became famous as Bonaparte used speed of maneuver to fend off and defeat individually superior opposing armies closing in on the French forces from several directions.

Thus, Murat's skills in no small part helped establish Bonaparte's legendary fame and enhance his popularity with the French people. Murat commanded the cavalry of the French Egyptian expedition of 1798, again under Bonaparte. In the 1799, some remaining staff officers, including Murat, Bona

South Mountain is the northern extension of the Blue Ridge Mountain range in Maryland and Pennsylvania. From the Potomac River near Knoxville, Maryland, in the south, to Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, in the north, the 70-mile-long range separates the Hagerstown and Cumberland valleys from the Piedmont regions of the two states; the Appalachian National Scenic Trail follows the crest of the mountain through Maryland and a portion of Pennsylvania. South Mountain begins at the Potomac River as a low, narrow ridge one mile wide and only 1,200 feet above sea level at its crest. South of the Potomac River in Virginia, the ridge continues as Short Hill Mountain for about 12 miles before subsiding near the town of Hillsboro. South Mountain in Maryland grows higher and wider towards the north. Near the Pennsylvania border, the mountain merges with the hills of the parallel Catoctin Mountain range to the east and becomes more like a low mountain range than a single crest. North of U. S. Route 30 in Pennsylvania, the South Mountain highlands reach their greatest width, over 12 miles, several summits top 2,000 feet.

The mountain turns more to the east and becomes a series of small rocky hills between Mount Holly Springs and the northeastern end of the mountain at Dillsburg. From south to north: Lambs Knoll, 1,758 feet above sea level Monument Knob, 1,540 feet Bartman Hill, 1,400 feet Pine Knob, 1,714 feet Buzzard Knob, 1,520 feet Quirauk Mountain, 2,150 feet - highest point on South Mountain in Maryland From south to north east: Mount Dunlop, 1,720 feet Monterey Peak, 1,663 feet Clermont Crag 1,627 feet Wildcat Rocks, 1,772 feet Virginia Rock, 1,818 feet Buzzard Peak/Chimney Rocks, 1,946 feet Snowy Mountain, 2,090 feet Green Ridge, 1,980 feet Mount Newman, 1,784 feet Piney Mountain, 1,904 feet Big Pine Flat Ridge, 2,100 feet - highest point on South Mountain in Pennsylvania Big Flat Ridge, 2,065 feet East Big Flat Ridge, 2,070 feet Mount Holly, 1,504 feet Long Mountain, 1,583 feet Center Point Knob, 1,075 feet White Rocks, 1,105 feet From south to north: Crampton's Gap, 930 feet, between Burkittsville and Gapland Fox's Gap, 1,070 feet, between Middletown and Boonsboro Turner's Gap, 1,071 feet, between Middletown and Boonsboro, traversed by U.

S. Route 40 Alternate pass near Bartman Hill, 1,250 feet, traversed by Interstate 70 and U. S. Route 40 Harman Gap, 1,570 feet, east of Cavetown From south to north: Monterey Gap, 1,330 feet, at Blue Ridge Summit Pass near Mount Newman, 1,380 feet, traversed by U. S. Route 30 From south to north: South Mountain State Park, length of the ridge crest in Maryland Gathland State Park, Crampton Gap Washington Monument State Park, near Boonsboro Greenbrier State Park, near Boonsboro From south to north: Michaux State Forest, covering most of the mountain Caledonia State Park, east of Fayetteville Pine Grove Furnace State Park In Pennsylvania, the region surrounding is the focus of a Conservation Landscape Initiative, led by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy; the initiative is organized as South Mountain Partnership, which involves other organizations, government and community members. The history of South Mountain defines the early history of western Maryland.

It was viewed as a boundary to the Susquehannock in their original treaty granting land to Maryland. In a 1732 letter to the colonial governor of Maryland, Captain Civility chief of Conestoga warns against settlement in the valley beyond the mountain; the first Euromerican land grant west of South Mountain by Maryland was William Park's "Park Hall" in 1731 near Crampton's gap. The earliest route of the Great Wagon Road crossed South Mountain by Fox's Gap on a course between Middletown and Sharpsburg. Other important passes for migration and settlement were Turner's Gap near Boonsboro. Orr's Gap, used today by Interstate 70, the course of "Cartledge's Old Road" following Maryland state route 77. Maryland gained clear title to the lands west of South Mountain at the 1744 Treaty of Lancaster. Following the 1859 John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry seven of the raiders escaped from the Kennedy Farm headquarters to Pennsylvania by following South Mountain north; the escapees traveled by night and spent the days in cold camps among the densest thickets they could find along the remote ridge top.

They left the mountain near today's Caledonia State Park between Chambersburg and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Battle of South Mountain was fought on the mountain at Crampton's, Fox and Turner's gaps during the Maryland Campaign of the American Civil War in 1862. In 1863, military engagements of the Gettysburg Campaign on the mountain range included the Fight at Monterey Pass near the Mason–Dixon Line

The Kankakee Fish and Wildlife Area is situated in Starke County at the junction of the Yellow River with the Kankakee River. The state purchased 2,312 acres of marshland in 1927 for a Civilian Conservation Corp. camp. The camp consisted of up to 400 men. After the camp closed, it was established. In the 1950s waterfowl management was begun. In 1982 another 1,016 acres were in 1992 an additional 767 acres; the Fish and Wildlife area consist of the wetlands between the Yellow River and the Kankakee at their junction and uplands on both the north bank of the Kankakee and the south bank of the Yellow. The main entrance to the area is on Indiana State Road 39 at Indiana State Road 8; the wildlife area is a remnant of the Grand Kankakee Marsh. The Grand Kankakee Marsh was known worldwide for its waterfowl. Stories are told of skies blackened by the wings of countless numbers of geese; the Kankakee Fish & Wildlife Area has two boat ramps. One in English Lake (juncture of the Yellow and Kankakee Rivers and the other on the Kankakee at Indiana State Road 39.

Common fish caught in the Kankakee River include. Common fish in the Yellow River are; the most common fish that live in the ditches are the bowfin which can be caught on topwater lures. The area consist of 4,095 acres of riparian woodlands, wetlands and farm land. A variety of birds can be seen in the area, including: wild turkey, geese, other waterfowl, owls, bald eagle and a wide variety of neo-tropical species; the Indiana Department of Natural Resources manages the area. The local office is at 4320 W Toto Rd. PO Box 77, North Judson, IN 46366, 896-3522 Indiana DNR Kankakee