Even at a young age, he was one of the most successful generals of the French Revolution, and his politically symbolic victory was the capture of Koblenz on 23 October 1794, the centre of the counter-revolution. A pyramid designed by Peter Joseph Krahe was built over his grave. This pyramid, which housed Marceau's ashes, was to be demolished in 1817 in the course of the Prussians' construction of a fortress, but thanks to the intervention of Frederick William III, the monument was rebuilt in a scaled-down form on its present site. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, what is now the French Cemetery was built around the monument to accommodate the dead of the prisoner-of-war camps in Koblenz. Since the French occupation of the Rhineland in 1919, the site has been French territory and is looked after by the French.