Jean-Bernard Gauthier de Murnan
Encyclopedia
Jean-Bernard Gauthier de Murnan (1748, Bourg-en-Bresse
– 27 September 1796) was a French
officer for the Continental Army
and a French General during the French Revolution
.
When he was young, he had to leave France to serve as a cavalry officer and then military engineer in the Russia
n army. When he returned to France, he was sent to support the newly born United States as a Lt. Colonel Engineer in the Continental Army. During the French Revolution era, he was appointed Colonel of the Infantry, then Colonel of the Cavalry, and then promoted to Brigade General in command of the cavalry.
Jean-Bernard Gauthier was born in a family of jurists in Bourg-en-Bresse
(now Ain
département) of France. He was baptized on 28 November 1748. He became an officer in the French Royal Army. He had to leave France for a bad duel affair, and take refuge in Russia. He was hired as a lieutenant in the Regiment of Dragoons of Smolensk
, Belarus
. He was under the command of Prince Golitsyn until 1776, when he became Captain-Engineer, after studying at the Moscow
University.
s, including Captain L'Enfant
and French Colonel Louis Lebègue Duportail to support the Americans during the Revolutionary War
, who lacked military engineers. It is pointed out that the massive French military participation took place in 1781. Starting in January 1777, he was under the direction of General John Sullivan
. In March 1778, he was promoted to Major
in the US Army Corps of Engineers
by the Continental Congress
. He participated in the Massachusetts Campaign in 1778.
Then, with General George Washington
, he served in the Sullivan Expedition
against the 'six Indians Nations', up to the current Wyoming
. Under French Brig. Gen. Marquis de Choisy
, he took part to the besieging of York and Gloucester in 1781. Following a special decision of the US Congress, he was commissioned in September of 1783 Lieutenant Colonel by brevet by the Continental Army
.
. He was back in the French Army when the First Coalition
against the revolutionaries in France took place (see also
French Revolutionary Wars
).
In 1791, he was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel, serving in the infantry, then serving as Adjudant-Général from May of 1791, namely in Sedan
reatrenched camp. He was then promoted Colonel
, serving as Chief-of-Staff of the Army on the Sambre
. In 1792, he became Colonel of the 35th Infantry Regiment. Therefore, he was at the Battle of Valmy
on 20 September 1792 and the Battle of Jemmapes on 6 November 1792. In January 1793 he became colonel of the 13th Dragoons Regiment, 13ème régiment de dragons. Promoted as Brigade-General, he commanded the right flank of the Northern Army with
Général Custine. Tired, he left the army and retired around Bourg-en-Bresse. He was twice arrested under La Terreur
in spring 1794. He died on 27 September 1796, in Villereversure, Ain
.
For his duties, he received Croix de Saint-Louis in 1791, and for his services during the American Revolutionary War he became member of the Society of the Cincinnati
in 1783.
He was the uncle of First French Empire
General Aubry, killed at the Battle of Leipzig
in 1813, and cousin of the member of the revolutionary French National Convention
Gauthier des Orcières, also called Gauthier de l'Ain.
Bourg-en-Bresse
Bourg-en-Bresse is a commune in eastern France, capital of the Ain department, and was capital of the former province of Bresse . It is located north-northeast of Lyon.The inhabitants of Bourg-en-Bresse are known as Burgiens.-Geography:...
– 27 September 1796) was a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
officer for the Continental Army
Continental Army
The Continental Army was formed after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the United States of America. Established by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, it was created to coordinate the military efforts of the Thirteen Colonies in...
and a French General during the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
.
When he was young, he had to leave France to serve as a cavalry officer and then military engineer in the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n army. When he returned to France, he was sent to support the newly born United States as a Lt. Colonel Engineer in the Continental Army. During the French Revolution era, he was appointed Colonel of the Infantry, then Colonel of the Cavalry, and then promoted to Brigade General in command of the cavalry.
Jean-Bernard Gauthier was born in a family of jurists in Bourg-en-Bresse
Bourg-en-Bresse
Bourg-en-Bresse is a commune in eastern France, capital of the Ain department, and was capital of the former province of Bresse . It is located north-northeast of Lyon.The inhabitants of Bourg-en-Bresse are known as Burgiens.-Geography:...
(now Ain
Ain
Ain is a department named after the Ain River on the eastern edge of France. Being part of the region Rhône-Alpes and bordered by the rivers Saône and Rhône, the department of Ain enjoys a privileged geographic situation...
département) of France. He was baptized on 28 November 1748. He became an officer in the French Royal Army. He had to leave France for a bad duel affair, and take refuge in Russia. He was hired as a lieutenant in the Regiment of Dragoons of Smolensk
Smolensk
Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River. Situated west-southwest of Moscow, this walled city was destroyed several times throughout its long history since it was on the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler. Today, Smolensk...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
. He was under the command of Prince Golitsyn until 1776, when he became Captain-Engineer, after studying at the Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
University.
American Revolutionary War Service
He was later sent to the United States with a group of military engineerMilitary engineer
In military science, engineering refers to the practice of designing, building, maintaining and dismantling military works, including offensive, defensive and logistical structures, to shape the physical operating environment in war...
s, including Captain L'Enfant
Pierre Charles L'Enfant
Pierre Charles L'Enfant was a French-born American architect and civil engineer best known for designing the layout of the streets of Washington, D.C..-Early life:...
and French Colonel Louis Lebègue Duportail to support the Americans during the Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
, who lacked military engineers. It is pointed out that the massive French military participation took place in 1781. Starting in January 1777, he was under the direction of General John Sullivan
John Sullivan
John Sullivan was the third son of Irish immigrants, a United States general in the Revolutionary War, a delegate in the Continental Congress and a United States federal judge....
. In March 1778, he was promoted to Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
in the US Army Corps of Engineers
United States Army Corps of Engineers
The United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...
by the Continental Congress
Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates called together from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the United States during the American Revolution....
. He participated in the Massachusetts Campaign in 1778.
Then, with General George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
, he served in the Sullivan Expedition
Sullivan Expedition
The Sullivan Expedition, also known as the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition, was an American campaign led by Major General John Sullivan and Brigadier General James Clinton against Loyalists and the four nations of the Iroquois who had sided with the British in the American Revolutionary War.The...
against the 'six Indians Nations', up to the current Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
. Under French Brig. Gen. Marquis de Choisy
Marquis de Choisy
Brig. Gen. Claude Gabriel marquis de Choisy was at the siege of Yorktown in command of Lauzun's Legion and Gen. George Weedon's Virginia militia, at Gloucester, Virginia, under the command of Rochambeau, opposite Banastre Tarleton.-Capture of Cracow:...
, he took part to the besieging of York and Gloucester in 1781. Following a special decision of the US Congress, he was commissioned in September of 1783 Lieutenant Colonel by brevet by the Continental Army
Continental Army
The Continental Army was formed after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the United States of America. Established by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, it was created to coordinate the military efforts of the Thirteen Colonies in...
.
French Army Service
In 1784, he returned to France. He married Andrée Claudine Sain on 30 September 1784, in LyonLyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
. He was back in the French Army when the First Coalition
First Coalition
The War of the First Coalition was the first major effort of multiple European monarchies to contain Revolutionary France. France declared war on the Habsburg monarchy of Austria on 20 April 1792, and the Kingdom of Prussia joined the Austrian side a few weeks later.These powers initiated a series...
against the revolutionaries in France took place (see also
French Revolutionary Wars
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
).
In 1791, he was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel, serving in the infantry, then serving as Adjudant-Général from May of 1791, namely in Sedan
Sedan, France
Sedan is a commune in France, a sub-prefecture of the Ardennes department in northern France.-Geography:The historic centre is built on a peninsula formed by an arc of the Meuse River. It is around from the Belgian border.-History:...
reatrenched camp. He was then promoted Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
, serving as Chief-of-Staff of the Army on the Sambre
Sambre
The Sambre is a river in northern France and Wallonia, southern Belgium, left tributary of the Meuse River. The ancient Romans called the river Sabis.-Course:...
. In 1792, he became Colonel of the 35th Infantry Regiment. Therefore, he was at the Battle of Valmy
Battle of Valmy
The Battle of Valmy was the first major victory by the army of France during the French Revolution. The action took place on 20 September 1792 as Prussian troops commanded by the Duke of Brunswick attempted to march on Paris...
on 20 September 1792 and the Battle of Jemmapes on 6 November 1792. In January 1793 he became colonel of the 13th Dragoons Regiment, 13ème régiment de dragons. Promoted as Brigade-General, he commanded the right flank of the Northern Army with
Général Custine. Tired, he left the army and retired around Bourg-en-Bresse. He was twice arrested under La Terreur
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
in spring 1794. He died on 27 September 1796, in Villereversure, Ain
Ain
Ain is a department named after the Ain River on the eastern edge of France. Being part of the region Rhône-Alpes and bordered by the rivers Saône and Rhône, the department of Ain enjoys a privileged geographic situation...
.
For his duties, he received Croix de Saint-Louis in 1791, and for his services during the American Revolutionary War he became member of the Society of the Cincinnati
Society of the Cincinnati
The Society of the Cincinnati is a historical organization with branches in the United States and France founded in 1783 to preserve the ideals and fellowship of the American Revolutionary War officers and to pressure the government to honor pledges it had made to officers who fought for American...
in 1783.
He was the uncle of First French Empire
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
General Aubry, killed at the Battle of Leipzig
Battle of Leipzig
The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations, on 16–19 October 1813, was fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against the French army of Napoleon. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine...
in 1813, and cousin of the member of the revolutionary French National Convention
National Convention
During the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 . It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic...
Gauthier des Orcières, also called Gauthier de l'Ain.
External links
- American Memory, Library of Congress, namely the 'Journal of Continental Congress', and 'George Washington Papers'