About

An artillery officer from a family of minor Corsican nobility, Bonaparte spent long periods on leave in Corsica during the early Revolution. After breaking with Paoli in 1793, he fled with his family to mainland France. Appointed commander of the artillery at Toulon in September, he helped develop the plan to seize the heights overlooking the roadstead, contributing to the withdrawal of the allied fleet and earning promotion to general of brigade at twenty-four. Briefly detained after Thermidor while his links with Augustin Robespierre were investigated, he was removed from the list of generals in 1795 after refusing an infantry posting with the Army of the West. Barras employed him against the royalist insurrection of 13 Vendémiaire, after which he received command of the Army of the Interior. Appointed commander of the Army of Italy in March 1796, he defeated the Piedmontese and Austrian armies, occupied Lombardy and negotiated the Treaty of Campo Formio with considerable independence from the Directory. In August 1799, he left the Army of the Orient under Kléber and returned to France. He joined the coup of 18 and 19 Brumaire and subsequently became First Consul.