Simon Bernard

The general-baron Simon Bernard is a soldier and French politician, born with Dole (the Jura) the April 28th 1779 and died in 1839.

Biography

Very poor parents, Simon Bernard was allowed free at the central school of his birthplace, held by the Jantet abbot, and was characterized there by remarkable aptitudes for the exact sciences. It entered to the Polytechnic school in 1794. “One tells, brings back the Dictionnaire of the members of Parliament who it arrived at Paris in the middle of one winter of most rigorous, with foot, the bag on the back and a stick shoed with the hand, with a letter of introduction for famous the Lagrange. Exhausted of tiredness, stiff with cold, it trailed along quays, when it was saved by a good woman who took it along to her, heated it and led it to the school. ” It left the second in promotion there the genius in 1799.

Under the Consulate and the Empire

It made its first weapons with the Armée with the Rhine and gained there soon the shoulder pads of Capitaine (March 22nd 1800).

During the countryside of 1805, it was charged to push a recognition until under the walls of Vienna and discharged this mission so as to deserve the rank of major. With Ingolstadt, he married the sister of a former minister for Finances of the king de Bavière. He spent some time in Illyrie, from where he returned in 1809 to take the work management of Antwerp with the rank of Major. At this point in time it was selected like assistance-of-camp par.

In the Memorial of Grey waxbill , the Emperor evokes this episode in the following terms: “In one of the voyages that Napoleon made to inspect work of Antwerp, it was one day with the catches on the trade, with a captain of the genious which, modestly and obscurely, contributed to the fortifications of the place. At some time from there, this officer suddenly accepted a letter of advance, his nomination of assistance-of-camp, the Emperor, and the order to go in service to Tileries. The poor officer believed to dream or did not doubt that one had not been mistaken. Its manners were so innocent and its so restricted relations, which it went to entrust to Mr. of Mow Boxes all its ignorance of the court and its extreme embarrassment to appear to with it. But it was easy to reassure it; it entered there by the beautiful door and presented itself to it with a good bottom. This officer is general Bernard, whose this circumstance put the talents at the great day, and who at the time of our catastrophes, was collected by the the United States, which placed it, with the head of their military work. ”

Created knight of the Empire (1812), with a majorat of 4.000 francs, Simon Bernard was promoted Colonel with the opening of the countryside of 1813 and assisted with the battles of Lützen, Wurtzen, etc the August 16th, a fall in a ravine close to Zittan crashed to pieces the leg to him. One had to transport it to Torgau, but its wounds did not prevent it from taking share with the defense of this place when it was besieged in 1814. The March 22nd, it was created baron of the Empire.

Under the Restoration

After the abdication of Napoleon, it joined with Louis XVIII which did it Brigadier general and knight of Saint-Louis (August 20th 1814), and was charged by the general Clarke, Minister for the War of the Restoration, an important topographic survey. But as soon as he learned the return in France from Napoleon in 1815, he joined himself the Emperor and took share with the Bataille of Waterloo.

Become suspect under the Second Restoration because of its attitude under the Hundred Days, it accepted the order to leave Paris. He refused which quoted to him several sovereigns, in particular the tsar of Russia, and embarked for the the United States whose government used its technical skills. “One of the first and most important work of the general Bernard, wrote Mr. Roux of La Rochelle in an obituary read in 1840 at the Company of geography, is the geodetic recognition which it had to make to open of the roads of communication between Washington and La Nouvelle-Orléans, through regions including one great part was still occupied by wild nations. This distance, of approximately 400 miles of France, was traversed four times by our intrepid traveller; it tested, it followed several different directions which all arrived at the same points by their ends, so that the federal government could choose and adopt the lines of communication which would appear preferable to him under the military reports/ratios, political and commercial. ”

The president James Madison named it sergeant-general responsible for the construction of the defense system coastal extending from the Maine until in Louisiana. For this reason, it started in 1819 the construction of the Fort Monroe. It also carried out many studies of geology and natural history and drew up in 1824 the plan of a channel between the Potomac and the Ohio.

Under the monarchy of July

To the news of the Revolution of July, the Bernard general returned to France and became assistance-of-camp of the King. Louis-Philippe I {{er}} named it general Lieutenant genius (October 15th 1831) and called it at the general committee of the fortifications where it was charged to draw up the plans of the enclosure projected around Paris.

Minister for the War in the “ministry for the three days”, of the 10 to the November 18th 1834, it took again this wallet, against its vocation and its inclinations, in the first then the second ministry Molé, of the September 19th 1836 with the March 31st 1839. It made appear the ordinances of the 20 and December 25th 1837 on the services of walk, of the pay and the reviews, and the March 16th 1838 on advance.

The press of the time was critical on its account. When it was named with the government, a newspaper brought back a word of Napoleon who would have said in this connection: “My dear Bernard, thus speaks never political, you do not understand nothing there; you are an excellent mason, do not leave from there. ” Its nomination was also accommodated coldly in the army, where it was called “the large digger”.

At the time of the consecutive legislative elections to the dissolution of 1839, the Bernard general supported actively, but in vain, the candidature of the baron Janet in his birthplace of Dole.

The Bernard general had been made Pair of France the November 10th 1834, large officer (February 18th 1836) then Grand Cross of the Legion of honor (March 9th 1839).

He died in 1839, 60 years old. The government of the United States, by learning this death, ordered a 30 days mourning to all the officers of the army.

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