Gassendi

Jean Jacques Basilien Gassendi (Digne, 18 December 1748 – Nuits, 14 December 1828)

An artillerist who commanded Bonaparte in 1788 and was artillery director of equipment at the siege of Toulon, then served in the Second Italian campaign. He was promoted to brigadier in 1800 and employed at the War Ministry as of October 1804, where he played a part in the rejection of interchangeable gunlocks. He was promoted to lieutenant general in 1805 and made a State Councillor in 1806, then a senator in 1813. He was created count of the Empire in 1809 and decorated as a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour in 1811. He voted for the deposition of Napoleon and was made a knight of Saint-Louis and a Peer of France in 1814. He participated in the Hundred Days, so was excluded from the Chamber of Peers from 1815 to 1819. He published Gassendi, Jean Jacques Basilien. Year IX [1801]. Aide-mémoire à l’usage des officiers d’artillerie de France attachés au service de terre. Paris: Magimel, which ran to several editions. (Cf. Alder, Ken. 1997. Engineering the Revolution. Arms and Enlightenment in France, 1763-1815. Princeton: Princeton University Press: 323-328).