Jean Vivès (b. Chalabre, 1770)
Son of a merchant, he enrolled as a grenadier in the 1st battalion of the Aude on 22 March 1792, was promoted to assistant major in the 5th battalion of the Aude on 11 March 1793, then to lieutenant 1st class in the artillery on 13 June 1794. He entered Cisalpine service as a division major on 13 September 1797, was promoted to battalion chief on 16 March 1801 but in 1805 he was destined to the 4th demi-brigade of line infantry, not having had previous artillery schooling. As a matter of fact he had been sent to the Modena school in 1799 to study mathematics. He was briefly comandante d’armi, before being readmitted to the artillery in March 1806. He was promoted to major on 2 February 1807, then was again comandante d’armi 3rd class on 21 May 1813. He went back to France in 1814 and participated in the Hundred Days. He had fought in the 1792 campaign in Savoy, in the 1793-96 campaigns in the Eastern Pyrenees, in the Italian campaigns of 1797-1801, 1806, and 1813-14, in the 1809 German campaign and in the 1812 Russian one. With the Restoration he was suspended from active duty, but was then restored to active duty as a lieutenant-colonel (Cf. MSA, WO, 1957, 119, WO 89, SHD 2Ye 4143).