Pierre-François Bouchard
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Pierre-François Bouchard (; 29 April 1771, Orgelet – 5 August 1822, Givet) was an officer in the French Army of engineers. He is most famous for discovering the
Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone is a stele of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a Rosetta Stone decree, decree issued in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty of ancient Egypt, Egypt, on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts ...
, an important archaeological find that allowed Ancient Egyptian writing to be understood for the first time in over a millennium.


Life


Early life

He was born in 1771 to Pierre Bouchard (a master joiner, then a businessman, then a merchant and finally a teacher) and his wife Pierrette Janet de Cressia, the youngest of their four daughters and three sons, all born in Orgelet ( Jura). Pierre-François studied in the collège in Orgelet up until the classe de rhétorique, then spent two years studying philosophy and mathematics in the collège at
Besançon Besançon (, ; , ; archaic ; ) is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerland. Capi ...
. His military career began in 1793 as a sergeant-major in a battalion of the Grenadiers de Paris. He was one of these famous "soldiers of Year II' and fought in Champagne and Belgium, before being sent to the École Nationale d' Aérostatique in 1794. He was made 'lieutenant des aérostiers' and taught maths as sous-directeur of this École, then based in the Chateau de Meudon. There his right eye was badly damaged when a gas flask exploded during an experiment to produce hydrogen gas to inflate observation balloons – the experiment was led by Nicolas-Jacques Conté who lost his left eye. Conté held Bouchard in very high esteem and recommended him to
Claude Louis Berthollet Claude Louis Berthollet (, 9 December 1748 – 6 November 1822) was a Savoyard-French chemist who became vice president of the French Senate in 1804. He is known for his scientific contributions to the theory of chemical equilibria via the ...
, one of the four founding fathers of the
École polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...
, which Bouchard entered on 21 November 1796. There he studied descriptive geometry under
Gaspard Monge Gaspard Monge, Comte de Péluse (; 9 May 1746 – 28 July 1818) was a French mathematician, commonly presented as the inventor of descriptive geometry, (the mathematical basis of) technical drawing, and the father of differential geometry. Dur ...
and learned the art of fortification, until his studies were interrupted when he was taken on by the Ministry of War and attached as a lieutenant to the
Egyptian expeditionary force The Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) was a military formation of the British Empire, formed on 10 March 1916 under the command of General Archibald Murray from the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and the Force in Egypt (1914–1915), at the ...
on 20 April 1798.


Egypt

Before embarking for Egypt, he married Marie Élisabeth Bergere on 23 April 1798 – she was a young woman from Meudon, five years his junior, with whom he much later had two children. He then went to
Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...
and on 19 May the same year boarded the ''Franklin''. He landed in Egypt on 4 July after the capture of Alexandria and was then made a member of the Commission des Sciences et des Arts. Still under Conté's command, he was attached to a group of mechanical artists and ordered to investigate Egyptian crafts and techniques. He left Alexandria for Cairo on 7 September and, after a few weeks in Cairo, was on 3 October put under Antoine-François Andréossy's command as part of a team of geographers sent to investigate Lake Menzalé between
Damietta Damietta ( ' ) is a harbor, port city and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt. It is located at the Damietta branch, an eastern distributary of the Nile Delta, from the Mediterranean Sea, and about north of Cairo. It was a Cath ...
and
Port Said Port Said ( , , ) is a port city that lies in the northeast Egypt extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, straddling the west bank of the northern mouth of the Suez Canal. The city is the capital city, capital of the Port S ...
. Bouchard was only on this mission for forty days before going before the exit-panel of the École polytechnique presided over by Monge, graduating in mid November. He was then promoted to engineer lieutenant, second class on 28 November 1798 and left the Commission des Sciences et des Arts to train in the army. He was then put in charge of rebuilding of
Fort Julien Fort Julien (or, in some sources, ''Fort Rashid'') (Arabic: طابية رشيد) is a fort located on the left or west bank of the Nile about north-west of Rashid ( Rosetta) on the north coast of Egypt. It was originally built by the Mamluks ...
, an old
Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...
fortification near the port city of
Rosetta Rosetta ( ) or Rashid (, ; ) is a port city of the Nile Delta, east of Alexandria, in Egypt's Beheira governorate. The Rosetta Stone was discovered there in 1799. Founded around the 9th century on the site of the ancient town of Bolbitine, R ...
(present-day Rashid) which Bonaparte had renamed after
Thomas Prosper Jullien Thomas Prosper Jullien (21 December 1773, Lapalud - 1798, Egypt) was a French army officer of the French Revolutionary Wars. Aide de camp to Napoleon I of France, Bonaparte, he rose to the rank of captain and was brother of the famous general Louis ...
, recently assassinated in Egypt. During these works he discovered the
Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone is a stele of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a Rosetta Stone decree, decree issued in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty of ancient Egypt, Egypt, on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts ...
on 15 or 19 July 1799. He was immediately convinced of its importance, an enthusiasm he passed on to generals Menou and Bonaparte. He found himself caught up in the fiasco which led to the fall of the fort of El-Arish, which he and general Cazals were defending against the Ottomans. He was sent as an envoy to the Grand Vizier but was arrested, disarmed and imprisoned in Damascus for forty-two days. On his release he was promoted to captain on 1 May 1800 and attached again to the force at Rosetta, where he was again captured when the small French garrison Fort Jullien had to capitulate to the 2,000 British and 4,000 Ottoman troops sent against them. He was released at the end of the war in Egypt and got back to Marseille on 30 July 1801.


Saint Domingue and Spain

At Marseille he joined the
Saint-Domingue expedition The Saint-Domingue expedition was a large French military invasion sent by Napoleon Bonaparte, then French Consulate, First Consul, under his brother-in-law Charles Leclerc (general, born 1772), Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc in an attempt to ...
, embarking in December accompanied by his wife, who came with him at her own expense in imitation of Pauline Bonaparte, wife of the expedition's commander Leclerc. Bouchard and his wife both caught yellow fever on the island, though she was repatriated and gave birth to their daughter in 1802, without Bouchard receiving news until much later. Bouchard was captured on the island's surrender and interned on
Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
before being released on parole in August 1804, after which he went back to France. He convalesced there for a few months before joining Napoleon in September 1805, upon which Bouchard was put in charge of construction works in the town of Vendée (later renamed
La Roche-sur-Yon La Roche-sur-Yon () is a Communes of France, commune in the Vendée Departments of France, department in the Pays de la Loire Regions of France, region in western France. It is the capital of the department. The demonym for its inhabitants is '' ...
), which Napoleon had founded to reestablish civil and military authority on a civilian population who he thought might be encouraged to resume the
War in the Vendée The War in the Vendée () was a counter-revolutionary insurrection that took place in the Vendée region of French First Republic, France from 1793 to 1796, during the French Revolution. The Vendée is a coastal region, located immediately so ...
by the British naval presence in the area. Bouchard was in the town for two years with his wife, who gave birth to a son. After a brief stay in
La Rochelle La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle'') is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime Departments of France, department. Wi ...
, in 1807 Bouchard joined an expeditionary force which Napoleon was sending against Spain and Portugal after the Treaty of Tilsit. Bouchard then spent seven years in the
Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...
under
Dupont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...
, Soult, Massena and Marmont, fighting bravely at the
Battle of Alcolea Bridge The Battle of Alcolea Bridge was a minor battle that took place on 7 June 1808, during the Peninsular War, at Alcolea (Córdoba), Alcolea, a small village 10 km from Córdoba, Andalusia, Córdoba, the city that would be invaded by French ...
on the Guadalquivir. Even so, after Dupont's surrender at Baylen on 22 July 1808, Bouchard was yet again captured. When he was released he went to join Soult's army and was present at the battle of Corogne and the capture of Oporto, distinguishing himself at the head of the sappers in the crossing of the fortified bridge at Amarante. He was promoted to chef de bataillon on 24 November 1809, but left his wife in such great want she had to beg for an advance of 500 francs from his pay, which he had otherwise entirely devoted to buying equipment and new horses after the French pulled out of Portugal. In 1810 and 1811 he fought under Massena in a new expedition to Portugal, which once again ended in retreat. He was made a Knight of the Légion d'Honneur and attached to the defence of Astorga in Spain under the command of Marmont then Clauzel. There he was again captured on the city's surrender and sent to England in September 1812, leaving his children and his parents in the care of his wife, who was again impoverished now she did not have his income.


Restoration

Bouchard only got back to France after the Treaty of Paris in July 1814 and the Bourbon Restoration saw him made an Officer of the Légion d'Honneur, a knight of the
order of Saint Louis The Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis () is a dynastic order of chivalry founded 5 April 1693 by King Louis XIV, named after Saint Louis (King Louis IX of France). It was intended as a reward for exceptional officers, notable as the fi ...
and chief engineer of
Orléans Orléans (,"Orleans"
(US) and
Hundred Days The Hundred Days ( ), also known as the War of the Seventh Coalition (), marked the period between Napoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII o ...
he sided with Napoleon, who put him in charge of defending
Laon Laon () is a city in the Aisne Departments of France, department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. History Early history The Ancient Diocese of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held s ...
. He was denounced after Waterloo for this action and put on half-pay, until requesting in July 1816 that his service record be amended to play down his actions during the Hundred Days. He thus rejoined the army and was attached to the fortified cities in northern France. His classmate Prevost de Vernois recommended him for the rank of lieutenant colonel, but he died in Givet in 1822, as Engineer in Chief there, after a long and painful illness – his daughter died just before him, aged 13. His widow's friends convinced the king to grant her a 450 franc pension, only a quarter of the pension Bouchard himself had received.


Bibliography

* ''La chute d'El-Arich, décembre 1799 : Journal historique du Capitaine Bouchard'', preface and notes by Gaston Wiet, éditions de la Revue du Caire, 1945, 176 pages. * ''La pierre du lieutenant inconnu'', Frédéric Chevalier, Pays Comtois n°73 , Juillet 2007, pp. 86–87.


External links

* Full life on th
ASPHOR
site {{DEFAULTSORT:Bouchard, Pierre-Francois 1771 births 1822 deaths People from Jura (department) French Army officers École Polytechnique alumni French Republican military leaders of the French Revolutionary Wars Officers of the Legion of Honour Knights of the Order of Saint Louis French engineers French commanders of the Napoleonic Wars Rosetta Stone