NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, Emperor of the French, was b. at Ajaccio, in the island of Corsica, Aug. 15, 1769. (For an account of the family to which he belonged, see BONAPARTE, FAMILY OF.) At the age of 10 he entered the military school at Brienne, as a king's pensioner. Here he remained five years and a half. During that period he dis played a great aptitude and predilection for mathematics, history, and geography, and an indifference to merely verbal and literary studies. His manner was somber and taci turn, but as Bourrienne (who was his schoolfellow) says, this arose chiefly from the circumstance that he was a foreigner, poor, and unaccustomed to the use of French, which he first learned at Brienne. In Oct., 1784, lie proceeded to the military school to complete his studies for the army, and in rather less than a year obtained his commission as sub-lieut. in the artillery regiment de la Fere. When the revolution broke out Napa leon was in garrison at Valence. He took the popular side, but in a quiet and undernom strative way, for he did not love the boisterous enthusiasm of unmanageable mobs. When the armed rabble of Paris poured out to the Tuileries on the famous 20th of June, 1792 Napoleon, who was then in the city, followed the " despicable wretches" (as he called them), along with his friend Bourrienne; lie saw them force the poor king to stick the red cap on his head, and smile fatuously from the windows of his palace. "It is all over henceforth with that man," said the young officer, and returned to Paris graver and more thoughtful than Bourrienne had ever seen him. After the scenes of Aug. 10 he left for Corsica, where gen. Paoli held the chief command. The excesses of the Septembrists and terrorists, however, induced Paoli to throw off his allegiance to the convention, and to seek the assistance of England. Napoleon was active but unsuc cessful in his opposition to the deSigns of the general, and was obliged, along with his relatives, to flee from the island.
He now petitioned the covention for employment, and was sent to assist in the reduction of Toulon, with the rank of lieut.eol. of artillery. The city was captured (Dec. 19, 1793) entirely through the strategic genius of Napoleon, and in the following Feb ruary he was raised to the rank of brig.gen., and placed at the head of the artillery in the army of the south. Later in the year he was sent to Genoa, to examine the state of the fortifications of the city, and to discover the political disposition of the inhabitants. In the beginning of 1795 he was again in Paris seeking active employment, and thinking, from sheer ennui, of transferring his services to the sultan of Turkey. The convention was now in great peril, on account the mutinous spirit of the arrondissements of the capital, and, on the suggestion of Barras, Carnot, Tallien, and others, Napolon was made commander of the troops provided for its defe6se. On the 13th Vendemiaire (Oct.
4, 1795) the national guard, 30,000 strong, attempted to force its way into the Tuileries, where the convention was sitting, but was routed and dispersed by a terrible cannonade directed by the young artillery officer. Napoleon was immediately appointed to the command of the army of the interior. About this time he made the acquaintance of Josephine Beauharnais, whom he frequently met at the house of Mme. Tallien. Cap tivated by her elegant manners and amiable disposition, he proposed marriage to the graceful widow, and was accepted. The ceremony took place Mar. 9, 1796. A'few days before he had been appointed to the supreme command of the army of Italy, and he was obliged to kale his bride almost at the altar. On his arrival he found the troops in a wretched condition. He had only 36,000 available men, and even these were half-starved and only half-clOthed, to oppose to an Austrian and Piedmontese forc:inf 75,000. Yet he was not afraid to undertake the conquest of upper Italy. Leaving Nice at the close of March, he won his first victory over the Austrians at Montcnot.tc (A which opened the A Dellll Ines for him; three days later a second success at Millesnno sepa•atc d the allied armies; and, filially', his victory at Mondovi (on the 22d) compelled Earthina to implore peace. Ile now hoped to utterly crush the Austrian army under Beaulieu, and at the battle of Lodi (on May 10) nearly accomplished it. his opponent did not venture to defend the line of the Mineio, but hastily throwing a garrison into the city of Mantua, retreated into the Tyrol. Napoleon immediately entered Milan, and took possession besides of all the principal cities of Lombardy. Now began that system of enormous and unscrupulous plunder in northern and central Italy which gives something of a barbaric character to the conquests of the French. The directory gave orders that Napoleon should levy contributions from all the states which he had gratuit Onsly freed, and accord ing to his own account he sent to France not less than 50,000,000 francs. 1 Hs officers and commissaries actually seized whatever they wished, provisions, horses, and all man ner of stores; and because Pavia ventured to make some slight resistance to the shameful extortions of the republicans, Napoleon gave it up to havoc for 24 hours. A body of savors (including Monge, Berthollet, and others) were dispatched to Italy to supurimerd the spoliation of its artistic treasures; and both now and in the subsequent Italian cane paigns pictures, statues, vases, and MSS. were carried off in great numbers, to gratify the vanity of the Parisian sight-seers. In this way Lombardy, Parma, Modena, Bologna, and the states of the church were savagely harried before the end of June—Pope Pius VI., in particular, being forced to submit to conditions of extreme rigor.