Jean Antoine Rossignol
| Jean Antoine Rossignol | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 7 November 1759 Paris |
| Died | 27 April 1802 (aged 42) Anjouan |
| Allegiance |
 Kingdom of France Kingdom of the French First French Republic First French Empire
|
| Service/branch | Army (Sans-Culotte) |
| Years of service | 1775–1801 |
| Rank | Général de division |
| Commands held | Armée de l'Ouest |
| Battles/wars |
French Revolutionary Wars (Storming of the Bastille, Capture of the Tuileries) War in the Vendée (Virée de Galerne) |
Jean Antoine Rossignol, (7 November 1759, Paris – 27 April 1802, Anjouan, an island in the Comores archipelago) was a general of the French Revolutionary Wars.
Rossignol began his Memoirs, published in 1820 by Victor Barrucand, with the words: "I was not born into a poor family. My father, who died before I was born, was a Bourguignon. He came to Paris and, after some years, he sought to marry. He thus got to know my mother and they married. Of the five children they had, I was the last." In 1774, aged 14, after 3 years' apprenticeship as a goldsmith, Rossignol, full of illusions and wanting to be his own master, left for the provinces. He journeyed by stages, stopping at Bordeaux, La Rochelle and Niort, before regretting his decision to leave Paris after six months and returning there. Faced with difficulties in finding work, he joined the Royal-Roussillon infantry regiment at Dunkirk on 13 August 1775, before the fall of the Ancien Régime.
On the outbreak of the French Revolution, Rossignol was in Paris - in the words of his Memoirs, "On 12 July 1789 I knew nothing of the Revolution, and did not suspect in any manner that it could hold me in any way." However, he participated in the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 and in the revolutionary days of 20 June and 10 August (he was perhaps the man who shot Galiot Mandat de Grancey on 10 August).
Lieutenant-colonel of the gendarmerie in 1793, général de brigade in the Vendée, under the protection of general Charles Philippe Ronsin, he was made commander-in-chief of the armée de l'Ouest on 27 July 1793. He engaged in widespread looting and reported several successes. As a general Rossignol was accused of incompetence by his subordinate, Augustin Tuncq. He was removed from that role on 23 August 1793 by representatives on mission Léonard Bourdon and Philippe Charles Aimé Goupilleau de Montaigu, but even so was defended by Georges Danton and returned to it on 28 August 1793 by the National Convention, supported by Robespierre and Hébert at the Club des Jacobins in September 1793. He then became commander in chief of the armée des côtes de Brest, armée de l'Ouest and armée des côtes de Cherbourg on 12 November 1793 (22 brumaire year II). He was reestablished in this role several times despite several setbacks and a notorious inability.
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