Nicolas-Augustin Paillard
Command Ratings
Nicolas-Augustin Paillard was a French Revolutionary general whose career combined early service as an enlisted soldier of the royal army, rapid elevation during the Revolution to général de brigade, and a long subsequent record of employment in territorial and departmental commands rather than in the Napoleonic marshalate’s principal field armies. His surname appears in Napoleonic-era commemorative listings, and PAILLARD is one of the names inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe, reflecting official recognition of his service during the Revolutionary Wars.
He was born on 28 August 1756 at Donzy (Nièvre). In 1775 he enlisted in the French army and served as a grenadier. He remained an enlisted man through the end of the ancien régime period and into the opening of the Revolution, only receiving commissioned rank after 1789. In September 1789 he was promoted to sous-lieutenant in the Paris National Guard, indicating an early integration into the Revolutionary militia structures that frequently served as avenues for rapid advancement for men without long-standing commissioned backgrounds.
In 1792 Paillard was promoted to lieutenant in the 13th Battalion of Light Infantry and was sent to the Army of the Center, soon redesignated the Army of the Moselle. In October 1792 he received promotion to capitaine. In 1793, amid the Republic’s acute need for officers and the rapid turnover of commanders, he advanced extraordinarily quickly: in that year he was promoted to général de brigade, having passed over intermediate grades that would normally have separated company command from general rank.
Once a general officer, Paillard is recorded as taking command of the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Division in November 1793. On 29 November 1793 he served under Jean-Jacques Ambert at Kaiserslautern, placing him within the Army of the Moselle’s operations against coalition forces on the German frontier. This period was marked by repeated engagements and counter-marches around the Vosges and Palatinate approaches, and brigade command at that stage typically entailed responsibility for assembling provisional regimental groupings, maintaining cohesion among newly raised units, and executing divisional attack or defensive orders in difficult weather and terrain.
After this early Revolutionary combat service, Paillard’s later employment is chiefly associated with commands tied to internal security, territorial administration, and the military oversight of départements rather than with the better-documented campaigns of the Consulate and Empire’s Major field armies. In the French system, such posts still carried significant practical responsibilities: supervising garrisons, managing conscription and supply flows, enforcing public order during politically unsettled periods, and coordinating with civil authorities. For officers who had risen during the Revolution, continued employment in these roles could provide stable postings as the regime changed from Convention to Directory to Consulate and then Empire.
Paillard’s name’s presence on the Arc de Triomphe inscription indicates that his service met the criteria for inclusion in the official rolls commemorating generals and senior officers of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period. While many inscribed names are associated with renowned battlefield commands, the listing also encompassed generals whose careers included difficult frontier or internal commands in the Republic’s formative wars, and the inscription functions as an official marker that Paillard was counted among those senior officers of the era.
He died on 31 December 1831 at Entrains (Nièvre).
Sources
X 93 Kaiserslautern; XX 93-94