Jean - Bernard Gauthier de Murnan Jean - Bernard Gauthier de Murnan ( 1748 , Bourg - en - Bresse – 27 September 1796 ) was a French officer for the Continental Army and a French General during the French Revolution . When he was young , he had to leave France to serve as a cavalry officer and then military engineer in the Russia n army . When he returned to France , he was sent to support the newly born United States as a Lt . Colonel Engineer in the Continental Army . During the French Revolution era , he was appointed Colonel of the Infantry , then Colonel of the Cavalry , and then promoted to Brigade General in command of the cavalry . Jean - Bernard Gauthier was born in a family of jurists in Bourg - en - Bresse ( now Ain " département " ) of France . He was baptized on 28 November 1748 . He became an officer in the French Royal Army . He had to leave France for a bad duel affair , and take refuge in Russia . He was hired as a lieutenant in the Regiment of Dragoons of Smolensk , Belarus . He was under the command of Prince Golitsyn until 1776 , when he became Captain - Engineer , after studying at the Moscow University . American Revolutionary War Service . He was later sent to the United States with a group of military engineer s , including Captain L ' Enfant and French Colonel Louis Lebègue Duportail to support the Americans during the Revolutionary War , who lacked military engineers . It is pointed out that the massive French military participation took place in 1781 . Starting in January 1777 , he was under the direction of General John Sullivan . In March 1778 , he was promoted to Major in the US Army Corps of Engineers by the Continental Congress . He participated in the Massachusetts Campaign in 1778 . Then , with General George Washington , he served in the Sullivan Expedition against the ' six Indians Nations ' , up to the current Wyoming . Under French Brig . Gen . Marquis de Choisy , he took part to the besieging of York and Gloucester in 1781 . Following a special decision of the US Congress , he was commissioned in September 1783 Lieutenant Colonel by brevet by the Continental Army . French Army Service . In 1784 , he returned to France . He married Andrée Claudine Sain on 30 September 1784 , in Lyon . He was back in the French Army when the First Coalition against the revolutionaries in France took place ( see also French Revolutionary Wars ) . In 1791 , he was promoted Lieutenant - Colonel , serving in the infantry , then serving as " Adjudant - Général " from May 1791 , namely in Sedan reatrenched camp . He was then promoted Colonel , serving as Chief - of - Staff of the Army on the Sambre . In 1792 , he became Colonel of the 35th Infantry Regiment . Therefore , he was at the Battle of Valmy on 20 September 1792 and the Battle of Jemmapes on 6 November 1792 . In January 1793 he became colonel of the 13th Dragoons Regiment , " 13ème régiment de dragons " . Promoted as Brigade - General , he commanded the right flank of the Northern Army with Général Custine . Tired , he left the army and retired around Bourg - en - Bresse . He was twice arrested under " La Terreur " in spring 1794 . He died on 27 September 1796 , in Villereversure , Ain . For his duties , he received Croix de Saint - Louis in 1791 , and for his services during the American Revolutionary War he became member of the Society of the Cincinnati in 1783 . He was the uncle of First French Empire General Aubry , killed at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 , and cousin of the member of the revolutionary French National Convention Gauthier des Orcières , also called Gauthier de l ' Ain .