François Bontemps [SEP] conflict
François Bontemps
François Bontemps, later baron d'Abaumont, a noted brigadier general during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was born 1 June 1753 at Saumur, and died 29 October 1811 at Saumur (Maine-et-Loire).
Family and education.
François Bontemps was born into a family of craftsmen, workers of copper and bronze, in Saumur. As a boy, his parents hoped he would become a priest and he was sent to study at the College of Saumur, and later Seminary
of Angers. Lacking a vocation, however, Bontemps enlisted in an infantry regiment of the Royal Army. In 1784, having reached the rank of company clerk, and remained there for two years, he realized that he could not advance. He accepted a discharge the 4 May and returned to study the priesthood.
In 1789, François Bontemps embraced the principles of the French Revolution, and in 1792 enlisted as a chaplain in the volunteer battalion of the Eure. According to battalion lore, one of the officers of the