Berthier, Marshal L. A. (1753-1815). Amanuensis to Napoleon, Berthier has sadly received scant attention from military historians, for it was he that laid the foundations for the emperor's glory. He was the staff officer par excellence, and his meticulous attention to detail allowed his master to put his grandiose schemes into effect. He learnt his trade in the pre-revolutionary royal army, entering into the military engineering and cartography branch in 1766. By the age of 36 he was a lieutenant colonel and had seen active service in the American independence war in the French expeditionary force under Rochambeau.
He threw in his lot with the new republic, but in 1792 he was suspended in a wave of anti-royalist paranoia. After a period of inactivity, he was posted to the Army of Italy in 1795 as COS, where the young Bonaparte arrived the following year. He was minister of war from 1799-1807 and COS to the Grande Armée. In 1809 he took temporary command of the Armée d'Allemagne, until Napoleon arrived to take over. The two were to work intimately together until 1814, when Berthier swore loyalty to Louis XVIII on Napoleon's abdication. During the Hundred Days, he threw himself out of a window and his emperor badly missed his excellent staff work.
— Toby McLeod
