Jean-Bernard Gauthier de Murnan

This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (January 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Jean-Bernard Gauthier de Murnan (1748 in Bourg-en-Bresse – 27 September 1796) was a French officer for the Continental Army and a French general during the French Revolution.

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. When he was young, he had to leave France after a duel. He served as a cavalry officer and then military engineer in the Imperial Russian Army. He was hired as a lieutenant in a regiment of dragoons in Smolensk. He was under the command of Prince Golitsyn until 1776, when he became Captain-Engineer, after studying at the Moscow University.

When he returned to France, he was sent to support the newly born United States as a Lt. Colonel of the Engineers in the Continental Army. In the French Revolutionary Army, he was appointed Colonel of the Infantry, then Colonel of the Cavalry, and then promoted to a Brigade General in command of the cavalry.