Louis de Tousard (1749-1817) was a French artillerist who served in the American Continental Army under La Fayette, and later was given a US commission. Tousard wrote two very influential books: one was a proposal for a school for officers that became the blueprint for

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

, and the other was a manual for artillery officers that became standard in the young army..

Biography

He is the brother of

Antoine Étienne de Tousard Antoine Étienne de Tousard (9 December 1752 – 15 September 1813) was a French people, French general and military engineer during the French Revolutionary Wars, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He was also the last military enginee ...

. Educated at the Strasbourg school of artillery,. Tousard served with the Continental Army between 1777-1778 and lost an arm due to wound received in the Battle of Rhode Island. He was decorated with the Order of Saint Louis on his return to France. After being briefly imprisoned during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

in 1793 at Prison de l'Abbaye, he returned to the US in 1795 where he received a commission as a major in the 2nd U.S. Artillery Regiment in the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers. By 1800 he was a lieutenant colonel and Inspector of Artillery. As the Inspector, he supervised the construction of several forts in Eastern seaboard of the US, and the construction and testing of cannons. His influence with

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

was instrumental in the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1802, initially to train engineers and artillerists, with a curriculum modeled after that of the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

. After retiring from US service he served France in military and diplomatic capacities. In 1809 he published ''The American Arillerist's Companion, or Elements of Artillery'',. a book that became the basic manual for US artillerymen.

Influence on armory and manufacturing

His greatest influence was that he promoted Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval's idea of interchangeable parts for guns. The

War Department War Department may refer to: * War Department (United Kingdom) * United States Department of War (1789–1947) See also * War Office, a former department of the British Government * Ministry of defence * Ministry of War * Ministry of Defence * D ...

then set up the armories at Springfield and

Harpers Ferry Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia. It is located in the lower Shenandoah Valley. The population was 285 at the 2020 census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where the U.S. stat ...

, which set out to perfect the idea. Despite the claims of Eli Whitney, who failed to deliver on his original 1798 contract until 1809 and who never achieved interchangeability, the

American system of manufacturing The American system of manufacturing was a set of manufacturing methods that evolved in the 19th century. The two notable features were the extensive use of interchangeable parts and mechanization for production, which resulted in more efficient ...

was not perfected until inside contractor Captain John H. Hall realized it with the

M1819 Hall rifle The M1819 Hall rifle was a single-shot breech-loading rifle (also considered something of a hybrid breech and muzzle-loading design) designed by John Hancock Hall, patented on May 21, 1811, and adopted by the U.S. Army in 1819. It was preceded b ...

. Historian

David A. Hounshell David Allen Hounshell (born 1950) is an American academic. He is the David M. Roderick Professor of Technology and Social Change in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences, Department of History, and the Department of Engineering and Publ ...

said,

Other military contributions

Major de Tousard also designed

Fort Adams Fort Adams is a former United States Army post in Newport, Rhode Island that was established on July 4, 1799 as a First System coastal fortification, named for President John Adams who was in office at the time. Its first commander was Capta ...

and

Fort Hamilton Fort Hamilton is a United States Army installation in the southwestern corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, surrounded by the communities of Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights. It is one of several posts that are part of the region which i ...

in Newport, Rhode Island.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * Sim Gérald, ''Louis Tousard (1749-1817). Un artilleur entre deux mondes'', Paris, L'Harmattan, 2021.

External links