Charles Auguste Jean Baptiste Louis Joseph Bonamy

Charles-Auguste Bonnamy (18 August 1764 – 7 August 1830) was a French cavalry commander who rose to the rank of general during the First French Empire.

Early life After having been one of the first volunteers to enlist in the newly raised Vendée Battalion of Volunteers, where he was promoted to corporal, in 1790 Bonnamy went on to join the Army of the North's Royal-Lorraine Cavalry Regiment, where he was promoted to sub-lieutenant.

War of the First Coalition

Having served under Dumouriez, following that general's defection to the Army of the Holy Roman Empire in 1793, Bonnamy went on to serve on the general staff of Dumouriez' successor, Dampierre, before returning to his country to fight against the royalists at the Battle of Mainz. in response to which General Francesco Pignatelli, an Italian general also serving under Championnet, published an Additional historical overview of General Bonnamy's memoir on the war between the French Republic and the King of Naples and on the revolution which followed it ....

By December 1799, Bonnamy was leading one of the two brigades, the other being the infantry brigade led by Bonet, in Ney's division of Saint-Cyr's Centre Corps of the Army of the Rhine and Moselle under General Moreau. At the beginning of the 1800 campaign, the brigade was formed by the 569 men and horse of the 8th Chasseur a Cheval Regiment. He would still be doing so in May of that year, when Ney's division was expanded to also include Joba's brigade.

Napoleonic Wars

On 1 August 1812, Bonnamy's 3rd Brigade appears listed under General Morand's 1st Division, which formed part of Maréchal Davout's I Corps. The 3rd Brigade was then made up of the 30th Line Regiment, numbering 3,725 infantry troops plus 93 horse and an artillery company of four guns, and the 2nd Baden Regiment, numbering 1,343 infantry plus 45 horse and an artillery company of two guns. By the middle of that same month, the Brigade had been reduced to just the 30th Line Regiment of 3,176 infantry troops plus 83 horse and an artillery company of five guns.

At the Battle of Borodino, under Morand's 1st Division, Bonnamy still headed the 3rd Brigade, with its 30th Line Regiment now consisting of 3,008 infantry and 78 cavalry, Bonnamy was severely wounded in the hand-to-hand combat and taken prisoner. Although originally considered dead,

On his return to France, he was awarded both the Legion of Honour and the Order of Saint Louis at the same time (October 1814).

He was promoted to lieutenant general in January 1815.