Simon Bernard (1779–1839), military engineer, was a native of Dole, France, and graduate of the École Polytechnique in Paris. He entered the French army as a lieutenant of engineers in 1797 and was promoted to captain three years later. Bernard helped to fortify Antwerp, 1810–12, and he became one of Napoleon’s aides-de-camp in 1813. He served the emperor faithfully until the latter’s downfall the following year. Although Bernard accepted a military appointment under the restored Bourbons, he rejoined Napoleon during the Hundred Days and fought with him at the Battle of Waterloo. Following his arrival in the United States, on 16 Nov. 1816 Bernard became an assistant engineer in the United States Army with the pay of a brigadier general, and he sat on the War Department’s board for improving border and coastal defenses, 1816–31. During the 1820s he also labored on the government’s internal improvements board, where he helped to plan roads and canals. After Louis Philippe ascended the French throne in 1830, Bernard resigned his post on 10 Aug. 1831 and returned to his native land. There he was promoted to lieutenant general, raised to the peerage, made inspector general of engineers, and employed as minister of war, 1834 and 1836–39 (ANB description begins John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, 1999, 24 vols. description ends ; DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, 1928–36, 20 vols. description ends ; DBF description begins Dictionnaire de biographie française, 1933– , 19 vols. description ends ; Charles Mullié, Biographie des Célébrités Militaires des Armées de Terre et de Mer de 1789 a 1850 [1851], 62; Heitman, U.S. Army description begins Francis B. Heitman, comp., Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, 1903, 2 vols. description ends , 1:214; Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 9 Dec. 1839; gravestone inscription in the Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris).