Penot Lombart de Noirmont, René Hippolyte

PENOT LOMBART DE NOIRMONT, RENÉ HIPPOLYTE. (1750–1792). French volunteer. A sous lieutenant attached to the dragoons on 1768, he became lieutenant in the Royal Comtois infantry five years later. In February 1777 he received a leave of absence to accompany his older brother, Louis-Pierre, to America. On 13 December 1777 he entered the American army as a volunteer, and from that date to 28 April 1778 was Thomas Conway's aide-de-camp. On 14 May 1778 he became assistant inspector general of infantry in the Northern Army, where his brother had been serving as inspector general for the preceding year. He was promoted to major on 29 July with date of rank of 13 December 1777. Next assigned as aide de camp to Lafayette, he held this position until the latter returned to France in January 1779. Noirmont was ordered by Congress on 1 April 1779 to join Lincoln in the Southern Department. In the operations around Savannah, he served as a lieutenant of infantry. Lafayette having noted in his 27 October and 22 December 1778 recommendations to Congress that Noirmont had commanded many French officers then serving as lieutenant colonels, Congress finally breveted him lieutenant colonel on 18 November 1779 in recognition of his services and granted him leave to return to France.

On 1 January 1781 Noirmont was ordered to the West Indies and assigned to the chasseur company of the Second Battalion, Royal Comtois. He returned to France in 1784 and in 1788 was made a chevalier in the Order of Saint Louis. He became lieutenant colonel in his reorganized infantry regiment in July 1791 and served there until he was discharged. Three weeks later, on 30 November, he became captain in the Garde Constitutionnelle. He was at the Tuileries palace when the monarchy fell on 10 August 1792, was arrested, and on 2 or 3 September 1792 he died in the general massacre of prisoners.

SEE ALSO Conway, Thomas.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bodinier, André. Dictionnaire des officiers de l'armée royale qui ont combattu aux Etats-Unis pendant la guerre d'Indépendance, 1776–1783. Vincennes, France: Service historique de l'armée, 1982.

Ford, Worthington C. et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1904–1937.

Lafayette, Gilbert du Motier de. Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Documents, 1776–1790. Edited by Stanley J. Idzerda et al. 5 vols. to date. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1977–.

                              revised by Robert Rhodes Crout