After the capture of Ollioules, the 3rd of December, 1793, Napoleon was made General, and in 1794 he commanded the artillery of the Army of Italy. At the commencement of the year 1795 he was ordered to join the Infantry in the Vendée, but he refused and remained in Paris, where he was attached to the Minister of War. The 5th of October of this year, he commanded under Barras, the Army of the Convention, against the Sections of Paris, and became, thanks to him, General of Division.
A little later Barras gave him the Commanding Chief of the Army of the Interior.
Up to this time Napoleon had not changed the spelling of his name. The heading of his letters read “Buonaparte, general en chef de l’armée de l’interieur,” and he signed “Buonaparte.”
The next signature is at the end of a note on the Army of Italy dated January 19, 1796, Le Général Buonaparte.
In the Memorial from St. Helena, Napoleon says that in his youth he signed Buonaparte like his father, and having obtained the command of the Army of Italy, he changed this spelling, which was Italian, but some years later, being among the French, he signed Bonaparte.
Napoleon was made General-in-Chief of the Army of Italy, the 23rd of Feb., 1796, and he signed Buonaparte up to the 29th of the same month. He left Paris to join the Army towards the middle of the following month, and in the first letter he addressed to the Directory, dated Nice, the 28th of March, from his headquarters, he informed them that he had taken command of the Army the day before, and he signed himself Bonaparte.
