Jean-Baptiste Annibal Aubert du Bayet

File:Aubert du Bayet peinture Guerin.jpg]]

Jean-Baptiste Annibal Aubert du Bayet (19 August 1759 – 17 December 1797) was a French Army officer, politician and diplomat active during the French Revolution. Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1759,{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=73IFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA625|title=History of Louisiana: the Spanish domination|first=Charles|last=Gayarré|date=16 November 1854|publisher=Redfield}} he fought in the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolutionary Wars.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7s1LCHxLRrUC&pg=PA313|title=War, Revolution, and the Bureaucratic State : Politics and Army Administration in France, 1791-1799: Politics and Army Administration in France, 1791-1799|first=Howard G.|last=Brown|date=3 August 1995|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=9780191590733}}

French revolution

Aubert du Bayet arrived in France at the beginning of the Revolution, but was initially hostile to revolutionary ideas. While in Metz, as a young Captain, he published an anti-Jewish pamphlet entitled Le cri du citoyen contre les Juifs.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1AwKgq-CyUgC&pg=PA67|title=The Shaping of a Jewish Identity in Nineteenth-Century France|first=Jay R.|last=Berkovitz|date=16 November 1995|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=0814320120}} However, he soon saw that it could serve his ambitions.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7FdBAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA294|title=The History of the French Revolution|first=Adolphe|last=Thiers|date=16 November 1866|publisher=D. Appleton}} He became a member of the legislature in 1791. Aubert du Bayet was President of the French National Assembly (the "Legislative Assembly") from 8 July 1792 to 22 July 1792.

In 1793, he served as General of Brigade in the heroic defense of Mayence in 1793, when he finally had to surrender to the Prussian Army. He then seconded Hoche in Vendée in the fight against the Chouans in the War in the Vendée. He then became Minister of Defense of France ("Minister of War") from 3 November 1795 to 8 February 1796.

Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire

File:General Aubert Dubayet with French officers being received by the Grand Vizier in 1796.jpg in 1796, by Antoine-Laurent Castellan.]]

In 1796, General Aubert du Bayet was appointed as ambassador ("Minister of the Republic") to the Ottoman Empire. He was sent to the Ottoman court with artillery equipment, and French artillerymen and engineers to help with the development of the Ottoman arsenals and foundries.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cjbYxqoJyZoC&pg=PA202|title=Ottoman Wars 1700-1870: An Empire Besieged|first=Virginia H.|last=Aksan|date=16 November 2007|publisher=Longman/Pearson|isbn=9780582308077}} Infantry and cavalry officers were also to train the Spahis and Janissaries, but they were frustrated by the opposition of the Janissaries.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EWniAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA335|title=History of Ottoman Turks: From the Beginning of Their Empire to the Present Time. Chiefly Founded on Von Hammer|first=Sir Edward Shepherd|last=Creasy|date=16 November 1856|publisher=R. Bentley}} Ironically, some of these troops, trained to Western methods, were successfully employed against the French troops of Napoleon a few years later under Sir Sydney Smith at the Siege of Saint-Jean d'Acre in 1799.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GWVZAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA475|title=The Quarterly review|date=16 November 1829}} Their behaviour delighted Selim III, and upon their return, they were named Nizam-gedittes or "New Regulars", but they were eventually slaughtered and dispersed by the Janissaries and conservative clerics and politicians, leading to the deposition of Selim III.

Aubert du Bayet died of fever in 1797 while in Constantinople. His widow returned to France and married to his long-time assistant Jean-François Carra de Saint-Cyr.