Little Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15 1769 in the town of Ajaccio on the island of Corsica. Napoleon’s father was a lawyer and his mother stayed at home to take care of her 8 rambunctious children. Napoleon was by far the wildest of the children and was the ringleader of all their escapades even though he was not the eldest.

Napoleon’s parents sent him to a French military academy at the age of 9 so he would settle down and be prepared for a military career. Napoleon had trouble spelling and spoke with an accent. This caused the other children to make fun of him so Napoleon retreated into devoting all his time to his studies. Napoleon soon became one of the top students at the school and his teachers were very impressed and believed he would make a great sailor someday.

Instead of joining the navy, young Napoleon attended the elite military school in Paris. Napoleon was fascinated by cannons and decided to study to be an artillery officer. Napoleon finished the two year course to become an officer in only one year! Napoleon graduated school in September 1785 and joined the adult world.

Napoleon was given the post of 2nd lieutenant in La Fere artillery regiment. Soon after that, the people of France, angry with the unjust King Louis, said they wanted to rule themselves. Napoleon’s home of Corsica also wanted to rule themselves and Napoleon went back home to help. The leader of the Corsicans was Napoleon’s old academy chum Paoli and Napoleon soon became his 2nd in command in the struggle for freedom against the evil French royalists.

Napoleon got in a fight with Paoli so he went back to Paris. There he made friends with the Robespierre’s brothers, who ran the country now that the evil king Louis was gone.

He was placed in command of the artillery during the siege of Toulon against the British and Royalists. He did so well he was promoted to Brigadier General! But misfortune struck and the Robespierres lost power and Napoleon was put in prison.