In the year 1785, Napoleon left the Military School at Paris, and was admitted as a Second Lieutenant in the regiment of La Fère. At this time he signed like his father: “Buonaparte, younger son, gentleman, at the Royal Military School of Paris.”

Napoleon obtained a company in 1789, and in 1792 he was sent at the head of a battalion of Volunteer Infantry, which was to take part in an expedition against Sardinia. On returning from this expedition, he commanded the artillery at the siege of Toulon. His signature then was as follows:

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.

From this time the change was generally adopted, and the official letters bear the signature “Bonaparte, General-in-Chief of the Army of Italy.”

From his headquarters at Carcare, Napoleon addressed to the Directory at Paris his reports on the battle of Montenotte, which opened the Italian campaign. This letter was dated April 14, 1796, and signed Bonaparte.

In his celebrated proclamation from Milan, the 20th of March, 1796, Napoleon thus addressed his army: “Soldiers, you have precipitated yourselves like a torrent from the top of the Apennines, Milan is yours!” and he signed Bonaparte.

As General-in-Chief of the Egyptian Expedition, Napoleon signed as follows:

From Cairo, the 30th of July, 1798, he signed himself Bonaparte.

When he first became Emperor, he signed himself Napoleon.

The above is one of the first signatures of the Emperor. It was given at Saint Cloud, the 25th of May, 1804. The first three letters NAPoleon, and exactly like this in the middle of his signature when he was accustomed to signing himself BuoNAParte. Up to 1805 he continued to sign his whole name. The 18th of September, 1805, he signed:

After the battle of Austerlitz, which ended the campaign of 1805, the proclamation of Napoleon, dated from the Imperial Camp of Austerlitz, the 3rd of December, 1805, was signed Napoleon.

Beginning with the campaign of 1806, he signed only the first five letters of his name, thus, Napol.

The 26th of October, 1806, at Potsdam, the Emperor signed himself thus,

The 29th of October, 1806, from Berlin, as follows:

The 27th of January, from Varsovia,

From the Imperial Camp at Tilsit, the 22nd of June, 1807, the Emperor signed only his initial, as below, and very rarely after that his entire name: N.

The 7th of December, 1808, he signed from Madrid, thus, N.

At the commencement of the campaign of 1809, in writing to Marshall Masséna, he signed himself as follows:

From the Imperial Camp of Ratisbonne, the 24th of April, 1809, the Emperor addressed a proclamation to the Army, ending thus, “Before a month has passed, I shall be at Vienna,” and he signed

Less than three weeks afterwards, the French Army was at Vienna, and the Emperor signed his decrees from the Palace of Schoenbrunn, 13th of May:

The same variety of signatures is found in the orders dated Moscow, the city which he had entered as a Conqueror, the 12th of September, 1812.

The 21st of Sept., 1812, at 3 o’clock in the morning, the Emperor signed himself as follows:

During the campaign of 1813, the Emperor sent an order from Dresden to the Major-General, dated October 1st, at noon. General Petit relates that he reflected some time before sending it, for the signature had been scratched out twice, and written a third time.

One of the next extraordinary signatures of the Emperor’s, is the following, which he gave at Erfurt, October 13, 1813:

The 4th of April, 1814, Fontainebleau, thus, N.

The 9th of September, 1814, from the Isle of Elba, he writes thus: Nap.

On July 14, 1815, the Emperor wrote to the Prince Regent of England and signed himself

At Longwood, St. Helena, on Dec. 11, 1816, the Emperor wrote to Count Las Cases a letter of condolence on the order the Count had received to leave the island. It was his first signature at St. Helena.