Vendémiaire [key], first month of the French Revolutionary calendar. 13 Vendémiaire of the year iv (Oct. 5, 1795) was the day when Napoleon Bonaparte, until then an obscure general, won fame by putting down a serious insurrection. The Parisian electorate had revolted against certain decrees designed to perpetuate the power of the leaders of the Convention in the Directory, which was about to be established. Napoleon, with the blessings of Barras, crushed the rebels with artillery fire—which he later described as “a whiff of grapeshot.”
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