Jean Baptiste Leon Dessez (March 30, 1825 - May 17, 1895) was a French-born American civil engineer, surveyor, and hydrographer. Dessez's family were staunch royalists who only through luck managed to escape being guillotined during the French Revolution. Later, the family befriended and supported Napoleon Bonaparte. Jean Baptiste Leon Dessez, better simply known as Leon Dessez, emigrated to the United States in his youth and trained as a civil engineer. He was working in North Carolina when the U.S. Civil War began and he sided with the Confederacy, building fortifications around Richmond. Despite having joined the Confederacy, Dessez moved to Washington, D.C. after the war and spent the remained of his career at the U.S. Hydrographic Office.
