Educated at the Strasbourg school of artillery,[2] Tousard served with the Continental Army between 1777–1778 and lost an arm due to wound received in the Battle of Rhode Island.

[2] His influence with George Washington was instrumental in the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1802, initially to train engineers and artillerists,[1] with a curriculum modeled after that of the École Polytechnique.

[1] His greatest influence[citation needed] was that he promoted Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval's idea of interchangeable parts for guns.

Historian David A. Hounshell said, The importance of Tousard's book [on artillery], as well as his informal teaching of officers in the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers, cannot be overemphasized.

The United States War Department soon found the idea of interchangeability irresistible, and through its own armories and through private arms contracts it encouraged and supported attempts to achieve this end.