A staff officer alongside General Kellerman in Spain, 1810 …

Here we have a letter extracted from Charles Fitte de Soucy’s rare and fascinating correspondence with his wife. This document is set during the Peninsular War.

[Letter] number 63 – Valladolid, 24 June 1810.

Forwarded mail, from Le Tremblay through Gonesse-Livry.

To Madame de Soucy, rue de Cherche Midi – number 14, faubourg Saint Germain in Paris.

I have told you, my dear Josephine, that I was departing from Valladolid on the 12th, meaning that I would be absent for 15 days. Our campaign did not last that long. We have been experiencing adventures.

From the first day, the general imposed a forced march on us until we reached Benavente, where we arrived at one o’clock after midnight, with no accommodation to be found nor was any food prepared for the men or the horses. We had to leave at five o’clock in the morning. I was the only aide-de-camp close to the general, Turenne having stayed behind at Valladolid. I was thus obliged to spend this time to traverse the city.

On the second day we proceeded to Astorga, whose general (who was governor there) claimed to have been attacked by five thousand Englishmen, whom he only must have been seeing in his dreams! On the third day, we travelled to Leon, a town which had just been captured by the Spaniards, and [was then] regained by the French. We stayed there for several days.

Finally, on our return, at the moment of entering the said village where I was about to accommodate twenty dragoons, a peasant came to warn me that three hundred men of the Bourbon Regiment, commanded by Don Tomas Principe, were there and that they had spent the night in the village. We had hundred dragoons in all, a number more than sufficient to surprise and destroy a unit which was only on watch. But the interest which determined our actions made the general fear that his convoy, which was returning and was loaded with contributions, would be seized by the peasants while he was in the process of charging [the enemy].

As a result, we had to wait until we had brought up two companies which he had left behind. In the meantime the enemy was alerted, but as it took the Spaniards a long time to rally, they formed up in battle array on a plateau from which we could observe their movements. We were all surprised that they wanted to accept battle. These people, I thought to myself, are proud. They probably possessed similar bravery.

General Kellerman also made his arrangements; he ordered me to charge at the head of a company of twelve dragoons (of the 12th Regiment), commanded by Captain Lemoyne, and to pursue the enemy on the main road, while the general himself set out to eliminate a hundred men who were separated [from their other forces] on his right. Yet as soon as we were in motion, we found out that the proud Castilians could do nothing more but produce lots of dust: they fled at full gallop. We pursued them in the same way for five leagues, killing 30 men, two of whom I finished off myself, and we took forty horses from them.

Upon arriving at the village of Villarramiel, the [enemy] band being entirely dispersed, Mr. Lemoyne, another officer, myself and five dragoons halted to repose our horses and waited for the rest of the company, which had not been able to keep up. I entered the home of the priest together with the captain to find some rest, but the same fear which had prevented the general from initiating his attack earlier also impeded him from charging on the hundred men he planned to confront, with the result that these enemies arrived at the (said) village where I was.

Instructed by peasants, they surrounded the village and the street where the priest resided. A dragoon had had time to bring along Captain Lemoyne’s horse and in this perilous circumstance, this brave officer saved my life. Surrounded in the street, there was only him, myself, a quartermaster, and lastly a poor horse of a dragoon that was unshod at three hoofs. There was no more salvation for me, bullets were raining down from all sides. The intrepid Lemoyne, who in the early stages of the action had dashed off to make his presence felt, came back to me and helped me to climb onto the wretched animal which was there. As he swore to save me or die by my side, he kept his word.

The three of us advanced, swords in hand, and managed to escape that blasted street without further incidents, and we were assisted by others of the company who [eventually] joined us; we charged again and put the Spaniards to flight. During the turmoil of the initial encounter, a dragoon had mounted my horse, and while charging at the opening moments of the skirmish, he was carried off together with twelve Spaniards. The horse had cost me 41 louis. The general told me to be assured that I would be reimbursed, and for this reason he even imposed a levy on the village where the affair took place, to punish the inhabitants for having revealed [to the enemy] that we were staying with the parish priest.

In any case, I am very glad to have escaped the ordeal, and I owe it to the bravery of Captain Lemoyne. General Kellerman wrote a splendid report on us to Marshal Masséna.

Farewell. I embrace you, as well as Armand, with all my heart. I don’t know if you will be able to read my scribbling, but I am [being] rushed by the courier.

Source : Anatole Stébouraka and F. Albertine Mas, Charles-P. Fitte de Soucy (1776-1813) – Lettres d’un officier napoléonien, Vitrines d’Archives, 2015, pp. 73-74.