Dominique-Louis-Guillaume-Bruno d’Ast was born on 9 August 1790, in Brignemont. (1) He was the eldest son of Mr. Guillaume d’Ast and Madame Marie-Germaine-Sophie de Pérignon. (2) His godfather was Dominique Catherine de Pérignon, his uncle, an officer in the royal grenadiers in the Quercy Regiment, the future victor of Rosas and Figueras, ambassador of the French Republic to Spain, Marshal of the Empire, and so on.
Bruno’s father, born in Brignemont on 12 July 1734 to Jean d’Ast, a middle-class citizen, and Madame Anne Monsigner, was a prominent lawyer at the parliament of Toulouse before the Revolution; he rallied to the new political views and on several occasions held elected office, in particular as national agent for the district of Beaumont and, more importantly, as administrator of the Department of Haute-Garonne, which he held when he was elected deputy to the Council of Elders on 26 Germinal, Year VII. In Year VIII, when the judiciary was reorganised, he was warmly supported by his brother-in-law, General Pérignon, and was appointed judge to the Court of Appeal of Haute-Garonne. In 1811, he became president of the Imperial Court of Toulouse. His righteous ideas and moderate opinions were in perfect harmony with those of Marshal Pérignon, who did not disdain, at the height of his fortune, to seek the advice of his judicious brother-in-law. President d’Ast left in Toulouse, and throughout the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal over which he presided for many years, the memory of his calm impartiality and his great legal knowledge. Retired on 2 January 1816, he passed away in Brignemont on 1 March 1827.
Bruno d’Ast began his education under the watchful eye of his father; it appears to have been very meticulous. ‘I met my godson in Toulouse (he was six years old at the time)’, wrote General Pérignon to his sister Madame d’Ast in the Year IV, ‘he was not at all a stranger there, familiar and at ease with everyone as if he had always lived in the city. He seems to me to have a good disposition; I like him a great deal’. (3)
In the Year XI, there was talk of sending him to the Prytanée of Paris, where the sons and nephews of generals and high-ranking civil servants were admitted fairly easily, but on the advice of his godfather, they preferred to send him to Sorèze, which was already highly reputed at the time. There he was to complete his preparation for the examinations for the Ecole Militaire at Fontainebleau. The choice of his career, with the protector that General Pérignon promised to be for him, could not, in fact, be in doubt. Everyone in his family agreed on this; even his mother, remembering a custom from the Ancien Régime, had thought of having Bruno entered on the register of some regiment in order to ensure him greater seniority in the service. ‘It is no longer the custom’, replied Pérignon, ‘my sons had been registered and I should have applied again because the corps in which they had been enrolled lost its registers in Egypt, therefore I did not do it and I would not do it again, it is no longer of any use; you are only considered to be in the service from the day you actually enter it’. (4)
On 26 November 1807, after considerable achievements in his studies, Bruno was admitted to the Military School at Fontainebleau and was made a corporal on 27 July 1808. (5) ‘Bruno sometimes writes to me’, Marshal Pérignon wrote on 11 November 1808, ‘he hopes to be part of the first draft at the end of the year; as far as I am concerned, I have no doubt of this based on the excellent testimonies that General Bellavene shared with me about his conduct and progress. If he is assigned to the 7th Line Infantry Regiment, as I somewhat suggested, you will have the pleasure of seeing him in passing, since he will have to join the army in Catalonia. I know the colonel of this corps very well; you can imagine that I will not fail to recommend your son with all the interest he inspires in me as a nephew, as a godson and above all because of the high hopes he instils in us’. (6)
Bruno d’Ast received his second lieutenant’s epaulette on 25 March 1809 in the 4th Cohort of Conscript Chasseurs of the Guard, which soon became the 4th Regiment of Voltigeurs of the Imperial Guard, and not in the 7th Infantry Regiment. The few letters that have been preserved from him date from his first campaign, in 1811, in Spain. (7) Others were also written from that country, but twelve years apart, in 1823, during the Restauration campaign in which he took part, not without distinction. In the meantime, he had been in Germany and Russia wherever there was a war being fought, without his gaiety and philosophy ever failing him under any circumstances…
Soria (8), 17 March 1811.
My dear father, this is the only opportunity I have had since my last letter (9) to inform you of my progress. I am doing very well and so far have not suffered from the slightest matter.
I would very much like to find myself in a town along the way, so that I could write to you more often; instead of here, detachments very rarely pass by, and as fate would have it, I was not even at Soria on 10 February, where a column of four hundred Chasseurs à Cheval passed by on their way to Burgos. It was a very safe means of passing on my letter to you; but you will have been reassured on my account since Mr. Dupart, who wrote to his mother, told her about me and asked her to let you know that there was no negligence on my part, but that I had been absent for a few days. We are constantly on the move, in pursuit of the insurgents who seek to raise recruits, prevent the inhabitants from paying their taxes and also hinder correspondence.
This is what we are dealing with, because the difficulty of eliminating them lies in the fact that this is the most mountainous country in existence; that they employ almost all the inhabitants as spies who inform them of all our movements so that they can avoid us and that, lastly, they never fight in [regular battle] order, because in a moment they are dispersed and obliged to throw themselves into the mountains and hide, each to their own devices; being unable to do anything more, we return to Soria, but they immediately reunite, forcing us to sortie again. This is what we have been occupied with since we have been here, but they also fear us greatly and no longer dare to approach more than eight leagues from the town because we have confronted them on several occasions and killed many of them.
You must also have learnt from the letter Philip wrote to his parents that by decree of His Majesty the Emperor, the entire Chasseur branch of his new Guard was named Voltigeurs and that of the Grenadiers is now called Tirailleurs. I can assure you that I was overjoyed, especially to have abandoned the name of conscript. We are now the 4th Regiment of Voltigeurs of the Imperial Guard. My address is therefore: in the 4th Company of the 4th Regiment, etc.
I will also tell you that we are making great preparations here for the 19th of this month, King Joseph’s celebration. I think it will be very brilliant. There will be a grand military mass, bullfights, a lavish meal, illuminations, an all-night ball with a magnificent supper attended by all the guests. It will last at least until eight in the morning. I think we will have time to stretch our legs.
***
Soria, 14 May 1811.
I very much expected, my dear father, to receive news from you through the detachment which has been at Burgos, however I have been deceived in my expectations; your letters will no doubt have gone astray or will have been sent to another regiment.
Please receive the news of my promotion to the rank of lieutenant by decree of His Imperial Majesty of 17 February. I am hastening to inform you of this so that you can share my pleasure, as I have just overcome the most difficult threshold of all. I am also announcing it to my uncle the Marshal; he will therefore notice that I am working towards my advancement and that I have taken advantage of the good advice he has given me in all his letters. You can also tell Mr. Philip that his son is included in the designation, and that we will redouble our zeal and assiduity for our service in order to merit another rank and the esteem of our parents in a few years.
We are constantly on the march in the province. Mr. Dupart has asked me to tell you many details on his behalf and about him, and I beg you to reimburse his mother for what he has lent me.
I would also like to inform you that our uniform has changed almost completely as a result of the name change to voltigeurs. We now wear the light infantry uniform with a yellow collar and red lining, white waistcoat and trousers, hussar-style boots with a gold trim and tassel. I can assure you, it is quite beautiful! (10)
***
Palencia (11), 18 August 1811.
My dear mother, we left our former garrison of Soria on the 9th of this month, in order to join the other regiments of the Guard and proceed to Portugal. I passed through Burgos from where I intended to write to you; but having arrived there on the day of His Majesty’s holiday it was necessary to celebrate it, which obliged me to delay until the first opportunity.
We departed the next day at six o’clock in the morning and after four days of marching we found ourselves in the city of Palencia, which is one of the most magnificent cities I have yet seen in Spain. I am in very good health. Tomorrow I expect to be in Rio-Seco, where the battle was fought, and in two days’ time on the frontiers where we will be at the forefront, which is what I have been asking for for a long time.
I was pleased to learn that my uncle the Marshal was in Paris and not returning to Naples where I thought he already had been. I would very much like him to make his way to this country to lead an army corps. He could then be of great use to me and even call me to him, which would be very convenient for him. I would also like to inform you, my dear mother, that as we are entering a country where resources are not the same as in the one we have just left, I thought I should provide myself with and receive from Mr. Dupart the sum of one hundred francs, but I would point out to you that this is for emergency purposes, that it will only be used when I need it most and that it must last me at least six months. Please pay it back as soon as possible.
I was very pleased to learn that Papa was to be appointed President of the Imperial Court. Please congratulate him on my behalf and tell him how pleased I was to hear that he had been rewarded for his diligence.
My friend Philip is doing very well, you can pass this on to his parents.
***
Marienwerder (12), 6 July 1812.
My dear mother, we have reached the other side of the Vistula, as you can tell; it has not proceeded entirely without some fatigue, since we have travelled at least a hundred leagues through a country in which no main roads are to be found; they are all sand tracks and you can imagine how difficult it is to travel on them. However, that is all behind us now and we no longer have to think about it.
I am doing wonderfully well: that is the most important thing. I only hope to reach my regiment soon in order to receive some news from you; I have not received any word from you since Paris, which I find rather long; however, I do not blame you at all. I know very well that as long as we are on the road I will not be able to get any as your letters are with the regiment in front of us, but I hope that before long I will have the satisfaction of learning something from you, as in a hundred leagues or so we will be close to them.
I intended to write to you from Berlin as I had promised, but in our current situation it is often hardly possible to keep one’s promise; we have been busy from morning until evening reviewing everything that might be lacking for our voltigeurs in order to have it replaced immediately. Once this inspection was over, we had a review of the supply inspector and Marshal Victor, who governs the place.
I would also have written to you since that time but there were no military post offices and I hastened to take advantage of the opportunity and the place where one was located. I will tell you that I think that Berlin is a very pleasant city and very well built. The streets are very straight and wide, especially the one named after Frederick, which is one league long. There are still a large number of magnificent buildings [to be found] and the promenades are also very charming; however, the city is not nearly as lively as Paris, nor do you find there a quarter of the conveniences of the latter. I will not mention the others because they are not first-rate, although some of them were still quite lovely.
Notes
(1) Municipality in the Toulouse arrondissement, Department of Haute-Garonne.
(2) Civil register of the municipality of Briguemont. Births, 1790. Although of middle-class descent, the d’Ast family appears to have been ennobled. They adopted the following arms: azure, a silver chevron between two silver shells in the centre, a golden lion passing in the base.
(3) Letter from General Pérignon to his sister. Montech, 4 Brumaire Year IV.
(4) Letter from General Pérignon, member of the Sénat conservateur, to his brother-in-law. Paris, 15 Frimaire Year XI.
(5) Bruno d’Ast’s papers contain several copies of his service records: some originate from the corps in which he served, others from the Ministry of War. All of them are incomplete and some of them contain certain discrepancies.
(6) Letter from Marshal Pérignon, governor of Naples, to his brother-in-law. Naples, 11 November 1808.
(7) Bruno d’Ast was not the most zealous of correspondents; his parents and friends often complained about his lack of punctuality.
(8) A town in Old Castile, near the source of the Douro, twelve leagues southwest of Tarazona. Soria is a short distance from ancient Numantia.
(9) None of the letters prior to these ones have been found in the family archives.
(10) It is in this uniform, of which he was so proud, that Bruno dAst is depicted in a superb miniature owned by Madame Peyrolles d’Esparbès.
(11) A town of some importance in the Kingdom of Léon. It had a bishop’s residence, a number of cloth and hat factories and a population of around 8,000 souls. It is located seventeen leagues south-west of Burgos and fourty-six leagues north-west of the city of León. On Palencia and its inhabitants, see: ‘Campagnes et Souvenirs militaires de J. A. Oyon’, in Le Carnet de la Sabretache, 1913, pp. 327-328.
(12) Town in the Kingdom of Prussia, twelve leagues south of Danzig and eighty-two leagues north-east of Berlin.
Source : Jean Barada, Correspondance et vie militaire du commandant Bruno d’Ast (1807-1838), in Le Carnet de la Sabretache, 1930, pp. 44-50.
Other accounts to read :
> Correspondence of grognard Jean-Henry Rattier (I) …
> Recollections of a cadet, marching off to Spain …
> An Imperial Guard commander and the 1813 Campaign (I) …
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