Born on 5 September 1786 in Laon, Aisne, into a noble family originally from Berry, Auguste-Marie was the son of Jérôme Clément Agard, the Marquis of Maupas, and Marie-Madeleine de La Fons d’Happencourt. He married Geneviève-Stéphanie-Félicité-Cécile de Martiny on 2 January 1821.
Maupas entered the École Militaire of Fontainebleau on 17 February 1805, and was appointed second lieutenant in the 11th Dragoon Regiment at Hesdin in 1806, lieutenant in 1810 and captain in 1811. Under the First Empire, he took part in the German and Polish campaigns in 1806 and 1807. From 1808 to 1811, our soldier fought in Spain and Portugal under the orders of Masséna, Suchet and Ney.
On 7 June 1813, he crossed the Rhine at Mainz to join Napoleon’s forces at Leipzig. Maupas took part in the battles of Dresden, Leipzig and Saint-Dizier. In 1815, he became aide-de-camp to Charles François Riffardeau de Rivière, whom he accompanied to Provence prior to and after the Hundred Days, then to Corsica, and finally as embassy attaché in Constantinople. On 1 August 1815, Maupas was tasked with escorting Marshal Brune from Toulon to Avignon, where Brune was ambushed and killed. Returning to France in 1819, he served in the campaign in Spain alongside the Duke of Angoulême.
Lieutenant in the Garde du Corps of Monsieur in 1821, then of King Louis XVIII, Auguste-Marie was appointed deputy governor to the Duke of Bordeaux in 1827, who was very fond of him. He accompanied the royal family into exile in Scotland in 1830, where he continued to teach his pupil for eighteen months, before returning to France in 1832, where his family interests called him back.
On account of his close ties with the former dynasty, Auguste de Maupas retired to the Château de Poissons, where he passed away on 23 October 1862.
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We entered Spain on 28 December 1808, via Bayonne, Saint-Jean de Luz, Vitoria and Burgos. We were billeted in Palencia and throughout the province of Old Castile. We marched under the orders of General Kellerman, whose headquarters were located in Valladolid.
Palencia, 15 February 1809. (1) – My dear father, I believe I told you about the expedition we undertook eight or ten days ago. We were in pursuit of the brigands who are in the vicinity, commanded by Marquesito, nephew of La Romana. They had seized about thirty English prisoners and a Spanish colonel led to France by an infantry officer with twenty men under his command. All twenty of them were murdered. Only the officer was spared: the Spanish colonel, having been well treated by him, took him under his protection. After pursuing them for three days at forced marching pace, we caught them by surprise in a village at five o’clock in the morning, as it was not yet daylight.
We headed for the alcade’s home, where both La Romana and the Spanish colonel were staying. The bandits fired several pistols shots from the windows, fortunately without hitting anyone. After breaking down the door, an officer and several dragoons went forward to take them prisoner. Just as our soldiers were entering the room, La Romana, in his shirt, jumped out of a window more than fifteen feet high. He swam across a river that ran beside the house. Our men fired several pistol shots, but La Romana was able to escape easily under cover of darkness.
The Spanish colonel did not have time to jump out of the window: he was arrested with another officer and thirty-three brigands. Furthermore, the English prisoners were recaptured and we freed the French officer. Not a single one of these thirty-three brigands survived. We shot them in the villages along the road, with the exception of one who was hanged in the square in Palencia.
It appears that there are still nearly five hundred of these brigands scattered throughout the surrounding villages. They are dressed like peasants, which means they are very hard to recognise, except when they are carrying weapons.
Léon, 26 April 1809. – For the last fortnight we have been chasing brigands, which has prevented me from writing to you. Fortunately yesterday we were reviewed by General of Division Kellerman, who allowed my captain to go and take the waters in France to recover from his wounds. This officer is leaving today and I am seizing this opportunity to write to you.
There was talk of us returning to France, but I am afraid we will have to stay a little longer. We recently had a small affair with the brigands. They killed more than a hundred men and we shot all the prisoners. There are twelve thousand of these brigands in Asturias and they are currently led by a Spanish prince. Marshal Ney with his army corps is on the march to attack them and we are heading in the opposite direction with the division and five thousand infantrymen to cut them off. In eight or ten days, there will be more to report. It seems that La Romana has embarked for England.
Valencia, 24 June 1809. – In my last letter, I mentioned that we were leaving the next day to make our way to Asturias with a small army corps commanded by General Kellerman. We proceeded straight to Oviedo, the capital. We had several affairs before we reached the place. The insurgents were always repulsed but with no significant losses, and they promptly retreated into the mountains.
The general set off a few days later from Oviedo with his army corps and we returned to Léon. 5,000 insurgents had withdrawn to Santander and taken control of this town and its garrison. A general and two or three brigades were due to travel to this region, but we have just learned that General Bonnet has recaptured Santander, 1,000 insurgents have been killed and 4,000 others made prisoners.
We left Léon four days ago and the regiment is stationed in Valencia and the surrounding area until further notice. In all these affairs, only one dragoon was severely wounded: it is true that in this part of the country, cavalry can do very little, as there are no plains to deploy on.
Valencia, 20 October 1809. – Yesterday, for the first time in a month, I had the pleasure of sleeping in a bed the past three months; I have not had this good fortune at least eight times. I am now going to recount to you all our journeys, which have been nearly always made at night.
We departed from here for Léon; the enemy had returned, but did not deign to await us. We only captured one cavalryman and freed several Frenchmen who had been taken prisoner in a previous affair. From there, I left with another officer and fifty dragoons to reconnoitre Labagneza, where there were said to be two or three hundred men. Unfortunately we only reached Labagneza at half past six in the evening. We caught the brigands by surprise, who scattered in all directions. As night fell, we only managed to capture eight of them. As the horsemen also fled into the nearby buildings, we seized thirty-four fully-equipped horses and many weapons. As we had no idea how many men had taken refuge in the town, we withdrew with our gains. All night we marched to rejoin the regiment at Benavente, where the general of brigade was based. He complimented us on our expedition. We were very fortunate, as there were three thousand men close to us and we were unaware of their presence.
Shortly afterwards, the regiment departed from Benavente for Zamora, where the three thousand men we had driven out of Léon had joined forces with the corps of the Spanish general Bausteros [Ballesteros] in an attempt to crush the Zamora garrison, which consisted of only eight hundred infantrymen. Our soldiers defended themselves for more than twelve hours. The enemy, who had two artillery pieces, had almost broken down the gates: they were about to take control of the town when the first brigade of our dragoon division, having been alerted, arrived and forced the enemy to withdraw with losses.
We did not arrive until the day after this affair. A detachment of a hundred men was sent on a reconnaissance mission to ascertain the enemy’s march: we captured several men and they withdrew into the mountains.
On our return to Benavente, we conducted several more excursions and from this town we left together with the 10th Dragoons, three infantry battalions of no more than five hundred men each and two guns to attack Astorga a second time. However, there were 5,000 men in the town, three-quarters of them were regulars and they had eight cannon. We fought on all sides for more than eight hours. I had the honour of being shot at first, having been sent with my platoon near the town to position a few skirmishers at the front. The Spaniards greeted me with a dozen shots. Fortunately they had not fired any canister, as they would have done me a great deal of harm. Nevertheless, I had a narrow escape; one rascal of a cannonball reached two feet away from me. By chance, the enemy fired a little too high and their projectiles passed over our heads. Two of our dragoons were wounded, one by a cannonball that tore off his wrist and the other by a bullet. The infantry lost five or six men and had twelve or fifteen wounded. The enemy’s losses were more considerable: our howitzer inflicted a lot of damage on them and on the town, which suffered a great deal of destruction.
As ammunition for the artillery was running low, we withdrew to La Bagneza. After this expedition, the regiment returned to Valencia and the next day we set off again for Mancilla. Marquesito’s corps was three short leagues away, consisting of two thousand men. For several days, we sent detachments to find out if he intended to hold his position near the mountain. Noticing that he did not withdraw, our regiment left at night to attempt something. The Spaniards poured hellfire on us, though they always stayed close to the mountain, without daring to go down to the plain. We remained in the same position for two days and two nights, waiting in vain for them. On the third day, a hundred Spaniards pushed forward to fire at our vedettes (we were only separated by a river that we easily forded). I was on guard duty that day. The colonel ordered me to advance to the river with my platoon of thirty men to ascertain whether the enemy would withdraw. No sooner had I reached the riverbank when the Spaniards began to retreat. Then a squadron commander from the regiment came and told me to follow him and we crossed the river. We charged for a quarter of a league as far as the mountain, where we encountered more than 500 men who poured tremendous battalion fire upon us. Two men were wounded beside me, a brigadier and a dragoon.
After this charge, in which we killed about twenty men and took five prisoners, having rallied my platoon, I had the ‘good fortune’ to remain in battle order under their fire for nearly a quarter of an hour. The regiment was advancing behind us and the colonel hoped that the Spaniards would attack my platoon. I must admit that this quarter of an hour seemed a long time to me. It is nothing to charge when the enemy is firing at you, but standing still and hearing the bullets whistling from all sides is not very amusing. I did believe that this ‘music of war’ would have made more of an impression on me.
To return to our affair, the enemy did not dare to come down from the mountain. The Spaniards had about two hundred cavalry who did not want to abandon the infantry; when we noticed this, we took up our position on the other side of the river.
The next day, the enemy was reinforced by fifteen hundred men and three guns. That same evening, they began to greet us with cannon fire, but as we were unable to respond, we withdrew very quietly to Mancilla. We have been here since yesterday and, according to what they say, the French troops on this side of the river are starting to move: we are certainly going to embark on another expedition.
Mayorga, 15 November 1809. – Since I had the pleasure of writing to you from Valencia, we have carried out several more expeditions. Marshal Ney’s corps, which is currently commanded by General Marchand, consists of only ten to twelve thousand men: this is why it was obliged to retreat from Salamanca to Zamora and Toro. The enemy numbered forty-five thousand men. General Kellerman, with twenty-five thousand troops under his command, including the ten or twelve thousand men of General Marchand and the four regiments of the division, was ordered to march on Salamanca and attack the enemy.
After a five-day march, we arrived in front of Salamanca. The Spaniards were far superior in numbers; we thought they would put up a fight. They did not even dare to await us and left the day before our arrival. We set off in pursuit, but as the advance was far too great, they retreated into the mountains. Marshal Ney’s corps moved back into position in front of Salamanca, and our brigade left the next day with four or five thousand infantrymen to return to our previous positions.
As soon as we arrived at Villapando, we learned from General Thomières, who had remained at the bridge in front of Benavente with fifteen hundred men, that the enemy had arrived there with five or six thousand men, and that he had been forced to retreat as the Spaniards had intended to surround him. The next day, we set off to attack the enemy at three different points: General Thomières in front of Benavente, General Ferret [Ferrey] with four thousand men behind the town, and our brigade was to wait for them on the plain on the road to Astorga, the town from which they were departing. If all this succeeded, the Spanish army was lost: it had no means of retreat. Unfortunately, our commanders were not on good terms and the expedition was carried out too slowly. The Spaniards had a three-hour head start to retreat and were able to gain the mountains.
Since the evening before yesterday, we have been a little more peaceful in Mayorga, although we are expecting to face some movement at any moment. We have been told that the regiment will be reinforced by 150 men.
Notes
(1) Like this letter entry, all those that follow were addressed to the Marquis of Maupas.
Source : Abbot Ém.-Louis Chambois, Vie & Souvenirs du Marquis de Maupas, sous-gouverneur du duc de Bordeaux (1786-1862), Librairie Ve A. Goupil, Laval, 1900, pp. 3-9.
Other accounts to read :
> Recollections of a cadet, marching off to Spain …
> Tidings of the 17th Dragoon Regiment in Spain, 1809 …
> A staff officer alongside General Kellerman in Spain, 1810 …
Jonas De Neef's Napoleon Chronicles 