Category: 1812 Campaign

• The Military Life of Bruno d’Ast … (II)

  

  Moscow, 20 September 1812. My dear father, you must have received my letter from Smolensk by now. I hope that it finds you in as good health as I am at the moment, despite the fatigue and hardship we had to endure before arriving in this city. I spoke to you in my last letter…

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  April 3, 2024

  1812 Campaign, 1813 Campaign, Aide-de-camp, Anecdotes, Artillery, Battle, General staff, Generals, Imperial Guard, Infantry, Letters – Correspondence, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Marshals, Officer, Soldier

  1812, Aachen, Accomodation, Aide-de-camp, Aix la-Chapelle, Appointment, Battle of Bautzen, Battle of Borodino, Battle of Lützen, Billet, Bivouac, Borodino, Breslau, Burning of Moscow, Captain, Captivity, Cold, Conscription, Daily life, Emperor, Family, Fatigue, General Lanusse, General Ricard, General Roguet, Grenade, Haute-Garonne, Imperial Guard, Königsberg, Legion of Honour, Leipzig, Liegnitz, Line infantry, Lintz, Loan, Mainz, Major, Marriage, Marshal Berthier, Marshal Ney, Marshal Pérignon, Money, Moscow, Moskva, Mounts, Mozhaysk, Naples, Napoleon, Neumark, Oder, Paris, Périgord, Périgueux, Pillage, Prisoner of war, Promotion, Prussia, Russia, Supplies, Tirailleurs, Toulouse, Vilna, Voltigeurs, Wine, Winter

• Three Letters from J. J. Delvau, Soldier of the Imperial Guard … (1812)

  

  IMPERIAL GUARDGrenadiers Tirailleurs6th Regiment – 1st Battalion4th Company At Courbevoie, 24 March 1812. My dear father and mother, brothers and sisters, I want you to know that we are leaving for Magdeburg in Germany to join the regiment, which arrived there not long ago. However I do not think we will pass by your side.…

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  March 22, 2024

  1812 Campaign, Anecdotes, Imperial Guard, Infantry, Letters – Correspondence, Soldier

  1812, Accomodation, Bavaria, Belgium, Bivouac, Champagne, Clothing, Courbevoie, Daily life, Dinant, Egypt, Emperor, Equipment, Family, Foodstuffs, France, Germany, Grenadier-Tirailleurs, Health, Imperial Guard, Indies, Lorraine, Magdeburg, Mainz, Meuse, Misery, Money, Napoleon, Paris, Poland, Posen, Rumors, Russia, Saint Avold, Sambre, Saxony, Silesia, Supplies, Tsar Alexander

• The Military Life of Bruno d’Ast … (I)

  

  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…

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  March 19, 2024

  1812 Campaign, Letters – Correspondence, Marshals, Officer, Peninsular War, Soldier

  1812, Berlin, Brignemont, Burgos, Castile, Catalonia, Chasseur, Chasseur à Cheval, Clothing, Conscript, Corporal, Daily life, Danzig, Emperor, Family, Fontainebleau, Foodstuffs, Garrison, General Bellavene, Germany, Grants, Grenadiers, Haute-Garonne, Imperial Guard, Inspection, Insurgency, Joseph Bonaparte, Leon, Locals, Marienwerder, Marshal Pérignon, Marshal Victor, Military School, Minister of War, Naples, Napoleon, Palencia, Paris, Peninsular War, Portugal, Postal service, Promotion, Prussia, Review, Rioseco, Russia, Soria, Supplies, Tarazona, Tirailleurs, Toulouse, Uniforms, Vistula, Voltigeurs

• Dedicated to the Imperial Cause – Letters of the Dandalle Family (V) …

  

  In September 1811, Alphonse, now definitively released from his clothing employment, sent a detachment by boat from Huningue to Wesel to join the regiment. He travelled to Hamburg, made contact with Hubert and returned to the Huningue depot, bidding it farewell on 20 April 1812 when he left for Cologne with another detachment. It is…

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  March 13, 2024

  1812 Campaign, Anecdotes, Battle, Cavalry, General staff, Infantry, Letters – Correspondence, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Officer, Soldier

  1812, Austria, Barclay de Tolly, Battle of Borodino, Battle of Maloyaroslavets, Battle of Smolensk, Battle of the Berezina, Berlin, Bivouac, Borodino, Borovsk, Brandy, Bulletin, Burning of Moscow, Captain, Cold, Cologne, Cossacks, Croatia, Cuirassier, Daily life, Danzig, Depot, Dnieper, Dvina, Foodstuffs, France, General Moreau, General Nansouty, Germany, Grants, Hamburg, Hanover, Huningue, Italy, Kaluga, Königsberg, Kovno, Kremlin, Legion of Honour, Light Infantry, Lithuania, Magdeburg, Marshal Bernadotte, Marshal Mortier, Marshal Victor, Minsk, Money, Moscow, Moskva, Napoleon, Niemen, Poland, Polotsk, Prince Bagration, Prisoner of war, River, Russia, Studienka, Supplies, Sweden, Swiss, Tilsit, Tsar Alexander, Vanguard, Vilna, Vitebsk, Voltigeurs, Vyazma, Water, Wesel

• A doctor’s recounting of the battle of Ostrovno, July 1812 …

  

  Raymond Faure (1786-1850), a doctor in I Cavalry Corps of the Grande Armée, provides the following account of this engagement in his memoirs: Our corps (I Corps) was the vanguard of the army, and we had been in sight of the enemy for two or three days; a few cannon shots had been exchanged. On…

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  January 24, 2024

  1812 Campaign, Aide-de-camp, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, General staff, Imperial Guard, Infantry, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Marshals, Medicine – Surgery, Memoirs, Officer

  1812, Army of Italy, Arson, Bivouac, Crews, Cuirassier, Emperor, Equipment, Fatigue, Fire, Gunner, Guns, Heavy Cavalry, Horse Artillery, Hussars, Imperial Guard, Light Cavalry, Marshal Murat, Mounts, Napoleon, Ostrovno, Outpost, Picket, Pillage, Polish Lancers, Retreat, Russia, Scorched earth, Supplies, Vanguard, Village, Vilna, Vitebsk

• Marshal Poniatowski on the defence of the Vistula and the Duchy of Warsaw, January 1813 …

  

  To Marshal Davout. Warsaw, 20 January 1813. My Lord, I have just received the letter which Your Highness did me the honour of addressing to me on the 18th of this month. I only learned from its contents that His Majesty the King of Naples [Murat] has departed and that His Serene Highness the Prince…

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  January 23, 2024

  1812 Campaign, 1813 Campaign, Aide-de-camp, Allied (Coalition) forces, Cavalry, General staff, Generals, Infantry, Letters – Correspondence, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Marshals, Officer, Reports, Soldier

  Austria, Bavaria, Cadre, Cracow, Duchy of Warsaw, Eugène de Beauharnais, Foodstuffs, General Reynier, Heavy Cavalry, Light Cavalry, Line infantry, Marshal Davout, Marshal Murat, Marshal Poniatowski, Modlin, Plock, Poland, Posen, Prussia, Retreat, Russia, Schwarzenberg, Supplies, Vistula, Vistula Legion, Warsaw, Zamosc

• Correspondence of an artillery officer during the Russian campaign …

  

  On 15 June 1810, young Delaval, the eldest son of a family living in the small town of Tournus in the Department of Saône-et-Loire, received an order to enter the School of Saint-Cyr on 20 July. After completing his studies at the military school on 2 April 1812 with the rank of lieutenant second class…

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  January 2, 2024

  1812 Campaign, Anecdotes, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, Engineers, General staff, Letters – Correspondence, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Officer

  1812, Accomodation, Ammunition, Billet, Bivouac, Brandenburg, Bug, Captain, Clothing, Cold, Daily life, Danzig, Doctor, Dresden, Drill, Earthworks, Elbe, Emperor, Equipment, Family, Fever, Foodstuffs, Foot Artillery, Frankfurt, Fulda, Garrison, General Durutte, Germany, Grants, Grenoble, Illness, Jena, Legion of Honour, Liège, Lieutenant, Magdeburg, Medical Officer, Military School, Minden, Money, Mounts, Napoleon, Paris, Pay, Paymaster, Postal service, Prussia, Retreat, Russia, Saône-et-Loire, Saxony, Second Lieutenant, Smolensk, Spandau, St Petersburg, Stages, Supplies, Transport, Vistula, Warsaw, Wesel

• Correspondence of grognard Jean-Henry Rattier (IV) …

  

  Bayonne, 15 March 1812. We arrived here the day before yesterday, and we are leaving tomorrow for Paris, where we will arrive on 16 April. I would have obtained permission to go to Ardèche, but I had to be in the capital by 15 April, which prevented me from obtaining it. I could only have…

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  December 19, 2023

  1812 Campaign, Anecdotes, General staff, Generals, Imperial Guard, Infantry, Letters – Correspondence, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Medicine – Surgery, Officer, Peninsular War, Soldier

  1812, Accomodation, Avignon, Baggage, Bavaria, Bayonne, Berlin, Billet, Bivouac, Brandy, Cadre, Cahors, Captain, Captivity, Clothing, Conscription, Corporal, Cossacks, Cuirassier, Daily life, Debts, Doctor, Duna, Emperor, Equipment, Family, Foodstuffs, France, General Curial, General Rampon, Germany, Government, Grants, Heat, Homesick, Hunger, Injuries, Inspection, Kaiserslautern, Krasnoi, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Colonel, Locals, Mainz, Military School, Misery, Money, Mounts, Napoleon, Paris, Pay, Peace, Peninsular War, Plunder, Poland, Posen, Possessions, Prisoner of war, Provisioning, Prussia, Ruin, Russia, Sarrelouis, Scorched earth, Siberia, Smolensk, Stragglers, Supplies, Surgeon, Swiss, Thirst, Toulouse, Training, Transport, Vilna

• A letter on the retreat from Russia, by an artillery officer …

  

  The author of the following letter, Jean-Michel-Marie Prévost, son of Henri-François, councillor to the King, judge, magistrate in the seneschal and presiding court of Clermont-Ferrand, and Marguerite Monestier, was born in Clermont-Ferrand on 26 July 1782. Prévost entered the École Polytechnique on 1 Frimaire Year 10, became a student second lieutenant on 1 Vendémiaire Year…

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  November 21, 2023

  1812 Campaign, Artillery, Engineers, General staff, Generals, Imperial Guard, Letters – Correspondence, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Officer

  1812, Accomodation, Aide-de-camp, Battle of the Berezina, Bivouac, Clermont-Ferrand, Cold, Cossacks, Daily life, Dresden, Family, Foodstuffs, Foot Artillery, Horse Artillery, Injuries, Königsberg, Kovno, Krasnoi, Legion of Honour, Lyon, Magdeburg, Marriage, Moscow, National Guard, Pillage, Prisoner of war, Prussia, Rearguard, Retreat, Russia, Supplies, Thorn, Tilsit, Vilna, Vistula

• Letters of a battalion commander, Russia 1812 …

  

  The military operations of 1812 commenced in June. On the 15th, the 33rd Infantry Regiment numbered 4,252 men divided into five battalions. This is the unit of our officer, whose letters we reproduce. On the 18th, Napoleon, who was at Gumbinnen (Prussia), inspected the 33rd Regiment, part of the 2nd Division (led by General Friant)…

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  November 18, 2023

  1812 Campaign, Battle, Generals, Infantry, Letters – Correspondence, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Medicine – Surgery, Officer

  1812, Accomodation, Ambulance, Battalion Commander, Battle of Borodino, Battle of Smolensk, Berlin, Bivouac, Certificate, Cold, Daily life, Danzig, Dysentery, Elbing, Emperor, Family, General Friant, General Nansouty, Gumbinnen, Gzhatsk, Illness, Injuries, Inspection, Königsberg, Legion of Honour, Line infantry, Mainz, Marshal Berthier, Marshal Davout, Minsk, Money, Moscow, Moskva, Mozhaysk, Napoleon, Oder, Promotion, Redoubts, Retreat, Russia, Smolensk, Stettin, Surgeon, Vilna, Wine