Category: 1813 Campaign

• Louis Jacques Romand and the turmoil of 1813 … (II)

  

  On the 30th, General Vandamme, commanding I Corps, entered the defiles of the Bohemian mountains, where he was soundly beaten by the [Allied] combined army. He lost most of his men and he himself was captured by the enemy. Our baggage having, ill-advisedly, followed that of this corps and finding itself on the road was…

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  May 9, 2024

  1813 Campaign, Allied (Coalition) forces, Anecdotes, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, Diplomacy, French-Allied forces, General staff, Generals, Infantry, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Medicine – Surgery, Memoirs, Officer, Soldier

  Abdication, Administration, Ambulance, Ambush, Ammunition, Austria, Battle of Dresden, Battle of Kulm, Belfort, Billet, Bivouac, Bohemia, Bread, Cadre, Capitulation, Company, Count, Daily life, Depot, Dresden, Emperor, Equipment, Family, Fatigue, First Restauration, Foodstuffs, Fortifications, Garrison, General Bonnet, General Vandamme, Grenadiers, Hospital, Host, Hungary, Hunger, Illness, Imprisonment, King Louis XVIII, Langres, Leipzig, Line infantry, Marshal St Cyr, Metz, Minister of War, Napoleon, Paris, Pirna, Prisoner of war, Russia, Skirmishers, Starvation, Strasbourg, Supplies, Toplitz, Treason, Vermin, Vienna

• Louis Jacques Romand and the turmoil of 1813 … (I)

  

  The protagonist of these recollections is Louis Jacques Romand. He was born in Vauconcourt, part of the arrondissement of Gray, Haute-Saône Department, on 12 October 1790. He saw action in the campaign in Austria of 1809 as a fusilier chasseur of the Guard (1st Regiment). Romand then was assigned to a expeditionary battalion and travelled…

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  May 4, 2024

  1813 Campaign, Allied (Coalition) forces, Anecdotes, Artillery, Battle, Generals, Imperial Guard, Infantry, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Marshals, Memoirs, Officer, Soldier

  Accomodation, Administration, Aide-de-camp, Ammunition, Austria, Bamberg, Barracks, Battalion, Battle of Dresden, Bavaria, Billet, Bivouac, Bohemia, Brest, Brittany, Champs-Elysées, Cold, Courage, Daily life, Dresden, Dutch, Emperor, Emperor Francis of Austria, Equipment, Expedition, Family, Fencing, Fire, Flag, Franconia, Frankfurt, Freyberg, Fusiliers, Geishubel, General Bonnet, Germany, Governor, Haute-Saône, Hunger, Illness, Imperial Guard, Injuries, Inspection, Invalides, Line infantry, Mainz, Marshal Augereau, Marshal Kellerman, Marshal Sérurier, Marshal St Cyr, Mauritius, Metz, Minister of War, Napoleon, Navy, NCO, Paris, Peace, Pirna, Prisoner of war, Prussia, Quartermaster, Rain, Rhine, Russia, Russian Imperial Guard, Saint-Cloud, Saint-Denis, Saxony, Sergeant, Sergeant-major, Seychelles, Shako, Sojourn, Supplies, Training, Truce, Vauconcourt, Versailles, Vertus, Village, Würzburg

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

  

  In the meantime, Bruno d’Ast’s family was delighted to receive the news that he had been promoted to the Legion of Honour: they knew that this was the award that their son sought above all else, and we will see in one of the following letters the emotion with which he received this distinction, the…

  jdnjdn92

  April 22, 2024

  1813 Campaign, 1814 Campaign, 1815 Campaign, Battle, Generals, Imperial Guard, Infantry, Letters – Correspondence, Marshals, Officer, Soldier

  Accomodation, Aide-de-camp, Auch, Battle of Dresden, Battle of Lützen, Battle of Leipzig, Battle of Waterloo, Billet, Bivouac, Cadre, Captain, Caroline Bonaparte, Chasseur, Corporal, Daily life, Dresden, Duke of Wellington, Emperor, Family, Folkwitz, Fontainebleau, General Lanusse, General Ricard, Gers, Glogau, Grants, Imperial Guard, Injuries, King Louis XVIII, Lützen, Legion of Honour, Light Infantry, Mainz, Marriage, Marshal Murat, Marshal Pérignon, Montech, Moscow, Naples, Napoleon, NCO, Neuf-Brisach, Old Guard, Orléans, Paris, Promotion, Prussia, Retirement, Rhine, Sergeant-major, Silesia, Steinau, Tirailleurs, Toulouse, Voltigeurs, Young Guard

• 1813-14 letters from Cuirassier Brigadier Pilloy

  

  The following letters are drawn from a voluminous register which also contains copies of the Emperor’s proclamations, accounts of our narrator’s travels and more or less unusual recipes. The author in question is Étienne-Nicolas Pilloy, born in Santeau, canton of Pithiviers (Loiret), a farmer by trade. Here are his service records: 13th Cuirassier Regiment. Entered…

  jdnjdn92

  April 18, 2024

  1813 Campaign, 1814 Campaign, Anecdotes, Cavalry, Letters – Correspondence, Soldier

  Alsace, Battle of Waterloo, Bivouac, Blockade, Blois, Brigadier, Caen, Colmar, Conscription, Cossacks, Cuirassier, Daily life, Discharge, Discipline, Equipment, Fortifications, France, General Lemarois, Germany, Hospital, Illness, Labour, Laon, Lieutenant, Loiret, Louvain, Lusignan, Magdeburg, Melun, Metz, Money, Mounted Carabiniers, Mounts, Noirt, Normandy, Orléans, Poitiers, Poitou, Pontoon, Prussia, River, Siege, Supplies, Thionville, Tours, Wesel, Westphalia

• Guard Grenadier Philippe Ballut at Lützen and Bautzen, 1813 …

  

  In the evening, with the 2nd Grenadier Regiment occupying the ground on a plateau, the soldiers sighted the town of Lützen, with its round bell tower and a tall belfry tower dominating the large tile roofed buildings. The French cavalry had already entered the town to capture a few stragglers. It was known that Blücher…

  jdnjdn92

  April 8, 2024

  1813 Campaign, Allied (Coalition) forces, Anecdotes, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, General staff, Generals, Imperial Guard, Infantry, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Marshals, Medicine – Surgery, Memoirs, Officer, Soldier

  Accomodation, Aide-de-camp, Ambulance, Austria, Baden, Baggage, Battle of Bautzen, Battle of Lützen, Bautzen, Bischofswerda, Bivouac, Blücher, Brandy, Bread, Captain, Conscript, Cossacks, Crime, Daily life, Dresden, Elbe, Elster, Emperor, Espionage, Fatigue, Foodstuffs, Görlitz, General Bertrand, General Bonnet, General Brenier, General Charpentier, General Compans, General Gérard, General Kirgener, General Marchand, General Morand, General Ricard, General Roguet, General Souham, General Wittgenstein, Grand Marshal Duroc, Grenadiers, Hessians, Hunger, Hussars, Imperial Guard, Kaya, Lancers, Lützen, Leipzig, Locals, Marshal Berthier, Marshal Macdonald, Marshal Marmont, Marshal Ney, Marshal Oudinot, Medical Officer, Money, Napoleon, Old Guard, Peasants, Pegau, Pillage, Poland, Prussia, Quartermaster, Reconnaissance, Retreat, River, Russia, Saxony, Sergeant-major, Silesia, Spree, Supplies, Te Deum, Theft, Transport, Tsar Alexander, Weisig, Weissenfels, Woods, Young Guard

• 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

• Some notes of a grenadier of the Imperial Guard, 1813 …

  

  A couple of passages of a journal kept by Philippe Ballut, a soldier serving in the 2nd Grenadier Regiment of the Guard, related to the early stages of the 1813 Campaign … Thursday, 29 April. – The Old Guard arrived at Naumburg before noon and we lit our fires at the foot of the tower,…

  jdnjdn92

  January 29, 2024

  1813 Campaign, Anecdotes, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, Engineers, General staff, Generals, Imperial Guard, Infantry, Memoirs, Officer, Soldier

  Accomodation, Alsace, Billet, Bivouac, Chasseur à Cheval de la Garde Impériale, Colonel, Conscript, Corporal, Cossacks, Daily life, Dresden, Emperor, Equipment, Erfurt, Espionage, Fatigue, General Berthezène, General Souham, Grand Marshal Duroc, Grenadiers, Hussars, Imperial Guard, Jena, Leipzig, Locals, Mamelukes, Marshal Berthier, Marshal Bessières, Marshal Marmont, Marshal Ney, Napoleon, Naumburg, Old Guard, Paris, Peace, Pillage, Prussia, Rain, Russia, Saale, Sappers, Saxony, Tsar Alexander, Weimar, Weissenfels, Young Guard

• 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

• Cuirassier officer Jean de Gouttes and his 1813 correspondence …

  

  These documents relate our cavalry officer’s thoughts and experiences during the 1813 Campaign. De Gouttes served in the 11th Cuirassier Regiment … Kemberg (near Wittenberg), 19 March 1813. I left Braunschweig (Brunswick), where the cavalry was being reorganised, on 25 February with a company which I was honoured to be given command of, to join…

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  December 8, 2023

  1813 Campaign, Allied (Coalition) forces, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, Letters – Correspondence, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Marshals, Officer

  Accomodation, Austria, Battle of Lützen, Battle of Leipzig, Bavaria, Berlin, Billet, Bivouac, Brunswick, Captain, Conscript, Cossacks, Cuirassier, Daily life, Dresden, Elbe, Elster, Emperor, Equipment, Eugène de Beauharnais, Family, General Lauriston, Germany, King Frederick William III of Prussia, Kirchberg, Kreuznach, Magdeburg, Mainz, Marshal Bessières, Marshal Davout, Marshal Macdonald, Marshal Ney, Money, Mounts, Napoleon, Oder, Pegau, Prussia, Retreat, Russia, Saale, Saxony, Silesia, Sweden, Thionville, Tsar Alexander, Wittenberg

• Launch new e-book – The Military Recollections of Conscript Grenadier Guitard

  

  I’m happy to announce the first e-book in a series of smaller accounts that deserve publications and more attention. It was in 1934 that Joseph Guitard’s ‘Souvenirs’ were published in Paris for the first time. The publisher, perhaps a distant relative (his name is Eugène Humbert Guitard), explains in his preface that our grenadier was…

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  September 24, 2023

  1809 Campaign, 1812 Campaign, 1813 Campaign, Anecdotes, Battle, General staff, Generals, Imperial Guard, Infantry, Memoirs, Officer, Peninsular War, Soldier

  1812, Austria, Battle of Aspern-Essling, Battle of Wagram, Bivouac, Brigands, Captivity, Conscript, Conscription, Corporal, Cossacks, Daily life, Dresden, Emperor, Fatigue, Grenadier-Tirailleurs, Grenadiers, Imperial Guard, Imprisonment, Insurgency, Kingdom of Holland, Legion of Honour, Moral, Napoleon, Peninsular War, Prisoner of war, Prussia, Russia, Saxony, Spain, Tyrol, Walcheren