Category: Soldier

• 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…

  jdnjdn92

  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

• The experiences of Dragoon Auguste de Maupas in Spain and Portugal, 1808-1812 (II)

  

  Valladolid, 5 December 1809. – I only have time to send you an embrace and inform you that I am in good health. We have arrived at Valladolid, where we will stay with General Kellerman until further notice. We engaged in a number of affairs which I am sure you will be able to find…

  jdnjdn92

  May 6, 2024

  Anecdotes, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, General staff, Generals, Letters – Correspondence, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Marshals, Memoirs, Officer, Peninsular War, Soldier

  Abrantes, Accomodation, Administration, Alba de Tormes, Alcanizas, Alenquer, Almeida, Ammunition, Army of Portugal, Avila, Battle of Bussaco, Billet, Bivouac, Brigands, British, Burgos, Cadre, Captain, Coimbra, Daily life, Depot, Desertion, Dragoons, Duke of Wellington, Equipment, Extremadura, Fatigue, Foodstuffs, Fortifications, France, General Brenier, General Kellerman, General Montbrun, Guerilla, Lancers, Leiria, Lieutenant, Limoges, Lisbon, Madrid, Marshal Masséna, Marshal Ney, Ourém, Outpost, Placencia, Pombal, Portugal, Prisoner of war, Promotion, Punhete, Rain, Rearguard, Reconnaissance, Redinha, Retirement, Retreat, River, Rodrigo, Salamanca, Spain, Supplies, Tagus, Valladolid, Viseu, Zamora, Zêzere

• 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…

  jdnjdn92

  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 experiences of Dragoon Auguste de Maupas in Spain and Portugal, 1808-1812 (I)

  

  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…

  jdnjdn92

  May 2, 2024

  Anecdotes, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, General staff, Generals, Infantry, Letters – Correspondence, Marshals, Memoirs, Officer, Peninsular War, Soldier

  Aide-de-camp, Aisne, Ambush, Ammunition, Astorga, Asturias, Avignon, Ballesteros, Bayonne, Benavente, Bordeaux, Brigands, Burgos, Castile, Colonel, Daily life, Discipline, Dragoons, Dresden, Duke of Angoulême, Equipment, Execution, Exile, Fontainebleau, France, Garrison, General Bonnet, General Ferrey, General Kellerman, General Marchand, General Thomières, Germany, Guns, Hesdin, Inspection, Insubordination, Insurgency, King Louis XVIII, La Romana, Labagneza, Laon, Leipzig, Leon, Line infantry, Mainz, Mancilla, Marquesito, Marshal Brune, Marshal Masséna, Marshal Ney, Marshal Suchet, Mayorga, Military School, Mounts, Murder, Napoleon, Oviedo, Palencia, Poland, Portugal, Prisoner of war, Review, Rhine, Saint-Dizier, Salamanca, Santander, Scotland, Second Lieutenant, Spain, St-Jean-de-Luz, Toro, Valencia, Valladolid, Villapando, Vitoria, Zamora

• 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

• Dragoon Louis Vesuty at Boulogne …

  

  The 10th Dragoons, our narrator’s regiment, maintained a permanent detachment at Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme to train in the manoeuvres of boarding longboats and assembling into flotillas. 19 Pluviôse, Year XII. A few words in a rush; I am embarked with one hundred men of our regiment on board the gunboat no. 216. We are waiting day by…

  jdnjdn92

  April 11, 2024

  1805 Campaign, Anecdotes, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, Letters – Correspondence, Soldier

  Barges, Bivouac, British, Camp of Boulogne, Captain, Chasseur à Cheval, Clothing, Daily life, Detachment, Dragoons, Equipment, Flatboats, Flotilla, Gunboat, Hospital, Illness, Le Havre, Locals, Manoeuvres, Money, Napoleon, Outpost, Pas-de-Calais, Sailors, Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme, Sea, Ships, Training, Transport

• 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

• Captain Puffeney’s recollections of the 1806-1807 Campaigns …

  

  The son of humble farmers from the Franche-Comté region, Captain Pierre-François Puffeney was born in Les Planches, near Arbois, on 5 December 1772. He was not yet twenty when he enlisted as a volunteer in the 2nd Battalion of the Jura, to fly, as it was then called, to the defence of the Fatherland. A…

  jdnjdn92

  April 4, 2024

  1806 Campaign, 1807 Campaign, Anecdotes, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, General staff, Generals, Infantry, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Marshals, Memoirs, Officer, Soldier

  Accomodation, Arbois, Baggage, Battle of Eylau, Battle of Friedland, Battle of Ostrołęka, Billet, Bivouac, Captain, Chief of Staff, Contusion, Corporal, Czarnowo, Daily life, Danzig, Decorations, Discipline, Duchy, Emperor, Erlangen, Eylau, Family, Fatigue, France, Franche-Comté, General Bennigsen, General Campana, General Essen, General Gazan, General Reille, General Savary, Glogau, Grenadiers, Grodno, Host, Hussars, Injuries, Jura, Königsberg, Legion of Honour, Lieutenant, Light Infantry, Line infantry, Lissa, Locals, Marshal Davout, Marshal Lannes, Marshal Masséna, Marshal Oudinot, Marshal Suchet, Mittellangdorff, Mud, Napoleon, Ostrolenka, Poland, Pregel, Prussia, Pultusk, Retreat, Rhine, River, Russia, Second Lieutenant, Sergeant-major, Siege of Danzig (1807), Silesia, Spain, Supplies, Tilsit, Town, Transport, Tsar Alexander, Village, Warsaw, Wartenberg, Winter, Woods

• 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…

  jdnjdn92

  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