Tag: Danzig
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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…
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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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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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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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Eyewitness accounts of the campaign in Russia, 1812 (V) …
General Georg von Scheler (1770-1826, from Württemberg) wrote the following: Moscow, 8 and 9 October 1812. Everyone found shelter, albeit packed and cramped, in the suburb on the road to Kazan. The horses of the artillery, the two regiments of chevau-légers and the regiment of the King’s Chasseurs No. 4 were accommodated in stables or…
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Doctor Wilhelm Meier and Baden’s war efforts during the Russian campaign …
This excerpt represents one complete chapter of Meier’s recollections. Relations between France and the rest of Europe, with Russia in particular – Causes and preparations for war Through the Peace of Vienna of 1809 and its consequences, the family bond established with the Imperial House of Austria, Napoleon had reached the summit of his fortune…
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Colonel Raymond Guiraud’s war journal (II) …
… On 21 May, the assault (on Danzig) was to take place. The enormous palisades of the bastion moat had resisted the effects of the gunpowder. The guns that raked them only tore them apart, and they had to be knocked down by digging up the earth beside them. A wide passage was opened, but…
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The plight of the Frankfurt Regiment, Russia 1812 …
The remnants of the division of the Prince gathered at Königsberg. The 6th Regiment of the Rhine, which had not fought, was already there with 300 men. Marshal Murat reviewed the division on 28 December (1812), numbering 2,000 men. On 1 November it had boasted 14,000 soldiers! Of all the regiments, that of Frankfurt had…