Tag: Elbe
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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…
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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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Dedicated to the Imperial Cause – Letters of the Dandalle Family (I) …
Introductions by the authors The reader is in for a unique experience from the outset, as the authenticity of the study’s content is striking. The sense of duty, the boundless admiration for their Emperor, Napoleon I, made these officers from the ranks perform nearly astonishing feats. They travelled the length and breadth of Europe, as…
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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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Some remarks of a cuirassier officer, 1806-1807 …
Jean de Gouttes recounts his experiences of the Prussian and Polish surroundings and battlefields in his correspondence with his parents … Schwarzach, 17 August 1806. Although I cannot put much structure into the details I have provided about Bavaria, I will continue to give you some as they are of interest to you. The predominant…
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A second lieutenant’s letters to his wife, Prussia-Poland 1806-1807 …
We present two letters of an infantry officer who fought in General (future marshal) Suchet’s Division in the years of 1806 and (early) 1807. He provides many interesting details on daily life in the French army, promotion, hardships, money issues and battlefield experiences. Dear Rosalie, I am devoting the first moments of my repose to…
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An Imperial Guard commander and the 1813 Campaign (IV) …
… The tremendous enthusiasm that had always motivated our battalions was shattered. Ambition had replaced emulation; the army was now commanded only by officers who were brave to the point of recklessness, but without experience or instruction. Soldiers were only looking for the opportunity to leave their corps, to enter hospitals, to flee from danger.…
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An Imperial Guard commander and the 1813 Campaign (III) …
… We camped on the plain in close columns by division and by battalion mass. We were standing in mud and water up to half our legs, and I could never understand what was the reason for choosing such an uncomfortable and unhealthy position. On 22 August 1813 we remained in the same order. A…
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An Imperial Guard commander and the 1813 Campaign (I) …
We follow Louis-Joseph Vionnet, Viscount of Maringoné, and his soldiers of the Imperial Guard throughout the 1813 campaign in Germany. … On 30 March at four in the morning, I received the order to depart the next day before daylight. I hastily arranged my affairs and those of the regiment and spent the whole night…
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A cavalry general on the battle of Kulm, 1813 …
Martin Charles Gobrecht was born at Cassel (Nord) on 11 November 1772. He volunteered in a free company in 1792, became a second lieutenant and subsequently a lieutenant in 1793, and was wounded at the battle of Hondschoote (6 to 8 September 1793, at General Houchard’s victory over the English and the coalition troops commanded…