Tag: Guerilla
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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…
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Recollections on the battle of Salamanca, 1812 …
Alphonse d’Hautpoul was born at Versailles on 4 January 1789. He was a cousin of the cavalry general of the same name, who lost his life at the battle at Eylau. Alphonse’s brother, Amand, served in the horse artillery of the Imperial Guard. Attending the Military School at Fontainebleau, Alphonse departed there as a second…
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Correspondence of grognard Jean-Henry Rattier (II) …
Paris, 10 January 1810. The 2nd Division of the Guard, of which our regiment is a component, set out yesterday for Spain. But, as His Majesty deemed that we were not yet in a position to return to the campaign, he sent the regiment of fusilliers in our stead. We still have 600 men in…
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A selection of Peninsular War letters of the rank and file …
Stamp: (illegible number), FRENCH ARMY IN SPAIN. Mister Even, mayor of Beaufort, Department of Forests, Canton of Echternach, arrondissement of Bitbourg, via Paris. (Medina de) Rioseco, 24 August (1811). Dear father, Your long silence would certainly cause me to have doubts; only the filial love you have always fostered in me makes me think that…
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More Peninsular War letters of the rank and file …
Jean GOERGEN or GERGEN, born at Troine (community of Wincrange, northern Luxembourg) on 29 May 1788, son of Jean Goergen and Thérèse Fink, conscripted in 1808, was found fit for military service at a first medical examination at Dickirch. A second medical examination revealed wounds on his face that appeared to have been caused by…
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Sergeant Jean-Gilles Toussaint, an infantryman in the French armies of Spain and Portugal …
On 10 September 1805, a young conscript from the (Belgian) canton of Malmédy sent his parents this sorrowful letter, which we reproduce as it was written: Dearest father and mother, You and I are experiencing twice as much distress at the moment. I met the corporal on my way into Wiwertz, who was on his…
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Second Lieutenant Zickel’s letters from Spain, 1808-1809 …
Here we have François-Joseph Zickel, an officer in the 10th Regiment of Chasseurs à Cheval, after nine years’ service and almost as many campaigns. His ‘new epaulette’ received its baptism of fire at Friedland on 14 June 1807. Then, after the peace of Tilsit and a few months’ well-earned rest, the two Zickel brothers moved…
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Correspondence of General Foy in Spain, 1812 (II) …
Victor-Marie Duplan, officer in the Légion du Midi, joined the division headed by General Maximilien Sébastien Foy, he himself being the commander of the place of Canamero in 1812. We present the second part of orders and letters of his commanding officer, concerning this new role during this period in the Peninsular War. We read…
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An excerpt of a Dutch officer’s journal from the year 1811 …
Introduction by J. W. des Tombe The author of the following journal is Andreas Jan Jacob des Tombe, son of Lieutenant-Colonel of Carabiniers of His Highness the Prince of Orange, Arnoldus des Tombe, and Henriette Anna de Bons, daughter of the well-known Major-General Andreas de Bons, the heroic, grey haired defender of the fortress of…