Tag: Hussars
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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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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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A dragoon under Marshal Murat – Letters of the 1806-1807 Campaigns (III)
The troops were beginning to grow, if not discouraged, at least weary of being beset day and night by Cossacks. Therefore the cavalry, charged with chasing down this troublesome and devious enemy, hardly rested. Until 15 March, Murat covered the line of the outposts: Luiduwo, near Gigenburg, 17 March 1807. Looking at the date of…
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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,…
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A doctor’s recounting of the battle of Ostrovno, July 1812 …
Raymond Faure (1786-1850), a doctor in I Cavalry Corps of the Grande Armée, provides the following account of this engagement in his memoirs: Our corps (I Corps) was the vanguard of the army, and we had been in sight of the enemy for two or three days; a few cannon shots had been exchanged. On…
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A narration of the siege of Saragossa, by André d’Audebard de Férussac …
From the camp in front of Saragossa, 1 January 1809. You will recall that in my first letter I told you that there was fighting raging when I arrived. In fact, from the moment I crossed the Ebro, I constantly heard cannon fire; no matter how hard I tried, I arrived too late. It was…
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Two letters of beau sabreur Jean-Baptiste Guindey, 1805-1807 …
Guindey, who was born on 12 April 1785 at Laruns in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, was a French quartermaster in the 10th Regiment of Hussars during the Napoleonic Wars. He is reputed to have killed Prince Louis-Ferdinand of Prussia in single combat at the battle of Saalfeld in 1806. He would find his death as a lieutenant…
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Letters of infantry corporal Charles Vanesse, 1806 …
A few more letters of this soldier from the 8th Infantry Regiment, prior and following the battles of Jena and Auerstädt … Anspach, 24 April 1806, I Corps of the Grande Armée. C. J. Vanesse to Miss VANESSE. Dear Sister, Your pleasant letter dated 17 January, as well as that from Van den Bruggen, reached…
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A dragoon’s 1805 journal entries …
Here we have a chapter on the 1805 Campaign derived from journals kept by Etienne Fargeau Choderlos de Laclos, born on 1 May 1784 at La Rochelle (although certain documents state he originates from Mortagne la Vieille). He served in the 8th Regiment of Dragoons. On 24 Brumaire Year XIV, I entered Vienna via the…