Tag: Imprisonment

• 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

• 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…

  jdnjdn92

  April 15, 2024

  Anecdotes, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, General staff, Generals, Infantry, Marshals, Medicine – Surgery, Memoirs, Officer, Peninsular War

  1812, Accomodation, Arapiles, Army of Portugal, Aspecia, Battle of Eylau, Battle of Friedland, Battle of Salamanca, British, Captain, Captivity, Clothing, Colonel, Daily life, Doctor, Duke of Wellington, Eagle, England, Fever, Fontainebleau, Gangrene, General Bonnet, General Clauzel, General Curto, General d'Hautpoul, General Ferey, General Foy, General Hill, General Maucune, General Taupin, General Thomières, Guerilla, Hanover, Health, Heat, Horse Artillery, Hospital, Illness, Imprisonment, Injuries, Insurgency, Italy, Légion du Midi, Line infantry, Manoeuvres, Marshal Marmont, Marshal Ney, Military School, Misery, Peninsular War, Poland, Porto, Portugal, Prussia, Religion, Salamanca, Scottish, Second Lieutenant, Sergeant, Skirmishers, Spain, Square, Surgeon, Tormes, Transport, Treatment, Vermin, Versailles

• A letter related to the campaigns in Austria and Italy, 1809 …

  

  A certain officer called Macquet recounts his plight… Milan, 24 January 1810. My very dear mother, Last 15 April, near Pordenone, overwhelmed by their numbers, we were completely beaten and dispersed by the enemy cavalry, which passed over our heads. We abandoned the battlefield strewn with our dead and wounded, and the common fate in…

  jdnjdn92

  March 5, 2024

  1809 Campaign, Anecdotes, Battle, Cavalry, Infantry, Letters – Correspondence, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Medicine – Surgery, Officer, Soldier

  Austria, Barracks, Bavaria, Carlsburg, Clothing, Daily life, Depot, Equipment, Family, Fatigue, Fortifications, Hermanstad, Hospital, Illness, Imprisonment, Injuries, Italy, Klagenfürt, Labour, Locals, Milan, Moldavia, Money, Moral, Officer, Pordenone, Prisoner of war, Theft, Transylvania, Udine

• Correspondence of grognard Jean-Henry Rattier (III) …

  

  Puente la Reina, 13 November 1810. The regiments of our division are gathering at this moment to move from Navarre to Castile. Our (supply) wagons leave at noon for Pamplona, in order to follow the main road to Vitoria, as well as the artillery. The troops will travel via the secondary roads; the main roads…

  jdnjdn92

  December 5, 2023

  Anecdotes, Artillery, Cavalry, General staff, Generals, Imperial Guard, Infantry, Letters – Correspondence, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Marshals, Officer, Peninsular War, Police – Gendarmerie

  Accomodation, Adjudant Major, Asturias, Bayonne, Benavente, Billet, Bread, Brigands, Cadre, Castile, Chasseur, Chief of Staff, Ciudad Rodrigo, Convoy, Daily life, Equipment, Escort, Fatigue, Fodder, Foodstuffs, Formation, France, Garrison, General Bonnet, General Dorsenne, General Rampon, Grants, Homesick, Illness, Imperial Guard, Imprisonment, Insubordination, Insurgency, Leon, Lieutenant Colonel, Marshal Berthier, Marshal Bessières, Money, Mounts, Navarre, NCO, Old Guard, Pamplona, Peninsular War, Pillage, Portugal, Promotion, Puente la Reina, Rape, Reforms, Salamanca, Service, Soria, Spain, Supplies, Theft, Toro, Valladolid, Vitoria, Voltigeurs, Zamora

• 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…

  jdnjdn92

  October 9, 2023

  1805 Campaign, Aide-de-camp, Anecdotes, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, General staff, Generals, Marshals, Memoirs, Officer, Soldier

  Archduke Charles, Austerlitz, Austria, Battle of Austerlitz, Bivouac, Brünn (Brno), Captain, Clothing, Daily life, Danube, Dragoons, Emperor, Fatigue, General Beaumont, General Klein, General Reille, General Sébastiani, Grants, Hussars, Imprisonment, Journal, Lieutenant, Loan, Marchegg, Marshal Oudinot, Money, Moravia, Napoleon, Prince of Lichtenstein, Prisoner of war, Raygern, Religion, Russia, Schönbrunn, Schöngrabern, Vienna, Wintzingerode

• Launch new e-book – The Military Recollections of Conscript Grenadier Guitard

  

  I’m happy to announce the first e-book in a series of smaller accounts that deserve publications and more attention. It was in 1934 that Joseph Guitard’s ‘Souvenirs’ were published in Paris for the first time. The publisher, perhaps a distant relative (his name is Eugène Humbert Guitard), explains in his preface that our grenadier was…

  jdnjdn92

  September 24, 2023

  1809 Campaign, 1812 Campaign, 1813 Campaign, Anecdotes, Battle, General staff, Generals, Imperial Guard, Infantry, Memoirs, Officer, Peninsular War, Soldier

  1812, Austria, Battle of Aspern-Essling, Battle of Wagram, Bivouac, Brigands, Captivity, Conscript, Conscription, Corporal, Cossacks, Daily life, Dresden, Emperor, Fatigue, Grenadier-Tirailleurs, Grenadiers, Imperial Guard, Imprisonment, Insurgency, Kingdom of Holland, Legion of Honour, Moral, Napoleon, Peninsular War, Prisoner of war, Prussia, Russia, Saxony, Spain, Tyrol, Walcheren

• The plight of a French sergeant during the Peninsular War …

  

  Antoine Pierre Simonet, born in 1774 at Neuville (Department of the Yonne) (*), wrote the following letters to his relatives. He served in the 55th Infantry Regiment. Madrid, 8 December 1809. My dear godfather and godmother, I am very surprised not to receive any news from you, and I don’t know what to blame it…

  jdnjdn92

  September 5, 2023

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

  Albaro, Algeciras, Almuñécar, Ambush, Andalusia, Antequera, Avila, Battle of Ocaña, Bread, Brigands, Cadiz, Cartagena, Clothing, Colonel, Daily life, Doctor, Dunkirk, Extremadura, Fatigue, France, Gibraltar, Granada, Guerilla, Illness, Imprisonment, Insurgency, Jaen, Joseph Bonaparte, Light Infantry, Madrid, Malaga, Money, Moral, Murder, Portugal, Postal service, Prisoner of war, Spain, Strasbourg, Tours, Voltigeurs

• Report of a cavalry NCO, 1809 …

  

  The document we are publishing was written by a non-commissioned officer in the chasseurs of General Montbrun’s Cavalry Division. On the eve of the battle of Essling, this NCO was sent with a safeguard in the direction of Raab (in reality to reconnoitre the enemy assemblies on that side) and was taken prisoner by the…

  jdnjdn92

  September 1, 2023

  1809 Campaign, Allied (Coalition) forces, Cavalry, French-Allied forces, General staff, Letters – Correspondence, Officer, Reports, Soldier

  Accomodation, Altenburg, Battle of Aspern-Essling, Captivity, Chasseur à Cheval, Espionage, Fortifications, General Montbrun, Hungary, Imprisonment, Insurgency, Intelligence, Light Cavalry, NCO, Outpost, Prisoner of war, Raab, Rearguard

• 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…

  jdnjdn92

  August 29, 2023

  Anecdotes, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, Imperial Guard, Infantry, Letters – Correspondence, Officer, Peninsular War, Police – Gendarmerie, Soldier

  Aragon, Bastogne, Bayonne, Bread, Brigands, British, Burgos, Certificate, Clervaux, Cogorderos, Conscript, Conscription, Cuirassier, Daily life, Draft, Draft evasion, Foodstuffs, Gendarme, Gendarmerie, General Valletaux, Guerilla, Gunner, Illness, Imprisonment, Insurgency, Jaca, Leon, Lisbon, Luxembourg, Madrid, Marshal Bessières, Money, Moral, Oviedo, Palencia, Paris, Peasants, Peninsular War, Portugal, Prisoner of war, Pyrenees, Religion, Rioseco, Spain, Supplies, Tolosa, Training, Vitoria, Voltigeurs

• Correspondence between Caulaincourt and Talleyrand (III) …

  

  Baron Lelorgne d’Ideville, who later became an auditor at the Conseil d’État and the Emperor’s secretary, was then attached to the Ministry of Foreign Relations, and ought to have passed on the new letter Talleyrand wrote on 16 March. Madame de Canisy’s affairs were hardly proceeding. There was talk of the marriage of Antoinette de…

  jdnjdn92

  August 28, 2023

  Anecdotes, Diplomacy, General staff, Generals, Letters – Correspondence

  Asturias, Balkans, Baron, Bayonne, Bordeaux, Bourbons, British, Confederation of the Rhine, Conseil d'Etat, Dalberg, De Canisy, Denmark, Earl of Lauderdale, Emperor, Erfurt, Expedition, Finland, Flahaut, General Caulaincourt (Master of Horse), General Savary, Godoy, Grand Marshal Duroc, Grants, Helsinki, Hortense De Beauharnais, Hugues-Bernard Maret, Imprisonment, James Maitland, Joséphine, King Charles IV of Spain, Kingdom of Holland, Levant, Madame Visconti, Madrid, Marriage, Marshal Bernadotte, Marshal Berthier, Marshal Murat, Minister of Foreign Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Moldavia, Napoleon, Napoleon III, Negotiations, Nompère de Champagny, Normandy, Ottoman Empire, Paris, Partition, Police, Prince, Prince of Peace, Prince-Primat, Prussia, Russia, Saint-Aignan, Spain, Sweden, Talleyrand, Tolstoy, Treaty, Tsar Alexander, Valençay, Wallachia