Tag: Laon
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The experiences of Dragoon Auguste de Maupas in Spain and Portugal, 1808-1812 (I)
Born on 5 September 1786 in Laon, Aisne, into a noble family originally from Berry, Auguste-Marie was the son of Jérôme Clément Agard, the Marquis of Maupas, and Marie-Madeleine de La Fons d’Happencourt. He married Geneviève-Stéphanie-Félicité-Cécile de Martiny on 2 January 1821. Maupas entered the École Militaire of Fontainebleau on 17 February 1805, and was…
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1813-14 letters from Cuirassier Brigadier Pilloy
The following letters are drawn from a voluminous register which also contains copies of the Emperor’s proclamations, accounts of our narrator’s travels and more or less unusual recipes. The author in question is Étienne-Nicolas Pilloy, born in Santeau, canton of Pithiviers (Loiret), a farmer by trade. Here are his service records: 13th Cuirassier Regiment. Entered…
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A report on the battle of Craonne, March 1814 …
On 7 March, the general received the order to proceed to Craonne; he was far from expecting to enter the line with troops comprising conscripts who only had been assembled for twenty days, during which time they had travelled more than a hundred leagues and had barely had time to learn how to load a…
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Letters of Marshal Berthier from the 1814 Campaign …
In the following four letters (dated 8 to 15 March 1814), Berthier seems to share the Emperor’s hopes and illusions; he reports the battle of Craonne which, Napoleon said, was glorious. He heralded the recapture of Soissons and Rheims; he even suggested that the enemy was troubled, threatened on all sides by the levée en…
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Advance and retreat of a division, at Waterloo (II) …
Part two of reports related to the actions of the 2nd Division, part of I Corps, of the French Armée du Nord in 1815 … First Army Corps2nd DivisionGeneral Donzelot Summary of the marches, positions, movements, events and battles which have occurred with this division since 12 June (1815) until 25 June. 12 June. –…