Tag: Metz

• 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

• Louis Jacques Romand and the turmoil of 1813 … (I)

  

  The protagonist of these recollections is Louis Jacques Romand. He was born in Vauconcourt, part of the arrondissement of Gray, Haute-Saône Department, on 12 October 1790. He saw action in the campaign in Austria of 1809 as a fusilier chasseur of the Guard (1st Regiment). Romand then was assigned to a expeditionary battalion and travelled…

  jdnjdn92

  May 4, 2024

  1813 Campaign, Allied (Coalition) forces, Anecdotes, Artillery, Battle, Generals, Imperial Guard, Infantry, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Marshals, Memoirs, Officer, Soldier

  Accomodation, Administration, Aide-de-camp, Ammunition, Austria, Bamberg, Barracks, Battalion, Battle of Dresden, Bavaria, Billet, Bivouac, Bohemia, Brest, Brittany, Champs-Elysées, Cold, Courage, Daily life, Dresden, Dutch, Emperor, Emperor Francis of Austria, Equipment, Expedition, Family, Fencing, Fire, Flag, Franconia, Frankfurt, Freyberg, Fusiliers, Geishubel, General Bonnet, Germany, Governor, Haute-Saône, Hunger, Illness, Imperial Guard, Injuries, Inspection, Invalides, Line infantry, Mainz, Marshal Augereau, Marshal Kellerman, Marshal Sérurier, Marshal St Cyr, Mauritius, Metz, Minister of War, Napoleon, Navy, NCO, Paris, Peace, Pirna, Prisoner of war, Prussia, Quartermaster, Rain, Rhine, Russia, Russian Imperial Guard, Saint-Cloud, Saint-Denis, Saxony, Sergeant, Sergeant-major, Seychelles, Shako, Sojourn, Supplies, Training, Truce, Vauconcourt, Versailles, Vertus, Village, Würzburg

• 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…

  jdnjdn92

  April 18, 2024

  1813 Campaign, 1814 Campaign, Anecdotes, Cavalry, Letters – Correspondence, Soldier

  Alsace, Battle of Waterloo, Bivouac, Blockade, Blois, Brigadier, Caen, Colmar, Conscription, Cossacks, Cuirassier, Daily life, Discharge, Discipline, Equipment, Fortifications, France, General Lemarois, Germany, Hospital, Illness, Labour, Laon, Lieutenant, Loiret, Louvain, Lusignan, Magdeburg, Melun, Metz, Money, Mounted Carabiniers, Mounts, Noirt, Normandy, Orléans, Poitiers, Poitou, Pontoon, Prussia, River, Siege, Supplies, Thionville, Tours, Wesel, Westphalia

• A dragoon under Marshal Murat – Letters of the 1806-1807 Campaigns (I)

  

  In the spring of 1806, Amédée Le Nourry, captain-adjutant-major in the 16th Dragoon Regiment, was posted on the banks of the Inn, near Passau, alongside Marshal Soult’s army corps. Adjutant-major Le Nourry was an excellent officer with a keen understanding of his profession. Born on 8 July 1777 in Craconville near Evreux, he volunteered for…

  jdnjdn92

  January 8, 2024

  1806 Campaign, Anecdotes, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, Diplomacy, General staff, Letters – Correspondence, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Marshals, Officer

  Accomodation, Adjudant Major, Altmühl, Armistice, Austerlitz, Austria, Baden, Battle of Austerlitz, Battle of Jena, Bavaria, Berlin, Billet, Bivouac, Braunau, Captain, Colonel, Craconville, Daily life, Danube, Depot, Dragoons, Emperor, Evreux, Family, Foot Artillery, France, Franconia, Germany, Grenadiers, Haugwitz, Hohenlohe, Household, Inn, Inspection, King Frederick William III of Prussia, Kronach, Lieutenant, Locals, Magdeburg, Mainz, Marshal Murat, Marshal Soult, Metz, Meudon, Money, Mounts, Napoleon, Newspapers, Oder, Passau, Pay, Peace, Poland, Postal service, Potsdam, Prenzlau, Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, Prussia, Ratisbonne, Regensburg, Review, Russia, Saxony, Scharding, Squadron Commander, Sulzbach, Tsar Alexander, Vienna, Württemberg, Würzburg

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

  

  The author of these letters, Jean-Henry Rattier, was born in Val-Chambre (Ardèche) on 1 June 1775, the fifth child of a farmer whose four other sons served in the French army during the campaigns of the Revolution. Henry Rattier, employed as a miller in a silk factory in Privas, joined the National Guard when he…

  jdnjdn92

  November 30, 2023

  1809 Campaign, Anecdotes, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, General staff, Generals, Imperial Guard, Infantry, Letters – Correspondence, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Officer

  Accident, Accomodation, Adjudant Major, Administration, Alsace, Austria, Battle of Wagram, Billet, Bivouac, Captain, Chasseur, Clothing, Compiègne, Conscript, Daily life, Drill, Emperor, Equipment, Erfurt, Family, Fatigue, Flemish, General Curial, General Junot, General Rampon, General Soulès, Grants, Illness, Imperial Guard, Injuries, Inspection, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Colonel, Light Infantry, Metz, Moral, Napoleon, NCO, Parades, Paris, Pay, Piedmontese, Police, Polish Lancers, Promotion, Regiment of Tirailleurs, Retirement, Schönbrunn, Spain, Strasbourg, Tsar Alexander, Versailles, Voltigeurs, Wine, Winter

• Cuirassier Jean de Gouttes’ correspondence on Ulm and Austerlitz …

  

  La Ferté-sous-Jouarre (Seine-et-Marne), 16 Fructidor Year XIII (3 September 1805). You will no doubt be surprised to receive a letter from me dated from La Ferté; I confess that I did not expect to be leaving it so soon, even though I knew that we were due to depart from Versailles shortly. Mr. Salvaing may…

  jdnjdn92

  August 24, 2023

  1805 Campaign, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, General staff, Generals, Infantry, Letters – Correspondence, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Marshals, Officer, Soldier

  Accomodation, Austria, Baden, Battle of Austerlitz, Bavaria, Billet, Bridge, British, Camp of Boulogne, Chalons, Cisalpine Republic, Cuirassier, Danube, Depot, Desertion, Elchingen, Emperor, Emperor Francis of Austria, Equipment, Flag, General d'Hautpoul, General Mack, General Saint-Sulpice, Germany, Hungary, Illness, Imprisonment, Invasion, Italy, La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, Landau, Light Infantry, Marshal Murat, Marshal Ney, Marshal Soult, Memmingen, Metz, Money, Munich, Napoleon, Paris, Poverty, Prisoner of war, Rhine, Russia, Sarreguemines, Strasbourg, Ulm, Vanguard, Verdun, Vienna, Württemberg

• A hussar officer in garrison, Austria 1809 …

  

  Letter with military postmark, blue-green, ‘N° 26 ARM(ÉE) d’Allemagne’, addressed to his sister ‘Madame Kauffer, rue des Clers opposite the post office at METZ, D(épartemen)t de la Mozelle, France’.Kauffer was an officer in the 5th Hussars, General Montbrun’s Division, Army of Germany. The letter is dated Lembach 29 ‘9bre’ 1809 (November 1809). I received your…

  jdnjdn92

  February 17, 2023

  1809 Campaign, Cavalry, Letters – Correspondence, Officer

  Accomodation, Austria, Bivouac, Captain, Daily life, General Montbrun, Germany, Hussars, Lembach, Metz, St Polten, Vienna

• The 1814 journal of a squadron commander – horse artillery (I) …

  

  Hubert Mathieu (1767-1844) was a squadron commander in the horse artillery. Here is an extract from his journal set during the campaign for France in 1814. On 1 January 1814, at about two o’clock in the afternoon, on a splendid Sunday, just as we were about to arrive at our billets [those of Landau, in…

  jdnjdn92

  February 8, 2023

  1814 Campaign, Artillery, Battle, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Memoirs, Officer

  Austria, Bar-le-Duc, Battle of Champaubert, Bivouac, Brienne, Châlons, Craonne, Daily life, Fismes, France, General Doumerc, La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, Marne, Marshal Marmont, Marshal Ney, Metz, Montmirail, Mud, Neustadt, Nogent-sur-Seine, Prussia, Rheims, Rhine, Russia, Saint-Dizier, Sarreguemines, Squadron Commander, Thionville, Troyes, Vauchamps, Verdun, Vertus, Vitry, Vitry-sur-Marne, Water