Tag: River

• 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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  May 6, 2024

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

  Abrantes, Accomodation, Administration, Alba de Tormes, Alcanizas, Alenquer, Almeida, Ammunition, Army of Portugal, Avila, Battle of Bussaco, Billet, Bivouac, Brigands, British, Burgos, Cadre, Captain, Coimbra, Daily life, Depot, Desertion, Dragoons, Duke of Wellington, Equipment, Extremadura, Fatigue, Foodstuffs, Fortifications, France, General Brenier, General Kellerman, General Montbrun, Guerilla, Lancers, Leiria, Lieutenant, Limoges, Lisbon, Madrid, Marshal Masséna, Marshal Ney, Ourém, Outpost, Placencia, Pombal, Portugal, Prisoner of war, Promotion, Punhete, Rain, Rearguard, Reconnaissance, Redinha, Retirement, Retreat, River, Rodrigo, Salamanca, Spain, Supplies, Tagus, Valladolid, Viseu, Zamora, Zêzere

• 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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  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

• 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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  April 8, 2024

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

  Accomodation, Aide-de-camp, Ambulance, Austria, Baden, Baggage, Battle of Bautzen, Battle of Lützen, Bautzen, Bischofswerda, Bivouac, Blücher, Brandy, Bread, Captain, Conscript, Cossacks, Crime, Daily life, Dresden, Elbe, Elster, Emperor, Espionage, Fatigue, Foodstuffs, Görlitz, General Bertrand, General Bonnet, General Brenier, General Charpentier, General Compans, General Gérard, General Kirgener, General Marchand, General Morand, General Ricard, General Roguet, General Souham, General Wittgenstein, Grand Marshal Duroc, Grenadiers, Hessians, Hunger, Hussars, Imperial Guard, Kaya, Lancers, Lützen, Leipzig, Locals, Marshal Berthier, Marshal Macdonald, Marshal Marmont, Marshal Ney, Marshal Oudinot, Medical Officer, Money, Napoleon, Old Guard, Peasants, Pegau, Pillage, Poland, Prussia, Quartermaster, Reconnaissance, Retreat, River, Russia, Saxony, Sergeant-major, Silesia, Spree, Supplies, Te Deum, Theft, Transport, Tsar Alexander, Weisig, Weissenfels, Woods, Young Guard

• 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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  April 4, 2024

  1806 Campaign, 1807 Campaign, Anecdotes, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, General staff, Generals, Infantry, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Marshals, Memoirs, Officer, Soldier

  Accomodation, Arbois, Baggage, Battle of Eylau, Battle of Friedland, Battle of Ostrołęka, Billet, Bivouac, Captain, Chief of Staff, Contusion, Corporal, Czarnowo, Daily life, Danzig, Decorations, Discipline, Duchy, Emperor, Erlangen, Eylau, Family, Fatigue, France, Franche-Comté, General Bennigsen, General Campana, General Essen, General Gazan, General Reille, General Savary, Glogau, Grenadiers, Grodno, Host, Hussars, Injuries, Jura, Königsberg, Legion of Honour, Lieutenant, Light Infantry, Line infantry, Lissa, Locals, Marshal Davout, Marshal Lannes, Marshal Masséna, Marshal Oudinot, Marshal Suchet, Mittellangdorff, Mud, Napoleon, Ostrolenka, Poland, Pregel, Prussia, Pultusk, Retreat, Rhine, River, Russia, Second Lieutenant, Sergeant-major, Siege of Danzig (1807), Silesia, Spain, Supplies, Tilsit, Town, Transport, Tsar Alexander, Village, Warsaw, Wartenberg, Winter, Woods

• Dedicated to the Imperial Cause – Letters of the Dandalle Family (V) …

  

  In September 1811, Alphonse, now definitively released from his clothing employment, sent a detachment by boat from Huningue to Wesel to join the regiment. He travelled to Hamburg, made contact with Hubert and returned to the Huningue depot, bidding it farewell on 20 April 1812 when he left for Cologne with another detachment. It is…

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  March 13, 2024

  1812 Campaign, Anecdotes, Battle, Cavalry, General staff, Infantry, Letters – Correspondence, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Officer, Soldier

  1812, Austria, Barclay de Tolly, Battle of Borodino, Battle of Maloyaroslavets, Battle of Smolensk, Battle of the Berezina, Berlin, Bivouac, Borodino, Borovsk, Brandy, Bulletin, Burning of Moscow, Captain, Cold, Cologne, Cossacks, Croatia, Cuirassier, Daily life, Danzig, Depot, Dnieper, Dvina, Foodstuffs, France, General Moreau, General Nansouty, Germany, Grants, Hamburg, Hanover, Huningue, Italy, Kaluga, Königsberg, Kovno, Kremlin, Legion of Honour, Light Infantry, Lithuania, Magdeburg, Marshal Bernadotte, Marshal Mortier, Marshal Victor, Minsk, Money, Moscow, Moskva, Napoleon, Niemen, Poland, Polotsk, Prince Bagration, Prisoner of war, River, Russia, Studienka, Supplies, Sweden, Swiss, Tilsit, Tsar Alexander, Vanguard, Vilna, Vitebsk, Voltigeurs, Vyazma, Water, Wesel

• The battle of Fuentes de Oñoro, recounted by a staff officer …

  

  Here follows an excerpt from Emmanuel-Frédéric Sprünglin’s (1773-1844) exceptional memoirs, which he wrote based on his detailed journal he kept during his service in the Peninsular War. On 3 October 1810, our Swiss-born officer was appointed deputy (adjoint) battalion commander in the general staff of the Army of Portugal. When the decision was made for…

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  February 28, 2024

  Aide-de-camp, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, General staff, Generals, Imperial Guard, Infantry, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Marshals, Memoirs, Officer, Peninsular War

  Agueda, Alameda, Almeida, Army of Portugal, Azava, Battalion Commander, Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro, Cantonments, Carpio, Castelo Bom, Castile, Ciudad Rodrigo, Coa, Duke of Wellington, Entrenchments, Equipment, Espeja, Fatigue, Fortifications, Gallegos, General Brenier, General Drouet d'Erlon, General Ferrey, General Heudelet, General Loison, General Marchand, General Maucune, General Montbrun, General Reynier, Horse Artillery, Leon, Light Artillery, Light Infantry, Marialva, Marshal Bessières, Marshal Masséna, Marshal Ney, Peninsular War, Portugal, Pozobello, Rearguard, Retreat, River, Skirmishers, Spain, Vanguard, Vilar Formoso, Voltigeurs

• An account on the battle of the Gebora and the siege of Badajoz, February-March 1811 …

  

  Some time after the capture of the fort of Pardaleras, General Jérôme-Dominique Bourgeat (1760-1827) again assumed an active and decisive role in one of the key events of the siege of Badajoz, known as the battle of the Gebora. Charged with preparing the action of the attacking troops, he bombarded the enemy camp so effectively…

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  February 20, 2024

  Anecdotes, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, Engineers, General staff, Generals, Infantry, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Marshals, Memoirs, Officer, Peninsular War, Reports, Soldier

  Army of the South, Badajoz, Bivouac, Breach, Capitulation, Captain, Elvas, Entrenchments, Fatigue, Foot Artillery, Fortifications, Gebdia, Gebora, General Bourgeat, General Latour-Maubourg, Grenadiers, Guadiana, Guns, Horse Artillery, Howitzer, Illness, Injuries, Lieutenant, Marshal Berthier, Marshal Mortier, Marshal Soult, Pardaleras, River, San-Cristobal, Sappers, Seville, Siege, Spain, Train, Transport

• 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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  February 15, 2024

  1814 Campaign, Aide-de-camp, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, General staff, Generals, Imperial Guard, Infantry, Letters – Correspondence, Marshals, Medicine – Surgery, Officer, Reports

  Aide-de-camp, Aisne, Éclaireurs (Scouts) of the Guard, Blücher, Bouconville, Captain, Chavignon, Conscript, Corbeny, Cranelle, Craonne, Flankers, Flanqueurs, Fusiliers, General Bigarré, General Boyer de Rebeval, General Drouot, General Laferrière, General Meunier, Gunner, Guns, Injuries, Laon, Lette, Marshal Ney, Marshal Victor, Napoleon, Old Guard, Paris, Plateau, Prussia, Recovery, Redoubts, River, Russia, Skirmishers, Soissons, Tirailleurs, Train, Voltigeurs, Young Guard

• Grouchy’s service in Italy, May 1809 …

  

  The Austrian Archduke John had made the mistake, after the battle of Sacile, of not vigorously pursuing the army of the Viceroy Eugène de Beauharnais and allowing the prince time to recover. After spending eight days on the Livenza, without undertaking anything, the Austrian commander positioned himself around Conegliano, quartering his troops as though the…

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  February 1, 2024

  1809 Campaign, Aide-de-camp, Allied (Coalition) forces, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, Engineers, French-Allied forces, General staff, Generals, Letters – Correspondence, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Marshals, Officer, Reports

  Accomodation, Aide-de-camp, Archduke John, Army of Italy, Austria, Battle of Sacile, Billet, Bivouac, Caldiero, Campo Formio, Carniola, Chasseur à Cheval, Cividale, Colonel, Conegliano, Crews, Dragoons, Eugène de Beauharnais, Ford, Gemona, General Baraguey d'Hilliers, General Broussier, General Durutte, General Grenier, General Sahuc, Grants, Hungary, Hussars, Italy, Legion of Honour, Light Cavalry, Livenza, Marshal Grouchy, Marshal Macdonald, Outpost, Palmanova, Piave, Picket, Promotion, River, Supplies, Tagliamento, Udine, Valvasone

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

  

  Poland was a completely different country for the French soldiers. The miserable and often desolate appearance of certain areas surprised them by the contrast with the bountiful regions where they had long resided. However, they were cheerful and confident, and the change of regime gave them more cause for jest than complaint. Moreover, the cordial…

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  January 22, 2024

  1806 Campaign, 1807 Campaign, Artillery, Battle, Cavalry, Engineers, General staff, Generals, Imperial Guard, Infantry, Letters – Correspondence, Logistics – War Commissionary – Intendancy, Marshals, Officer

  Accomodation, Allenstein, Billet, Bivouac, Chasseur à Cheval de la Garde Impériale, Cossacks, Craconville, Custrin, Daily life, Deppen, Dokhturov, Dragoons, Emperor, Eylau, Family, Fatigue, Foodstuffs, General Beaumont, General Bennigsen, General Corbineau, General d'Hautpoul, General Lasalle, Germany, Golitsyn, Health, Hoff, Königsberg, Liebstadt, Locals, Mainz, Marriage, Marshal Augereau, Marshal Davout, Marshal Lannes, Marshal Murat, Moral, Mud, Napoleon, Poland, Praga, Prussia, Pultusk, River, Russia, Snow, Supplies, Ukra, Vistula, Warsaw