Napoleon Bonaparte Letters

Letter, 1798, July 31

Brief History

In May of 1798 General Napoleon Bonaparte, the head of the French Army of the Orient, sailed to Egypt from Toulon, France.  The Directory, a five-member committee which governed France from 1795-1799, had agreed to support Napoleon’s proposal to launch a military expedition in order to secure French trade interests in Egypt and Syria while at the same time threatening and destabilizing British access to India and the East Indies.

Napoleon and his army arrived in Alexandria, Egypt on the first of July after having first invaded and conquered Malta.  Bonaparte amassed 25,000 troops about nine miles from the pyramids of Giza, and engaged the Mamluks, the military force currently in Egypt, at the Battle of the Pyramids on the 21st of July, 1789.

This letter of commendation dated on July 31 from Division General Bon to Napoleon Bonaparte recommends a promotion for Captain Charbond to the rank of Battalion Chief for his exemplary service in the Battle of the Pyramids.  Notice that Napoleon still uses the Republican calendar dating of the 13 Thermidor.

French transcription

Armé d’Orient

Division Bon

Artillerie

Notte du service du citoyen Charbond capitaine d’artillerie.

Le capitaine Charbond a fait sept campagnes dan l’armée et l’artillerie avec la plus grande distinction: il a presque toujours commandé l’artillerie d’une division; il reunite a une grande modestie les qualités et les connaissances qu’on peut desirer dans un excellent officier d’artillerie.  L’experience et les lumières qu’il s’est acquises dans son arme, le rendent supérieur (?) a son grade actual;  il a montré autant de bravoure  que d’activité et d’intelligence a la bataille des Pyramides.  Le général de division réclame pour lui le grade de chef de bataillon auquel paraissent l’appeller le suffrage de ses superieurs et de ses camarades.

Le Général de Division

Bon

Napoleon’s marginalia:

Expediez.

Renvoyé a L’Etat Major pour le faire reconnaitre  comme chef de Bataillon, au Caire, le 13 Thermidor an 6.

Bonaparte

Letter, 1810, August 29

Brief History

Letter from the Peninsular war in Spain (1810), by Laura Damuth

Marshal Louis Alexandre Berthier (1753-1815), 1st Prince de Wagram, 1st Duc de Valangin, and 1st Sovereign Prince of Neuchâtel, was a Marshal and Vice-Constable of France serving as Chief of Staff to Napoleon.  This letter, addressed to Napoleon, requests a 3-month sick leave for second Lieutenant Koch, who had been suffering from intermittent fevers. Napoleon grants the leave – a testament to the level of military detail that Napoleon dealt with on a daily basis.

Berthier came from a long line of military leaders. He was born at Versailles, served with Lafayette in the American Revolution, and during the French Revolution, as Chief of Staff of the Versailles National Guard, he protected the aunts of Louis XVI and aided their escape. He later joined the Republican army and accompanied Napoleon to Italy during his Italian campaign (1796); eventually he joined Napoleon in Egypt, and in November 1799 he assisted with Napoleon’s coup d’etat in Paris on the 18 Brumaire. He was present at many of Napoleon’s major battles: Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena, and Friedland.  In 1808, Berthier was serving in the Peninsular War in Spain, during which time this letter was written.

Berthier goes on to serve with Napoleon in Russia in 1812, Germany in 1813, and France in 1814.  When Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba, Berthier turned down the opportunity to accompany him.  He, however, did serve the Bourbon monarchy when Louis XVIII, brother of Louis XVI, entered Paris.   When Napoleon returned to France after Elba, Berthier retired to Bamberg, Germany where he died a few weeks later on June 1, 1815 by falling out of an upstairs window.  It is unclear if this was suicide, an assassination, or an accident.

French transcription

Major- général

Demande de congé                                                      Rapport

S.M. l’empereur et Roi

Paris, le 29 Aout, 1810

Sire,

Le minister de la guerre me transmet  une demande du Sieur Koch sous Lieutenant au 1^er Reg^t de Prusse, à l’effet d’obtenir un congé pour la santé.

Le certificate ci-joint constate que depuis deux mois le Sieur Koch est attaint de fièvres intermitantes tierses, et que les traitements qu’il a suivi à Bilbao n’ont pas opére sa guerisson.

J’ai l’honneur de proposer a votre majesté d’accorder a cet officier un congé de convalescence de trois mois pour faire usage des eaux thermales qui lui sont ordonnier.

Le prince de Wagram et de Neuchâtel,

Major général,

Alexander (Berthier)

Napoleon marginalia:

Accordé

S. Cloud le 3 7^bre 1810

NB

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