France Napoleonic Documents

[Bear]

I've been waiting along time for a document like this one signed by Lafayette. Since I started collecting I've kept an eye out for one of his documents. The ones that pop up are always dated in th 1820's, which just isn't the same as the one that came knocking.

The document is signed as commander of the Paris National Guard and dated the 1st of September 1789. This was just six weeks after the stroming of the Bastille. The document is a commission to Lieutenant in the Paris National Guard.

Commission for Second Lieutenant, First Division, Fourth Battalion, Dequet Company, Paris National Guard. We, Mayor of the city of Paris, with consideration to the motion put to us by the Commander-General of the Parisian National Guard and to the favorable testimony given us of the patriotic ardor, of the intelligence and of the good behavior of one Joseph Dupar, former Sergeant?we?appoint him Second-Lieutenant?to fulfill the duties attached to that rank, and enjoy all honors, rights, remuneration and emoluments attached to that rank?Executed in the Paris City Hall, September the First, seventeen hundred eighty-nine?.

The document is also signed by -

Paris mayor Jean Sylvain Bailly (1736-1793)

Joseph-Leonard Poirey who was Lafayette's aid during the American Revolution.

Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_du_Mo...is_de_Lafayette

Lafayette spoke for the last time in the Chamber of Deputies on 3 January 1834. The winter was wet and cold, and the next month he collapsed at a funeral from pneumonia. Although he recovered, the following May was wet and, after a thunderstorm, he became sick and bedridden. On 20 May 1834, Lafayette died. He was buried next to his wife at the Cimeti?re de Picpus under soil from Bunker Hill, which his son Georges sprinkled upon him. King Louis-Phillipe ordered a military funeral in order to keep the public from attending. Crowds formed to protest their exclusion from Lafayette's funeral.

American President Andrew Jackson ordered that Lafayette be accorded the same funeral honours as John Adams and George Washington. Therefore, 24-gun salutes were fired from military posts and ships, each shot represented a U.S. state. Flags flew at half mast for thirty-five days, and "military officers wore crape for six months". The Congress hung black in chambers and asked the entire country to dress in black for the next thirty days.

[Vatjan]

It never ceases to amaze me that this sort of documents even still exists.

Wonderful, thank ou for showing

Jan

[Bear]

I'll have to see if I can find any info on Joseph Dupar. I have a print of the Marqui but its not as nice as the picture on wikipedia.

[Les]

Bear,

Thanks for showing that item. Not long after Bonaparte took over control of the Republic (and then the Empire), Lafayette got the short end of the stick. He wouldn't leave Europe for the US, and was imprisoned for several years because of his Republican sympathies.

For entirely personal reasons, he's become a favorite historical character of mine.

In 1824-1825, he made a farewell tour of the United States. That tour generated a huge amount of instant memorabilia which at the time were usually cheaply made souvenirs, but today have become highly collectible items.

During the summer of 1825, on the return leg of his trip, his route took him through the area where I live, and he stopped briefly at a local tavern (now my house) "for refreshments" and a change of horses on his carriage. A local newspaper reported this stop-over, and other information about meeting some of the locals, etc. When I discovered that story, I started looking for a copy of his Houdon bust or a decent looking art-quality print of him to hang in the room that was once the tap room of the tavern/house. I couldn't find a bust, and settled for a copy of a Houdon life-mask.

Want a photo of the life mask posted here?

Les

[Bear]

Hello les,

Post it along with anything else you have on him.

Edited May 12, 2009 by Bear

[Les]

This is a copy of the life mask Houdon made.

Les

[Ulsterman]

Very cool.

The tree he stopped under and made a speech/got a drink, when he rolled through here still stands-and is my towns' coat of arms.

My ggggGrandmother danced with him when she was 15 years old. She was/is Rick's "Rich" cousin.

I remember my Grandfathers' cousin, who met Granny Rich @ 1895 telling us that she'd said that 'Lafayette smelled like vanilla and strawberrys'.

Quite a man- and the man who finished off Napoleon with his "a million of our sons are dead for nothing" speech in 1815.

[Bear]

Hello,

I just got this one. This doc has to rate as one of my favorites.

thanks,

barry

James Monroe(1758 - 1831)

Fifth President of the United States who negotiated the Louisiana Purchase and promulgated the Monroe Doctrine. Rare partly-printed D.S. "Jas. Monroe" as Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to the French Republic, 1p. folio, Paris, May 6, 1796, a diplomatic passport issued to Silvanus Bourne, U.S. consul at Amsterdam, countersigned by French Foreign Minister CHARLES-FRANCOIS DELACROIX (1741-1805). Delacroix served as foreign minister from 1795 to 1797. Monroe served as ambassador from 1794 to 1796 where he struggled to reconcile his own sympathy for the French Revolution with the Washington administration's strict policy of neutrality toward both Britain and France. Silvanus Bourne was the first to man the American consulate at Amsterdam. Appointed in 1794, he remained at his post until his death in 1817.

Edited May 13, 2009 by Bear

[Bear]

During this time Monroe was serving in President George Washington's administration. The document is signed just four days before Napoleon won at Lodi in the Italian Campaign. During the American Revolution Monroe served as a 2nd Lt. in the 3rd Virginia. He would be wounded at the Battle of Trenton.

Wikipedia Photo

[Bear]

Hello,

I had a great time at the auctions. I got the two that I was wanting for less money than I thought I'd be paying. I got the James Monroe and the Massena. I'm going to have to do some research on the officers mentioned. It will be a week or so before they arrive for a closer look.

Marshal ANDRE MASSENA (1758 - 1817)

"Massena" as Marshal of France and Duke of Rivoli, "in bivouac on Lobau Island" [Vienna], May 26, 1809. Just four days after the near-disaster at the battle of Aspern-Essling, in which a French advance guard managed to retreat safely in the face of an Austrian force nearly four times its size, Massena writes the Emperor Napoleon in French, to "request Your Imperial and Royal Majesty to reward the officers of my staff who distinguished themselves in the battle of the 21st and 22nd. For Colonel St. Croix, my aide-de-camp, the officer's cross?" and for his other aides-de-camp "Lieutenant Renique?the rank of Captain / for Lieutenant Porcher?the rank of Captain, for Lieutenant Massena?the Legionnaire's cross?", as well as promotions and medals for a number of other officers.

The little note on the left looks like Napoleon's chicken scratch.

Edited January 3, 2010 by Bear

[Bear]

Colonel Escorches de Sainte-Croix

Colonel: 5 May 1809

General de Brigade: 21 July 1809

Officer of the Legion d?Honneur: 31 May 1809

Croix would be cut in two by a cannon ball while in the Army of Portugal.(Battle of Busaco - 11 October 1810)

[Guest Rick Research]

What did "N" decide? Can't decipher that.

[Bear]

It looks sorta like Napoleon's writing but I don't think it is.

Napoleon's Chicken Scratch on a 1814 document.

[Bear]

The Massena Document.

same or different

[Bear]

I just got informed that I've got a diary of a French 5e cuirassier detailing his journey during the 1809 campaign(Eckmuhl, Ratisbonne, Essling, Wagram, ect...)on the way to my house. I can't wait That feeling of a kid in the candy store has not left me. It should be an interesting read. Is it monday yet.....

[Ulsterman]

...an original diary??????? :speechless1:

How many pages? Egad!!!

I am speechless. the Napoleonic War Society will be VERY excited.

...pic. of a curassier @ 100 years later

[Bear]

I think its around 25 pages(untranslated). I hope to find someone that will be willing to translate it for a small fee.

[ColinRF]

Awesome - the 1809 Austrian campaign is my favourite Napoleonic conflict. Fascinating engagements and personalities. I'd love to see a summary once you get it translated.

Colin

[Bear]

Here is a shaky description of the manuscript.

5th Regiment Cuirassiers, since his departure from Hanover on 10 March 1809 until 14 October of that year. Slnd, petit in-4, [24] pp., Handwritten, paperback,

Exceptional historical narrative of the campaign of 1809 by an officer of the 5th Cuirassier.

The regiment of Saint-Sulpice Division, attached to the body Mass?na, including Abensberg of Eckm?hl and Regensburg, finally providing a relationship of the Battle of wagram where "5" had a supporting role. The text ends with an armistice and the peace of 14 October, when the command "Sulpice is replaced by Germain.

From the beginning, the author tells us about his impressions. The crossing of Westphalia and Bavaria briefly described, it enters the heart of the matter we are making the first skirmishes with the Austrians at the end up the Danube in April and Eckm?hl where the Fifth Cuirassiers were distinguished. It was during this battle, we discover a curious fact which makes it particularly relevant to the manuscript, and it is known that prevails among the staff a challenge to the merits of tactical decisions the emperor:

...it is therefore, as a form of battle, these movements are made under the gun of the enemy. However, the Emperor sends a second order to the Colonel of the regiment to move on the position of Eckmuhl and prevail. The Colonel knows the field notes from the camp of His Majesty that the village is cut off, that protects the river, is surrounded by marshes and the roadway which is very close.... The charge is ordered and taken away by the courage so natural to a french, Colonel galloped.... what situation! What a time for a regiment!

The famous charge of the evening of April 22, who offered the "laurels of glory" in the Fifth, had no real strategic importance but will have significant psychological impact on the enemy, until Regensburg. Equally exciting, the reading of the manuscript continues with the arrival at Vienna on 10 May, the magazine of the Emperor on the 16th, the participation of the Fifth at Essling battle with the prince of Montebello, and the Aspern maneuver where after pressing the Austrians, the regiment took the flag to the opposing side. The passage of the Danube Island Lobeau prevent the 5th Cuirassiers to participate in the Battle of Wagram in which the author does not fail to mention that the win goes to the "genius of Napoleon."

The story finally ends the pursuit of the Austrians, whom the Regiment will be involved this time, having been ordered to cut all retirement before Hollabrunn positions Znaim. "No case has been so bloody and at the same time of such great importance." Essling such cost in effect to 21 000 French troops and 23 000 in Austria, the author often regretted the loss of horses

The many dead and wounded officers were are cited in a beautiful expression, "mingled with a few cypress laurels.

At every point, this manuscript very detailed, making these very lively glorious and bloody adventures, can be intersected with the many memories of the time, like those of General Marbot or of Bismark who salutes "the real moral power" of heavy cavalry regiments: "Brave as Cuirrassiers.

Bibliography: Juzancourt, Essai sur l'histoire des Cuirassiers, 1886. Vial, Cuirrassiers History 5th, 1894 (which this paper provides guidance to the new tables of officers killed during the 1809 campaign.)

[Bear]

Got it Today I hope that soon it will get translated. :D

[Bear]

The Duke of Montebello Lots of names in the Journal.

[Bear]

random page

[Bear]

last random page

[Chris Liontas]

WOW!!!

A primary source like that is amazing. I would love to get a chance to read it--congratulations!!!

[Bear]

Thanks Chris

When it comes to translating I can get about...

33.3%(Right ON)

33.3%(Good Guess)

& the remaining 33.4%(I Have know Clue) just screws it all up.