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435

Napoleon

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,000.00 USD
Napoleon

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Auction Date:2010 Dec 08 @ 19:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
LS in French, signed “Np,” one page both sides, 7.5 x 9, February 7, 1813. Letter to his Minister of War, the Duc de Feltre, written shortly before the fall of the city of Santona in Spain, ordering his soldiers all the payments they need and all the goods they can find in the city as gratitude for their service and loyalty. In full, translated: “The ground in Santona being blocked and being feared to fall to enemy power any day, I think that it is important to make a decision about the seizure that is the object of your report on Nov. 6 – Everything that can be useful to the garrison (officers, soldiers or employees) either sheets, either shoes, shirts, schapkas [hat] [Could be abbreviation for Russian] should be given to them as gratification. – Everything that can be useful to the hospital or to the ground must be put in the quartermaster’s stores. – I approve that all that is left be resold to the English army commissaries and since it is said that it will reach one million, you will order that be kept in Santona 1st all that is necessary to balance the pay to the garrison up to January 1, 1814 and 2nd the 1000,000 francs that are requested for supplying the ground. – The garrison could also ask that it be provided with things that it needs, if not in supplies at least in clothing. As regards to what the garrison is entitled to, the distribution of gratification clothes that it will get, as I just ordered seems to me sufficient. Nobody can have any rights on a seizure entering a port. – And now I pray to God that he keeps you in his Holy guard.”

Intersecting folds, a bit of light toning, some light surface marks and binding holes to lower left, and a heavier spot of toning near top, otherwise fine condition.

It seems that Napoleon’s implied message here—to help themselves to whatever they like “as gratitude for their service and loyalty”—was taken to heart by the troops. The civilian population had to deal with boisterous behavior by the French troops, though that would turn out to be little more than an inconvenience as the soldiers soon turned to rape, murder, and pillaging. They made off with whatever valuables they could find, ate whatever they could lay their hands on, and drank all that they could drink. To keep warm at night, the soldiers and their commanders would stoke their fires with actual buildings…or their contents. A frank and literal interpretation of Napoleon’s order to acquire “all the payments they need.”
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