Description:

Bonaparte Napoleon

Napoleon Bonaparte Signed Letter Requesting a Head Count of His Armies

 

1p LS in French inscribed in a clerical hand and signed by Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) as "Napole" at bottom. Written in Bayonne, France on June 25, 1808. The watermarked cream paper is in near fine condition, with expected light paper folds, measuring 7.25" x 9". From the Marc-Arthur Kohn sale, "The Empire in Paris," December 2, 2013 (Paris, France), part of Lot 46.

 

Napoleon Bonaparte--emperor, military commander, and master geopolitical strategist--addressed this letter to his Minister of War, Henri Jacques Guillaume Clarke (1765-1818), in late June 1808 from the French Basque region. It dates from the beginning of the Peninsular War (1807-1814), a conflict precipitated when Napoleon attacked his former ally Spain in May 1808. For almost the next decade, Napoleon's generals waged a stalemated war against Sixth Coalition forces Britain, Spain, and Portugal. At the same time, Napoleon oversaw an empire extending across most of Western Europe.

 

Translation from the French:

 

“Monsieur General Clarke, I am requesting that when you send me the July 1 status reports, include military head counts for the Grande Armee, the Spanish army and that of Dalmatia, of the Boulogne camp, &c &c; and regarding the head count in France, indicate if they are untrained conscripts or ready to rejoin the ranks. Don’t mix Italian troops with foreign ones but keep them separate. On this, I pray that God keeps you in his holy care. Bayonne June 25, 1808. Napole.”

 

Even though Napoleon's attention was primarily directed towards Spain and Portugal at this time, he was still monitoring the rest of the empire. Napoleon requested head counts of his armies, explicitly mentioning the four largest: Great Army (Grande Armee), Spanish Army (Armee d'Espagne), Dalmatian Army (Armee de Dalmatie), and the Boulogne camp (camp de Boulogne). The "+c +c" of Napoleon's list encompasses all other unenumerated forces!

 

Napoleon's Grande Armee was his principal fighting force. At its zenith, prior to the invasion of Russia, it numbered 1,000,000 men; (of 685,000 men sent into Russia in 1812, only 45% returned.) The multinational force was comprised of French, German, Austrian, Italian, Dutch, Swiss, Danish, Norwegian, Polish, Croatian, Irish, Corsican, Spanish, and Portuguese troops.

 

The Spanish Army, consisting of approximately 300,000 troops of mixed origin (French, Italian, and Confederation, or German states), were dispatched to the Peninsula after 1807.

 

The Dalmatian Army, estimated at approximately 15,000 troops, occupied much of modern day Croatia and Slovenia and represented Napoleon's presence in the Balkans during the Adriatic Campaign (1807-1814).

 

Boulogne, located in Normandie, France, was initially selected as a military staging area for a French invasion of Great Britain. In 1805, approximately 60,000 troops were quartered there.

 

Besides membership in which army, Napoleon also differentiated between trained troops and training troops. General Clarke's report would have given Napoleon a complete picture of his armies: how many soldiers, their location, and their fighting ability.

 

Napoleon was in part able to accomplish all he did by relying on General Clarke, who handled military matters ranging from inspection and provisioning, to conscription and internal discipline. General Clarke was recognized for his great service when he was granted the honorary title of Duc of Feltre in August 1809.

 

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