[Manuscript]. [1st Empire]. [Poland]. Collection of copies of letters from a French soldier in Napoleon's army stationed in Danzig. 1811-1814. In-4 (approx. 17.5 x 15 cm.), 83 unnumbered leaves (+ 1 flyleaf), written in ink on r° and v°, very few erasures or corrections, modest period parchment, smooth muted spine (small snags and a stain on the boards).
Precious testimony, almost certainly unpublished, from a French military officer present in Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland) at the time of the fall of the Republic of Danzig founded by Napoleon I, and during the siege led by the Russian and Prussian armies against this place.
The volume is a collection of copies, almost certainly autographs, of 52 letters addressed by the author to various people between October 17, 1811 and November 11, 1814. He was thus present during the siege, which lasted from January to November 1813, and relates the conditions of his stay and gives many details of the situation.
Handwritten note on a flyleaf: "F. Le Baron", possibly the scribe's name, then "Années 1811-1812-1813-1814".
The first letter written from Danzig is dated May 19, 1812, and addressed to his parents. On the 21st, he announces his entry "into the quarry", without any illusions: "It's done, the die is cast, Mars is calling me and marching under its stars I shall enter a career whose goal is full of glory, but to which I shall perhaps fail as most of our bravest warriors do". No more apt premonition could be imagined.
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