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JEAN LOUIS VANIER
Memoirs of a Soldier of the Republic 1792-1809
A Dantean autobiographical account in which Jean Louis Vanier narrates his campaigns through a poignant narrative. Alternating adventures, victories and defeats, left for dead on a battlefield in Spain, before experiencing a long retreat. In this unpublished document, one can immerse oneself in the life of a soldier of the Republic and the Empire, in the self-sacrifice of his men, in their fraternal attachment between beauty and carnage, constantly on the move. "In the 20 years I had been in the war, I had experienced routs, assaults, sieges and many battles, I had not yet seen such carnage in such a short time. I received a bullet in my chest that went through my body and twisted after the 7th dorsal vertebra (in the middle of my back) and a biscayan (a spherical bullet from the machine gun boxes) in the sacrum (these were the first and last wounds I received during my entire military service). The British army charged with the bayonet the little that remained. But the other two battalions behind us on the reverse side of the [77] mountain made a stand. It was not a small force and they stopped them for a while. But they were (forced) to retreat up the hill. An English regiment that was charging up to that point was surrounded and completely destroyed. I was left on the battlefield, lying on the ground. The whole English army had marched past me without stopping, stepping over the dead and dying who were lying in very ripe and dry wheat. They set fire to the wheat, and all the wounded were burned. Before this fire I came to my senses and remembered that I had a small flask at my side in which there was about a glass of wine which I had kept in case of accident. I grabbed it and took a sip or two, and it brought me back to life. I picked up my hat, my sword, which was drawn, and put it back in its scabbard, and my cane. With his help I got to my feet, but I fell again. I began to drag myself out of the wheat fields in which I could see the smoke and hear the cries of the wounded whom the fire reached."
Notebook of 90 pages written in ink, paper with some wetness and brittleness at the edge of the pages.
PROVENANCE
Collection Alexis Vavin, by descent
A transcription of the text will be delivered to the purchaser
Memoirs of a Soldier of the Republic 1792-1809
A Dantean autobiographical account in which Jean Louis Vanier narrates his campaigns through a poignant narrative. Alternating adventures, victories and defeats, left for dead on a battlefield in Spain, before experiencing a long retreat. In this unpublished document, one can immerse oneself in the life of a soldier of the Republic and the Empire, in the self-sacrifice of his men, in their fraternal attachment between beauty and carnage, constantly on the move. "In the 20 years I had been in the war, I had experienced routs, assaults, sieges and many battles, I had not yet seen such carnage in such a short time. I received a bullet in my chest that went through my body and twisted after the 7th dorsal vertebra (in the middle of my back) and a biscayan (a spherical bullet from the machine gun boxes) in the sacrum (these were the first and last wounds I received during my entire military service). The British army charged with the bayonet the little that remained. But the other two battalions behind us on the reverse side of the [77] mountain made a stand. It was not a small force and they stopped them for a while. But they were (forced) to retreat up the hill. An English regiment that was charging up to that point was surrounded and completely destroyed. I was left on the battlefield, lying on the ground. The whole English army had marched past me without stopping, stepping over the dead and dying who were lying in very ripe and dry wheat. They set fire to the wheat, and all the wounded were burned. Before this fire I came to my senses and remembered that I had a small flask at my side in which there was about a glass of wine which I had kept in case of accident. I grabbed it and took a sip or two, and it brought me back to life. I picked up my hat, my sword, which was drawn, and put it back in its scabbard, and my cane. With his help I got to my feet, but I fell again. I began to drag myself out of the wheat fields in which I could see the smoke and hear the cries of the wounded whom the fire reached."
Notebook of 90 pages written in ink, paper with some wetness and brittleness at the edge of the pages.
PROVENANCE
Collection Alexis Vavin, by descent
A transcription of the text will be delivered to the purchaser