Description:

Napoleon Bonaparte Boldly Signed War-Dated Letter With Great Military Content, 10 Days After French Victory at Bautzen & 4 Days Before Truce of Pläswitz, One of His Greatest Military Blunders

A 1p manuscript letter in French boldly signed by Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), French Emperor and military commander, as "Nap" at the center. May 31, 1813. Neuwark, Saxony, in modern day Germany. Secretarially inscribed on a leaf of paper docketed and numbered in two places along the top edge. Expected wear including gentle folds and wrinkles. A closed tear measuring approximately 3.875" extends from the right edge (affecting just two words) and has been discretely repaired. A few isolated areas of paper abrasion near the center. Else near fine. 7.25" x 9.125." Accompanied by an original auction description in French.

Napoleon addressed this letter to Louis-Alexandre Berthier (1753-1815), then Prince of Neuchâtel and Marshal of France, and Napoleon's Chief of Staff between 1796-1814.

Translated in part:

"My Cousin, present me with a Plan for reorganization of the different divisions of the army, in order to reunite the battalions of the same regiments in the same division, and to suppress as many half-brigades and provisional regiments as possible, seeing that wherever there are two battalions of the same regiment, they must figure under their name…"

This directive dates from the War of the Sixth Coalition (March 1813-May 1814), the penultimate military alliance of Great Britain, Prussia, Austria, Russia, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, and other states formed against Napoleon's French forces. Specifically, the letter dates from a very interesting two-week time frame: May 21st-June 4th. Just ten days earlier, at the May 20-21, 1813 Battle of Bautzen, Napoleon's forces had successfully harried Coalition troops in full retreat after their defeat at the May 2, 1813 Battle of Lützen. Officially a French victory, the Battle of Bautzen did not prevent all Coalition forces from escaping, and it resulted in about 20,000 French casualties, so it is considered a Pyrrhic victory. Napoleon's luck would soon worsen, however: at the June 4, 1813 Battle of Luckau, Napoleon's forces under General Nicolas Oudinot were defeated by Prussian and Russian troops. Also on that same day, Napoleon signed the Armistice of Pläswitz granting an extended cease fire (from June 4th to August 10th).

Much later, during his exile on Saint Helena, Napoleon recalled that agreeing to this truce was one of the worst military blunders of his very storied career. Napoleon had signed the truce because it granted him time to possibly arrange a separate peace with Russia, relocate forces then stationed in Italy to the north, and bolster his cavalry. Yet the Armistice also allowed Coalition forces to regroup, and the delay frittered away any momentum that Napoleon had generated during his spring campaign in Germany. Napoleon suffered one of his greatest defeats at Battle of Leipzig, the so-called Battle of the Nations, three months later, in October 1813. During the next several months, things got so bad that Napoleon was forced to consider peace terms. He would abdicate the French throne less than six months after the Battle of Leipzig.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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