Description:

Bonaparte Napoleon


News from Napoleon's Army! "Prussian Partisans" Steal Tax Money

 

1p LS in French addressed to Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) and issued from Torun, Poland on March 31, 1807. Inscribed in a clerical hand and signed by military administrator Pierre Antoine Noel Bruno, Count Daru (1767-1829) as "Daru" at bottom right. The watermarked cream bifold paper is in near fine condition, with expected light paper folds, isolated foxing, and minor wrinkles, each page measuring 8" x 10.875".

 

Napoleon Bonaparte received this missive from Pierre Daru, General Quartermaster of his Grande Armee: 

 

"Sire,

 

The quartermaster of Custrin [Kostrzyn, Poland] told me that Prussian Partisans continue to venture into the circle of Areuswalde [Auerswalde, Germany], that on the 11th of this month they sent into Areuswalde a detachment of 6 well-armed and mounted hussars who seized:

 

58 thalers that were in the box for salt and ports

31 " in that for stamps

35 " in that for anise (?)

 

and that during the night of the 16th to the 17th another detachment composed of 20 men took, by force of arms, 76-- that were in the boxes for salt, anise (?), and stamps.

 

I am with the most profound respect Sire

 

of Your Majesty The very obedient and very faithful subject.

 

[signed]

 

Daru."

 

Daru was the bearer of bad news: Prussian soldiers had stolen over 200 thalers, or German silver coins, from French coffers. Before it was stolen, the money had probably been collected by French forces as they marched through modern day Germany. French forces often raised funds by taxing luxury goods like spices and stamps, and by collecting customs duties, from the people they just conquered.

 

This report dates from the waning months of the War of the 4th Coalition (October 1806-July 1807), when Napoleon was inexorably marching east conquering modern day Poland. Napoleon personally commanded his Grande Armee, comprised of 1,000,000 soldiers at its greatest extent, while invading and incorporating European territories into his ever-expanding empire. In this Polish campaign, Napoleon's French forces joined German, Italian, and Polish troops and faced off against the coalition forces Prussia, Russia, Great Britain, and Sweden.

 

Pierre Antoine Noel Bruno, Count Daru (1767-1829) served as General Quartermaster of the Grande Armee after 1806. Daru had considerable experience with military administration, having served as the Chief Commissary of the French Revolutionary Army in Brittany, Switzerland, and northern Italy between 1793-1803, and Napoleon put him in charge of conquered Prussian and Austrian territories in 1807. He later became Napoleon's Minister of War in 1811.

 

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