NAPOLEON I (1769-1821). Emperor of the French.
Letter Signed to ('Np') to Clarke, Duke of Feltre, 1 page 4to with a note pinned to the foot, Paris, 27 February 1813. The note reads 'remis le 27 à Mr Gérard qui en fera part à M. Tabarie'.
Giving orders for the movement of the Observation Corps from Italy to Germany: General Bertrand, who should be in Verona, is to send a division as soon as possible to Augsburg, followed by his other divisions, together with French and Italian ambulances, who should carry sufficient dressings for 10,000 wounded; he goes on to give detailed instructions regarding the composition of the cavalry regiment in the corps, and orders Bertrand to appoint a young cavalry brigadier to oversee the troops in Verona,
 Prussia had declared war on France on 16 March 1813. Following the disastrous Russian campaign the previous year, and the decimation of the Grande Armée in the retreat, his letters to Marshal Clarke, his Minister of War, show Napoleon, with his customary grasp of detail, speedily reorganising his forces, moving troops from Italy, demanding detailed information about numbers of men and the state of their arms and equipment, and in the present letter, revealing that he expects to suffer a large number of casualties. The speed with which these letters were dictated and signed is vividly illustrated by the often smudged signatures. As the recipient's affixed notes reveal, Clarke lost no time in passing on the Emperor's orders to those who were charged with executing them. At the same time, Napoleon is concerned with the location and employment of the prisoners from the unsuccessful Peninsular campaign.
 The Prussian campaign, which got off to a good start with French victories at Lützen and Bautzen in May, would end in failure by October with a catastrophic defeat at Leipzig and withdrawal back across the Rhine. The Allies (joined, in spite of Napoleon's marriage to Marie Louise, by Austria in August 1813) were then preparing the invasion of France which would lead to Napoleon's abdication the following year.
[No: 24900]