JOURDAN (Jean-Baptiste). Autograph letter... - Lot 4 - Osenat

Lot 4
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JOURDAN (Jean-Baptiste). Autograph letter... - Lot 4 - Osenat
JOURDAN (Jean-Baptiste). Autograph letter signed [to general Jean Ernouf]. Paris, 12 brumaire year VII [sic for year VIII, that is to say [3 November 1799]. 3 pp. in-4. "Your wife, whom I had the pleasure to see yesterday evening, told me, my good friend, that you were surprised not to receive more often news from me. I think I told you in one of my previous letters that I HAVE GOOD REASONS FOR WRITING RARELY TO MY FRIENDS, AND ESPECIALLY FOR NOT TALKING TO THEM ABOUT POLITICAL AFFAIRS; and these reasons still remain. I am, however, no less sincerely attached to all those who, like you, have kept their esteem and friendship for me. I HAVE RECEIVED SEVERAL LETTERS FROM A MAN NAMED BLANCASSAGNE WHO CLAIMS TO BE MY RELATIVE. This individual has just sent me a new one in which he takes the quality of captain aide-de-camp of general Ernouf, chief of the general staff of the army of Italy. If this officer is really employed near you, I beg you to tell him that I am not his relative, that I do not know him in any way, that I invite him to suspend his correspondence with me, to stop calling himself my relative, and in any case not to borrow, under this pretext, money from all those who are foolish enough to lend him money because they believe what he says. If, on the contrary, as I presume, he has taken the title of your aide-de-camp as he has taken that of my relative, I beg you to inform the chief general of this, and to invite him on my behalf to give orders to this schemer so that he ceases to compromise my name. I ADDRESSED TO YOU, A FEW DAYS AGO, A COPY OF THE PRECISE OF THE OPERATIONS OF THE ARMY OF THE DANUBE WHICH I PUBLISHED; I think that you received it, and I beg you to tell me what you think of it[s]. This work has caused a great sensation here. I AM WORKING SERIOUSLY ON MY MEMOIRS. I BEG YOU TO SEND ME ANY MATERIAL YOU MAY HAVE ON OUR MILITARY OPERATIONS. I WISH ESPECIALLY TO HAVE INFORMATION ON THE BATTLE OF HONCCOTE, and on the operations of the army of the North until after the blockade of Maubeuge. [The battle of Hondschoote, near Dunkirk, was won on September 8, 1793, against the troops of the Duke of York, by General Houchard, under whose orders General Jourdan and the future General Ernouf were then serving]. When I left the army of the North, I left all my papers at headquarters, and I never saw them again; so that I am a little embarrassed to write this part. If Championnet [General Jean-Étienne Vachier, known as Championnet] had some information on the operations of the army of Sambre-et-Meuse and if he wanted to communicate it to me, he would be very grateful. I beg you to ask him for it on my behalf, renewing to him the assurance of my sincere attachment. I have sent him a copy of my précis, I hope he will have received it. I embrace you with all my heart and am your sincere friend... My wife and all my family remember you. LETTER WRITTEN 6 DAYS BEFORE THE COUP D'ÉTAT OF THE EIGHTEENTH BRUMAIRE. Linked to the Jacobin circles, member of the Council of the Five Hundred, general Jourdan was actively involved in the political life - he had for example made a speech on September 13, 1799 to ask to see proclaiming "the nation in danger", which would have implied the return of the measures of exception. Vilified in the Council of Elders, notably by the former director Jean-François Reubell, who reproached him for his defeats at Ostrach and Stockach (in March-April 1799 at the head of the Army of the Danube against the Archduke Charles of Austria), Jean-Baptiste Jourdan published in response a pro domo plea, his Précis des opérations de l'armée du Danube (October 1799). When the Eighteenth of Brumaire occurred, he expressed his disapproval without directly opposing it: he was then put on the list of personalities to be deported, but escaped this tragic fate through the intervention of Joseph Fouché. Napoleon I then tried in vain to conciliate him, made him a marshal, but had to resolve to see him follow Joseph Bonaparte, at the request of the latter, to Naples and then to Spain.
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