THE "SABRE OF HONOUR PROMISED TO YOU ON THE BATTLEFIELD...". - Lot 231

Lot 231
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THE "SABRE OF HONOUR PROMISED TO YOU ON THE BATTLEFIELD...". - Lot 231
THE "SABRE OF HONOUR PROMISED TO YOU ON THE BATTLEFIELD...". LA FAYETTE (George Washington Du Motier de). Autograph letter signed to Jean-Marguerite-Joseph Pierron. Paris, "20 prairial" [June 9, 1801]. One p. 1/2 in-12; splits at folds, tear at address leaf due to opening without damage to text. "I have come to speak to you, my dear comrade, of something that is of great interest to you, and to us all, since the honor you have gained by this action has reflected on the entire body. The other day, I accompanied my father to see the Minister of War [Louis-Alexandre Berthier], and we talked about the saber of honor you were promised on the battlefield. I repeated to him what you had said before the affair, that you would earn it or be killed; his reply was that since you were not killed you must have the sabre; and he had a secretary take note of this affair, to make sure that the request had been made. You, for your part, I urge you to have this request made again, for it is very possible that with the best will in the world the minister will lose sight of this matter in the midst of all those that overwhelm him..." Son of the general, George Washington de La Fayette (1779-1849) was born during the American War of Independence, and was named after the general and future American president. Hiding in the countryside during the Terror, he was sent to the United States in 1795, and was welcomed by Washington, with whom he lived from 1796 to 1798. His father having been freed by the Austrians in 1798, he returned to France and, in 1800, joined the army. Second lieutenant in the 11th regiment of hussars, he was chosen as aide-de-camp by Generals Canclaux and Dupont, and finally by the future Marshal Grouchy. He took part in the campaigns of Italy (wounded by three bullets at the Mincio crossing), Austria, Prussia and Poland, but was blocked from promotion by Napoleon I because of his name, and left the service in 1807. He subsequently served as a member of parliament several times, during the Hundred Days, then in 1822-1823 and from 1827 to 1849. Under the Restoration, he sat in the left-wing opposition and was involved with the Charbonnerie; under Louis-Philippe I, to whom he was initially favorable, he soon followed his father into the opposition, on the extreme left. Jean-Marguerite-Joseph Pierron, Un brave de l'armée d'Italie. Maréchal des logis, then maréchal des logis chef in the 11th hussar regiment, where George Washington de La Fayette served, Jean-Marguerite-Joseph Pierron distinguished himself by his brilliant conduct at the battle of La Trebbia (June 17-19, 1799), at Marengo (June 14, 1800) and at the crossing of the Mincio at Mozembano (December 25, 1800), where he took a flag from the enemy and was wounded in the jaw. Made an officer on the battlefield, he was placed on the army's order of the day; he received a saber of honor on September 15, 1803, and was made a knight of the Legion of Honor on June 14, 1804.
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