Napoleon I | Letter signed ("Bonaparte"), as Commander of the Army in Italy, 20 January 1797

Napoleon I

Letter signed ("Bonaparte"), as Commander of the Army in Italy, about supplying his troops during the first Italian campaign against the Austrians, 20 January 1797

in French, sending his "Commissaire ordonnateur en chef" (i.e. the Paymaster General in Italy) a copy of the instructions he has sent to the Duke of Parma about the supply of boots to his troops, mentioning two of his generals during the first Italian campaign, Dommartin and Beaurevoir; he says that he has ordered a thousand pairs to be delivered to Bozzolo, near Mantua, and another thousand to Milan, giving strict instructions about how they should be apportioned under the supervision of Dommartin at Bozzolo (specifying the precise amount for each regiment), the remaining thousand at the discretion of Beaurevoir in Milan  

''...Les 1000 paires de Bottes qui doivent etre rendues à Bozzolo seront distribuées de la maniere suivante

300 paires à L'artillerie Legere qui ne seront données que par le bon de G^nl Dommartin,  

100 paires au 1^er regiment de Cavalerie.

100 paires au 1^er D'hussards... [etc]

"...Les autres 1000 paires ne seront distribuées à Milan que par le bon du Général Beaurevoir..."

1 page, folio, with a few alterations to the addition, annotated in another contemporary hand, Army Headquarters, Verona; 1 pluviôse an 5 [20 January 1797]

Napoleon issued this remarkably detailed order only a week after the Battle of Rivoli (14/15 January), a key victory over the Austrians in the French Revolutionary Wars. It demonstrates Napoleon's meticulous attention to detail; one of his first actions in Italy was to buy 18,000 pairs of boots. The generals mentioned in this letter include Elzéar-Auguste Cousin de Dommartin (1768-1799), who had played an important role at the Battle of Rivoli (he died young at the Siege of Acre and his name is engraved on the south side of the Arc de Triomphe), and General Louis Ferdinand Baillard de Beaurevoir (1747-1801), who commanded the cavalry in Lombardy. The "Commissaire ordonnateur en chef" in Italy at this time, the recipient of this letter, was Antoine Denniée (1754-1828), later Baron Denniée, whose name also appears on the south side of the Arc de Triomphe.

LITERATURE:

Gilbert Bodinier, 'La liberté en Italie. L'armée d'Italie: Composition, organisation, état d'esprit', on the online resource: www.napoleon.org/.../lesecrits

PROVENANCE:

Phillips, 25 June 1980, lot 81.