193 - [MANUSCRIPT - NAPOLEON] GAUVILLE, Adolphe de. Notebook and Unpublished Correspondence of a Captain in the Voltigeurs of the 54th Line Regiment (1813–1823).

[MANUSCRIPT - NAPOLEON] GAUVILLE, Adolphe de. Notebook and Unpublished Correspondence of a Captain in the Voltigeurs of the 54th Line Regiment (1813–1823). A poignant handwritten collection, reflecting the life of a field officer and his devotion to his family throughout the Saxony campaign and the Spanish expedition. An autograph manuscript of 32½ pages and 6 autograph letters signed “Adolphe” (in-8 or in-4 formats with addresses) totaling 16 pages. Maastricht, Leipzig, Fort Tamatya (Madagascar), Toulon, Toulouse, Bayonne, Aragon, and Andalusia, 1813–1823. The collection is bound in a quarto volume in pine-green long-grain half-maroquin with corners, a smooth spine framed by a gilt fillet and adorned with a fleur-de-lis at the top and bottom. The spine of the binding is worn and there is a stain at the bottom; minor scuffing; rare foxing; and a subtle restoration at the last letter. The collection offers three historical points of interest: a chronicle of the end of the Empire during the Saxony campaign (1813), a poignant account of the loneliness and isolation of an officer sent to Madagascar during the reconquest of the trading posts (1822), and finally, a gripping correspondence chronicling the tragic progress of the Spanish expedition (1823). It opens with a two-page introduction featuring a medallion portrait as a frontispiece (an albumen print of a painted portrait framed by a circular border in black ink). Adolphe de Gauville (1788–1823) is depicted in his uniform as battalion commander of the 1st Line Infantry Regiment during the Restoration. Opposite it, a handwritten biographical note details the military service of this elite officer and mentions his father, Louis-Henri-Charles de Gauville, a deputy representing the nobility in the Estates-General of 1789. The Saxon Campaign and the Battle of Leipzig (1813). Begun on October 16, the 30½-page memoir is dedicated to his wife, Euphrasie, as a way to record his wartime memories in writing. The text recounts the marches of the 54th Line Regiment and paints a portrait of Napoleon I on the eve of the disaster. “He did not wish to enter the city, but near one of the gates, in a field, he had a chair and a table brought to him, on which he studied his maps. He was giving orders to a large number of staff officers and generals who came to receive them one after another. It was a curious sight on a beautiful winter evening to see a small man whose ambition had made all of Europe tremble preparing, this time, to determine the fate of a multitude of men, while all nations waited to see which way his fortune would turn; a dozen sentries formed a circle a hundred paces from him; he wore his hat on his head, and often, with marked gestures of impatience, he kicked at the embers of a small fire that had been built beside him; each man would enter the circle, hat in hand, and leave with his instructions.” Gauville then recounts his battle on October 16, in which he was seriously wounded, followed by the tragic retreat on October 19 after the premature explosion of the bridge over the Elster. Held captive in a local’s home, he documented the makeshift military surgery and the unexpected fraternization among French, Prussian, and Saxon officers around gaming tables. [This manuscript appeared in 1899 in *Carnet de la Sabretache: Revue militaire rétrospective*—Volume 7, pp. 224–242, under the title “A Wounded Soldier from Leipzig (October 16, 1813).”] Colonial Melancholy in Madagascar (1822). Written on July 16, 1822, from Fort Tamatave, the following two handwritten pages offer an intimate account from our officer, who is suffering from homesickness. Having enlisted voluntarily in search of a stable career, Adolphe confides—facing a raging sea and isolated in an unfamiliar garrison—his deep regret at having left the domestic happiness he shared with Euphrasie and his young son Arsène. Recognizing the fierce competition for a few select positions, he rejects all personal ambition and resigns himself to his fate: “fiat voluntas Dei” (God’s will be done). The Spanish Expedition (1823). Comprising 6 autograph letters (February 3–August 10, 1823) addressed to his sister Adèle (Madame de Sampigny), this correspondence serves as the campaign journal of the “One Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis,” an army sent by Louis XVIII to restore Ferdinand VII to the throne. The first letter provides a precise itinerary of the 21 stages connecting Toulon to Toulouse. Still hampered by his wound from Leipzig, Gauville details his journey to Bayonne, the arrival of the Duke of Angoulême at the front, and the harshness of a fierce civil war. Isolated, he worries about the well-being of his family and is frustrated by the delays in receiving letters from his wife, Euphrasie. - Complete entry in the supplementary document -

Documents