Bernadotte - Messieurs - Citoyens - Boney 1797

Bernadotte along with Delmas is sent from Germany as re inforcements to Italy in 1797, Bernadotte from the Sambre and Meuse, Delmas from the du Rhin, now according to some eye witnesses Bernadotte's troops are quite disciplined and well uniformed.

When Bernadotte arrives in Italy he feels that his soldiers are badly treated and deserve better quarters. The commandant de place of Milano - Colonel Dupuy makes some sarcastic remarks about the demands of the "Messieurs" (the well clad and disciplined soldiers of Bernadotte) compared to the "Cityoens" of the d'Italie. Bernadotte takes this as insulting and of less help and puts him under arrest for 24 hours. The caveat, Dupuy is well conected with the chief of Staff of Bonparte, no lesser than Berthier.

Later on the Isonzo - at around Gradisca there are duels between soldiers of Masséna and Bernadotte, I read it somewhere but cannot find the source any longer, to may great dismay.

Also Boney rubs a lot of salt into the wounds of Bernadotte reprimanding that his soldiers are ill disciplined, at the 20th of March - and Berthier again at the 26th of March - well that did go down well without any doubt.

I do hope the collective wisdom can share more light on that, I cannot any longer find the correspondence providing some details about the clash os soldiers where several were killed.