Eugène de Beauharnais' "Carnets d'ordre"
Maybe of interest for those who read French:
Translation of the introduction: From 7 February 1800 to 31 October 1804, Eugène de Beauharnais scrupulously recorded in ten notebooks all the orders given to the chasseurs and horse grenadiers of the Consular Guard. This is a selection of these texts - of rare historical and uniformological interest - that the SEHRI invites you to (re)discover from now on.
-
Unfortunately, only the first part seems to have been published, and it's only a selection. If anybody is aware of a complete publication, I'd be very interested!
For context: After 18th Brumaire and Napoleon becoming First Consul by the end of 1799, Eugène (18) had retired from his position as general Bonaparte's aide-de-camp and had instead joined the "chasseurs à cheval" of the Consular Guard. According to his memoirs, he did it mostly because now, being an ADC of Napoleon meant hanging around in anterooms and ushering in all kind of visitors. Which was certainly not what he had joined the army for! He was promoted to capitaine in December 1799 and to chef d'escadron in July 1800, after the battle of Marengo.
Well poor Eugène had to discipline the Guard, which was not as glamerous as it appeared to be, some of them acting as pimps and running prostitudes. It took quite a time to cleanse such bad habits from the Guard and making it a better disciplined force.
Müsste folgendes Dokument sein, war im Katalog Maigrait 2009 zum Verkauf
Eugène de Beauharnais : répertoire manuscrit des officiers des chasseurs à cheval de la garde des consuls, avec leurs états de service, de sa création au 1er vendémiaire an XI, il contient 51 noms d’officiers, ayant chacun deux pages, l’une pour les états de services, l’autre pour la moralité ; la page 45 relative au sous-lieutenant Davout porte une inscription autographe d’Eugène de Beauharnais : “Passé 1er au 1er Regt de dragons”. Il est présenté sous forme d’un petit calepin, fermé par un crayon, relié plein maroquin vert à longs grains, filets dorés sur les plats, marqué sur le plat supérieur, en lettres d’or : “E. Beauharnois” ; ce carnet porte une étiquette : “A la petite vertu, rue Honoré, vis-à-vis celle du Champ Fleuri, n° 17, Lefèbvre Md papetier à Paris” ; 16,5 x 12 cm. Époque Consulat. Très bon état. 4 000/5 000 €but seems not to be looking at SEHRI