Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life

by Alan Schom

  [66] Ibid., p. 173. Napoléon to Josephine, Marmirole, July 171796, Archives Nationales, 400 AP 6, vol. 1, no. 3; Louis Hastier, Le Grand Amour de Joséphine (Paris: Corea Buchet/Chastel, n. d.).

  [67] “Campagne d’Italie,” Mémorial de Ste.-Hélène, I, pp. 839-40.

  [68] Corr de Nap, no. 806.

  [69] “Campagne d’Italie,” vol. 1, pp. 841-42.

  [70] Thiébault, Mémoires, vol. 2, p. 47; Chandler, Campaigns, p. 95.

  [71] “Campagne d’Italie,” vol. 1, pp. 844-47.

  [72] Ibid., pp. 846-47.

  [73] Ibid., p. 848.

  [74] Ibid., pp. 849-52.

  [75] Thiébault, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 37-38.

  [76] “Campagne d’Italie, pp. 851-852; Ida de Saint-Elme, Mémoires, II, 53.

  [77] “Campagne d’Italie,” pp. 853 et seq.

  [78] A special kind of shell containing cartridges or shrapnel.

  [79] Ibid., pp. 858-61; Damamme, Lannes, p. 39.

  [80] Madelin, L’Ascension, p. 127.

  [81] Ibid., p. 112; Corr de Nap, no. 2025.

  [82] Madelin, L’Ascension, p. 118; Corr de Nap, no. 1748.

  [83] Madelin, L’Ascension, p. 130; Corr de Nap, no. 1748.

  [84] André Soubiran, Napoléon et un million de Morts (Paris: Kent-Segep, 1969), pp. 34-44. Emphasis in original.

  [85] André-François, Count Miot de Melito, Memoirs of Count Miot de Melito (New York: Scribner’s Sons, 1881), pp. 91-92.

  [86] Ibid., pp. 93-95. Emphasis in original.

  [87] Ibid., p. 105.

  [88] Ibid., p. 113.

  [89] Ibid., pp. 106-7.

  [90] Ibid., pp. 110-11.

  [91] Antoine Chamans Lavalette, Mémoires et souvenirs du Comte de Lavalette (Paris: Mercure de France, 1994), pp. 167-73.

  [92] Louis de Launay, Monge, un Grand Français, Fondateur de l’Ecole Polytechnique (Paris: P. Roger, n. d.), p. 167.

  [93] C. de la Jonquiere, L’Expedition d’Egypte, 1/98-1801 (Paris: Chari Lavauzelle, 1899), vol. 1, p. 324.

  [94] Miot, Memoirs, p. 113.

  [95] Louis Fauvelet de Bourrienne, Mémoires de M de Bourrienne, Ministre d’Etat, sur Napoléon, le Directoire, le Consulat, l’Empire et la Restauration (Paris: Ladvocat, 1829), vol. 2, p. 3.

  [96] Ibid., pp. 26-27.

  [97] Ibid., pp. 31, 32.

  [98] Ibid., p. 32.

  [99] Ibid., pp. 32-33; De Launay, Monge, p. 180.

  [100] Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 37-38.

  [101] Ibid., p. 38; de la Jonquiere, L’Expedition d’Egypte, vol. 1, p. 170. (This work, my primary source for all aspects of the Maltese and Egyptian campaigns, is cited hereafter as LJ.)

  [102] Bonaparte, “Rapport au Directoire Exécutif, le 5 ventôse an VI [Feb. 23, 1798],” LJ, vol. 1, pp. 172-76. Emphasis added.

  [103] Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 34, 38-39.

  [104] Ibid., pp. 38, 44.

  [105] LJ, vol. 1, p. 17.

  [106] Ibid., p. 181.

  [107] Ibid.

  [108] Ibid., p. 186.

  [109] Ibid., p. 151.

  [110] Talleyrand’s project “Sur la conquête de l’Egypte, Rapport au Directoire Exécutif, 25 pluviôse an VI [Feb. 14, 1798],” in ibid., pp. 154-68.

  [111] Ibid.

  [112] The sultan of the Ottoman empire and his government.

  [113] Ibid. Emphasis in original.

  [114] Ibid., p. 186.

  [115] LJ, vol. 1, pp. 149-50.

  [116] Miot, Memoirs, p. 3.

  [117] LJ, vol. 1, pp. 25-26.

  [118] Ibid., p. 29.

  [119] Ibid., pp. 197-200.

  [120] Ibid., pp. 201-4.

  [121] Ibid., pp. 204-6.

  [122] This “Instruction pour la Commission Chargée de l’Inspection des Côtes de la Mediterranée” was issued by Bonaparte himself, and not by the Directory, who had given him more or less carte blanche regarding all aspects of its preparation. Ibid, pp. 207-8.

  [123] Ibid., p. 218.

  [124] Ibid., p. 225.

  [125] Ibid., p. 235.

  [126] Ibid., pp. 229, 230-31; 249-251.

  [127] Ibid., p. 225.

  [128] Ibid., p. 221.

  [129] Ibid., pp. 249-51.

  [130] Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, p. 48.

  [131] Moniteur, 12 germinal an VI (April 1, 1798).

  [132] Ibid., April 4, 1798. See also LJ, vol. 1, pp. 254-55.

  [133] The French army occupying Switzerland.

  [134] Bernard Chevallier and Christophe Pincemaille, L’impératrice Josephine (Paris: Presses de la Renaissance, 1988), pp. 166ff. See also Ernest John Knapton, Empress Josephine (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1963), pp. 151-53, 160-66.

  [135] Chevallier and Pincemaille, Joséphine, p. 167.

  [136] Ibid., pp. 133, 137, 154, 163-68, 180, 198.

  [137] LJ, vol. 1, p. 372. The Armaments Commission comprised Rear Adm. Blanquet du Chayla, Army Ordonnateur Sucy, Naval Ordonnateur LeRoy, and General Dommartin.

  [138] Directoral Arrêté, April 24, 1798, Archives Nationales, AFIII, 518; see also LJ, vol. 1, pp. 284-87.

  [139] Paul Barras, Mémoires de Barras (Paris: Hachette, 1896), vol. 3, pp. 215ff.

  [140] Ibid.; Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, p. 54.

  [141] LJ, vol. 1, pp. 395-6.

  [142] Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 54, 56.

  [143] Limbers were two-wheeled gun carriages pulled by six to twelve horses, depending on the guns’ caliber; caissons carried munitions.

  [144] LJ, vol. 1, pp. 459-61.

  [145] Moniteur, le 19 floréal an VI (May 8, 1798).

  [146] LJ, vol. 1, p. 461.

  [147] Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, p. 49.

  [148] LJ, vol. 1, pp. 495-96.

  [149] William James, A Naval History of Great Britain (London: Macmillan, 1902), vol. 2, pp. 166-71.

  [150] LJ, vol. 1, pp. 496-97.

  [151] Ibid., p. 501.

  [152] Ibid., pp. 519, 526. See also Naval Ministry Chart, ibid., p. 283.

  [153] See “Journal de Laugier” in ibid., p. 546.

  [154] De Launay, Monge, pp. 14-15.

  [155] Ibid., p. 109. See also Rene Taton, L’Oeuvre scientifique de Monge (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1951), pp. 36-37.

  [156] De Launay, Monge, p. 112.

  [157] Ibid., p. 127; Prof. Roger Hahn, holding the chair of the History of Science at the University of California, Berkeley, has kindly provided me with background on Monge and his work at and for the Ecole Polytechnique.

  [158] Ibid., pp. 140-42.

  [159] Ibid., p. 146.

  [160] Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, p. 45.

  [161] See James, Naval History, vol. 2, pp. 166-71.

  [162] A. T. Mahan, The Life of Nelson, The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain (London: Low, Marston & Company, 1897), vol. 1, p. 325.

  [163] “Journal de Damas,” LJ, vol. I, pp. 552-53, 555.

  [164] Ibid., p. 560.

  [165] J. Christopher Herold, Bonaparte in Egypt (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), pp. 40-42.

  [166] See the official chart in LJ, vol. 1, pp. 533-38.

  [167] “Journal du Contre Amiral Blanquet,” in ibid., p. 562.

  [168] “Journal du Général Belliard,” in ibid., pp. 575-77.

  [169] See ibid., pp. 577-79. An already ailing Baraguey d’Hilliers was to be repatriated after landing at Malta, and replaced by General Bon.

  [170] Corr de Nap, no. 2629.

  [171] LJ, vol. 1, p. 586.

  [172] Herold, Bonaparte in Egypt, p. 47.

  [173] LJ, vol. 1, pp. 643-45.

  [174] A. T. Mahan, The Life of Nelson, the Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain (London: Sampson, Low, Marston, 1897), vol. 1, p. 322.

  [175] Ibid., p. 323.

  [176] James, Naval History, vol. 2, p. 166.

  [177] Carola Oman, Nelson (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1947), p. 245.

  [178] James, Naval History, vol. 2, pp. 171-72.
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  [179] Oman, Nelson, p. 246.

  [180] LJ, vol. 1, p. 533, naval chart; Mahan, Life of Nelson, vol. 1, p. 328.

  [181] LJ, vol. I, p. 534.

  [182] Oman, Nelson, p. 280; James, Naval History, vol. 2, p. 176. See also Ludovic Kennedy, Nelson’s Band of Brothers (London: Odhams Press, 1952), pp. 118ff.

  [183] LJ, vol. 2, pp. 32-33.

  [184] Ibid., p. 33.

  [185] Ibid., pp. 37-38.

  [186] Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 102-3.

  [187] LJ, vol. 2, p. 139.

  [188] Ibid., pp. 141-42.

  [189] Ibid., p. 166; A. J. M. R. Savary, Mémoires du duc de Rovigo pour servir à l’histoire de l’Empereur Napoléon (Paris: Bossange, 1828), vol. 1, p. 56.

  [190] LJ, vol. 2, p. 166.

  [191] Savary, Mémoires, vol. 1, p. 57; LJ, vol. 2, p. 167.

  [192] See Chandler, Campaigns of Napoleon, p. 222.

  [193] LJ, vol. 2, p. 169.

  [194] Ibid., pp. 171-72.

  [195] Muslim nobility.

  [196] Kaoula el Turk, Histoire de l’Expedition des Français en Egypte (Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1939), pp. 29ff; LJ, vol. 2, pp. 175-78.

  [197] LJ, vol. 2, pp. 181-83.

  [198] LJ, vol. 2, pp. 390-94. Emphasis added.

  [199] Ibid.

  [200] Corr de Nap, no. 2727.

  [201] Ibid., no. 2728.

  [202] James, Naval History, vol. 2, p. 208.

  [203] LJ, vol. 2, pp. 84-85. Emphasis added.

  [204] Ibid., pp. 93-94; Corr de Nap, vol. 4, no. 2765.

  [205] LJ, vol. 2, pp. 250-51.

  [206] Gaspard Gourgaud, Sainte-Hélène, Journal (Paris, n. d.) vol. 2, pp. 435-36.

  [207] James, Naval History, vol. 2, p. 208.

  [208] Oman, Nelson, p. 252.

  [209] James, Naval History, vol. 2, p. 183.

  [210] LJ, vol. 2, pp. 420-21, 399-400, 401-7.

  [211] Ibid., p. 421.

  [212] James, Naval History, vol. 2, pp. 184-94, 206-7; Ludovic Kennedy, Nelson’s Band of Brothers (London: Odhams Press, 1951), pp. 124ff.

  [213] James, Naval History, vol. 2, pp. 194-96.

  [214] See Louis Dureste, “L’Ecroulement du rêve egyptien,” Samothrace 1, no. 1: 41-47.

  [215] LJ, vol. 2, pp. 398-99.

  [216] Corr de Nap, no. 3045; LJ, vol. 2, pp. 426-30.

  [217] LJ, vol. 2, 415; James, Naval History, vol. 2, p. 208.

  [218] Corr de Nap, no. 3045; and LJ, vol. 2, p. 422.

  [219] Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 147-54.

  [220] Corr de Nap, vol. 4, no. 3226.

  [221] LJ, vol. 2, p. 449.

  [222] Corr de Nap, no. 3034.

  [223] Ibid., no. 2837.

  [224] Ibid., no. 2858.

  [225] See Bonaparte’s orders and decrees of July 24-August 3, 1798, ibid., no. 2829; see also nos. 2869, 2870, 2923, and LJ, vol. 2, pp. 285-87.

  [226] LJ, vol. 2, pp. 288-91.

  [227] Corr de Nap, nos. 2883, 2895, 2896, 2897, 2898, 2899; see also LJ, vol. 2, p. 689.

  [228] Corr de Nap, vol. 4, no. 2835.

  [229] LJ, vol. 2, pp. 294-96.

  [230] Ibid., p. 300.

  [231] The Rosetta Stone was discovered in August 1799, handed over to the British by Menou in 1801, and later deciphered by Jean-François Champollion. See Corr de Nap, nos. 3083, 3084; LJ, vol. 3, p. 554, no. 1.

  [232] Corr de Nap, no. 3083, art. 2.

  [233] Paul V. Aubry, Monge Le Savant Ami de Napoléon Bonaparte, 1746-1818 (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1954), p. 251.

  [234] LJ, vol. 3, pp. 556-57; Aubry, Monge, p. 252.

  [235] Ernest John Knapton, Empress Josephine (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1963), pp. 150-53, 160-66; Chevallier and Pinceaille, L’imperatrice Josephine, pp. 133, 137, 140, 142, 149, 154, 162, 163, 165-68, 180, 198.

  [236] Napoleon Bonaparte, The Confidential Correspondence of Napoleon Bonaparte with His Brother Joseph (New York: Appleton, 1856), p. 48.

  [237] Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, p. 135.

  [238] LJ, vol. 2, pp. 624-25.

  [239] Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, p. 137.

  [240] Father of the future novelist of the same name.

  [241] Ibid., p. 130.

  [242] LJ, vol. 2, pp 479-82.

  [243] Corr de Nap, vol. 4, no. 3040.

  [244] Ibid., no. 3056.

  [245] Ibid., no. 3059.

  [246] Corr de Nap, no. 3210.

  [247] Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, p. 161.

  [248] Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, p. 185.

  [249] Corr de Nap, no. 3527.

  [250] Ibid., no. 3539.

  [251] LJ, vol. 3, pp. 290-91.

  [252] Ibid. pp. 281-82.

  [253] Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 185.

  [254] Comte de las Cases, Le Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène (Paris: Flammarion, 1951), vol. 1, pp. 131-32; H. Christopher Herold, Bonaparte in Egypt (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), p. 82.

  [255] Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, p. 137.

  [256] René-Nicolas Desgenettes, Souvenirs d’un médecin de l’expedition d’Egypte (Paris: Calmann-Levy, 1893), vol. 3, p. 198.

  [257] LJ, vol. 3, p. 88; Corr de Nap, vol. 5, nos. 3 503, 3439.

  [258] LJ, vol. 3, pp. 393, 394-99.

  [259] Corr de Nap, no. 3234.

  [260] Severe inflammation of the eye, frequently leading to temporary blindness; common across North Africa even today.

  [261] LJ, vol. 3, p. 208.

  [262] Corr de Nap, no. 3357.

  [263] Corr de Nap, nos. 3736, 3737, 3740, 3734, 3738: LJ, vol. 3, pp. 466-69.

  [264] Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, p. 197; LJ, vol. 3, pp. 481, 491-93; Corr de Nap, no. 3804.

  [265] Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, p. 205.

  [266] Quoted in Désiré Lacroix, Bonaparte en Egypte (1798-1799) (Paris: Garnier Freres, 1899), pp. 275-76.

  [267] Ibid.; Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 223, 221-27.

  [268] Ibid., pp. 226-27.

  [269] Tom Pocock, Thirst for Glory: The Life of Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith (London: Aurum Press, 1966) fills in the preparations.

  [270] De Launay, Monge, pp. 218-19; Aubry, Monge, pp. 268-70.

  [271] Corr de Nap, no. 4138; Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, p. 248.

  [272] Ibid., pp. 250-52.

  [273] Corr de Nap, no. 4188; Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, p. 249.

  [274] Ibid., p. 266.

  [275] De Launay, Monge, p. 220; Victoires, Conquêtes, Disastres, Revers et Guerres Civiles des Français de 1792 à 1815 (Paris: 1819), vol. 10, p. 313; Desgenettes, Souvenirs, p. 213.

  [276] Corr de Nap, no. 4225.

  [277] Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 302ff.

  [278] Corr de Nap, no. 4290.

  [279] Tulard, Murat, p. 43; Corr de Nap, no. 4323.

  [280] Corr de Nap, no. 4316.

  [281] Herold, Bonaparte in Egypt, p. 325; Aubry, Monge, pp. 273-74.

  [282] Aubry, Monge, p. 275.

  [283] Aubry, Monge, p. 277; Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. 2, p. 249.

  [284] Jean-Denis Bredin, Sieyes, La clé de la Révolution (Paris: Fallois 1988), pp. 21, 23, pp. 24-30.

  [285] Ibid., pp. 30-31.

  [286] Ibid., p. 56.

  [287] Germaine de Stael-Holstein, Considérations sur les Principaux Evénements de la Revolution Française (Paris: Delaunay, 1818), vol. 2, p. 248.

  [288] Ibid., vol. 1, p. 304.