"Register of the Major General, Waterloo Campaign" Topic

I am looking for assistance on the Waterloo campaign. Specifically, I am looking for a copy of the Order book that the general staff copied orders into during the campaign.

It appears Soult gave it to Grouchy when Grouchy assumed command of the army during the retreat, who then held on to it (maybe family still has it?), though he printed a selection from June 13-26 in 1841 in a book defending his conduct.

In references, I see there is a references to a "copy" in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (something with a 4366) – but it does not appear to have all the orders.
I see references to "C15, 5" in lots of books, located at Service historique de l'armee in Vincennes outside of Paris, but it does not appear to have all the orders.
I have the book by Ney's relatives, "inedits", which has those orders relative to defending Ney's conduct.
I have the Grouchy materials.
I have the Chuquet books (orders and unpublished docs), Napoleon's correspondence, and the department of war's publication of Napoleon's military correspondence.

But no where can I find a single publication of all the orders given during the Waterloo campaign. Clearly not all were copied into the order book – and during the battles many were verbal.

Does anyone know of a source (other than the archives) that includes a complete delineation of the Order Book, also called the Register of the Major General or Register of the General Staff?

Thanks so much for any insight!

FYI, I was in the computer game industry in the 1980s, and this research is for a future return to computer gaming.

I can't answer it but my friend, Jean-Marc can. He told me to give you his email address,

Drop him a line, he will be more than happy to respond.

Rick

Have you checked the Vincennes reference yourself?
If not, I happen to be there next week and might be able to take a look.

@rick32 – Thank you so much, I will reach out to him right away!

@Musketier – no, unfortunately I have never been to any of the archives/libraries I see referenced so much. I am desperate to go, and am simply waiting to be invited…. ?? eh? (window seat, fyi)

Short of this, I scrub the internet. If you are there, I would love any information you could provide. Do they allow pictures? I am allowed to photograph at some places here in the States. I doubt they do because I've never seen any pictures of these sources.

Considering the controversies that exist over the orders and performances in this campaign, I'm surprised no one has ever laid down a definitive listing – even if some claims are suspect.

Thank you both for any assistance!

"I shall endeavour to ascertain, Sir"
(Jeeves to Bertie Wooster)

I have learned that the Order book is lost – which explains why it can't be found. But what does exist in the archives are an accumulation of orders or copies – I would guess these are the originals – such that Soult sends d'Erlon an order, it was written in book, but d'Erlon got in his possession a physical artifact. So if enough of the actors of this campaign or their families donated their materials to the archives, one could put together a book. Clearly authors have done this as they reference where they got the orders they quote or site.

If you could ask if its permissible to photograph materials, I would appreciate it. I hope to go one day, as since I don't read French, I was hoping to photograph and translate later. I can't even copy that really pretty cursive script they used in the 1800s!

Thanks!!!

There is alas no single document from the Quartier Général and/or Major-général Soult regarding the various orders issued from it. A lot of the orders at the Archives Nationale in the C15 register are thus marked with 'copy'.

Stephen, Ed,

thank you for those clarifications. Alas, once a campaign comes unstuck, proper filing seems to be the first casualty – I'm encountering the same phenomenon in my own research on 1814. Alright, there was a war to fight, an invasion to stem, an Empire to save – but couldn't these people spare a little thought for later historians?

I know from previous visits that the Vincennes archives do allow digital photography, so I'll start by taking snaps of the registers for series C15 and C16 – the catalogue lists which unfortunately are still not available online.

In case I have the time to order up any specific boxes, I'll take a look at C15,5. Is there any particular order you are after?

NB I won't have computer access once I leave for Paris, so PM me during Sunday for specifics:
armchairgeneral AT hotmail DOT com

@E Muilwijk – thanks for the info. Does 'Copy' mean there is some other source – as in original is retained by the family of a historical personality? Coppens says he believes there are thousands of documents on 1815 that have not yet seen the light of day – this story of this campaign could yet be rewritten!

The more I learn about this – the more I'm getting mad at all those authors who said in their books, "this didn't happen, its not in the order book." Means nothing! I'm restudying the campaign from the very beginning with a completely open mind!

@Musketier – Thank you for anything you can do there. I am actually interested in all the orders, but as I have learned, what's in the archives I can apparently access via the work that has come before. I was trying to fill in the gaps, but those gaps are apparently in the archives as well, and as Muilwijk and others have told me, there is no master book to fall back on. And as this story is scrubbed more, we find claims of information disappearing to protect reputations, or being created after the fact to protect reputations. Thus, if its possible to get a register (like an index?) of these boxes, that would be great. If I see something listed that isn't already in the footnotes of one of the many many 1815 resources, then that's what I'll have to make a future pilgrimage to get to the bottom of.

Candidly, I'm even reopening my study of Peter S. Ney – nothing is irrefutable anymore!

@Stephen – from what I've seen, most boxes from the period at Vincennes don't have an index. It's like Christmas: you order up the box according to its title in the series index, then undo the ribbon to find out what it actually contains – which may or may not match the description of the series index.

Copies filed there were usually made at the time, for the purposes of the military bureaucracy. Sometimes the originals are archived as well, in which case the box with the copies is labelled "doubles" if you're lucky, sometimes the orignals will be lost, so the copies are all that survives.

Drop me a line so I can report back in a week's time.