"Lonely Lives and Deaths – French Napoleonic Prisoners..." Topic

…of War in Britain.

"Though the focus of my own writing – as in my novel "Britannia's Wolf" – is on the mid-Victorian period, I retain a lively interest in the Napoleonic era. I have always found the plight of prisoners of war of this time as particularly poignant. Over 100,000 of them were brought to Britain during the wars with France that raged from 1793 to 1815, with only a one-year break in 1802/03. Enlisted soldiers and seamen had the worst of it, many being confined in horrific conditions on moored hulks. The luckier ones were housed in the specially built prison on Dartmoor, to which many American prisoners were also sent from 1812 to 1815. Officers were however given the opportunity to give their parole – their word of honour, in writing, not to escape – and to live relatively normal lives in lodgings in a few specified British towns. The French established a similar regime for British officer prisoners at Verdun in Eastern France. Unlike earlier wars between Britain and France only limited exchanges of prisoners took place in the Napoleonic period and those unfortunate enough to be captured early in the wars faced long periods in detention. In the case of seamen, removal of skilled men from active service was of particular benefit to the captor. This reflected the fact that, given the technology of the time, an effective soldier could be trained in a matter of weeks whereas mastery of nautical skills demanded years of experience.

For French and British officer prisoners – and for the large number of wealthy British civilian tourists whom the French somewhat unsportingly interned in 1803 – life was as close to normal as was possible in the circumstances. Social relations seem to have been relaxed – and even warm, as discussed later in this article. Once the initial fervour of Revolution had died down and social stability had been restored by Napoleon, ideological differences as we understand them today were almost non-existent. The concept of "a gentleman" transcended national boundaries and apart from the painful necessity of fighting each other occasionally personal animosity seems to have been remarkably low between the British and the French at all levels of society. This may have been due to the facts that Britain's civilian population was never exposed to French foraging and that when Britain did invade France, in 1814, Wellington ensured that French civilians were spared the sort of rapine that had disgraced British victories in Spain at Badajoz and San Sebastian…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Do we know if the ID of captured officers was transferred to French authorities and verified?

Did they receive / sent letters?

Good questions.

Amicalement
Armand