"Napoleon Bonaparte’s Military Carriage: How it was Captured" Topic

"One prized possession of Napoleon Bonaparte's was his military carriage (sometimes called his traveling carriage). He loved it so much that he used it on many of his military campaigns and while exiled on Elba. In fact, when he left Elba the one thing he ordered his troops to take was his military carriage, which was carefully packed and shipped to Cannes.

When Napoleon faced down the British-led Allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington and the Prussian army under the command of Gebhard Leberecht von Blüche at Waterloo, the military carriage was with him. It was also during the Waterloo campaign that Napoleon Bonaparte's military carriage was captured…"
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Amicalement
Armand

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Amicalement
Armand

Love the old tale of Boney leaping from the carriage and escaping the Prussians. He insisted he last saw the carriage just before crossing the border into Belgium and was on horseback for the rest of his "visit".

So much that remains unknown about the Dormeuse, Berline, Post Chaise, Landau or whatever it is called. Even the famous coachman Hornn….who profited greatly from the later exhibition….seems to have gone completely unrecorded in the Emperor's retinue. Odd that.

The less famous one survives at Malmaison….with one surviving axle from the legendary version.

(Needless to say?) French accounts of the capture of Napoleon's carriages are considerably different. A number of eye-witness accounts have Napoleon leaving the battlefield on horseback and not re-mounting his carriage. Others of his household describe the capture of his carriages in detail: Mameluke Ali (personal servant), Marchand (premier valet de chamber) and Fleury de Chaboulon (Napoleon's secretary). All describe the carriages being sent off from la Caillou before Napoleon left the battlefield because of the threat of the Prussian advance on the right flank, and being held up, then captured, by the Prussians in the bottleneck of Genappe.

Glad you enjoyed it my good friend!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

@ deadhead. So much that remains unknown about the Dormeuse, Berline, Post Chaise, Landau or whatever it is called. Even the famous coachman Hornn….who profited greatly from the later exhibition….seems to have gone completely unrecorded in the Emperor's retinue.

From Mameluke Ali's memoirs:

'Bülow's corps, which had re-taken the offensive and which had already cut the main road, threatened to surround us completely.

'The emperor's carriage and the vehicles of the household had remained at the Caillou farm. The emperor's carriage was captured in the evening. The driver Horn, who led it, not having the light to move the carts and other vehicles that obstructed the road, seeing the Prussian cavalry on the point of cutting him off and seeing besides the balls and bullets falling around him, unharnessed the horses whilst the first foot valet, Archambault, took from the carriage the wallet and the necessary. The vehicle remained there and was almost immediately taken by the Prussians who pillaged it, as well as that of Marchand, which contained the emperor's belongings.

'In the emperor's carriage there was a sword which had been forgotten by Archambault; it was the same as the one carried by His Majesty, except that on this one was written, on the clearer side of the blade, these words in gold: ‘Sword worn by the Emperor at the battle of Austerlitz.' I have not heard of this sword being taken in the vehicle. What became of it? It seems that it was read somewhere that it had fallen into the hands of the Duke of Wellington. It is more probable that some Prussian soldier took it, broke the blade and only kept the hand guard as having for him the true value. This hand guard was of gold as well as the trimming on the scabbard.

'To return to Horn, this unfortunate, in the struggle, had his arm taken off by a ball. The next day, Blücher, passing over the battlefield with some of his officers, stopped in front of Horn, who was sitting on a stone and asked him who he was. The postillion replied in German that he was of the emperor's household and it was him who drove his majesty's carriage. Blücher, who was a very violent man, very hot-tempered, and whose heart was full of hatred and vengeance against those who had been involved with the day of the 16th, overwhelmed him with insults and had the malice, the barbarity, one might say, on the few words that Horn replied with, to shout at him. If the marshal had been a different man, would he not have had the wound bandaged of a poor devil of a servant and given him some money instead of mistreating him as insultingly as he did? Later, the vehicle having been bought by an Englishman, Horn became the guide to this vehicle which was shown to the curious.'

I found an image of Napoleon's mantle, taken with the carriage. How do I get it into this comment box?

You either offer a link as here

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or download the image and save it to an image-hosting site and use the URL thingie.

That creates the image as here;

You must take Hornn's story with a massive "pinch of salt" though.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand