SUCHET LOUIS GABRIEL: (1770-1826) Marshal of France. Duc d´Albufera. One of the most brilliant of Napoleon´s Generals. An excellent A.L.S., with his initials, two pages, 4to, Pultusk, 28th December, n.y. [1806], to his brother Gabriel Suchet, in French. In this very interesting content letter, Suchet reports to his brother the extremely difficult situation lived during a terrible battle, with a large inferiority in number of soldiers, stating in part `Je t´écris mon bon ami, d´un champ de bataille… J´ai combattu pendant près de dix à douxe heures, avec une seule division contre quarante mille russes commandés par Benningsen…. Nous avons contraint l´ennemi à fuir malgré la supériorité et sommes maitres du passage de la rivière…´ (`I am writing to you my good friend, from a field of battle… I fought for nearly ten to twelve hours, with a single division against forty thousand Russians leaded by Benningsen…. We forced the enemy to flee despite the superiority and the passage of the river is now under our control...´ Suchet further refers to the loss of close officers saying `J´ai fait dans cette journée des pertes terribles et particulièrement celle d´un de mes aides de camp, jeune homme de la plus belle espérance…. Il est tombé à mes côtés pendant la nuit, tandis que mon chef d´Etat Major tombait blessé par son cheval… par un boulet, plusieurs adjoints avec leurs habits percés de balles…´ (`I suffered terrible losses during this day and particularly the of one of one of my aides-de-camp, a young man of the greatest hope…. He fell at my side during the night, while my Chief of Staff fell wounded by his horse... by a cannonball, several adjutants with their clothes pierced by bullets...´) Further again, Suchet curiously reports that he was lucky because he was injured by a hard blow in his penis, stating `…j´en ai été quitte pour une contusion extrêmement douloureuse à la verge, j´en souffre beaucoup mais j´espère que cela n´aura pas de suite. Nous avons fait quatre à cinq cents prisonniers…´ (`I got off with an extremely painful contusion on my penis, I suffer a lot from it but I hope it won't have a sequel. We took four to five hundred prisoners…´) A letter of extraordinary historical content, written from the battlefield. Paper with a C & I Honig watermark. With address leaf and remnants of a former red wax seal. G

 

The Battle of Pułtusk, in Poland, took place on 26th December 1806, two days before the present letter was written by Suchet, during the War of the Fourth Coalition. Despite the strong numerical superiority and artillery of the Russians, they suffered the French attacks, and had to retire the next day having suffered greater losses than the French.

 

Count Levin August von Bennigsen (1745-1826) German Officer who entered the Russian service under Catherine the Great. In 1812, he commanded at Borodino the centre of Kutuzov´s army. His actions at Leipzig in 1813 led to his being made a Count, a title which was awarded to him on the battlefield by Tsar Alexander I.