Napoleon Bonaparte at the Royal Artillery School with Auxonne

The stay of Napoleon Bonaparte remains a glorious memory for Auxonne.

The young lieutenant as a second of Artillery the Regiment of Fère , which, a few years later, was going to write so much pages of our History pressed, for the first time, the ground of the city auxonnaise the June 15th 1788 . The leave of six-month period of which it profited and which it made last twenty month through prolongations had been just completed. It left its native island and after a voyage fifteen days it found its regiment which held garrison in Auxonne to learn its trade there from artillerist.

Its assignment with the regiment of Fère was prolonged until the June 1st 1791 and it is the June 14th, 1791 which it left Auxonne to join, as lieutenant in first, the 4th artillery regiment in garrison with Valence. Its attendance time in the city which did not exceed 18 months for all two period was stopped by the long absence of another leave of six-month period prolonged again, which started at at the beginning of September 1789 to end the 11 or February 12th, 1791 . Its stay was nevertheless very profitable; it found there guards who had the taste to wake up the intelligences.

Young Corsica was 19 years old. It was the time of its intellectual formation. Set on its military trade, it was initiated with ballistics, the tactic and the strategy. Born with the gift to learn and animated from a burning passion to inform itself and from an untiring curiosity, been useful by an extraordinary memory, he devoted himself with passion to the reading. It brought the answers to its interrogations to him. It led it towards the novel ideas, with it, it analyzed, it meditated, opened on the world, forged its ideas, was anchored in its convictions. Its greed of culture led it to carry out a studious and active life in the city auxonnaise.

While arriving the young lieutenant as a second found the Regiment of Fère, one of best of the weapon. He held garrison with ' the Royal School of Artillery with Auxonne , since December 1787.

Bonaparte took lodging with the barracks, in the House of the City, with the room N°16, staircase I, 3rd stage, southern part. At the time of the four months which its stay of the year 1791 lasted, it occupied with his young brother Louis , the room n°10, staircase 3, 2nd northern stage side, of the same house of the barracks Its meals were ensured, as for his comrades officers, at the widow of the delicatessen Dumont street of the Saone (Today street Vauban in N°5).

Founded in 1757, Artillery the Royal School of Auxonne, that Bonaparte indicated as “ the only one where the officers were capable to inform ” ordered by the baron Jean-Pierre Of Teil , was going to enable him to express its talent and of its capacities

The school exempted courses of mathematics, mechanics, physics and of drawing which were held with the Pavillon of the Royal Door . The practical exercises took place, Right Bank of the Saone, with the polygon of Tillenay. The courses of drawing occupied a big part of the military formation. Given by the excellent Master of drawing Sebastien Dovecote , they brought to the future officers artillerists the knowledge of the systems of fortifications of Vauban or Cormontaigne and of the rules of the prospect.

Young Corsica had a taste marked for mathematics. They were taught by the professor Jean-Louis Lombard who was made assist of his Jean-Marie son. He was an assiduous listener of this remarkable professor. “ invaluable Homme which contributed as much as the best officers to the superiority of French artillery ”. Bonaparte liked Lombard and this last repeated readily that this young lieutenant “ would go far ”. The work of Benjamin Robins “ Nouveaux principles of artillery (News principles off gunnery) ” that Lombard had translated from German belonged to the readings of the young artillerist and its Notes in “ Principes of Artillery ” preserves the references which it made of this work.

In the quarrel between the partisans of the old system of Vallière and the promoters of the new system Gribeauval it adheres clearly to the new system: “ which does not leave something to be desired anything side of the perfection ”.

The talent of Bonaparte did not escape the general From Teil and this last ensured it of its confidence. In return, in Sainte Helene, the deposed emperor did not forget it. He bequeathed by will to the son or grandson of Of Teil a sum of one hundred thousand francs “ as to remember recognition for the care that this honest general had taken of him ”. Nothing honors it more than grateful testimony than it returned to its chiefs and its Masters. The confidence which the general Of Teil granted to him made it indicate, only representing lieutenants as a second, like member of a commission also including/understanding professor Lombard, who accepted for mission of studying if the bombs could be drawn with parts from seat. The experiments took place the 12, August 13rd, 18th and 19th 1788 with the polygon of Tillenay. To trust of the credit that one granted to him and in spite of an accent of jealousy on behalf of the captains, it wrote an official report Net and precis which impressed favorably Of Teil. It made share, “ this mark of amazing favor ” in a letter dated August 29th, 1789, written of Auxonne, with the Fesch abbot. He then proposed to the general new followed, reasoned and methodical experiments “ ”.

Its aptitude for the analysis and the drafting did not have escaped with his/her comrades. They entrusted the responsibility to him to write a constitution project of the payment of ''' the Cap ''' '' (document pdf) ''. This formed company of the lieutenants and lieutenants as a second, whose authority was recognized and accepted and who was to make respect, within his members, the propriety, the good manners, the courtesy and the galantery. The constitution project which it submitted to the lieutenant in first Vimal of the Barn, written on a style emphatic and sententious, with the same serious one that if it had been a question of giving the constitution to a country, had impregnated vocabulary and ideas read in the social Contract of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, was accepted with an irony contained on behalf of his/her comrades. The reaction mocker displeased with Of Mazis (or Desmazis) but the text nevertheless was adopted.

Its duties of soldier led it to Seurre to repress there disorders which took place there at the beginning of the month of April 1789 . The captain Coquebert, the commander of one of the three companies which were indicated to go being there absent due to detachment, and the lieutenant in first moved away by his leave of six-month period, the command of the detachment of one hundred men was allocated to the lieutenant in second Bonaparte. He left Auxonne for Seurre the April 1st . On the spot, it would have dissipated a light riot while shouting with crowd: “ That the decent people return on their premises, I draw only on the rabble ”. Its presence with Seurre lasted two months. It is the May 29th, 1789 which it regained Auxonne

Summer 1789 approached. With him grew bigger the black clouds of the storm, heralding the Revolution. But the summer, it is also the time of the pleasures of water. The young lieutenant, like his comrades, wanted to taste with the joys of the bathe in water of the Saone. This day there, whereas he swam, a cramp seizes it, made it weaken and run. Its chest by touching a sand bank made emerge its head and allowed him to regain consciousness. Thanks to the current, it succeeds in regaining the bank. Drawn out of water by his comrades, he vomits much, recovered from his emotions, repaired and regained his room. Another time still, undoubtedly at the time of its second stay, it failed to know water of the Saone, but in the most brutal way: during a sharp discussion with his comrades it succeeds, by the remarks that it their held, with aggravating them so much that they wanted to throw it to water.

The storm which, with far, grew bigger ends up being declared; the revolution bursts in Paris. And already it gains the province. A riot bursts in Dijon on July 15th. The received news of Paris is alarming. “ I receive in the moment of the news of Paris. Two of my comrades leave my room, after me to have read those which they had received. They are astonishing and made for singularly alarming ”, he of Auxonne in the letter of July 15th, 1789 to the Lucien archdeacon wrote. The popular insurrection ignites in Auxonne on July 19th, 1789. The population in anger starts by destroying the body of guard of the doors of the city then plunders the house of the receiver. The intervention of a detachment of regiment of Fère with 450 men under the weapons, was placed under the orders of Bonaparte by the “seventy-five years general , tired ”. After having harangué the mutineers during three fifteen minutes, it made 33 arrests followed by settings to the dungeon.

The August 23rd, 1789 , Bonaparte in front of the flags of Fère lends oath on the place of the barracks in the presence of the baron Of Teil and municipal, and swears to remain faithful to the nation, the king and the law.

During its stay, it had only thin resources, it was poor and feared the expenditure: “ I do not have of another resources here to work… ” he wrote in July 1789. So during its leisures it often remained in its room to work there assiduously, it did not carry out therefore a solitary life and was not deprived of friends. Of Mazis, the Binder of City-on-Arce, Roland de Villarceaux, and Julien de Bidon counted among his close friends. There there had also Vimal of the Barn and others still and remained also attached to the other officers by bonds of good friendship. In the number of the captains remarkable Gassendi, intelligent appeared having an extended culture, he liked to tease the MUSE and it was especially an admiror of Corsica. Until the last day of glory of the Emperor there remained one of these admirors. And Napoleon returned his confidence well to him. There be also Naudin, police chief of the wars and the royal body, with which the memory of Corsica where it had spent fifteen years in the capacity as guard general of artillery was used to maintain a great intimacy.

The lieutenant of Fère attended the company auxonnaise; sometimes, it accompanied the evening Mr. and Mrs. Lombard at Mr. Pillon by Arquebouville, the director of the Arsenal, to play lotto there. The bonds of friendship which it wove make it possible him to be also received in the living rooms of Madam de Berbis and in the baron Of Teil. In its room, during its leisures, during its walks in the countryside auxonnaise, which brought it according to its mood to the shade of the lime, twice centenaries of Villers-Cane, or under the oaks of the hamlet of the Court with orée of the forest of Crochères, or towards the wood of Boutran and the Vault of the Lifting it did not cease reading. Its frenzy of reading met its need to know, it carried it to the meditation. It laid down on paper in its Notes the result of its judgments and reflections.

Its fever of reading was carried at point such, that even when it was, during twenty-four hours, with the stops with the sergeant Floret, it devoured a dusty Digeste , the only book put once which it was found there. Its memory was so sharp that it astonished J. - B. Treilhard, at meetings to the Council of State during the drafting of the Civil code, by quoting fifteen years after, of the passages of the Digeste read in Auxonne.

Its manuscripts autographs, - period 1786-1791 -, preserved at Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana di Firenze published in 1907 according to the originals by Frederic Masson and Guido Biagi, Paris, Bookstore Paul Ollendorf, inform us on its center interests. There are of course the works which concern its art of warfare. Such: “ First book on the artillery ”, drawn from the report of the marquis de Vallière. Auxonne, January 1789, “ Principles of Artillery ”, “ Milked concerning the History of the artillery ”, Auxonne, February 1789, drawn from Mr. de Saint Rémy, “ Memory on the manner of laying out the guns for the jet of bombs ”, Auxonne March 30th, 1789.

But its readings embrace fields more varied much: history, while starting at the time antique until modern times, that it affectionate, while passing by the geography which attracts it, by the natural history of Buffon, philosophy with Tacite, Montaigne, Plato, Montesquieu, Tite-Live, the religion, manners of the East, and then poets, Corneille, Racine, Voltaire.

The following list of its notes, which does not want to be exhaustive, gives us an outline of the diversity of its readings: “ various Notes on the republic of Plato ”, “ Some notions on the government of old Persians ”, “ Concept on the government of Athens ”, “ various Notes drawn from the philosophical and political history of the establishments and the trade of Europeans in the two Indies ” of the Raynal Abbot, “ Notes on the History of England ” of John Barrow,” “ Note drawn from the history of the king Frederic II ”, December 1788, “ various Notes drawn from the memories ” of the Terray abbot, Auxonne, 1788, “ Notes drawn from the English Spy ” “ Studies of nature ”, “ Natural history ”, Auxonne, March 1789, “ History of the Arabs ” of the Marigny abbot, “ various Notes, Government of Venice ”, Amelot of the Holly-plantation, “ various Notes drawn from the observations on the French history ” by the Mably abbot, “modern Geography” of Lacroix, “Essay on the Royal Authority”, Auxonne, October 23rd, 1788. And others still which one can continue to quote: “ Notes on the history of the Sorbonne ”, April 14th, 1791, “ Voyage of Mr. William Coxe in Switzerland ”, Auxonne, April 20th and 24th 1791, “ Memories secrecies on the reign of Louis XIV and Louis XV ” by Mr. Duclos, Historiographer of France, Auxonne, May 11th, 1791, “ Histoire criticizes of the nobility ” by Mr. Dulaure, Auxonne, May 19th, 1791, “ various Notes - spirit of Gerson ”, Auxonne on May 12th, 1791, “ various Notes. Test on the general history and manners and the spirit of the nations since Charlemagne until our days”, by Mr. Voltaire, Auxonne, May 22nd, 1791, “ various Notes ”, Auxonne, April 10th, 1791

Its readings very often let appear the topic dominating of the play of the governmental and financial machine; subject which it seems to scan for and which it wants to better know, he regards it as being the most instructive part and attaching history of people. Did it have the secret intention to find a model ideal for its Corsica who never leaves his thoughts? “ You know that I make a particular study on all the manners of administration ” wrote it in his letter of March 28th, 1789 to his great-uncle, the Lucien archdeacon.

Extracts and readings were not enough for the Bonaparte young person. It affected to be an author and developed in the form of new anecdotes which had struck it: one of its small accounts: the count of Essex , is written according to what it had read in Barrow and the Masque Prophet , according to its reading of the history of the Arabs of the Marigny abbot.

From all these readings, from all these authors are distinguished especially Rousseau - even if in 1803, judging Rousseau with severity he declared it tedious - and the Raynal abbot. It makes its authors of predilection of them; they love Corsica and Bonaparte was Corsica feet with the head. They flatter its patriotism and inspire to him by the republican feelings. Young Corsica lived by the thought on his native island. He found in their works the remedies for the evils which overpowered its island. These readings maintained in its imagination an image clearing its island. Corsica, it saw it controlled, reduced with slavery; the French, after Génois held it under the yoke; it was necessary to shake this yoke “ the Corsicans could, while following all the laws of justice, to shake the yoke génois and can do that of the French as much of it. Amen ”.

It had, at that time, the hatred of the French domination. Plugged by an exacerbated patriotism, a deep ingratitude made him forgotten a little quickly all that it owed in France which had granted a purse to him, had opened its schools and had filled its family of benefits. The commander of Ajaccio Férandière said of him at the time of the stay which it made on his island in 1790 “ This young officer was high with the Military academy, its sister with Saint-Cyr military school, and its filled mother of benefits by the government; he would be well better with his body because it ferments unceasingly”.

The situation of its island appeared unbearable to him. Napoleon solved to shout the true situation of his fatherland. “ to call with the court of the opinion the men who controlled Corsica, to detail their vexations and to discover their carried out deaf persons ”, “ to blacken brush of the infamy those which betrayed the common cause ”. He still wrote. From there come: “ New Corsica ”, and the three “ Lettres on Corsica ”, whose last remained unfinished, that it initially submitted to the Dupuy Father, one of these Masters of Brienne, then later, with Mr. the Raynal abbot who exhorted it to write the history of Corsica.

The letter with “infamous” the Mattéo Buttafoco , this Corsican deputy favorable to the French cause, was completed on the heights of Ajaccio, in its cabinet of Milelli. It is dated from the January 23rd, 1791 , its last day of its presence in Corsica before his loading for the return to Auxonne. Written with the spirit of party, truffée of exaggerations, his author, driven by a burning hatred overpowered insults the deputy and dedicated it to the opprobrium. After having received the agreement of Masséria , President of the Patriotic Club of Ajaccio, Bonaparte were to charge with making print the letter. To its return to Auxonne, it went on several occasions to J. - F.X. Jolly , printer dolois to which it entrusted work. The printer tells in a letter, that Bonaparte was presented at his place, vêtu of a carmagnole and pants of striped white fabric of blue, round hat, at eight o'clock in the morning. He had traversed with feet the four miles of the way outward journey which separate the two cities to propose to him to print the letter. It remained with the lieutenant as a second of way to traverse as much to find its regiment. Two days afterwards, it was again at the printer to check the 1st printed sheet and, in front of being of return to Auxonne at eleven specific times, without sitting down, it took time to take only one drop of wine. The remainder of the tests was examined at the time of a voyage according to whether it made, this time, was accompanied by his/her young Louis brother.

Always during its presence with Auxonne of 1791, it went, accompanied by lieutenant Lieur of City on Arce, to return to visit to his friend the Gassendi captain in detachment in this since August 1789 city. In same time, it prolongs its voyage and accompanied by his friend Of Mazis it leaves for Chagny, then to Creusot-Montcenis to visit the foundry of guns there lately built. It is during this voyage that its capacities of large walker betray it and of the bulbs to the feet oblige it to take a horse.

Napoleon Bonaparte bade his farewell at the town of Auxonne the June 14th, 1791 . on May 8th 1800 then First Consul, on the way for Italy, it made there short a two hours halt. It went down in the big room from Management from Artillery where the inhabitants of Auxonne greeted it.

Among the objects having belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte at the time of his stay with Auxonne, are with the Bonaparte museum, (Museum currently located in the Notre Dame tower of the Castle fortress Louis XI): A square of wood with inscriptions of its hand, a foil, a nut-cracker given by Bonaparte to Miss Lepinglard, a ball with pins offered by Bonaparte to Mrs. Pillon of Arquebouville, a silk wallet offered by Bonaparte to Mrs. Renaud, an iron of spade removed by Bonaparte with a rioter in 1789. The room occupied by Bonaparte at the time of its second stay to the Barracks was preserved. It belongs to the military field but remains worth visiting.

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