Jean Baptiste Jules BERNADOTTE (1763-1844)

Autograph Letter Signed (“J Bernadotte”) to General Desfourneaux, assuring him of his support.

1 page 8vo in French, n.p., n.d. [but probably 1803].                                                      

Trans: “My destination is not yet decided you will be the first to know. The more your enemies agitate against you the more you can count on my efforts to support you. I have been promised that you will be kept. Give me news of yourself often. . .”

The lack of place or date on this note – which appears to have been written on a leaf ripped from a notebook – makes it both difficult and tantalising. The recipient is identified by a short line at the bottom of the letter, telling us that it is addressed to Desfourneaux, whose name has been carefully rubbed out but is still just legible.

The facts which do suggest a date sometime in 1803 are two-fold. In Bernadotte’s case, he indeed did not know where he was to be next. In the spring of 1803, Bernadotte was at La Rochelle, preparing to embark for the United States where he was to be Ambassador. However, the Louisiana Purchase, which was successfully completed shortly before his intended departure, made the appointment considerably less attractive to him, and Bernadotte requested a military appointment instead.

Desfourneaux, meanwhile, had been in Santo Domingo serving with General Leclerc, where Toussaint L’Ouverture’s revolt had been successfully crushed. Despite L’Ouverture’s deportation to France, where he died in prison, there was continued local unrest. Leclerc died of yellow fever, a disease which did more to decimate the French forces than any enemy attack or insurrection. Desfourneaux returned to France where Napoleon greeted him warmly and he was accorded the title of Baron and the Legion of Honour, but did not see active service again under the Consulate or the Empire.

The letter is browned at the top, but entirely legible.

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