Lot 805
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
(1769 - 1821) The "Little Corporal" whose brilliance in the field of battle and as Emperor of France has made him perhaps the most important figure of post-Renaissance Europe. Historic content early manuscript D.S. "Bonaparte" on engraved "Republique Francaise" letterhead also engraved: "Bonaparte General en Chef de L'Armee d'Italie", 3pp. sm. folio, "General Headquarters of Gratz", Apr. 22, 1797, only four days after the signing of a preliminary peace with the Austrians whom he had pursued from Italy, across the Alps to Leoben, less than 100 miles from Vienna. Bonaparte writes to Gen. Baraguay d'Hilliers (1764-1813), at this time serving with Bonaparte's Army of Italy during the Italian Campaign. D'Hilliers joined the army at the age of twenty and served as Custine's chief of staff, but unlike his senior, escaped the guillotine during the Revolution. After his arrest on suspicion of royalist sympathies, the young officer (later general) participated in the capture of Bergamo, led a brigade at the Battle of Rivoli, and was appointed governor of Venice. D'Hilliers would later fight under Bonaparte in Egypt, Germany, and in the disastrous Russian campaign where his division marched into the jaws of the advancing Russian army. D'Hilliers was commanding French forces in Venice, where serious revolts had broken out, threatening his rear. He takes command: "...The march of the three divisions of Tyrol in Germany is about to reconnoiter in Italy. The treachery of the Venetians made the inhabitants rise against us. It is essential to take measures to assure our flank and re-establish order. In Italy, the division of General Victor is 5,000 men strong. The garrisons of Nabtua, Verona...will form a corps of 5,000 men...Lombardy and Bologna will form another corps...I think it necessary that you take your division to protect the Division Victor, the passage of our convoys, and smash the Venetians if they dare move. My intention is that you replace the General Wilmaine if he becomes so sick...". Bonaparte then sets out explicit orders for d'Hilliers to assemble various battalions, correspond with all affected commanders and General Guilhaume, and determine the movements of hostile Venetian forces. He also instructs his correspondent to cooperate with their German allies: "...Tell him you have come to marshal the Venetians to their duties...if [he] has left Venice...make sure of Tyrol, in managing the inhabitants. Arrest and disarm the Venetian garrisons and use terror and gentleness to submit to the Republic all of the country between the Isonzo and the Brenta...if things are confused and the Generals Wilmaine or Victor need you, you will march to their rescue. It is ordered for the General Wilmaine to determine our affairs in Venice by force...repress the plundering of the Tyrolians in one surprise attack and (do so as well) if they present themselves on the borders...A corps of Tyrolians and enemies could still try to come through...you must therefore insure our communications on this side...correspond with me every day...". Light show-through of text, signature just a tad light, else very good. Bonaparte would be especially hard on the "treacherous" Venetians. Three days later he announced to the Venetian delegates at Graz: "I want no more Inquisition, no more Senate; I shall be an Attila to the state of Venice". Later, the Venetians fired on a French ship trying to force an entry from the Lido forts. On May 1, Napoleon declared war and on May 12, the Maggior Consiglio approved a motion to hand over power "to the system of the proposed provisional representative government". The preliminaries of the Peace of Leoben were made even harsher in the Treaty of Campoformio, and Venice and all her possessions became Austrian.
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