Books and Manuscripts

Napoleon Instructs His Minister of War in the Lead-up to France's Invasion of Russia

No place (likely Eastern Europe), January 9, 1812. One sheet, 9 1/8 x 7 1/4 in. (232 x 184 mm). Manuscript letter in French in a secretarial hand, signed by Napoleon Bonaparte ("Nap"), to his Minister of War, Henri Jacques Guillaume Clarke, Duc de Feltre, instructing him on supplies and troops needed for the garrison city of Danzig and other preparations for the Grande Armée's military. Small remnants from previous mount, right side recto, not affecting signature.

By early 1812 France's uneasy alliance with Russia was breaking down, and Napoleon began amassing a huge army along the Russian border to threaten them to abide by the terms of their 1807 treaty. The semi-independent city-state of Danzig--carved by Napoleon out of Prussian territory and nestled on the coast of the Baltic Sea--by this time had become a major garrison for Napoleon's forces, and operated as one of his army's largest arsenals. It contained enough stores to sustain 400,000 men and 50,000 horses. The siege train there, referred to in this letter, contained over 130 heavy cannon, while the one at Madgeburg, to its south, contained 100 cannon. When the Grande Armée invaded Russia later in June of 1812, Napoleon's forces reached a staggering 600,000 troops, spread out across cantonments from Danzig south to Italy.