Lot n° 71
Estimation :
800 - 1000
EUR
Result without fees
Result
: 2 000EUR
Campaign of MARENGO. Autograph manuscript... - Lot 71 - Doutrebente
Campaign of MARENGO. Autograph manuscript of a military doctor, Marengo Campaign, May and June 1800; 55 pages small in-4, numerous erasures and corrections (wetness with corrosion on the 1st leaf). A very interesting account of the campaign by an assistant chief medical officer, who replaced Vincent Jean-Paul Biron, retained in Paris: "I was appointed assistant chief medical officer and directed the medical service during the entire campaign. He recounts his departure from Paris, and his journey through Dijon, Saint-Claude, Ferney, Geneva, Lausanne, Martigny, the Saint-Bernard, San Remo. He tells about the fall of Bonaparte on the road from Orsières to Bourg-Saint-Pierre (where he has an interview with the First Consul), the siege of the fort of Bard, the battle of Ivrea, the march on Milan, the proclamation of the Cisalpine Republic. At Voghera, our doctor meets his compatriot Desaix again. Then it was the battle of Marengo; the headquarters were established in Torre di Garofalo, the great ambulance in San Giuliano, under the orders of the commissioner-ordinator BBBondurant, of the chief surgeon Imbert de Lonnes and of the narrator: "The ambulance of San Giuliano was crowded with patients. From morning to night and even during the night, some arrive on foot, others are transported on stretchers. The slightly wounded soldiers are immediately bandaged and sent back to their regiment [...] Those whose wounds are more serious being deposited in the rooms, the barns and the sheds of the houses, the whole village is converted into a hospital. The idea had been to separate the Austrians from the French, but as they came in a jumble this sorting out became impossible. A large barn in the center of the village was used as an asyle for the dead until they could be buried. It is a curious but horrible sight to see hundreds of dead piled up one on top of the other, their limbs twitching and moving. [...] The medical means consist of broth, wine, barley tea with acid, and some pharmaceutical preparations. Linen and lint have become insufficient, so we have recourse to the inhabitants, who hasten to provide plenty of it. All day long we hear the noise of the cannon and the musketry"... After the signing of the peace agreement, Mélas passed through San Giuliano; our doctor showed him the ambulance. Incident between Bondurant and Imbert de Lonnes, witnessed by our doctor; the duel is avoided. Mortuary graves are dug, and the wounded who can walk are directed to Milan. Our doctor visits Scarpa and Volta; then it is the return to France... The story itself consists of 42 pages, followed by additions concerning Geneva, "Chamouny", Ferney, Lausanne, the castle of Chillon, Martigny, Louèche, Brieg, the passage of the Simplon. Our doctor, of Auvergne origin, studied medicine in Italy, where he was a student of Moscati, Volta, Spallanzani and Scarpa.
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue