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214 - LETTER FROM A SOLDIER. - LAURENT (PHILIBERT). "WE PASSED THR…
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Estimate €150 - €200
Sale commission
Description
LETTER FROM A SOLDIER. - LAURENT (PHILIBERT). "WE PASSED THROUGH VILLAGES THAT WERE ALL SHATTERED BECAUSE THERE WERE HOUSES WHERE THERE WAS NO ONE LEFT...". Autograph letter signed in two places, addressed to his parents in Flavigny-sur-Ozerain in the Côte-d'Or department. Neuburg-am-Rhein [in the Palatinate, near the Alsatian town of Lauterbourg], 12 March "year two of the French Republic" [1794]. 3 pp. in-4, address on the back (in the name of a family friend, "la citoyenne... Vorle"). Philibert Laurent was then serving in the eighth company of the eighth battalion of the Drôme. " ... I'm on the banks of the Rhine, because we're just a local bus, and we may soon have to stand guard there, because they've already made us do it in the village, and we've already done it many times, and to show you that they make us exercise twice a day and they keep us doing it for a long time because it tires us a lot, and they'd like us to get rid of it already, because WE ARE IN AN ANDROIT WHERE THE ENEMY MAY COME SOON, BECAUSE EVERY DAY THEY THREATEN TO COME THROUGH AND THEY SAY WE MAY BE CHANGED, AND THEY SAY WE WILL GO TO THE NORTHERN ARMY. AND WE ARE IN A ANDROIT WHERE THE WATER IS NOTHING, BECAUSE IF WE DID DRINK IT WOULD MAKE US SICK, and to show you that we are in a androit where there is nothing to drink. Some beer that we pay five sols. The bottle, which holds two glasses less than the one at home, and I have to point out to you that WE WERE SEPARATED WHEN WE WERE IN STRASBOURG, BECAUSE ALL THE BEAUTIFUL MEN WERE ENGAGED IN THE HORSE HUNTERS...And as for us, we were [were] incorporated into the eighth battalion of the Drôme, and we marched three days from Strasbourg, and lots were drawn as to which company we would find ourselves in, and as for me, I found myself in the eighth company. And I have to point out to you that WE WENT THROUGH VILLAGES WHICH WERE ALL SHATTERED, BECAUSE THERE ARE HOUSES WHICH NO LONGER HAVE ANYONE IN THE HOUSE, and we stayed there. And we chose the prettiest house to stay in, and we went in five or six, and we put the felt in the oven and then we went into the cellar where there were potatoes and we put them all in the oven, because we ate them until we were exhausted...
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About the sale The Empire at Fontainebleau - Second day
Auction location
Auction time 06/21/2026 at 10:30 AM
Pictures credits:
Michel Bury and Henri du Cray
See original version (French)
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