Handwritten endorsement “Approuve Np,” on a three-page report from the Duke de Feltre, the Minister of War. The Duke’s manuscript report, in French, three sides of two adjoined pages boasting splendid watermarks of an imperial eagle and Napoleon, measures 8 x 12.25, and is dated February 2, 1812. The report reads, in part (translated): “General Dumas informs me that the mobile columns commanded by General Lagrange in the 9th and 10th Military Divisions have produced every possible effect…The number of individuals arrested in those divisions amounts to 33,100 men…it is estimated…that 14,023 are still to be pursued…but most of those draft dodgers are either dead or have disappeared long ago, or never even existed…The Director General of Conscription therefore proposes to me the dissolution of these Mobile Columns but still wants to take advantage of the effect produced by the presence of these columns to help enforce the Draft of 1812…General Dumas asks for authorization to employ them for four more months.” Boldly endorsed by Napoleon on the first page. In fine condition, with some scattered light toning and soiling.
By 1812, after decades of perpetual war, enlistment in the French army was severely diminished and left Napoleon struggling to fill his ranks. With conscription laws placing virtually every able-bodied Frenchman in the service of the army, desertion and evasion became a sweeping problem. As he prepared his campaign against Russia, the state began using mobile columns, temporary organizations of armed men, to locate and arrest the thousands avoiding recruitment. These draft-dodgers, combined with large numbers of troops drawn from conquered states, formed an uncommitted army that became a key factor in the disastrous invasion that followed. This endorsement to continue the search for soldiers reflects a trying time in the once powerful and devoted French army, just months before Napoleon’s greatest defeat. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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