French soldier and military commander during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars (1769-1815) who was one of the original 18 Marshals of France created by Napoleon; he commanded the Old Guard at Waterloo but was tried and condemned for treason by the Chamber of Peers and executed. ALS in French, signed "Ney," one page, 7.75 x 12.25, August 9, 1794. Handwritten letter to Jean-Baptiste Kleber, a fellow military commander of the French Republican Armies. Ney had been transferred to the Armée du Sambre-et-Meuse just two months earlier, in June 1794, while Kléber had been assigned to the same fighting force in April 1794. In part (translated): "I review at this instant, General, the letter that you have sent me by the deputy Langlaise. I leave tomorrow at first light of day to Begin the reconnaissance that you ordered me to undertake [using] all care and possible Celerity. I arrive here with only Twenty Five Cavalrymen; I left the rest, very tired, in two squadrons at Herck. I summoned the Commander of these two Squadrons to return here tomorrow at daybreak in order to finish your new arrangements. I write the Commander of the Squadron of the 22nd Cavalry Regiment, which is at Cortenaecken, to leave tomorrow and report to his first destination of St. Margarita Lauthern. I send you a certificate of the Magistrates of Diest which shows the inaccuracy of the Report that you made regarding the movements of the Enemy. Following the information, I was able to take the position occupied by the right wing of the Armée du Nord; in result, it extends from the villages of Veerle in back of the Lack River - Vesterloo, Tongerloo, Dolez-oevel and Herenthals." In fine condition.
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