Significant LS in French, signed “Np,” one page both sides, 7.25 x 9, January 24, 1812. Untranslated letter about the organization of his Grande Armée troops for the invasion of Russia, giving orders for the recruitment of 120,000 soldiers. In fine condition, with a thin old mounting strip along the back left edge.
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.
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