LS in French, signed “Np,” four pages on two adjoining sheets, 7.25 x 9, October 23, 1811. Detailed letter to Minister of War general Henri-Jacques-Guillaume Clarke, reiterating his orders regarding the purchase of arms for the two divisions located in Cologne and Bonn. In part (translated): "It is probable that after I have seen the two divisions, I will send one to Erfurt, and I will keep the other in the Grand Duchy of Berg.—I have informed you of what each regiment of carabiniers and cuirassiers should have, that is, an ambulance wagon and a field forge. The divisions must have affairs of engineering, artillery, adjutants, and administrators in the proportion observed in previous campaigns...this must be done gradually throughout the year.—As for the artillery, it must be the subject of a separate report. I cannot recall what was done in my past campaigns; however, the simplest is to follow what has happened before. The batteries attached to the Cavalry fire a lot; therefore, they must be well supplied. In my past campaigns, I attached a reserve park to the divisions; one can always unite them with the general park of the divisions. There must be what is necessary to wage war, that is, a simple supply moving with the pieces, and a half-supply, according to what was practiced for the army in Poland, that is always at the park of each division. All this must exist in full in the places where I will winter these divisions so that if I am in a position to form a cavalry reserve, the assembly of the reserve artillery of the four divisions forms the reserve park. In this case, a general of artillery will be necessary to command this park, as has been practiced. If, on the contrary, I deem it appropriate to send these divisions into the army corps, they will take their artillery park with them, which will join the reserve park of the army corps.—It seems to me that I ordered each regiment of cuirassiers to have a certain number of carbines. The regiments I have reviewed do not have any. Make me a report on this. It is senseless that among 3000 men, not one has a firearm. It seems to me that in the past, cuirassiers were armed with carbines. Let me know the orders I have given and what has been practiced in the last six years, and why the cuirassiers no longer have carbines today." In fine condition. Superior military content from Napoleon as he seeks to bolster his troops throughout Europe. Accompanied by an export certificate from the French Ministry of Culture.
Henri-Jacques-Guillaume Clarke, 1st Count of Hunebourg, 1st Duke of Feltre (1765-1818) was a French general and politician who made a career in the Revolutionary Army and under Napoleon. In 1793 he was promoted brigade general and commanded the vanguard of the Rhine Army. During the Reign of Terror, he fell under suspicion, was briefly arrested, and discharged. Lazare Carnot restored Clarke to his rank in 1794 and, in December 1795, he was made a general of division, serving under Napoleon in the Army of Italy for several years. During the War of the Third Coalition in 1805, Clarke was appointed governor of Vienna, and during the War of the Fourth Coalition in 1806 he served as governor of Erfurt and of Berlin. Napoleon called Clarke back to Paris in 1807 to serve as Minister of War, a difficult office that he administered with skill, but with a level of personal ambition that raised Napoleon's suspicion from 1812. His opportunism became most evident at Napoleon's fall in 1814, when Clarke voted to depose the emperor and was appointed Peer of France by Louis XVIII in return. Apart from the interruption of the Hundred Days from March to September 1815, Clarke served as Minister of War in the restored Bourbon Government until September 1817. Clarke was made Marshal of France on 3 July 1816 and, following the end of his term as minister, took command of the 15th Military Division until his death in 1818.
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