Original Photographs

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Some of the earliest photographs of veterans are a series of 15 original sepia views of members of Napoleon’s army taken when these old soldiers were well into their 70s and 80s. It is not known how Mrs. Brown acquired them. They measure 12″ tall by 10″ wide and are mounted on stiff card. At some time in the 20th century, the name of each veteran and his regiment was inscribed in pencil on the verso of each. Twelve examples are pictured below.

These remarkable photographs provide probably the only surviving images of veterans of the Grande Armée and the Guard actually wearing their original uniforms and insignia, although some of the uniforms have obviously been recut by tailors of the 1850s. Each is a formal portrait of an individual gentleman photographed in a studio. Some of the men stand in front of a blank or paneled wall on an elaborately decorated carpet, while others are seated. One old veteran who appears to have lost his right eye, Monsieur Loria of the 24th Mounted Chasseur Regiment and a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, stands against a piece of furniture that appears also in other portraits by a curtain. It is not known who the photographer was and the blurring on one or two suggests the difficulty aging subjects had in standing still for several seconds while the plates were exposed.

A tall soldier striking an elegant pose and wearing the grenadier bearskin is Sergeant Taria in the uniform of the Grenadiere de la Garde of 1809–1815. The Mameluke de la Garde is Monsieur Ducel, who fought between 1813 and 1815. The dashing figure holding a plumed shako in his right hand is M. Dreuse of the 2nd Light Horse Lancers of the Guard, circa 1813–14. There is Monsieur Mauban of the 8th Dragoon Regiment of 1815 seated, Monsieur Lefebre, a sergeant in the 2nd Regiment of Engineers in 1815, standing wearing a plumed shako; and M. Maire of the 7th Hussars circa 1809–15. Wearing a fine shapka is M. Verlinde of the 2nd Lancers, 1815, and seated in a grand hussar uniform is Monsieur Moret of the 2nd Regiment, 1814/15. Monsieur Vitry of the Departmental Guard leans against a piece of furniture by a curtain, while M. Dupont, who was fourier for the 1st Hussar, stands with a mameluke sword.

There is the portly Quartermaster Sergeant Delignon in the uniform of a Mounted Chasseur of the Guard, 1809–1815. Completing the series are Quartermaster Fabry of the 1st Hussars, Monsieur Schmit of the 2nd Mounted Chasseur Regiment (1813–14) wearing a floppy cap, and finally, Grenadier Burg of the 24th Regiment of the Guard of 1815 with his white beard. A carte-de-visite does exist of Moret in a slightly different position than the studio photo.

When and why these men were photographed is a mystery, but some clues are offered in Henri Bouchot’s book, L’Epopée du Costume Militaire Français, published in Paris in 1898, and containing pictures by the famous French military illustrator, Job. There is a color plate with a transparent overlay bearing the title ‘Les Vieux de la vieille, Le 5 Mai, 1855’. This depicts 10 Napoleonic veterans in their full uniforms passing the column in the center of the Place Vendôme erected by Napoleon to commemorate the battle of Austerlitz. A Second Empire zouave of the current French army looks at the hunched and slow-moving procession. Most significantly is the fact that two of the veterans are carrying wreaths. If one compares the individuals in the

photographs, they match up very well with the figures crossing the square.

The date of the event – May 5 – provides the reason why these men were in Paris, for that was the anniversary of the death of Napoleon, and every year on that date veterans gathered in the capital. As the Times of London in May 1855 noted: ‘The base and railings of the column of the Place Vendôme appear this day decked out with the annual offerings to the memory of the man whose statue adorns the summit. The display of garlands of immortelles, and other tributes of the kind, is greater than usual . . . the old soldiers of the Empire performed their usual homage yesterday at the same place.’ On the same day, a funeral service was held in the chapel of the Invalides attended by Prince Jerome and other dignitaries. The entire personnel of the Invalides as well as soldiers of the First Empire were present.

A more likely date however, is May 5, 1858, because all the veterans are wearing the Saint Helene medal which had been issued on August 12, 1857, to all veterans of the wars of the Revolution and the Empire.