NAPOLEON I | letter signed, ordering General Desaix to sail to Malta, prior to the Egyptian Expedition, 1798

NAPOLEON I

LONG AND IMPORTANT LETTER WITH AN AUTOGRAPH ADDITION, SIGNED ("BONAPARTE") AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, TO GÉNÉRAL DESAIX, ABOUT MALTA, PRIOR TO THE EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN,

in French, commanding Desaix to assemble ships and armaments to sail towards Malta on the 4th of May (15 Floréal), in preparation for the Egyptian campaign, passing along the coast of Naples, through the straits by the lighthouse at Messina and to drop anchor at Syracuse, or somewhere nearby that affords the best approach to Malta [added by Napoléon in his hand: "...la plus favorable pour se rendre à Malte..."], where he will rendezvous with him in due course, instructing him to take with him Commander Ménard and to procure a frigate, two brigs, two dispatch-boats, and two royal galleys ("Galères du Pape"), and preferably other fast dispatch-boats, advising him to sail in close formation, in case the English pass through the strait, advising him for the same reason to arm his convoy with four pieces of 24, two mortars, two grills for red-hot bullets with two- or three-hundred shots apiece, informing him of his imminent departure for Toulon via the île de Saint-Pierre (near Sardinia), and warning him in advance of the definite and secret orders to embark that he will receive in four days' time, 3 pages, folio (c.35.5 x 23.7cm), fine large engraved vignette (c.15 x 22cm), by Mercoli after Andrea Appiani ("République Française, Liberté, Egalité...Bonaparte Général en Chef"), Honig & Zoonen watermark, Paris, 30 germinal an 6 (19 April 1798)

AN ANNOTATED LETTER BY NAPOLEON TO ONE HIS CHIEF ARMY GENERALS. Louis Charles Antoine Desaix (1768-1800) was a general of the French Army, whom Napoleon had poached from the German campaigns in order to accompany him to Egypt. It was Desaix's division which bore the brunt of the Mamluk attack at the Battle of the Pyramids, and he crowned his reputation by his victories over Murad Bey. He died not long afterwards at the Battle of Marengo, after heroically turning the tide against the Austrians. Napoleon duly erected monuments in his memory at the Place Dauphine and the Place des Victoires in Paris.

LITERATURE:

Correspondance de Napoléon I, volume 4 (1860), no.2529

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