Napoleon I | Autograph manuscript report on the defence of Ajaccio, 1793

Napoleon I

Autograph manuscript report on the defence of Ajaccio,

arranged under headings beginning "Deffense de la place par terre" and continuing with a description of the defences needed in other parts of the city, the number of cannon and troops required, and other points of strategy, 2 pages, folio, integral blank, [early 1793], slight ink-smudging, light spotting at margins, remains of previous mount

"...Je parlerais tres brievement des [...] fortifications provisionelles a faire a ajaccio du cote de terre, ajaccio est un presquile. la ville est a l'extremite ayant 3 cotes dans la mer. la ville est dominee par terre a la portee du fusil par des hauteurs qu'il faut auccuper. Son enceinte est de simple muraille ayant un bon bastion au milieu qui la fa flanque, l'on devera occuper les hauteurs par des redoutes provisionelles..."

This document appears to complement the 'projet pour la defense du golfe d'Ajaccio' printed by Andre Masson in 'Napoleon inconnu' (II, 448), in which Napoleon examines the possibilities of defending the seaward approaches to Ajaccio and which can be dated to April 1793. Napoleon was a young captain in the artillery when he prepared a report for the French commissioners on the state of the Corsican ports. In June, in his second military engagement, he bombarded the town, but the action was unsuccessful and the Bonaparte family was forced to leave Corsica.

PROVENANCE:

Earls of Crawford and Balcarres (Bibliotheca Lindesiana stamp); Sotheby's, London, 19 April 1977, lot 224; Sotheby's, London, 21 November 1989, lot 328