by Tom Reiss
22 memo about the Army of the Pyrenees: Ministry of War to Alex Dumas, September 24, 1794, MAD Safe.
23 “the most important passes”: Executive Council, memo to Alex Dumas, September 24, 1794, MAD Safe.
24 “must maintain”: Ministry of War to Alex Dumas, September 24, 1794, MAD Safe.
25 the new commander-in-chief could not enter: Decree by the People’s Representatives for the Army of the Pyrénées, October 22, 1793, in MM, p. 35.
26 “When the terrible hour”: MM, p. 40.
27 command of the Army of the Alps: National Convention decree, December 22, 1793, SHD 7YD91, and memo published in Le Moniteur, December 24, 1793, reprinted in Réimpression de l’ancien Moniteur, Vol. 19 (1863); Executive Council decree, December 28, 1793, MAD.
28 “live up to his reputation”: Executive Council decree, December 28, 1793, MAD.
29 “in the midst of the army”: Pierre Chépy, Un agent politique à l’armée des Alpes, p. 246.
30 fourth commander-in-chief: Jones, p. 147.
31 Dumas taking Piston and Espagne along: Alex Dumas to the minister of war, January 11, 1794, SHD 3B9, and April 4, 1794, SHD 3B10.
32 both men were happy: Piston was promoted to brigadier general (2 Vendémiaire, Year II); later he was sent to the Pyrenees (A. Lievyns, Fastes de la Légion-d’honneur, Vol. 3, p. 486). Espagne was a lieutenant colonel at the end of 1793; he served in the army of the Western Pyrénées (Charles Mullié, Biographie des célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850, Vol.1, pp. 497–98).
33 “My father passed through the village”: MM, p. 53.
34 Dermoncourt would stay: At the end of his military career Dermoncourt was a brigadier general (Mullié, pp. 406–10). He was also rewarded with a Legion of Honor medal in 1813 and the title of baron. (Mullié, pp. 406–10; Tony Broughton, “Generals Who Served in the French Army During the Period 1789–1815.”)
35 “popular” societies: Michael L. Kennedy, The Jacobin Clubs in the French Revolution, 1793–1795.
36 Dumas passing through Lyon: Dumas to the minister of war, January 11 and 21, 1794, SHD 3B9.
37 the People’s Representatives warned Dumas: Dumas to the minister of war, January 21, 1794, SHD, 3B9.
38 –58: Dumas’s response to the denunciation, including quotations: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, January 4, 1794, SHD 3B9.
39 “My father took no part”: MM, p. 29.
40 Dumas was allowed to go on: Ernest d’Hauterive, in Un soldat de la Révolution (p. 69), speculates that this was because the “Thermidorian Reaction,” a revolt against the Terror’s excesses, took place right after Dumas was denounced by the People’s Commission (June 24).
41 Saint-Georges and ten officers arrested: Gabriel Banat, The Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Virtuoso of the Sword and the Bow, p. 401.
42 “renew[ed] their oath”: Bernard Gainot, Les officiers de couleur dans les armées de la République et de l’Empire, 1792–1815, p. 57.
43 three-man delegation: Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World, pp. 168–70. For Dufay’s speech to the Convention, see Léon-François Hoffman et al., Haïti 1804: Lumières et ténèbres, p. 93.
44 In fact, slavery had already been abolished: Dubois, pp. 163, 167.
45 “Your comrade, a soldier”: Dumas to his “brothers in arms,” March 6, 1794, SHD 3B9.
CHAPTER 12: THE BATTLE FOR THE TOP OF THE WORLD
1 Dumas was supposed to dislodge: Committee of Public Safety, decree, January 25, 1794, SHD 3B9.
2 approximately fifty-three thousand men: Army summary of the situation in the Alps, January 14, 1794, SHD 3B9.
3 “The enemy he needed to get”: MM, p. 50.
4 set about to whipping his army into shape: See, for example, letters from Dumas to the chief of staff, January 27, 1794, SHD 3B107.
5 elite company of Mont Blanc guides: Dumas to the chief of staff, February 13, 1794, SHD 3B9.
6 “Mont-Cenis is currently”: General Dours to Dumas, January 30, 1794, SHD 3B9.
7 “I cannot procure”: Dumas to the minister of war, January 30, 1794, SHD 3B9.
8 rifles, cannon, saddles, gunpowder, bandoliers: Dumas wrote a number of letters to the chief commissary of the artillery about all of these supplies, for example, on March 1 and March 20, 1794, SHD 3B107. See also Dumas to the commissioner general, March 24, 1794, SHD 3B9.
9 the mountain’s best guides: For example, letters from Dumas to the captain of the guides, March 24 and 25, 1794 (SHD 3B9 and 3B107), among many others.
10 –62: an elaborate operation: General Petitguillaume to Adjutant General Sandos, February 4, 1794, SHD 3B107.
11 long letters on organizing: For examples, see three letters from Dumas to the chief of staff, January 27, 1794, SHD 3B107; Dumas to Brigadier General Pouget, February 5, 1794, SHD 3B9; Dumas to Commissioner Misson, February 15, 1794, SHD 3B107.
12 Dumas mastered every detail: Among dozens of examples, see orders from Dumas, January 28, 1794, SHD 3B9, and Dumas to the commissaire ordonnateur, February 28, 1794, SHD 3B107; also Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, February 20, 1794, SHD 3B9.
13 “four thousand iron cleats”: Dumas to Citizen Guériot, March 13, 1794, SHD 3B107.
14 desertion had been a problem: Committee of Public Safety, decree, mentioned in Dumas to the chief of staff of the Army of the Alps, May 29, 1794, SHD 3B107.
15 Dumas received an order: Minister of war to Dumas, January 27, 1794, SHD 3B9.
16 “We want the conquest”: Committee of Public Safety to Dumas, January 1794, quoted in Claude Schopp, “Préface générale,” in Joseph Balsamo, p. viii.
17 “these parts are very difficult”: Dumas to the minister of war, February 7, 1794, SHD 3B9.
18 “The snow’s massive quantities”: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, March 1, 1794, SHD 3B9.
19 Dumas’s alternative suggestion: Dumas to the minister of war, February 3, 1794, SHD 3B108, and February 7, 1794, SHD 3B9.
20 “The Republic can count on me”: Dumas to the minister of war, February 3, 1794, SHD 3B108.
21 “I never imagined”: Minister of war to the Committee of Public Safety, February 7, 1794, SHF 3B9.
22 “You say that the Republic”: Committee of Public Safety to Dumas, February 8, 1794, SHD 3B9.
23 Dumas called a council of war: Decisions of the war council (“arrêté pris en conseil de guerre”), February 26, 1794, SHD 3B9.
24 “Each general”: Dumas to Generals Basdelaune and Sarret, March 2, 1794, SHD 3B108.
25 it snowed hard: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, March 1, 1794, SHD 3B9.
26 a careful letter, including quotations: Dumas to the minister of war, March 1, 1794, SHD 3B108.
27 “cannons firing”: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, March 1, 1794, SHD 3B9.
28 “In speaking to the Minister”: Ibid.
29 Dumas’s belief that the émigrés: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, March 14 and March 15, 1794, SHD 3B9; Dumas to General of Division d’Ours, April 19, 1794, SHD 3B108.
30 the threat of the Jacobin clubs: Dumas, letter, June 26, 1794, SHD 3B11, and letter from the local Jacobin society to the Committee of Public Safety, June 7, 1794, SHD 7YD91.
31 the impression they made on all the locals: Dumas to the minister of war, March 30, 1794, SHD 3B9.
32 Dumas a diplomat: Dumas to the minister of war, March 13, 1794, SHD 3B10.
33 “An enlightened society”: Dumas to the Société de Chambèry, May 8, 1794, quoted in d’Hauterive, p. 49.
34 Gaston likes Dumas: Dumas to Sergeant-Major Pelet, March 26, 1794, BNF NAF 24641 (Dumas describes Gaston as his friend).
35 “The General in Chief and I” and next quotation: Gaston to the Committee of Public Safety, March 13, 1794, SHD 3B9.
36 Dumas ordered preparations: Dumas to squadron chief of the Gendarmerie Grandemaison, March 22, 1794, SHD 3B107.
37 operation on Mont Cenis: Except where indicat
ed, the following account of the attack on Mont Cenis, including quotations, relies on Brigadier General Gouvion, report, April 7, 1794, SHD 3B10.
38 subordinate generals take the field: Dumas to Generals Basdelaune and Sarret, March 2, 1794, SHD 3B108.
39 “Two Piedmontese deserters”: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, April 16, 1794, SHD 3B108.
40 “The enemy was not surprised” and the next two quotations: Representative Gaston to the Committee of Public Safety, April 11, 1794, SHD 3B10.
41 “the artillery General Buenaparte”: Dumas to an artillery commander, March 30, 1794, SHD 3B107.
42 “Victory, my dear Piston!”: Dumas to General Piston, April 24, 1794, SHD 3B108.
43 force of approximately three thousand: Thomas Mante, The Naval and Military History of the Wars of England, Vol. 8, p. 36.
44 “Dumas, commander in chief” and “ascended the mountain”: Mante, pp. 36–37.
45 “How harmless”: John Scottish Young, A History of the Commencement, Progress, and Termination of the Late War Between Great Britain and France, pp. 208–9.
46 “Torrents of fire”: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, May 14, 1794, SHD 3B9.
47 “fled before the brave”: Ibid.
48 “We took 900 prisoners”: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, May 15, 1794, SHD 3B9.
49 “from position to position”: Alphonse Rabbe, et al., “Dumas (Alexandre-Davy),” pp. 1469–70.
50 “At each place” and next quotation: Commander Rougier to Representative of the People Ysabeau, June 28, 1794, BNF NAF 24641.
51 “Glory to the conquerors”: Carnot to the People’s Representatives, May 22, 1794, quoted in d’Hauterive, pp. 64–65.
CHAPTER 13: THE BOTTOM OF THE REVOLUTION
1 Dumas received a letter: Committee of Public Safety to Dumas, June 24, 1794, MAD.
2 “enemies of the people”: “Loi du 22 prairial an II,” in Henri Wallon, Histoire du tribunal révolutionnaire de Paris, Vol. 4, pp. 541–45.
3 “national razor”: Albert Marie Victor Barrère, Argot and Slang, p. 389.
4 “I have received, Citizens”: Dumas to the Commission on the Organization and Movement of the Armies, July 4, 1794 (draft), SHD 3B108.
5 “I anticipate”: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, July 4, 1794, SHD 3B108.
6 8th of Thermidor: On the fall of Robespierre, see David P. Jordan, The Revolutionary Career of Maximilien Robespierre, pp. 211–25; and Ruth Scurr, Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution, pp. 347–58.
7 To his chagrin: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, August 10, 1794, SHD 7YD91.
8 the Committee decided: Report of the National Convention’s session, published in Gazette Nationale ou le Moniteur Universel, August 18, 1794 (the session took place on August 17).
9 bloody rebellion in the Vendée: See David Bell, The First Total War, pp. 155–85.
10 “brigand army”: A derogatory term used by the government in Paris to describe the peasants. See, for example, the Moniteur’s account of the September 25, 1793, meeting of the Convention. Barrère refers to “l’armée des brigands” in the region (Gazette National au le Moniteur Universel, no. 271, September 28, 1793, p. 756); and the January 21, 1795, Moniteur refers to “l’armée des brigands de la Vendée” (Gazette Nationale au le Moniteur Universel, no. 119, p. 608).
11 “Invisible battalions lay in wait”: Victor Hugo, Quatrevingt-treize, p. 77.
12 “exterminating angels of liberty”: Georges Jacques Danton, Oeuvres de Danton, edited by Auguste Vermorel (1866), p. 20.
13 “We burned and broke heads”: Bell, p. 156.
14 one out of four residents: Ibid.
15 “Women and men are tied together”: Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History, Vol. 2, p. 298.
16 mass drownings: Alfred Lallié, Les noyades de Nantes, pp. 40–41.
17 Dumas arrived in the Vendée: Dumas to the chief of staff, September 7, 1794, SHD 3B118.
18 Dumas was appalled: Alphonse Rabbe, et al., “Dumas (Alexandre-Davy),” p. 1470.
19 “The Vendéeans no longer needed”: Jean-Baptiste Courcelles, “DUMAS (Alexandre Davy),” p. 502.
20 “The chief of staff will”: Dumas to the chief of staff, September 7, 1794, SHD 3B118.
21 “The officer must provide” and next two quotations: Dumas to the chief of staff, September 9, 1794, SHD 3B118.
22 “Any soldier who crosses”: Dumas to the chief of staff, September 11, 1794, SHD 3B118.
23 he inspected thousands: Dumas to the chief of staff, September 17, 1794, SHD 3B118.
24 “I have delayed”: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, October 8, 1794, quoted in MM, p. 42.
25 Dumas transferred out of the Army of the West: Charles Clerget, Tableaux des armées françaises pendant les guerres de la Révolution, p. 41.
26 “deploying a character of justice”: Le Moniteur Universel, no. 36, reprinted in Réimpression de l’ancien Moniteur, Vol. 22 (1847), p. 342.
27 An 1834 biographical dictionary: Courcelles.
28 “Fearless and irreproachable”: Henri Bourgeois, Biographies de la Vendée militaire, p. 23.
29 leave to return home: Committee of Public Safety, decree, December 7, 1794, SHD 7YD91; Commission for the Organization and Movement of the Armies to Dumas, December 9, 1794, MAD Safe.
30 exempt peasants from normal draft laws: Treaty of La Jaunais, February 18, 1795. See Paul-Marie du Breil de Pontbriand, Un Chouan, p. 97.
31 “attached to the topographical bureau”: Napoleon to Joseph Bonaparte, August 20, 1795, in Albert Sorel, L’Europe et la révolution française, Vol. 4, p. 385.
32 with the Army of the Rhine: Minister of war, note, November 28, 1795, SHD 7YD91.
33 Jean-Baptiste Kléber: Hubert N. B. Richardson, A Dictionary of Napoleon and His Times, p. 244.
34 Dumas and Kléber: Dumas to Jean-Baptiste Kléber, September 15, 1798, BNF NAF 24641.
35 Dumas crossing the Rhine: Article in Le Moniteur, September 8, 1795, reprinted in Réimpression de l’ancien Moniteur, Vol. 26 (1854), p. 65.
36 “The loss of Frenchmen”: Le Moniteur Universel, no. 9, in Réimpression de l’ancien Moniteur, Vol. 26, p. 65.
37 Marie-Louise pregnant: Marie-Louise to Dumas, January 17, 1796, cited in Ernest Roch, “Le Général Alexandre Dumas,” p. 98.
38 “My good friend”: Ibid.
39 hyperinflationary cycle: See François Crouzet, “Politics and Banking in Revolutionary and Napoleonic France,” in The State, the Financial System, and Economic Modernization, pp. 20–52.
40 “whiff of grapeshot”: Thomas Carlyle, The Works of Thomas Carlyle, Vol. 4 (1896), p. 320.
41 black and mixed-race legislators: Laurent Dubois, A Colony of Citizens: Revolution and Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787–1804, p. 119; Marcel Dorigny and Bernard Gainot, La Société des Amis des Noirs, 1788–1799.
42 the National Colonial Institute: Bernard Gainot, Les officiers de couleur dans les armées de la République et de l’Empire, 1792–1815, pp. 156–63.
43 “every year, in each department”: Ibid., p. 159.
CHAPTER 14: THE SIEGE
1 Dumas arrived in Milan: Dumas to “General in chief Buonaparte,” November 26, 1796, SHF 3B118.
2 “The Cisalpine Republic was”: Constitution des républiques françaises, cisalpine et ligurienne, 1799, pp. 3–5.
3 most demoralized of all the French armies: Robert B. Asprey, The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, pp. 125–26.
4 one company had renamed itself “Dauphin”: Ida Tarbell, A Short Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, p. 26.
5 “Soldiers, you are badly fed”: Gustave Molinari, L’évolution politique et la révolution, p. 342.
6 “The art of making war”: Jacques de Guibert, Essai général de tactique, Vol. 2, p. 210.
7 took organized theft to a new level: on Napoleon’s systematic pillage in Italy, see Philip G. Dwyer, Napoleon: The Path to Power, 1769
–1799, pp. 225–26, 235–38; and Timothy C. W. Blanning, The French Revolutionary Wars, 1787–1802, pp. 158–64.
8 “The watchmakers and jewelers”: Dwyer, p. 226.
9 Dumas clashing with Napoleon: Dumas to Generals Miollis and Davin, December 29, 1796, SHD 3B118.
10 “constantly going to the inns”: Dumas to Chief of Squad Maupeou, March 14, 1797, SHD 3B118.
11 “unworthy to be called a Frenchman”: Dumas to the commander of the 7th Regiment of Hussars, May 6, 1797, SHD 3B118.
12 “P.S. You will also warn”: Ibid.
13 Mr. Humanity bristled: Dumas to Napoleon, January 2, 1797, SHD 3B118.
14 “soften the order” and “you will appoint”: Dumas to Brigadier General Davin, December 30, 1796, SHD 3B118.
15 “Where will these women”: Dumas to General Motte, February 25, 1797, SHD 3B118.
16 letter to “General-in-Chief Bonaparte”: Dumas, January 3, 1797, SHD 3B118.
17 To Dumas, the Republic’s generals: Dumas to General Victor, January 8 and 9, 1797, SHD V3B118.
18 “The French Revolution stamped”: MM, p. 124.
19 The Austrian Empire’s main line of defense: Robert Bowman Bruce, et al., Fighting Techniques of the Napoleonic Age, p. 20.
20 Dumas assigned a division at Mantua: Letters from Dumas to General Kilmaine and Napoleon, December 17, 1796, SHD 3B118.
21 Dumas’s strategy: Dumas to General Dallemagne, December 26, 1796, SHD 3B118.
22 arrested three men: Dumas to General Kilmaine, SHD 3B118.
23 son of a Veronese lawyer: Dumas to General Dufresne, December 25, 1796, SHD 3B118.
24 Dumas accused him: Paul Thiébault, Mémoires du général baron Thiébault, pp. 30–31.
25 “Among my father’s favorite books”: MM, p. 73.
26 “then they took him”: Ibid., p. 74.
27 “if he did not want” and “he abided by my orders”: Dumas to Napoleon, December 25, 1796, BNF NAF 24641.
28 “his valor and his zeal”: Austrian emperor “François” to “Allvintzy” [Alvinczy], November 13, 1796, MAD.
29 a reason to attack the Vatican: On the deterioriating relations between France and the Papal States, see Frederick C. Schneid, Napoleon’s Conquest of Europe: The War of the Third Coalition, p. 16.
