Paris, France
(Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection,
Brown University Library)
Napoléon Bonaparte died on May 5, 1821, but the regard in which he was held by men who had fought in his Grand Armée lived on. To commemorate their leader, surviving soldiers – known as the ‘débris de la Grande Armée’ – marched each May 5, to Paris’s Vendôme column, erected in 1810 in honor of Napoléon’s victory at Austerlitz.
In August 1857, every surviving veteran was issued with the Saint Helena medal at the command of Napoléon III. These photographs (right and overleaf), taken at the reunion the following year, show two of the men who had fought alongside Napoléon. Both wear the Saint Helena medal, and both are in their original uniforms and insignia – the only occasion on which Napoleonic soldiers are known to have been photographed in their original regalia.
‘I do not pretend to be an historical character; but I was long near a man who has been the object of base misrepresentation, and I commanded brave troops whose services have been disowned. The former overwhelmed me with favors; the latter would have laid down their lives for me: these things I cannot forget.’
Memoirs of General Rapp, First Aide-de-Camp to Napoléon, 1823
