Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
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A French General Has to Catch Sable!
On August 30, 1813, during the Battle of Kulm (today: Chlumec u Chabařovic, Czech Republic), the Russian Cossacks succeeded in defeating the French General Dominique-Joseph René Vandamme, Count of Unseburg (his real name was Dominique-Joseph-René Van Damme). ..
... to capture ...:
According to other sources, they are Russian yaegers (infantry) ...
... but that's not true!
The Cossacks do not know who exactly fell into their hands, otherwise Vandamme would hardly have survived his capture.
Because the French were - especially the Russians! - not only as unusually brave, but also as extraordinarily brutal!
The troops of the VIII. (Westphalian) Army Corps led by Vandamme (he led it as an “advisor” to the nominal commander in chief Jerome Bonaparte, the emperor's brother) were not very squeamish about their actions against civilians, especially in the search for hidden food - and they were not shrinking from torture, rape and murder.
The daily struggle for food in an area in which the Russians had left them little more than "burned earth" was for the French a constant brutal guerrilla war with the peasants, which claimed countless victims on both sides!
Vandamme is smart enough to only identify himself in the allied headquarters - that is, in relative safety.
From there he is escorted to Moscow and, as a prisoner, initially enjoys comfortable accommodation in a guarded palace, which he is allowed to leave unaccompanied during the day - under guard or on “word of honor”.
That goes well until he is recognized again - this time from the street.
The Russian Tsar Aleksandr I happened to be in Moscow at this time and noticed the prominent prisoner.
Vandamme sees himself welcomed for a short conversation that doesn't end well for him.
What happens then reads like this in Ernst Moritz Arndt's writings "To my dear Germans" (Leipzig 1848):
“General Vandamme himself was captured and taken to Siberia so that he could learn to catch sables there; for soldiers like him and Marshal Davoust, who did the craft of executioners and bailiffs, must not demand to be treated like men of honor. "
Vandamme was imprisoned in harsh conditions on a personal order from the Tsar to those in Siberia. He had to live in a simple farmer's isba (wooden hut) and actually catch sable, or empty the traps set up daily under guard!
Vandamme remained in custody in Siberia until the peace agreement.
When he returned to France, the Bourbons were in power and of course had no use for Vandamme. He was ordered to go to his castle in his hometown Cassel (near Dunkirk in the départenent du nord) until further notice ...
... which was tantamount to house arrest.
After Napoleon's return from exile on the island of Elba, Napoleon elevated him to a pair during the "100 days" and gave him the command of the III. Army corps that was part of Grouchy's army.
There he missed the Battle of Waterloo together with Marshal Emmanuel Marquis de Grouchy...:
After the renewed restoration, King Louis XVIII ordered him. to emigrate with a personal order ("Ordonnance royale") on January 12, 1816!
He went to North America because the Netherlands forbade him to stay in Flanders. Vandamme returned to France in 1824 and died on May 15, 1830 in his castle in Cassel.
On August 30, 1813, during the Battle of Kulm (today: Chlumec u Chabařovic, Czech Republic), the Russian Cossacks succeeded in defeating the French General Dominique-Joseph René Vandamme, Count of Unseburg (his real name was Dominique-Joseph-René Van Damme). ..
... to capture ...:
According to other sources, they are Russian yaegers (infantry) ...
... but that's not true!
The Cossacks do not know who exactly fell into their hands, otherwise Vandamme would hardly have survived his capture.
Because the French were - especially the Russians! - not only as unusually brave, but also as extraordinarily brutal!
The troops of the VIII. (Westphalian) Army Corps led by Vandamme (he led it as an “advisor” to the nominal commander in chief Jerome Bonaparte, the emperor's brother) were not very squeamish about their actions against civilians, especially in the search for hidden food - and they were not shrinking from torture, rape and murder.
The daily struggle for food in an area in which the Russians had left them little more than "burned earth" was for the French a constant brutal guerrilla war with the peasants, which claimed countless victims on both sides!
Vandamme is smart enough to only identify himself in the allied headquarters - that is, in relative safety.
From there he is escorted to Moscow and, as a prisoner, initially enjoys comfortable accommodation in a guarded palace, which he is allowed to leave unaccompanied during the day - under guard or on “word of honor”.
That goes well until he is recognized again - this time from the street.
The Russian Tsar Aleksandr I happened to be in Moscow at this time and noticed the prominent prisoner.
Vandamme sees himself welcomed for a short conversation that doesn't end well for him.
What happens then reads like this in Ernst Moritz Arndt's writings "To my dear Germans" (Leipzig 1848):
“General Vandamme himself was captured and taken to Siberia so that he could learn to catch sables there; for soldiers like him and Marshal Davoust, who did the craft of executioners and bailiffs, must not demand to be treated like men of honor. "
Vandamme was imprisoned in harsh conditions on a personal order from the Tsar to those in Siberia. He had to live in a simple farmer's isba (wooden hut) and actually catch sable, or empty the traps set up daily under guard!
Vandamme remained in custody in Siberia until the peace agreement.
When he returned to France, the Bourbons were in power and of course had no use for Vandamme. He was ordered to go to his castle in his hometown Cassel (near Dunkirk in the départenent du nord) until further notice ...
... which was tantamount to house arrest.
After Napoleon's return from exile on the island of Elba, Napoleon elevated him to a pair during the "100 days" and gave him the command of the III. Army corps that was part of Grouchy's army.
There he missed the Battle of Waterloo together with Marshal Emmanuel Marquis de Grouchy...:
After the renewed restoration, King Louis XVIII ordered him. to emigrate with a personal order ("Ordonnance royale") on January 12, 1816!
He went to North America because the Netherlands forbade him to stay in Flanders. Vandamme returned to France in 1824 and died on May 15, 1830 in his castle in Cassel.
