Marbod was wounded by train soldiers after the battle and found lying unconscious on the ground and believed to be dead. Next to him lay his dead horse, a mare named "Lisette" who had bled to death from a deep vein in her leg.
According to this report, Marbod held the eagle in his hand - there is no question of the flagpole or the flag. Marbod came to when someone tried to steal his boots.
The eagle of the lost 14th regiment was given to Marshal Augerau after the battle - it should still be in the possession of his descendants today.
Cheers
Thanks Martin That's interesting but which/who's report are you referring to? I would like to read that. I'm not trying to be difficult but some things don't agree with Marbot's own account. He was stripped of everything but a hat and a boot; but the looter left the eagle!!!! Don't know about you, but if I had been the looting Transport soldier, the eagle would have been the first thing I would have taken.
It's good to know that the eagle was eventually passed to Augereau but I don't see how Marbot could have presented it to him, when he says he was unconscious after Lisette stumbled and he never got back to headquarters.
Sorry to waffle on so much everyone I'm just finding this so fascinating.
After being found - (by then conscious again - I am quoting from page 267 - 270 of volume 1 of Marbot's memoirs here) Marbot says he was taken, by Augereau's valet who found him, (and who had sent for Marbot's own valet and some orderlies to help him), to a barn to bewhere he was later attended to by a Dr Raymond. He says Augereau himself later had him wrapped in things of his own. He also says the Transport soldier returned his belongs to him there, but again, I find it very strange that no mention is made of the eagle , or of it being passed to Augereau or his valet. It's as if the eagle seems to be of no importance in him in relating the events after he left the 14th.
Although Lisette was weakened by the wound in her leg she did not die. Marbot himself says he saw her before he was removed from the battlefield, standing and eating straw that had been used for the soldiers bivouacs the night before. Her wound had clotted in the cold and she was later bandaged and walked to Landsberg.
Marbot also says Lisete stumbled on his way back to Eylau and therefore he never got back there. He was not wounded after the battle, but was stabbed in the arm by a Russian officer while still with the 14th. He also reports being fired on by a battalion "of the Old Guard" just before Lisete fell. He says the Guard must have mistaken him for an enemy officer leading a charge - (WHAT! WHILE CARRYING AN EAGLE!). This (and Martins account of him having it in his hand when found) would also suggest to me that if he did have the eagle it was probably seperated from the staff. He says the Guard all missed him; - "my cloak and saddle were riddled, but I was not wounded, nor was my mare".
I don't doubt that Marbot was an honorable and brave man but he wouldn't have been the first to embellish a personal memoir, The more I think about it the less I'm convinced of the narrative - unless we can confirm that Augereau's family has the eagle and how it was passed to him we can only be certain that Marbot was sent to the 14th but maybe he never took the eagle? - that was not his mission and so far we have only his own word for it, . I would be happy to be proved wrong- but what does everyone else think?
David
