General Charles Pierre François Augereau at the Battle of Castiglione

by Paul Émile Léon Perboyre

Propaganda for Augereau!!

Lest be real here he is not that cute BUT he has a cute relationship with his bf <3

Nothing says love like choking your bf for stealing your wallet

This one picture I got the idea from a YouTube video, idk who did this but I just thought it fit

Napoleon, on the way to the ship to Elba, randomly encountered Marshal Augereau. They had an argument where each accused the other of fucking up and/or being a traitor. I think Augereau still tried to return to Naps during the 100 days but Naps said forget it.

Goethe’s diary entries during the Battle of Jena (14 October 1806)

From Emil Ludwig, Goethe: The History of a Man, pg. 410

———

October 14: Morning cannonade at Jena, followed by a battle near Kötschau. Rout of the Prussians. In the evening at 5 o'clock the cannon-balls smashed in the roofs. At half-past five the chasseurs entered the town. At 7 conflagration, looting, a fearful night. Our house saved by stability and good luck.

15th: Marshal Lannes in billets.

16th: Lannes gone. Immediately afterwards, Marshal Augereau. Extreme anxiety in the interval. . . . Dined with the Marshal. Several introductions. . . .

17th: Marshal Augereau left.

18th: Denon arrived. . . . With Denon to the Duchess. Received. Late in the evening, at Court. . . .

19th: Wedding-day.

Commentary on these entries from Goethe’s biographer:

“The diary was kept as meticulously as in the most halcyon periods; and nowhere is its pedantry, its wilful affectation of provincial detachment, more ludicrous in effect than in those days of the Battle of Jena. It is as though Goethe had held the white-hot hours in a great pair of pincers, and plunged them into a cold bath of biography, so as to render them innocuous.”

Happy birthday, Marshal Augereau!

It is Augereau’s birthday today, right? Time to party then! 🍾🍷🍻

So here’s a bit about Augereau’s youth, translated from Marbot’s memoirs. Marbot had been Augereau’s ADC during the campaigns of 1805 and 1806, I think.

Pierre Augereau was born in Paris in 1757. His father was in the fruit trade and had acquired a fortune that allowed him to raise his children well. His mother was born in Munich; she had the good sense never to use with her son anything but the German language, which he spoke perfectly, and this circumstance was very useful to him in his travels, as well as in the war. Augereau had a handsome figure; he was tall and well built. He liked all physical exercises, for which he had a very great aptitude. He was a good horseman and an excellent marksman. At the age of seventeen, Augereau having lost his mother, a brother of his mother, employed in the offices of Monsieur, made him join the Carabinieri, of which this prince was the colonel holder. He spent several years in Saumur, the usual garrison of the carabinieri. His way of serving and his good conduct soon brought him to the rank of non-commissioned officer. Unfortunately, there was a mania for duels at that time. Augereau's reputation as an excellent marksman forced him to have several of them, for the great genre among swordsmen was not to suffer any superiority. Gentlemen, officers, and soldiers, fought for the most futile reasons. Thus, when Augereau was in Paris for the semester, the famous fencing master Saint-George, seeing him pass, said in the presence of several fencers that he was one of the best swordsmen in France. Thereupon, a non-commissioned officer of dragoons, named Belair, who had the claim to be the most skilful after Saint-George, wrote to Augereau that he wanted to fight with him, unless he consented to recognise his superiority. Augereau having replied that he would do nothing of the sort, they met at the Champs-Élysées, and Belair was struck through and through with a sword...

This swordsman recovered, and having left the service, he married and became the father of eight children, whom he did not know how to support, when, in the early days of the Empire, he had the thought of addressing his former adversary, who had become a marshal. This man, whom I knew, had spirit and a very original cheerfulness. He presented himself at Augereau's with a small violin under his arm, and told him that, as he had nothing to give his eight children for dinner, he was going to make them dance contredanses to cheer them up, unless the marshal was willing to put him in a position to serve them more substantial food. Augereau recognised Belair, invited him to dinner, gave him money, gave him a very good job in the administration of the messenger service a few days later, and had two of his sons placed in a lycée.

This conduct needs no comment.

masséna and augereau have one last conversation in 1815 where a disillusioned and hopeless masséna tries to convince a hasty augereau that trying to retract his original decision and join napoleon is suicide and wasted effort and it gets emotional because augereau is a stubborn little shit and as a result masséna ends up revealing he is mainly saying this because he cares about augereau on a deeper emotional level, thank u for coming to my ted talk

Everyone else is sharing their writing today, so have a snippet of something I’m working on. 👋

Marshal Augereau

Charles Pierre François Augereau

Happy birthday Marshal Augereau! October 21, 1759

Incorrect Quotes

Lannes: I do two things and two things only, I devastate sorry motherfuckers, and get shit done as an awesome leader.

**

Murat: I just had a thought. Napoleon: I'll buy you a card to commemorate the moment.

**

Masséna: Do you believe in conspiracy theories ? Augereau: No. Masséna: Would you like to start one ? Augereau: Absolutely.

**

Napoleon: Do you ever think before you do something ? Lannes: nope! I like being just as surprised as everyone else. Ney: Lannes, WTF Lannes: The enemies can't know my next move if I don't know my next move either.

**

Napoleon: So, did everyone learn their lesson ? Augereau: No. Lannes: I did not. Berthier: I may have actually forgotten one. Ney: Also no. Poniatowski: Oh good, it's not just me. Davout: exhausted sigh Murat: There was a lesson ?

Napoleon Bonaparte on the Bridge at Arcole

Inspired by @histoireettralala's Incorrect Marshals Quotes Part 60.

I have no idea how to draw Augereau...

Le vrai nez du maréchal Augereau

Saw a post from a while ago about how in the Napoleon’s Marshals fandom most posts are about Murat, Ney and Lannes

It’s because they’re *handsome* and *tragic*, okay

Two of them directed their own firing squad, Murat even going “not the face please”, and if the third hadn’t gotten his legs cannonball’d I feel like he could have also done the very metal thing of telling the firing squad “come on and shoot me”

Rumours about Augereau (1797)

And our witness is ... general Desaix, who by the end of July 1797 visited the army of Italy and went on a journey through Lombardy in order to report back to the Directory. This is taken from his "Journal de voyage", which seems to have been more of a notebook, where he jotted down first impressions that he felt he needed to remember.

That way, he gave brief descriptions of several of Bonaparte's generals. About Augereau, he has the following to say:

Augereau. Tall, handsome man, good figure, big nose, served in every country, soldier more or less, braggart a lot.

And some time later, he adds an ugly story he learned about him:

Fact about Augereau. In a town in Romagna, he enters a pawnshop, fills his pockets with diamonds and precious objects, places a sentry there whom he has shot in cold blood because he has taken something. He does not believe in probity or delicacy; he calls it foolish; he claims that it is useless and not to be found in the world.