Thomas-Robert BUGEAUD NON VENU (1784-1849) marshal, duc d'Is - Lot 292

Thomas-Robert BUGEAUD NON VENU (1784-1849) marshal, duc d'Isly.2 L.A.S. and 2 L.S., La Durantie and Lyon 1848-1849, to Dr. Henri PHILIPPE; 11 pages in-8, one envelope. Beautiful correspondence to the former physician-general of the Armée d'Afrique, commenting on the events of 1848; for example (March 31): "I have not been able to make use of my faculties. César himself would have been hampered like me in the midst of all these cowardice, all these illusions of weakness. Characters that I believed to be firm showed themselves to be disgustingly weak. [...] having taken command at 3 a.m. of troops who were short of bread and cartridges, who had been tired and demoralized for 48 hours; whom I didn't know [...] it was difficult for me to do very well. However, by 5 ½ a.m. I had organized my business and restored a little confidence. All that was paralyzed by the orders and measures of the castle, by the illusions which one was successively lulled and I spent the 9 or 10 h. of my comnt to harangue the heads of column of the riot. I achieved successes that gave me great hope. But it would have been necessary to be firm everywhere, we weren't, and at the decisive moment they took the commnt away from me to give it to Mal Gérard, who made the troops withdraw. It was all over. [...] I'll put up with the republic just fine, as long as it practices the principles it first proclaimed"... Attached are 26 letters from the maréchale (1844-1866), 2 from their daughter Léonie Feray, one from their son Charles, plus various letters from relatives of the maréchal, aisdes de camp (5) and Antoinette de Saint-Germain (20).