"Marshal Louis Nicolas Davout in the historiography..." Topic

…of the battle of Borodino

Of possible interest?

PDF link

Armand

Indeed he may have been, though I can't say, but he's more commonly known as the uncommon Davout.
Napoleons best surviving General and Marshal of the Empire.

The spelling of the original name was d'Avout but that was changed, as were those of other nobles, to Davout. It was never spelled 'Devout', at least not by himself or the French.

The I Corps in the Russian campaign was a renumbering of the III Corps. Same commanders, generally the same troops except that it was larger and more than the original three divisions. It should also be remembered that the III Corps in 1809 numbered over 60,000 at the beginning of the campaign.

Davout also commanded the XIII Corps in 1813-1814 which included the famous defense of Hamburg.

On the Arc de Triomphe it is spelled "Davoust"…

Then whoever placed it there mispelled the name…🤦‍♂️

The guiding 'principle' should be how did Davout spell his own name…
👍

I've seen the British spelling of Louis de Tousard's last name as 'Toussard' which is also incorrect.

Davout's portrait in the Musee de l'Armee in Les Invalides spells it 'Davout.'

Some English pubications also spell Reynier incorrectly, as 'Regnier.'

Thanks!

Armand

Meh.
Finally d/l the issue and really, boring is best I'd give it.
Repeating quotations of Russian 'intelligence' on what he was and wasn't doing, with a copout paragraph in conclusion- we tried…

Although well beyond my sphere of interest period, it was nothing but a pale tale of prose- those 'unseen quote', hardly newsworthy.

As a final blow- as usual, suffers from translators windage of converting European sex-form terms into non-gender English wording. Academic fail, 2/10, sorry buddy.
For others- don't! Will delete file now ;-(')
regards dave

There is an interesting article on Davout on the Napoleon Series website by John Gallaher:

link

A weakness of the article is Bourrienne's ghost-written memoirs, which are inaccurate and unreliable, are used as a source. Using Segur's volume on the Russian campaign is also a weakness.

It should be remembered that Gourgaud also wrote a memoir of the
Russian campaign which is more accurate than Segur's. The argument grew to become a duel between the two, where Gourgaud shot de Segur, wounding him.

Davout and Napoleon:
A Study of Their Personal Relationship

link

this unfortunately ever so ignored article explains a lot

Thus by the opening of the Russian Campaign the relationship between Napoleon and Davout had already begun to deteriorate.

I already posted the link and remarked upon it and the use of dubious historical source material used for the article.

Have you read the Iron Marshal by Gallaher?

What is also interesting is that if the relationship between Davout and Napoleon did deteriorate, Davout remained loyal and refused to swear an oath to the Bourbons.

Contrast that with Marmont's treason in 1814, and he was one of Napoleon's oldest friends, and it clearly demonstrates the difference in character and loyalty between Davout and Marmont.