André Estienne, the "drummer of Arcole", was singled out for particular official recognition, in the Empire, and later under the July Monarchy. The young volunteer from Cadenet in the Vaucluse distinguished himself at the Battle of Arcole in the First Coalition War, on 16th November 1796, when, as drummer of the 51st Demi-Brigade of the Line, he swam across the river Alpone at the front of his battalion, his drum on his head, and momentarily rallied Bonaparte's discouraged troops to attack the Austrians on the far bank.
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| "Honneur aux Braves" - André Estienne, the Tambour d'Arcole crosses the river (15th Nov. 1796) - 19th-century illustration by Pierre Méjanel |
Estienne was not a child: later works tried to fit him into the stereotype of the little drummer boy by emphasising that he volunteered at fifteen; but at the time of his heroic action he was nineteen. He went on to have a distinguished military career [See Note below] He was among the first to be admitted to the Légion d'honneur and was also privileged to beat an honorary ruff at Napoleon's coronation in 1804. In the 1830s he was immortalised by David d'Angers on the pediment of the Pantheon. Estienne's biographer, Jacques Kryn, suggests that he was selected by Louis-Philippe as an exemplar not only because of his outstanding bravery but also because he was still alive at this time; his fellow drummer in the 51st Demi-brigade, Liotard, had been killed in the action. (Kryn (1987), p.12)
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| David d'Angers - plaster model for the Pantheon relief in the Musée David d'Angers |
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| Medallion of Estienne by David d'Anger, 1833 |
Realities - Estienne at Arcole
Estienne's role in historical events is well testified. He himself left a set of manuscript memoirs, which were used extensively by Jacques Kryn, who was mayor of Cadenet in the 1970s, as the basis for his 1987 biography. This work finally resolved a major point of confusion. Estienne did not beat the charge during Bonaparte's legendary crossing of the "Bridge at Arcole" but swam across the river. Indeed Bonaparte did not cross the bridge at all.
The 51st was one of four Demi-brigades commanded by Bonaparte in Italy.
In November 1796 Bonaparte attempted to take from the rear the Austrian army which was encamped on the left bank of the Alpone, a tributary of the River Adige, near the village of Arcole. The French troops, among them the men of the 51st, assembled on the right bank. Between them and the enemy, in a marshy area of causeways and dykes, lay the famous "Bridge at Arcole". On 15th November repeated attempts were made, without success, to cross under enemy fire. According to Estienne himself, General Augereau seized a colour but advanced only fifteen paces towards the bridge. Bonaparte managed a further ten paces, before he too was forced to retreat. His aide-de-camp Muiron was killed and Bonaparte's horse, losing its footing, slid down the bank into a ditch : "General Bonaparte was unrecognisable, he was so covered in mud".
That night Bonaparte decided to abandon Arcole and sent most of his men up-river to a ferry point at the confluence with the Adige. However, large numbers still remained on the bridgehead and on the 16th they made fresh efforts to cross. The first attempt involved the construction of a bridge from fascines of stripped willow. When this proved impracticable, Bonaparte ordered the men to swim across.
"Lieutenant Ramand of the 51st plunged into the chilly water before anyone else, but only about 30 chose to follow his example. There were many officers, including Vial, and the 19-year-old drummer, Estienne, who carried his instrument on his head. As soon as he got out of the water, he began to beat the charge, but this inspiring sound failed to encourage his comrades to cross. The adventurous groups sustained several casualties and was forced to swim back again. As night fell, the situation was still effectively a stalemate." [Martin Boycott-Brown (2001) p.469-70]
The action in which Estienne was involved was therefore of no lasting strategic significance. Victory was only secured when troops further along the river crossed using a pontoon bridge. Nonetheless, Napoleon was later said to have remembered Estienne personally - no doubt his conspicuous valour was appreciated when morale had been at a low ebb.
Mythologies - Two famous paintings
The legend of Bonaparte's triumphant crossing of the "bridge of Arcole" was born with Gros's iconic painting of 1796, first exhibited in the Salon of 1801. The drummer-boy who supposedly crossed with him also appears first in art. Two paintings, by Charles Thévenin (1798) and Horace Vernet (1826), show Augereau and Bonaparte respectively on the bridge accompanied by drummer-boys. Although persistently misidentified as Estienne, these implausibly youthful drummers are probably just generic figures.
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| Charles Thévenin, General Augereau at the Arcole Bridge, 1798 [on Wikimedia] |
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| Horace Vernet, The Battle on the Bridge at Arcole (1826) [Wikimedia] |
Horace Vernet's later painting was exhibited to great acclaim in the last Salon of the Restoration in 1827. According to Katie Hornstein the work remained highly regarded throughout the 19th century, due largely to Vernet's populist emphasis on "the dynamic between leader and a collection of individuals". Vernet captures the moment when the troops resolve to follow Bonaparte - a scene effectively dramatised by the central figure of the drummer boy who casts an inquiring glance up at his general.
Together with that of Gros, Vernet's image ensured that the Bridge at Arcole remained at the forefront of popular imagination. Jean-Jacques Feuchère's relief sculpture Arc de Triomphe, the maquette for which appeared at the Salon of 1834, was widely acknowledged to have been directly based on it.
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| Arc-de-triomphe: "Battle of Arcole 15 November 1796" by Jean-Jacques Feuchère [Wikimedia] |
Mythologies - A famous poem
In the late 1860s the writer and lexicographer Frédéric Mistral added to the mythology with his poem on "the Drummer of Arcole" . Mistral was a founder member of the Félibrige, an association set up in 1854 to promote Provençal literature and culture, and his aim was very much to celebrate a hero from the region. When a statue of Estienne was inaugurated at Cadenet in 1894, Mistral was a prime mover; his verses were recited during the ceremony and he presided over the official banquet opposite the minister of Justice.
It seems a little odd that Mistral did not refer to Estienne by name in his poem - though admittedly he had composed it almost two decades earlier. Nor did he trouble much about historical accuracy. In emotionally charged tones, he recounts how the "tambour d'Arcole" heroically beat the charge on the bridge, only to fall into impoverished obscurity in subsequent years. In advanced old age he comes unexpectedly upon his image on the Pantheon and, in happy surprise, literally dies of joy (See Readings) It was stirring stuff. Despite the fact it had originally been written in the Occitan language, the poem became very popular. Cynical contemporaries commented that Estienne had Mistral to thank for his monument: "It is to this poem, become legendary, that we owe this statue".
Other claimants
Perhaps due to Mistral's poem, the "tambour d'Arcole" often remained an anonymous epithet. Researches in the 1890s even unearthed claimants other than Estienne, the most colourful of whom was one Guillaume Fortuné (see Readings). Particular controversy arose in 1900 when a pair of baguettes d'honneur were displayed at the World Fair, inscribed with the name of Nicolas Laugier, and labelled as belonging to the "drummer of Arcole". Laugier, like Liotard, had indeed served with distinction at Arcole, though possibly not as a drummer. His memory has recently been revived in his native Tarascon, where there is now a memorial plaque.
Other bridges, moreover, produced other drummer boys. In 1893 the abbé Henri-Louis Duclos, lay claim to a gamin de bataille for his native Ariège in the person of the fifteen-year-old Joseph-Gabriel Heuillet "drummer of the bridge at Lodi" (See Readings). Duclos claimed, quite reasonably, that the action at Arcole had become confused with the earlier successful crossing at Lodi. Heuillet' son confirmed his father's presence, but Heuillet was hardly a hero for Republican times, for he had left his drums behind and gone on to serve with distinction in a roll-call of Napoleonic battles, including Waterloo.(When this formidable Imperial veteran died in 1857 aged 77, the whole town of St-Girons turned out for the funeral.)
Others writers noted simply that other heroic youths had been unjustly neglected. An article in Le Petit Parisien for 4th August 1894 listed a whole catalogue of intrepid drummer boys: Joseph Picon, Méril, Sthrau, Couzinié, Denormand. André Estienne was chançard, a lucky devil, both to have survived and to be commemorated.
References
Estienne's Memoirs
"La Bataille d'Arcole: extraits des souvenirs inédits de André Estienne, surnommé le "petit tambour d'Arcole", Le Figaro Illustré, (1894) p.77-80.
Estienne's memoirs are currently in private hands. They consist of two notebooks, totalling 80 quarto pages - the first, reproduced here, is an account of the action at Arcole and the second is a more general autobiography.
Biographies
Jacques Kryn, Le Petit Tambour d'Arcole, 1777-1837 (1987) - Extract only.
https://www.decitre.fr/ebooks/le-petit-tambour-d-arcole-1777-1837-9782307662013_9782307662013_1.html
Guillaume Beckert, André Estienne dit le Tambour d'Arcole, de l'Homme au Héros (2015)
A more recent scholarly biography. Summaries / comments available from:
"Le Tambour d'Arcole 1796" on Famille Ginoux [genealogy and local history website]
_____, "À Cadenet, un adolescent héroïque - Invitation au voyage" [ARTE video, 10/03/2023]
Background
Martin Boycott-Brown, The road to Rivoli: Napoleon's first campaign (2001), p.438-481
Katie Hornstein, Picturing war in France, 1792-1856 (2018). Preview on Google Books.
Les baguettes d'honneur du tambour d'Arcole [Musée de la Légion d'Honneur]
Jacques Caroux, "L 'épopée nationale, la statuaire et la petite patrie" - CNRS Report, 1999 [pdf.]
A note on Estienne's career
André Estienne, was born on 13th October 1777, into a modest peasant family in the commune Cadenet, the son of the local cobbler, François Estienne (1748-1792), and his wife Marie Thérèse Beraud. In 1792 he engaged ("as a volunteer", he himself added in his notebook) in the Grenadiers of the Bataillon du Luberon, known as the Bataillon des Bouches-du-Rhône [later the 51st Demi-brigade of the Line]. He was still only 14. His father had recently died, leaving his mother and younger brother; it is noted that the bonus he received as a volunteer would have permitted his family to make ends meet for a year.
Estienne "was to remain for the next fifteen years with the grenadiers and to participate in the campaign in Italy, the occupation of Belgium, the campaigns in Batavia and Germany, and the Battle of Austerlitz..... "
Following the Italian campaign, he entered the Chasseurs de la Garde on 26th April 1802 and on 9th September 1802 he received his baguettes d'honneur. On 15th July 1804 he was awarded the Cross of the Légion d'Honneur. The Emperor reportedly remarked to to him: "I remember you and will take care of you". He was given the honour of beating the drum at the Imperial coronation when Napoleon entered the Cathedral with the Pope and also participated at the distribution of the Imperial eagles on the Champ de Mars, three days later .
In May 1806, having participated in the Battles of Ulm, Vienna and Austerlitz, Estienne took up Napoleon's offer to retire with a pension. A few weeks later he married Françoise-Renée Godelle, the widow of another drummer. He settled at Saint-Martin-du-Castillon, just outside Apt, where he worked in the silk trade, then later set up in Avignon as a taffetassier. He participated in the Hundred Days, and after Waterloo returned to Paris, where he joined the National Guard. During his retirement in Paris, he posed for David d'Angers in 1833 and was represented on the Pantheon in 1837.
Summarised from Jacques Caroux (1999), p.91-94.
From the Family tree on Geneanet:
He married Thérèse Françoise Renée-Godelle (born about 1782 in Paris and died in the 15ème, Paris on 24th April 1861). The couple had three children:
Sophie Charlotte Joséphine, born 24th April 1807 at Saint-Martin-de-Castillon.
Louis, Born 18th June 1808 at Apt; died on 1st October, aged 3 months
August Hyppolite. Born 27th January 1812 at Avignon.
The daughter is mentioned as living at the family home at the time of Estienne's death:
On 28 December 1816, Estienne is documented as living in Paris at 20 Avenue de Breteuil. He died on 29th December 1837 at 62 rue de Grenelle. An inventory from the time of his death is preserved in the National Archives.
Readings
Estienne at Arcole
1802. Text of the brevet which accompanied his baguettes d'honeur:
[Awarded by] Bonaparte, First Consul of the Republic, following the account given to him of the distinguished conduct and outstanding bravery of Citizen André Estienne, drummer in the action at Arcole, where he swam across the canal under enemy fire, beating the charge and providing his comrades with an example of daring.
Dated 21st Fructidor Year X, 8th September 1802.
From Estienne's memoirs:
Estienne reports that Bonaparte's orders to the 51st to swim across were promptly carried out. A lieutenant called Ramand was the first to gain a foothold on the opposite bank:
Immediately Estienne (André) threw himself in and swam across fully dressed with his drum and all his equipment. When he reached the far bank, he witnessed the arrival of a number of brave officers and sub-officers who had crossed to support him...the drummer took up his drum and beat the charge and gave his comrades an example of daring. As he advanced with his brave sergeant, they could both be seen by three thousand Austrians... who retreated as he beat the charge.
Quoted in Jacques Caroux (1999), p.91.
A later, more embellished version:
In the 1890s, M. Lacazes, secretary to the Committee in charge of commemorations at Cadenet, gleaned the following slightly creative account from Estienne's grand-nephew, a clockmaker from Malakoff, near Paris, who had inherited his baguettes d'honneur and his cross of the Legion of Honour.
The little drummer was about a kilometre away from the Bridge at Arcole, which Bonaparte had crossed victoriously the day before. His attention was drawn by a fume of smoke which rose from the houses in the village of Arcole. This was the smoke of the enemy cannons. The Austrians had regained their positions and were sweeping the road from the bridge with fire so as to prevent our troops from advancing.
The idea came to Estienne to cross over and beat the charge, so as to encourage our soldiers; he consulted his sergeant. "It is impossible to cross the bridge," he replied, "but can you swim?" "Yes, indeed; I can swim well!" "Then we will swim across!" - "But my drum will get wet and I will not be able to beat the charge"." "All right, I will carry you and, whilst I swim, you will beat the drum". And that is what they did.
The sergeant swam, with André Estienne on his shoulders, while he himself beat his drum resting on the sergeant's pack, out of the water. He beat firmly, rallying several of the grenadiers who were present.
They arrived on the opposite bank. André Estienne, drum to the front, renewed his beating. A shiver ran through the ranks of the enemy. They listened. His charge resonated, breathless, staccato, furious. At first it could scarcely be heard but then it grew faster, came nearer, re-echoed. It sounded out, fast and loud.
The enemy believed themselves surprised by a whole troop. This fact is absolutely historically true, incontestable. They remembered the terrible assault of the day before and panicked. They all abandoned their cannons.
This time the passage over the bridge was truly open!
... And the little drummer boy, now joined by other drummers, continued to beat his drum. Our soldiers advanced in tight columns, their heads held out in front, bayonets crossed. And so the charge continued, ever more ardently and swiftly. The more the rhythm accelerated, the faster our soldiers advanced. Moved by an irresistible impulsion, they climbed banks, jumped ditches, crossed hedges and thickets...then, with one more bound, they were there. With a last roll of the drums, the troops were in position and victory was ours!
Le Petit Parisien, 9th December 1892
Estienne's later life
Some writers thought that, for all his fame, Estienne had been shabbily treated. He was still only a ordinary retired soldier, with a modest post in the Paris National Guard. At the end of his life he seems to have fallen victim to some kind of fraud, so that his colleagues felt obliged to organise a collection for his widow and daughter.
Mistral's depiction condemned as inaccurate:
The imagination of the Provençal poet has been given full license. André Etienne did not die of a seizure on seeing himself sculpted on the Pantheon. Nor was he killed by a bullet on the Bridge at Arcole. The truth is that the brave André Etienne was still alive in 1838 when he was drummer in one of the National Guard battalions in Paris. Having marched side-by-side with Bonaparte into history, André Etienne returned to the most humble existence; he began in epic style; he finished by communicating guard duties and instructions to reluctant citizen-soldiers at the hôtel des Haricots [the National Guard prison]. But he remembered his glory and liked to repeat, "I am the drummer of Arcole! There I am high up on the Pantheon!"
La Semaine des familles, 1881,p.144
Death notice and funeral oration:
Estienne, André. Former army drummer; retired at his own request at the beginning of 1807. Died, Tambour-Maître in the 10th Legion of the Paris National Guard, on 29th December 1837. The National Guard and the Army attended his funeral service on 2nd January and accompanied him to his resting place. M. Février, lawyer and chief of his battalion, pronounced the following oration at his graveside:
To see this tightly packed crowd, who would believe we are here to pay our last respects to a poor humble drummer? But.. it is the duty of each one of us here to honour this glorious relic of our former army....
His drumsticks and cross of the Legion d'Honneur were Étienne's whole glory and happiness; even recently, on his deathbed, he would feel his strength revived by the memory of his campaigns and the marks of honour that he had been awarded.
He was appointed in 1830 as Tambour-Maître of the 3rd Battalion of the 10th Legion. We were proud to count him among our number. Since then he has not ceased , on every occasion, to give new proofs of his devotion and courage. As he did in the army, he has earned by his good conduct the esteem and affection of his superiors, of all the National Guards of the Legion and of the drummers who are under his orders.
Etienne, whose health had been gravely affected by the fatigues of war, only sustained himself these several years past by his temperance and sobriety. A good husband and father, he served as an example and model to all his comrades, who cherished him.
In recent times he was defrauded, through an abuse of confidence, of the fruits of his feeble economies. But he was too proud to make his position known and bore with resignation his reversal of fortune. Let us hope that his widow and daughter, whom he leaves without resources, will benefit from the sympathy that our poor Etienne has justly inspired. [Note: this hope was not mistaken. The subscription which was opened for the widow and daughter of the old soldier was soon covered by signatures]
Moniteur, 4th January 1838; Fastes de la Légion d'Honneur, Vol. 1, p. 542.p.94-95:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=r5LVfk_EHXAC&pg=RA3-PA542#v=onepage&q&f=false
Estienne remembered:
The American writer, Thomas Alliborn Janvier encountered a proud descendant of Estienne when he was spending Christmas in Provence in 1896:
The chief ancestral glory of the family of the "Mazet" [ie. the farmhouse] is its close blood-relationship with the gallant André Etienne, that drummer of the fifty-first demi-brigade of the Army of Italy who is commemorated on the frieze of the Panthéon, and who is known and honored as the "Tambour d'Arcole" all over France. It was delightful to listen to old Jan's telling of the brave story: how this André, their own kinsman, swam the stream under the enemy's fire at Arcola with his drum on his back and then drummed his fellow-soldiers on to victory; how Bonaparte awarded him the drumsticks of honor, and later, when the Legion of Honor was founded, gave him the cross; how they carved him in stone, drumming the charge, up there on the front of the Panthéon in Paris itself; how Mistral, the great poet of Provence, had made a poem about him that had been printed in a book; and how, only two years ago, they set up his marble statue in Cadenet, the little town, not far from Avignon, where he was born!
Old Jan was not content with merely telling this story-like a true Provençal he acted it: swinging a supposititious drum upon his back, jumping into an imaginary river and swimming it with his head in the air, swinging his drum back into place again, and then -zóu!-starting off at the head of the fifty first demi-brigade with such a rousing play of drumsticks that I protest we fairly heard the rattle of them, along with the spatter of Austrian musketry in the face of which André Etienne beat that gallant pas de charge!
It set me all a-thrilling; and still more did it thrill those other listeners who were of the Arcola hero's very blood and bone. They clapped their hands and they shouted. They laughed with delight. And the fighting spirit of Gaul was so stirred within them that at a word. I verily believe they would have been for marching in a body across the southeastern frontier!
From: Thomas A. Janvier "The Christmas Kalends of Provence", first published in The Century, Vol. 53, 1896
https://archive.org/details/christmaskalend00janv/page/96/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/christmaskalend00janv/page/96/mode/2up
Frédéric Mistral and the "Tambour d'Arcolo"
Lou Tambour d'Arcolo - a poem by Frédéric Mistral.
English translation from:
John Duncan Craig, Miejour: Provençal legend, life, language, and literature (1877), p.81-86.
Jules Claretie, writing in 1870, repeats the story recounted in the poem. Note that he too, does not identify the drummer boy.
We can recount the legend of another hero, whose name is not known to history, and who is called the "Drummer of Arcole". The poet of Provence, Frédéric Mistral has told this story.
... The evening after Bonaparte had led his troops so heroically over the Arcole Bridge, he asked about the little drummer boy who had beaten the charge in front of him.
The little drummer did not show himself, he hid: a child, a lad of fifteen, with the flower of youth on his cheek , his lips pink. Under the gunfire, at a terrible moment, in front of the grenadiers, in front of Muiron, in front of Bonaparte, he had thrown himself onto the bridge. He had beaten his drum, again and again and, rat-a-tat, had arrived at the front of the army before the Austrian cannons.
That evening the drummer boy stayed in the corner, and he stayed there as long as the Empire endured, and still he stayed there. The little drummer grew old; he saw all around him the officers of Arcole, whom he had led, promoted, become general, marshals, and even - for better or worse - kings. While they were weighted down with gold and epaulets, he grew old; still unknown, forgotten, timid.
One doesn't grow rich by playing the drum. The Empire fell, then the monarchy which followed; kings, generals, marshals died. The drummer boy of Arcole, wrinkled, broken and bent, lived in a poor attic room in the faubourgs. He often thought of things past...
Then one day when he happened to pass the place du Panthéon, the little old man lifted his eyes by chance, and there on the monument, among all the great men...whom did he see? He saw himself, the drummer boy of Arcole, with his plaits, his uniform and his drum. He saw himself, as David d'Angers had already sculpted him, young, brave and radiant as in former times. Then the little drummer, whom misfortune had failed to break, felt himself grow feeble with joy. He grew pale and trembled before this apotheosis.
It is too much!, he said, Too much!
Then, murmuring the old cry of "Vive la République", he fell down dead on the pavement.
Claretie, Les Orphelins de la République (1870), p.12-13.
Estienne owed his posthumous glory to Mistral:
In a few days, a whole colony of artists and and poets from the South, who make it their business to set up busts and statues to the glory of their "country", will be making a stops in Cadenet in Vaucluse, where the department is unveiling a monument in honour of a hero of the Republican army. This is André Estienne, of legendary fame, known under the glorious title "drummer of Arcole"......
On the pediment of the Pantheon, near Bonaparte, is sculpted a young drummer in whom the poet Mistral, writer of superb verses on the subject, has chosen to see the image of André Estienne. The poem has popularised his name. It might be said that these verses have earned him his statue.
André Estienne, whilst he retained a keen attachment to his native province, lived and died in Paris. Sometimes he found it difficult to make a living, despite his famous past. He could not have foreseen, when he kept a little fruit stall in the market at Saint-Germain, that one day they would put up a monument to him.
Le Petit Parisien, 4th August 1894.
It is to this poem, become legendary, that we owe this statue.
Mistral was at the inauguration; his verses were recited, and he presided over the banquet opposite the minister of Justice.
Le Pèlerin du 20e siècle, No.920, 1894.
Other drummers
Guillaume Fortuné
The drummer boy of Arcole was called Guillaume Fortuné. He was born in Dijon in 1780.
After a turbulent childhood, during which he refused to learn to read and write, he volunteered at sixteen and was sent to Ancône to join the Army of Italy.
On the way there he one day met a lad of the same age who was crying beside a ditch.
Why are you so unhappy? asked the future soldier.
- Alas! I have lost one of my sheep and I dare not go home because my father will beat me.
- Then come with me, replied Guillaume.
And so the little shepherd boy followed his new friend. He was engaged as a drummer, fought ferociously and gained his epaulets on the field of battle. He lost a leg and became the General Chemineau, who died at Poitiers in 1852.
.As for Guillaume Fortuné, as soon as he had learnt the rat-a-tat, he was sent to Bonaparte's army.
At the moment when Augereau's advanced guard reached the banks of the Alpone, the drummer was at his general's side.
The latter threw himself onto the bridge followed by his little drummer. Frightened by the noise, the whizz of bullets and shrapnel, the boy abandoned his drumsticks to seize hold of the coat tails of his chief and cower close to him.
The general turned: Ah! you have gone crazy, he said to the drummer. Fortuné, are you afraid? Pull yourself together, show your nerve.
The drummer boy was inspired by these words. He took up his drumsticks again, moved to the front of Augereau and beat a formidable charge.
It was at that moment that terrible fire from the enemy forced our soldiers to retreat. Generals Lanne, Verne, Bon and Verdier were all wounded and the column thrown back.
Bonaparte arrived. He judged at a glance that the fate of Italy stood in the balance. He seized a flag and rushed forward, followed by the little drummer boy.
Even brave old soldiers hesitated. They were on the point of retreating. Bonaparte turned round and saw behind him only Guillaume Fortuné.
Forward! cries the general.
Forward! repeats the drummer.
No-one moved. Shrapnel rained down and decimated entire ranks.
Bonaparte saw his victory compromised.
Are you more cowardly than a wolf? he cried. Does the courage of this child not show you your duty! Come on grenadiers!
Forward, cried Fortuné, beating loudly on his drum.
The little drummer galvanised the soldiers into action. They rushed forward and the bridge at Arcole was taken.
The next day Guillaume Fortuné received his baguettes d'honneur from the future Emperor and was mentioned in the army's order of the day.
Some time afterwards, thanks to the protection of Bonaparte, the young drummer entered the Military School at Saint-Cyr. He learnt to read and sign his name. But the young hero was extraordinarily ill-disciplined. A month after he entered the school, he was caught lowering mattresses through a window in order to sell them. As a result he was sent back to a regiment.
In 1806, he reached the grade of captain. At Vienna, where he was garrisoned, he accumulate gambling debts of fifty thousand francs, which were paid off by the Emperor.
He was discharged, returned to Paris, and remained inactive until 1812.
He then took part in the Russian campaign where he discovered the conspiracy of General Mallet. He therefore returned to the Emperor's good graces, and in 1814 he was put in charge of the free corps of Isère. In the passes near Grenoble, he captured a troop of 300 Austrians, whose ears he had cut off. He was brought before the Prevotal court and condemned to death. He wrote to Augereau, his former general. The latter obtained his pardon, brought him back to Paris and sent him to Holland, where he was to embark for Batavia.
Guillaume Fortuné took passage on a ship, but no-one knows what became of him after that. Since the ship's log records that a revolt broke out on board near the Cape of Good Hope and that several of the mutineers and their chiefs were shot, the relatives of Guillaume Fortuné became convinced that it was he who had stirred up the revolt, that he had been executed and that his body had been thrown in the sea.
From Les Alpes illustrées, 28th December 1893. We are told that this tale was originally supplied to Le Petit Parisien by one of Fortuné's nephews who was still alive in Paris.
Nicolas Laugier
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| Palais des Armées de Terre, Exposition Universelle 1900 |
The drumsticks in ebony, decorated with silver, are "baguettes d'honneur", awarded by General Bonaparte to Nicolas Laugier, the drummer of Arcole. The latter was almost a child when he beat the charge in the middle of the bridge, under Austrian fire, rallying with the sound of his drum, the troops of Augereau who had retreated under the fusillade. He kept beating his drum, without stopping, finally beating with only his right arm since the left had been smashed by a gunshot.
Illustré Soleil du Dimanche, quoted on the "World Fairs" website.
In an exchange in the Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux Germain Bapst was able to confirm that Nicolas Laugier (or Losier), drummer of the 2nd Company of the 51st Demi-brigade, had indeed received his baguettes d'honneur in July 1803 in recognition for his "outstanding action at Arcole and Hohenlinden". According to the dossier, Laugier had volunteered on 27th September 1792 at the age of 15, so would have been 19 at the time of Arcole.
L'Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux, 7th July 1900.
He was awarded the Légion d'Honneur in 24th September 1803.
Despite the statement in Wikipedia, that Laugier remained a drummer "for his entire military career", he is sometimes credited with receiving a fusil d'honneur rather than baguettes. The Fastes de la Légion d'honneur state that he was a fusilier and describe his involvement in a bayonet attack .
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| Le Tambour de Nicolas Laugier" by Guy Bonnet - released in 2002 for local celebrations in Tarascon. |
Gabriel-Joseph Heuillet
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| Original etching by Chauvet, created for Duclos's Histoire des Ariégeois (1883) |
The Ariège too has its gamins de bataille, notably on the 9th or 10th May 1796, in the famous action of the Bridge at Lodi; Heuillet was then fifteen years old.... The legends surrounding the bridges at Arcole and Lodi have become confused. It was definitely at Lodi that a young volunteer from Ariège beat the charge in the ear of our infantrymen, roused them, preceded them as necessary, in order to form tight columns at the entry to this bridge. .....It was at Lodi, under murderous fire, that our drummer of fifteen beat his drum. He saw our column break the enemy line, throw it into disorder, capture its artillery and take 2,500 prisoners....
Note: The presence of tambour Heuillet at the Lodi Bridge is a family tradition, confirmed by the son of our hero, a military intendant. [Philippe-Joseph-Elisabeth Heuillet, b.1818]
[General Penet], director general of the military archives under Louis-Philippe, tells the following poignant anecdote: during the action at Lodi a Piedmontese general asked the drummer Heillet for one of his drumsticks and beat time along with him on his drum."
Henri Louis Duclos Histoire des Ariégeois (1883), p.626-9.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6OYwAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA626#v=onepage&q&f=fal
The details of Heuillet's funeral can be found in L'Ariégeois 7th February 1857, p.2
Rival heroic drummers
Isn't it a little strange that there is always some favouritism in historical memory?
There are other heroic drummers who had the same appetite for patriotism, accomplished similar feats, but whose names have disappeared. It seems to me fitting, at the moment when the drummer of Arcole has received his commemoration in bronze, to recall some of his rivals in courage and devotion, who have been forgotten by posterity. These drummer boys were admirable children of the Republic, who had the bravery of veterans.
André Etienne had the luck to survive his exploits, and it is because of that, no doubt that he is remembered in our military annals. There are still in Cadenet, a few people who knew him when he was an old man. His legend has had time to develop. But who now knows of Joseph Picon, who did at Mendosi, exactly what Estienne did at Arcole.
Only he died under enemy fire......
Le Petit Parisien, 4th August 1894.
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