General Pierre-Alexis Duclaux 1775–1828 – Carnet de la Compagnie d'Elite

General PIERRE ALEXIS DUCLAUX (1775–1828)

This new issue of the Cahiers de la Compagnie d'Élite came to fruition through the meeting of passionate enthusiasts who, with great generosity, opened the doors of their collections to allow us to discover and share an exceptional set of mementos belonging to General Pierre-Alexis Duclaux (1775–1828). The story of this son of Duravel, a small town on the borders of Quercy, the Agenais and the Périgord, is intimately bound up with the Napoleonic epic: he was indeed among the first 140 mounted guides of Bonaparte in 1796, in Italy, and then among the 200 guides who, in 1798, accompanied their commander-in-chief to Egypt.

From the Po plain to the Pratzen plateau, from the sands of Egypt to the snows of Russia, the destiny of General Pierre-Alexis Duclaux led him to tread many battlefields — first within Bonaparte's guides and then the mounted grenadiers of the Guard, then at the head of the 11th Cuirassier Regiment, before earning his general's stars. Placed on inactive status under the Restoration, his fate became that shared by other figures of the epic — the demi-solde officers — until he passed away, his health utterly broken.

Yes, as Frédéric Masson might have written, "the story of General Duclaux deserved to be told!"