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Discussion:Picot de Peccaduc

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I cannot contribute in (good) French, but I would like to make a few remarks mostly based on Chuquet's "La jeunesse de Napoléon", 2nd edition, 1898. The article on Wikipedia is basically correct but might not give full credit to the remarkable figure of Picot de Peccaduc.

First of all, I have a problem with both the age and the first name. Chuquet never mentions the first name and indicates (p.227) that Picot de Peccaduc was two years older than Bonaparte. The article in the Wikipedia gives him as born in 1770, i.e. one year younger. However, all indicates that Chuquet is right. I found on Internet, [www.geocities.com/Heartland/Bluffs/2868/Rodokmeny/Sedlnitzky.txt] the following indication: "Pierre Jean-Baptiste Picot de Peccaduc, born 13/2/1767, died 15/2/1834". This tallies with the statement by Chuquet, see below, that Picot de Peccaduc died at 67.

Secondly, a "sergeant-major" at l'Hotel du Camp-de-Mars was no ordinary sergeant-major. On 26 May 1784 Minister Ségur announced a re-organisation of the school, which had been decreed one week earlier. The cadets were formed into a company consisting of four divisions. The company was under a "commandant en chef". However, the cadets preferred to call the commandant-en-chef sergeant-major, in agreement with previous regulations. Picot de Peccaduc was commandant-en-chef or sergeant-major, the most brilliant cadet of the school. At the exam in September 1785 he was 39th in 58, the first of the Ecole militaire (Napoleon was 42nd).

Thirdly, as the Wikipedia article says, Picot de Peccaduc emigrated and made a career in the Austrian army. He was twice captured by Napoleon's armies, as a major of infantry at Ulm (1805) and at the battle of Tamm (1809) as colonel. In 1811 changed his name from Peccaduc (Pic-a-duc) into Herzogenberg. He participated in the campaigns of 1813 (in the course of which he was seriously wounded) and of the Hundred Days. He died at 67 (Chuquet does not say when) as a lieutenant feld marschal. The last statement of Chuquet is worth quoting: "...les officiers sortis des deux écoles qu'il avait gouvernées [the Austrian Academy of Engineers and the Academy of Knights] , evoquèrent souvent l'originale figure de ce Peccaduc-Herzogenberg à la taille imposante, à l'attitude martiale, à la voix si puissante qu'on la comparait au roulement lointain du tonnerre, de ce Français qui s'etait fait Autrichien, mais qui gardait dans ses manières la gravité bretonne et regrettait peut-être sa première patrie, car jamais on le vit sourire".

G. Cavallo, Paris.

I was not quite correct. Chuquet ("La Jeunesse de Napoleon", vol.1) never gives the first name of Picot de Peccaduc in the text, but in the extensive notes attached to the text, p.420, it is clearly stated: Picot de Peccaduc, Pierre-Marie-Auguste, born 13/2/1767 in Fougeray (diocesis of Nantes).

I think that both the first name and the date of birth givne in the Wikipedia article should be corrected.

August Herzogenberg Litho

Zabia (d) 13 juillet 2013 à 15:05 (CEST)[répondre]