Fighting for Napoleon

My very dear father

[…] Since the last time I wrote to you, I left Calais to join the army of the Rhine. We did not give a moment of rest to the Austrian army, which we chased from all of its strongholds and even from its capital. We have fought hard since the crossing of the Danud [Danube] where twenty thousand people died and at Oumes [Ulm, Baden-Württemberg, Germany] where another thirty to thirty-five thousand soldiers were killed. I will not give you details about the battles of Bath, Bille, Branaux and Passeaux and also Linzes, Lixze, which were all very hard. They did not want to leave their capital and as a result forty-five to fifty thousand men died on both sides. At the battle of Bonne, we lost so many people because of the river. But I want to talk about the battle of Desterlix [Austerlitz], the biggest fight ever heard of. The three Emperors were there: the Emperor of Russia, the Emperor of Vienna [Austria] and the Emperor of the French. We began firing at six in the morning. The Russians and the Austrians answered five minutes after. The fire was so intense that it was impossible to see anything six feet in front of you. We retreated three times but the fourth time we managed to route the Russians and the Austrians. We fought against the Imperial Guard of Russia; they were very strong but we beat them. My horse was killed during the battle of Desterlix [Austerlitz] and I almost died but I fortunately took the horse of another dragoon who had just been cut in two by a cannonball. Forty thousand French, seventy thousand Russian and thirty-five thousand Austrians were killed at Desterlix [Austerlitz]. For Bresse, I do not know the losses. Dead bodies were buried for fifteen days but it is such a glory for me to have fought in so many battles and to have my horse killed without being killed. I have not received the postal order of 12 frans [francs] but I hope to have it soon so we do not worry. I end this letter by kissing you one thousand times with all my heart. I am forever your son Toussain Waltery.

My dear father and mother

[…] I am sorry for not giving news for such a long time but we were constantly on the move. We left Nimegue [Nijmegen, Netherlands] and embarked on a boat. We stayed a month on the boat when we heard that war had been declared against Austria. We left immediately for the army of the Rhine. When we faced the enemy we fought different important battles. God has always preserved me and I thank him. So, we fought several important battles, as you must have heard. Our first battle was the blockade of Houlme [Ulm]. We did good as we captured 25 thousand men and killed another five thousand. The weather was not in our favour because it was raining a lot. We stayed for six days in the field without being able to shelter from the rain. After we had defeated the Austrian armies, we carried our march to Vienna. We fought different battles but it is not useful to write how many men we killed or captured. Let us just say that when we took Vienna, there were one hundred sixty thousand men either killed or taken prisoners. After Vienna, we continued toward Moravia, where we fought the biggest battle of the campaign [Austerlitz], and where the war finished. I cannot exactly tell how many men were killed on the battlefield but it looks like we put out of action more than fifty thousand men, killed, wounded, or captured. I cannot tell you how many canons and how much ammunition we took but there were convoys leaving for France for two months. Believe me when I tell you that the battle was cruel. Three Emperors were commanding; there was the French one, the Austrian one and the one from Russia. The Emperors of Russia and Austria were almost captured but they took opportunity of the night to flee. After these events, we stayed for a month in Stirie [Styria, southeast Austria] where we rested. Then we left for Venisse [Venice] where it was excessively hot. There are mountains and therefore snow in all weathers. We walked on a mountain where we saw clouds below us and we walked 560 leagues without stopping.