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Old 06-26-2012, 08:15 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JKHH View Post
I appreciate your initial post regarding the treatment of British POW's under Napoleon. I have been doing some research for a book and am looking for particular prisons used to house British prisoners. Many common British soldiers and sailors seem to have been housed at Clairvaux the former abbey transformed to a prison in the early years of Napoleon. I am having more difficulty finding where officers might have been. My understanding is that the British were housing so many French POW's and that Napoleon so needed his soldiers as the axis of powers arrayed against him grew (particularly after the defection of Bernadotte) that he was generally unwilling to make the exchanges, when they could be worked, were often one British Officer to three French. Common soldiers and seamen often spent the duration of the war in prisons. I do know that the famous La Force in Paris did house some British Officers. I have not spent much time on this yet, but it's always nice to find clues before spending hours in the archives.
If you are looking for research, the British National Archives have complete lists regarding POW's, both British ones held by the French and prisoners held by the British. The records need to be ordered, but they include complete lists of the prisoners with names and ranks, where they were held and their ultimate disposition; whether they died in captivity, were exchanged (including when, where and for whom) or were finally released at the conclusion of hostilities.

This link is directly to the volumes covering the time period you are looking for, but again, it needs to be purchased and will be sent either as a physical or digital copy:
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Old 06-26-2012, 12:08 PM
 
Location: the Beaver State
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Both the French and British used captured ships as prisons. If a ship was in too bad of shape to be used in battle, it made the perfect place to hold prisoners. It's interesting to note that for whatever reason a lot of Sailors in those days didn't know how to swim. So a rotting hulk of a ship could be anchored in a bay or river and only needed to have daily or weekly shipments of food sent to it with minimal supervision.
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Old 07-02-2012, 10:01 PM
 
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I once read a long time ago that when he got info that Josephine was having affairs he had prisoners shot.
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Old 07-03-2012, 09:50 AM
 
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Originally Posted by Angorlee View Post
I once read a long time ago that when he got info that Josephine was having affairs he had prisoners shot.
There is one incident of him personally ordering the execution of a large amount of soldiers during his Egyptian campaign, but I find no evidence of it connected with Josephine. Nor that his relationships had any impact on his military decisions any time in his career.
He had his own affairs as well of course, and they finally divorced in 1810.
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Old 07-03-2012, 01:36 PM
 
14,780 posts, read 43,465,675 times
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Originally Posted by Dd714 View Post
There is one incident of him personally ordering the execution of a large amount of soldiers during his Egyptian campaign, but I find no evidence of it connected with Josephine. Nor that his relationships had any impact on his military decisions any time in his career.
He had his own affairs as well of course, and they finally divorced in 1810.
The slaughter you speak of was after the siege of Jaffa. What Angorlee was speaking of is basically a coincidental fact that no one actually says influenced his decision in regards to Jaffa. Josephine's first and most famous affair began while Napoleon was on campaign in Italy in the 1790's. While Napoleon was in Egypt he found out about the full extent of the affair. Also known was that Napoleon himself had taken a misstress in retaliation during the Egyptian campaign, so who knows how outraged he really was. He then wrote a letter to his brother Joseph discussing the matter and asking for advice. The letter was intercepted by the British and then widely published in papers in London and Paris causing Napoleon much embarrasment.

Around a year after these events played out Napoleon headed to Jaffa. AFAIK, Napoleon brought an executioner with him into Syria and seemed to know beforehand that he could neither afford to hold the Jaffa garrison prisoner nor let them leave. I think what happened at Jaffa was ultimately a very calculated move and not one having to do with scorn over his wifes affair. There is no other evidence of Napoleon ever treating prisoners that way again.
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