6/21/2023 0 Comments Captain Blaze by Elzéar BlazeAs a Vélite he experienced aspects of the life of the rank-and-file, and of service in the Imperial Guard and later saw the army from a different viewpoint as an officer of the line. That he was especially suited to produce such a work is demonstrated by the extent of his service. Unlike many contemporary memoirists, Blaze did not devote this work to a chronological record of his own career, but rather to the character, customs and mode of operation of the French army at this most significant period, on the battlefield, in barracks, camp and boudoir, exemplified and enlivened by his own experiences and reminiscences. His military memoirs, La Vie Militaire sous le Premier Empire, ou Mœurs de Garnison, du Bivouac et de la Caserne, were published in 1837. He continued to serve after the Bourbon restoration, and only retired to Chénevières-sur-Marne after the revolution of 1830, to pursue his love of hunting. After gaining his commission as an officer, he served in the campaigns of the empire from shortly after the Battle of Eylau until the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, attaining the rank of captain in 1814. He entered Napoleon’s army as a youth, via the Vélite organization of the Imperial Guard, a path to commissioned rank open only to those of some wealth. Elzéar Blaze, the author of this most attractive memoir of the Napoleonic Wars, was born at Cavaillon in 1787, the son of a lawyer, Henri Sébastien Blaze.
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