The general _Dépôt_ or repository of maps and plans of war, &c, &c,
was established by LOUVOIS, in 1688. This was the celebrated period
when France, having attained the highest degree of splendour, secured
her glory by the results of an administration enlightened in all its
branches.
At the beginning of its institution, the _Dépôt de la guerre_ was no
more than archives, where were collected, and preserved with order,
the memoirs of the generals, their correspondence, the accounts yet
imperfect, and the traces of anterior military operations.
The numerous resources afforded by this collection alone, the
assistance and advantages derived from it on every occasion, when it
was necessary to investigate a military system, or determine an
important operation, suggested the idea of assembling it under a form
and classification more methodical. Greater attention and exactness
were exerted in enriching the _Dépôt_ with every thing that might
complete the theoretical works and practical elucidations of all the
branches of the military art,
Marshal DE MAILLEBOIS, who was appointed director of this
establishment in 1730, was one of the first authors of the present
existing order. The classification at first consisted only in forming
registers of the correspondence of the generals, according to date,
distinguishing it by _different wars_. It was divided into two parts,
the former containing the letters of the generals; and the latter,
the minutes or originals of the answers of the king and his
ministers. To each volume was added a summary of the contents, and,
in regular succession, the journal of the military operations of the
year. These volumes, to the number of upwards of two thousand seven
hundred, contain documents from the eleventh century to the close of
the last American war; but the series is perfect only from the year
1631. This was a valuable mine for a historiographer to explore; and,
indeed, it is well known that the _Memoirs of Turenne and of Condé_,
the _History of the war of 1741_, and part of the fragments of the
_Essay on the Manners and History of Nations_, by Voltaire, were
compiled and digested from the original letters and memoirs preserved
in the _Dépôt de la guerre_.
Geographical engineers did not then exist as a corps. Topography was
practised by insulated officers, impelled thereto by the rather
superficial study of the mathematics and a taste for drawing; because
it was for them a mean of obtaining more advantageous employments in
the staffs of the armies: but the want of a central point, the
difference of systems and methods, not admitting of directing the
operations to one same principle, as well as to one same object,
topography, little encouraged, was making but a slow progress, when
M. DE CHOISEUIL established, as a particular corps, the officers who
had applied themselves to the practice of that science. The _Dépôt_
was charged to direct and assemble the labours of the new corps. This
authority doubled the utility of the _Dépôt_: its results had the
most powerful influence during the war from 1757 to 1763.
Lieutenant-General De VAULT, who had succeeded Marshal De MAILLEBOIS
as director of the _Dépôt de la guerre_, conceived, and executed a
plan, destined to render still more familiar and secure the numerous
documents collected in this establishment. He first retrenched from
the _Military Correspondences and Memoirs_ all tedious repetitions
and unnecessary details; he then classed the remainder under the head
of a different army or operation, without subjecting himself to any
other order than a simple chronology; but he caused each volume to be
preceded by a very succinct, historical summary, in order to enable
the reader to seize the essence of the original memoirs and
documents, the text of which was faithfully copied in the body of
each volume, In this manner did he arrange all the military events
from the German war in 1677 to the peace of 1763. This analysis forms
one hundred and twenty five volumes.
It is easy to conceive how much more interesting these historical
volumes became by the addition, which took place about the same
epoch, of the labours of the geographical engineers employed in the
armies. The military men having it at the same time in his power to
follow the combinations of the generals with the execution of their
plans, imbibes, without difficulty, the principles followed by great
captains, or improves himself from the exact account of the errors
and faults which it is so natural to commit on critical occasions.
When all the establishments of the old _régime_ were tottering, or
threatened by the revolutionary storm, measures were suggested for
preserving the _Dépôt de la guerre_, and, towards the end of 1791, it
was transferred from Versailles to Paris. Presently the new system of
government, the war declared against the emperor, and the foreseen
conflagration of Europe, concurred to give a new importance to this
establishment. Alone, amidst the general overthrow, it had preserved
a valuable collection of the military and topographical labours of
the monarchy, of manuscripts of the greatest importance, and a body
of information of every kind respecting the resources, and the
country, of the powers already hostile, or on the point of becoming
so. All the utility which might result from the _Dépôt_ was then
felt, and it was thought necessary to give it a new organization.[2]
The _Dépôt de la guerre_, however, would have attained but
imperfectly the object of its institution, had there not been added
to its topographical treasure, the richest, as well as the finest,
collection in Europe of every geographical work held in any
estimation. The first epochs of the revolution greatly facilitated
the increase of its riches of that description. The general impulse,
imprinted on the mind of the French nation, prompted every will
towards useful sacrifices. Private cabinets in possession of the
scarcest maps, gave them up to the government, The suppression of the
monasteries and abbeys caused to flow to the centre the geographical
riches which they preserved in an obscurity hurtful to the progress
of that important science: and thus the _Dépôt de la guerre_ obtained
one of the richest collections in Europe.[3] The government, besides,
completed it by the delivery of the great map of France by CASSINI,
begun in 1750, together with all the materials forming the elements
of that grand work. It is painful to add that not long before that
period (in 1791) the corps of geographical engineers, which alone
could give utility to such valuable materials had been suppressed.[4]
In the mean time, the sudden changes in the administrative system had
dispersed the learned societies employed in astronomy, or the
mathematical sciences. The _National Observatory_ was disused. The
celebrated astronomers attached to it had no rallying point: they
could not devote themselves to their labours but amidst the greatest
difficulties; the salary allowed to them was not paid; the numerous
observations, continued for two centuries, were on the point of being
interrupted.
The _Dépôt de la guerre_ then became the asylum of those estimable
men. This establishment excited and obtained the reverification of
the measure of an arc of the meridian, in order to serve as a basis
for the uniformity of the weights and measures which the government
wished to establish.
MÉCHAIN, DELAMBRE, NOUET, TRANCHOT, and PERNY were dispatched to
different places from Barcelona to Dunkirk. After having established
at each extremity of this line a base, measured with the greatest
exactness, they were afterwards to advance their triangles, in order
to ascend to the middle point of the line. This operation, which has
served for rectifying a few errors that the want of perfection in the
instruments had occasioned to be introduced into the measure of the
meridian of CASSINI, may be reckoned one of the most celebrated works
which have distinguished the close of the eighteenth century.
The establishment of the system of administration conformably to the
constitution of the year III (1795) separated the various elements
which the _Dépôt de la guerre_ had found means to preserve. The
_Board of Longitude_ was established; the _National Institute_ was
formed to supply the place of the _Academy of Sciences_, &c. The
_Dépôt de la guerre_ was restored solely to its ancient prerogatives.
Two years before, it had been under the necessity of forming new
geographical engineers and it succeeded in carrying the number
sufficiently high to suffice for the wants of the fourteen armies
which France had afterwards on foot.[5] These officers being employed
in the service of the staffs, no important work was undertaken. But,
since the 18th of Brumaire, year VIII, (9th of November, 1799) the
Consuls of the Republic have bestowed particular attention on
geographical and topographical operations. The new limits of the
French territory require that the map of it should be continued; and
the new political system, resulting from the general pacification,
renders necessary the exact knowledge of the states of the allies of
the Republic.
The _Dépôt de la guerre_ forms various sections of geographers, who
are at present employed in constructing accurate maps of the four
united departments. Piedmont, Savoy, Helvetia, and the part of Italy
comprised between the Adige and the Adda. One section, in conjunction
with the Bavarian engineers, is constructing a topographical map of
Bavaria: another section is carrying into execution the military
surveys, and other topographical labours, ordered by General MOREAU
for the purpose of forming a map of Suabia.
The _Dépôt_ has just published an excellent map of the Tyrol, reduced
from that of PAYSAN, and to which have been added the observations
made by Chevaliers DUPAY and LA LUCERNE. It has caused to be resumed
the continuation of the superb map of the environs of Versailles,
called _La carte des chasses_, a master-piece of topography and
execution in all the arts relating to that science. Since the year V
(1795), it has also formed a library composed of upwards of eight
thousand volumes or manuscripts, the most rare, as well as the most
esteemed, respecting every branch of the military art in general.
Although, in the preceding account, General A----y, with that modesty
which is the characteristic of a superior mind, has been totally
silent respecting his own indefatigable exertions, I have learned
from the best authority, that France is soon likely to derive very
considerable advantages from the activity and talent introduced by
him, as director, into every branch of the _Dépôt de la guerre_, and
of which he has afforded in his own person an illustrious example.
In giving an impulse to the interior labours of the _Dépôt_, the sole
object of General A----y is to make this establishment lose its
_paralyzing_ destination of archives, in which, from time to time,
literati might come to collect information concerning some periods of
national or foreign history. He is of opinion that these materials
ought to be drawn from oblivion, and brought into action by those
very persons who, having the experience of war, are better enabled
than any others to arrange its elements. Instruction and method being
the foundations of a good administration, of the application of an
art and of a science, as well as of their improvement, he has
conceived the idea of uniting in a classical work the exposition of
the knowledge necessary for the direction of the _Dépôt_, for
geographical engineers, staff-officers, military men in general, and
historians. This, then, is the object of the _Mémomorial du Dépôt de
la guerre_, a periodical work, now in hand, which will become the
guide of every establishment of this nature[6], by directing with
method the various labours used in the application of mathematical
and physical sciences to topography, and to that art which, of all
others, has the greatest influence on the destiny of empires: I mean
the art military. The improvements of which it is still susceptible
will be pointed out in the _Mémorial_, and every new idea proposed on
the subject will there be critically investigated.
In transcribing General A----y's sketch of this extremely-interesting
establishment, I cannot but reflect on the striking contrast that it
presents, in point of geographical riches, even half a century ago,
to the disgraceful poverty, in that line, which, about the same
period, prevailed in England, and was severely felt in the planning
of our military expeditions.
I remember to have been told by the late Lord Howe, that, when he was
captain of the Magnanime at Plymouth, and was sent for express to
London, in the year 1757, in order to command the naval part of an
expedition to the coast of France, George II, and the whole cabinet
council, seemed very much astonished at his requiring the production
of a map of that part of the enemy's coast against which the
expedition was intended. Neither in the apartment where the council
sat, nor in any adjoining one, was any such document; even in the
Admiralty-office no other than an indifferent map of the coast could
be found: as for the adjacent country, it was so little known in
England, that, when the British troops landed, their commander was
ignorant of the distance of the neighbouring villages.
Of late years, indeed, we have ordered these matters better; but, to
judge from circumstances, it should seem that we are still extremely
deficient in geographical and topographical knowledge; though we are
not quite so ill informed as in the time of a certain duke, who, when
First Lord of the Treasury, asked in what part of Germany was the
Ohio?
P.S. In order to give you, at one view, a complete idea of the
collections of the _Dépôt de la guerre_, and of what they have
furnished during the war for the service of the government and of the
armies, I shall end my letter by stating that, independently of eight
thousand chosen volumes, among which is a valuable collection of
atlases, of two thousand seven hundred volumes of old archives, and
of upwards of nine hundred _cartons_ or pasteboard boxes of modern
original documents, the _Dépôt_ possesses one hundred and thirty-one
volumes and seventy-eight _cartons_ of descriptive memoirs, composed
at least of fifty memoirs each, four thousand seven hundred engraved
maps, of each of which there are from two to twenty-five copies,
exclusively of those printed at the _Dépôt_, and upwards of seven
thousand four hundred valuable manuscript maps, plans, or drawings of
marches, battles, sieges, &c.
By order of the government, it has furnished, in the course of the
war, seven thousand two hundred and seventy-eight engraved maps, two
hundred and seven manuscript maps or plans, sixty-one atlases of
various parts of the globe, and upwards of six hundred descriptive
memoirs.
[Footnote 1: FRANÇOIS ANDREOSSY; who was the great great grandfather
of the present French ambassador at our court.]
[Footnote 2: On the 25th of April, 1792, was published a regulation,
decreed by the king, respecting the general direction of the _Dépôt
de la guerre_. The annual expense of the establishment, at that time
amounted to 68,000 francs, but the geographical and historical
departments were not filled. _Note of the Author._]
[Footnote 3: An _Agence des cartes_ was appointed, by the National
Assembly, to class these materials, and arrange them in useful
order.]
[Footnote 4: At the juncture alluded to (1793), the want of
geographical engineers having been felt as soon as the armies took
the field, three brigades were formed, each consisting of twelve
persons. The composition of the _Dépôt de la guerre_, was increased
in proportion to its importance: intelligent officers were placed
there; and no less than thirty-eight persons were employed in the
interior labour, that is, in drawing plans of campaigns, sieges, &c.
_Note of the Author_.]
[Footnote 5: That tempestuous period having dispersed the then
director and his assistants, the _Dépôt de la guerre_ remained, for
some time, without officers capable of conducting it in a manner
useful to the country. In the mean while, wants were increasing, and
military operations daily becoming more important, when, in 1793,
CARNOT, then a member of the Committee of Public Welfare, formed a
private cabinet of topography, the elements of which he drew from the
_Dépôt de la guerre_. This was a first impulse given to these
valuable collections. _Note of the Author_.]
[Footnote 6: Prince Charles is employed at Vienna in forming a
collection of books, maps, and military memoirs for the purpose of
establishing a _Dépôt_ for the instruction of the staff-officers of
the Austrian army. Spain has also begun to organize a system of
military topography in imitation of that of France. Portugal follows
the example. What are we doing in England?]