author
Adrien-Jean-Baptiste-François Bourgogne
1785–1867
A soldier of Napoleon’s Imperial Guard, he became best known for the vivid memoir he left of the 1812 Russian campaign and the terrible retreat from Moscow. His firsthand account has endured because it brings the experience of ordinary soldiers to life with unusual clarity.
2 Audiobooks
Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne, 1812-1813
by Adrien-Jean-Baptiste-François Bourgogne
Mémoires du sergent Bourgogne
by Adrien-Jean-Baptiste-François Bourgogne
About the author
Born in Condé-sur-l’Escaut on November 12, 1785, Adrien-Jean-Baptiste-François Bourgogne served in the armies of Napoleonic France and rose to the rank of sergeant in the Imperial Guard. He took part in several campaigns, but his name is most closely tied to the invasion of Russia in 1812.
Bourgogne’s lasting fame comes from his memoirs, later published as Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne, 1812–1813. In them, he recounts the march into Russia, the occupation and burning of Moscow, and the brutal retreat through winter conditions. The book is still valued for its direct, human picture of war, hunger, exhaustion, and survival.
He died in Valenciennes on April 14, 1867. Today he is remembered less as a military leader than as an eyewitness whose plainspoken memories helped preserve one of the most devastating episodes of the Napoleonic Wars.