Adrien-Jean-Baptiste-François Bourgogne

Born in Condé-sur-l'Escaut on November 12, 1785, Adrien-Jean-Baptiste-François Bourgogne was a French soldier who served in the Napoleonic Wars. He joined the Imperial Guard in 1805 and later became known not just as a veteran, but as a sharp observer of army life.

His lasting fame comes from his memoirs of the 1812–1813 campaign, often published in English as Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne, 1812–1813. In them, he describes the advance into Russia, the burning of Moscow, and above all the terrible retreat, giving readers a direct, human view of one of the most devastating episodes of the era.

Bourgogne died in Valenciennes on April 14, 1867. Today his writing is valued both as a soldier’s personal testimony and as one of the most memorable eyewitness accounts of Napoleon’s failed Russian campaign.