AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM A SOLDIER SURGEON TO "MY DEAR FRIEND", Ghent, December 8, 1810. 18857-6

AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM A SOLDIER SURGEON TO "MY DEAR FRIEND", Ghent, December 8, 1810. 18857-6

"I have here a hospital with 600 sick, the Minister has not given me a penny for 6 months... The road from Ghent to ?? is pleasant and even more varied than the one from Louvain to Antwerp. I thought the beautiful shops I saw lit up in the evening were for the first night, but I learned it was for St. Nicholas. If I had known earlier, I would have sent a handsome grenadier on a horse over a dragon (made of gingerbread).... I am leaving Middleby. Mr. M. is going to send me to the western Ems, it's an ugly department not worth more than the Isle of Walcheren. I don't understand this change, I didn't ask for anything, but I must submit if I am to be back in Groningen on the 20th of the month. I need 10 sols to make the journey... There is nothing pleasant about all these changes... It is said that the Emperor has ordered Mr. Lacuée to send good and experienced surgeons to Holland... rumors of a reorganization of the Corps are circulating.
Today, as I tore open my mail, I saw letters of service from the Minister, a cold sweat came over me, I thought they concerned me... but it turned out they were for a surgeon being sent to Perpignan..."

* Walcheren Island in the Netherlands.
Groningen, a city in the Netherlands.

** BIOGRAPHY:
Jean-Girard or Jean-Gérard Lacuée, Count of Cessac, born on November 4, 1752, at the Château de Lamassas near Hautefage-la-Tour in the arrondissement of Agen (Lot-et-Garonne) and died on June 14, 1841, in Paris, was a French military officer and politician, Minister of War Administration under Napoleon and a peer of France.

Double folio. 4 full pages of writing.
Approx. 22 cm x 19.5 cm.
Good condition.