On October 14, 1815, when Napoleon first sighted the coast of Saint Helena after a long two-month voyage aboard the Northumberland, photography did not yet exist. However, what many do not know is that Brown University … of Providence, Rhode Island (United States), houses authentic images of the soldiers who fought alongside the French emperor in such momentous moments as the Spanish War of Independence, the invasion of Russia or the Battle of Waterloo.
The question that arises is: how is it possible that there are photographs of soldiers born in the 18th century, well before the start of the French Revolution? The answer lies in a group of 15 veterans of the Napoleonic Wars, photographed around 1850, when they were already over 80 years old and retired from the army. According to Brown University, the photos date from 1858, since all the soldiers appear with the Saint Helena medal, a badge created and awarded by Napoleon III in August 1857 to Bonaparte’s former comrades in arms, who accompanied him from 1792 until the defeat at Waterloo in 1815.
These images depict the first photographed figures in history, posing with their uniforms, decorations and even war scars. A clear example is the case of Mr. Loira, who appears in a photograph with his name written in pencil on the back. Loira lost his right eye in combat between 1804 and 1815. He was part of the 24th regiment of horse hunters and held the distinction of knight of the Legion of Honor. We also find Sergeant Taria, a tall man with a proud posture, dressed in bearskin and the uniform of the Grenadier Guards, who fought between 1809 and 1815.
The photos were taken less than two decades after the invention of the daguerreotype, introduced in Paris in 1839. These images are part of the collection of Anne Seddon Kinsolving Brown, an American historian, socialite and collector of military memorabilia who died in 1985. Although it is not known for certain how they came into her possession, the truth is that not many other photographs exist before these.
War of Independence
According to the Maine Historical Society, the oldest man ever photographed was Conrad Heyer, a Revolutionary War veteran born in 1749. The photograph was believed to have been taken in 1852, four years before his death at age 103. The Susquehanna County Historical Society also has a copy of a photo of John Adams, a shoemaker born in Worcester in 1745. Although this is another daguerreotype image, it is unclear when it was taken, as the original has disappeared.
Two other candidates could compete for this title, but the information is somewhat confusing. One of them is Baltus Stone, another Revolutionary War veteran, whose year of birth appears to be 1744 according to a manuscript attached to his 1846 portrait. Other records suggest he may have been born in 1743, 1747 or 1754. The other candidate is a slave named Caesar, who was photographed in 1851 according to a New York Historical Society record. On the back of the photo it is noted that he was born in Bethlehem, New York in 1737, which would have made him 114 years old at the time the image was taken, which calls into question the authenticity of the date.
In 2013, when these images of Napoleonic veterans were discovered, Peter Harrington, a curator at Brown University, said: “Over all these years, some memorable discoveries have been made. I am very intrigued when a box of photographs from this collection arrives, as they provide a clear and detailed window into the past. Finding these elderly veterans in sepia toned fascinated me. the skins, feathered shakos, ushanka hats and Mamluk swords make the images truly exceptional.
The uniforms
The photos have a format of 30 x 25 centimeters, are mounted on a rigid panel and bear on the back, in pencil, the name of each veteran and the regiment to which he belonged. This is a valuable collection of daguerreotypes, which retain a great deal of detail despite the small number of specimens from this early period of photography. Furthermore, these are the only known images of survivors of the Napoleonic Wars, who appear proudly displaying their decorations, sabers and campaign uniforms. “It is obvious that some of these uniforms were altered by tailors of the period to suit the photo shoot,” notes Harrington.
Among the figures that appear in the photos are the likes of a Mamluk of the Guard named Ducel, who fought alongside Napoleon between 1813 and 1815. Goya himself painted this famous corps of warriors, known for their cruelty, in his work “The Fight of the Mamluks at the Puerta del Sol” (1814), during the War of Independence against the French. There is also Mr. Moret, who appears seated in a uniform of the 2nd Hussar Regiment, a light cavalry unit of Hungarian origin, which served Napoleon between 1814 and 1815. The collection also includes Lancers, Sergeants of the Dragoon Regiment, Engineers, Chasseurs à cheval and members of the Imperial Guard, a total of 15 veterans who can be seen in the gallery photos that we have included on our website.
Recently, with Ridley Scott’s new film, we saw a new depiction of Napoleon and his army, which joins a long list of directors who have attempted to portray the emperor, such as Milos Forman, Anthony Mann, Terry Gilliam, Andrzej Wajda, King Vidor and Woody Allen, among others. Napoleon also wished to leave a visual legacy of his figure and hired some of France’s most renowned painters to depict him, as in the famous works of Austerlitz (François Gérard, 1805) or Berlin (Charles Meynier, 1810). But these are just interpretations. In these photos we have the real protagonists.
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