The Memoirs of Adriaan Frans Meijer, Lieutenant-General in the Army of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, 1786-1841, over the years 1808 - 1812

Translated by Bas de Groot

Synopsis of Adriaan Frans Meijer’s Career

Meijer came from a military family: almost all of his male relatives (greatgrandfather, grandfather, uncles, father and cousins) had served in the Dutch Army since the early 1700’s. Meijer himself joined the Army in 1785, age 16, initially as a sergeant in the infantry Regiment of the Count van Bylandt (a relative of the brigade commander of Waterloo fame; the van Bylandts were a military-political important family, and they served as Colonel-Inhabers of several Regiments of the Army of the United Provinces), where his father served, but very soon after as a Cadet in the artillery company of the Westerloo infantry Regiment, where his uncle served. In 1787 he switched to the Grenadier company of the Bedaulx Regiment, serving as a sergeant under captain (later General) Bonhomme. In 1789 his Regiment moved to Sluis in Zeeland, his first visit to the province. A number of men in his Regiment promptly got sick, and as Regiments were often rotated between garrisons in those days, they left Zeeland in 1790.

In 1793, Meijer’s Regiment participated in a combat near Heusden, before partaking in the blockade of Breda. Breda had been surrendered to the French by the Count van Bylandt, who was duly court-martialled for this premature surrender. The French commandant of Breda was Meijer’s former Captain Bonhomme. In March 1793, Meijer’s Grenadier company was added to the combined Grenadier battalion van Plettenberg. With this unit, Meijer fought at Orchies, Menin, Lincelles and Maubeuge.

In 1794, Robert Bruce, the later General of Walcheren infamy, joined Meijer’s Grenadier battalion as Major. In that year Meijer and his battalion formed part of the garrison of Charleroi when that city was besieged by Jourdan, and Meijer was captured after the surrender of the place. He remained a captive in France until 1795. Having returned, Meijer was appointed 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd battalion of the 2nd Halve Brigade (Demi-Brigade, the Batavian Army was reorganized after French fashion). Colonel Bruce commanded this unit, and recommended Meijer for promotion to Kapitein-Adjudant-Majoor (a Dutch rank similar to that of Brigade Major, this was a Regimental staff appointment, as a Halve Brigade contained 3 battallions). Meijer also became Bruce’s adjutant.

Meijer served in this capacity in the 1799 Helders campaign, Bruce commanding a Brigade that served at Schoorldam and Bergen. Bruce was promoted after the campaign, and Meijer stayed on as his ADC for the 1800 campaign in Germany under Augereau. After the Peace of Amiens, Bruce’s brigade was posted to Zeeland, and again, the troops suffered heavily, a large number of men per day being transported to the main hospital in Bergen op Zoom. By the end of 1803, the Brigade was disbanded, the several battalions being dispersed over several other garrisons. Meijer returned to command his Grenadier company in his battalion of the 2nd Halve Brigade, which in 1804 was again ordered to Walcheren. Meijer’s battallion was dispersed in posts across the island, Meijer himself being quartered in Veere, Oostkapelle, Vlissingen and Middelburg. His unit was again decimated by fever, so that it was broken up to reform in its depot, Meijer remaining to serve on the staff of the French General Osten until 1805. In June of that year Meijer was appointed Kapitein Adjudant of the Guard of Grand Pensionary Schimmelpenninck, but General Bruce still remained close, and in November 1805 Meijer again acted as his ADC when Bruce was sent by the Batavian government to Vienna to congratulate Napoleon on his victory at Austerlitz.

In 1806, Meijer was promoted to Major and Lieutenant-Colonel, and in February 1807 he was ordered to take command of the 1st Battalion of the 9th Infantry Regiment. As such he was the commanding officer of Jan Willem van Wetering, whose memoirs are also preserved.

With the 9th Infantry Regiment Meijer participated in the 1807 campaign in Germany. Meijer mentions that his Regiment, as well as other Regiments, suffered from desertion throughout the campaign, because two-thirds of his unit was made up from Prussian and German soldiers, who were often close to home. On 27 December 1807, Meijer was replaced in command of his battalion by Lt-Col. Batenburg. January 19th 1808 Meijer was placed as Major at the depot of the 3rd Infantry Regiment in Haarlem. He arrived there on February 2nd 1808, and this is where his narrative starts.

1808

“2nd February I assumed command of the Depot in place of Major Berghuis, who did not receive me cordially, treating me as if I had been the cause of his retirement.

Was his reception of me not very much to my liking, the state in which I found the depot and its troops was worse: Administration, discipline, instruction of the troops, all were found wanting, none of the ledgers, registrations, order forms, not even the working spaces (lit: Bureaus) themselves were in order. Captain Quartermaster Gusenklo was in no way fit to serve in this capacity, so I asked Colonel Sels, who was serving with the Field battalions in Germany, to send me Sergeant Quartermaster Stubenrauch at the shortest possible notice, to assist me in repairing the damage. As soon as he had arrived, I ordered that he would be in charge of all administration fortwith, and that the captain quartermaster Gusenklo was to busy himself only with getting the old administration in order, a task which proceeded very slowly, and in which I often had to assist, and finally had to complete myself.

April 3rd the Regiment arrived at the depot in Haarlem from Germany. It was received outside the gate by the city officials, and festivities were organized in its honour.

April 6th The Regiment was reorganized. From then on, it was to have only 2 battalions.

May 15th the 1st battalion marched to Den Helder.

I requested that captain quartermaster Gusenklo be pensioned, as he was not suitable for his function, and proposed that Sergeant Stubenrauch be promoted Lieutenant Quartermaster, which soon after happened.

1809.

February 3rd my son Simeon Pierre Francois was born. He was baptized the Sunday after in the French Church by Rev. Serrurier.

August 20th (Meijer is mistaken, he means August 2nd, Ed.) we received tidings that the British troops had landed in Zeeland. The Minister for War (Krayenhoff, ed.) ordered that all available and able-bodied men, under the orders of the necessary officers be sent immediately and with all haste to Breda, where they would receive further orders. Upon receiving this order, I sent Captain Westenberg (unknown if this was a relative of, or indeed the same person as the battalion commander of the Dutch 5th Militia of Quatre-Bras and Waterloo fame, ed.) with about 200 men on trekschuiten (flat-bottomed horse-drawn boats) to Leiden. Two days afterwards the rest of the Regiment under the orders of Colonel Sels arrived on wagons from the direction of Den Helder. They took the same route as Captain Westenberg’s detachment.

The English advanced, after Walcheren, to the island of Zuid-Beveland, but were repulsed from an excursion up the river Schelde. This made them leave the islands after a short stay, although they were masters of both Veere and Vlissingen, leaving nothing behind them but the destruction of the Zeesluis (sea-lock, ed.) and a large number of dead who succumbed to the Zeeuwse koorts (Walcheren fever, ed.).

To my great regret Colonel Sels, with whom I had a very good working relationship, was promoted to Major-General, and Lt-Col. Hardijau of the Guard Carabiniers was appointed Colonel of the 3rd Regiment. Shortly afterwards the Regiment left for North-Holland again.

During the winter the Colonel General of the Guard Cavalry, Travers, on request of Colonel of the Guard Tindal, proposed me for a Majority in the Guard Grenadiers, but H.M. had already decided in favor of Major Coucoute.

1810.

In the month of April I received orders to march the Depot to Tiel, having arrived there, I rented the country estate called OpHemert, located nearly an hour away from Tiel, where I spent the Summer in a comfortable manner. In June of that year the French under Marshal Oudinot occupied Holland. The King left Holland and our country was incorporated into France. In October the Regiment was organized along French lines, and the 1st Battalion of the 7th Regiment was incorporated into our Regiment, this reorganization took place in Haarlem, and was presided over by Lieutenant-General Dumonceau. I was appointed Major, Colonel Hardijau remained in command of the same, and the Regiment received the number 124th of the Line.

Shortly after that, more than half of the officers were transferred across the entire French army, and were received cordially wherever they were posted. I received orders to take the Depot to Leiden, but barely three weeks after arriving there, I received another order to march the Depot to Deventer.

November 17th: My eldest son Jacques, after having spent 5 years at the Military School, received his commission as sous-lieutenant with the 60th Regiment of the Line, which served in Spain and of which the Depot was located in Geneva. Within a few days he left for the Depot, still only 17 years of age.

1811.

In August I had to take the Depot to Abbéville, and after having spent some time there I received my promotion to Colonel en Seconde, and was ordered to travel Post to Paris and receive further orders there from the Minister for War. Having arrived there, I was asked for my address and told that I would be summoned when the need arose.

Whilst awaiting my orders, I returned to Abbéville to hand over the command over the Depot and its administration to Major Speelman (Who went on to command the 2nd Line Battalion in Chassé’s 3rd Division at Waterloo, ed.), who was appointed in my place. Having done so, I returned to Versailles where I stayed with Mr. Jonnaville, Captain of the Guard, where I met a lot of my acquaintances in the Guard Grenadiers.

In September, rather unexpectedly, I received orders to travel post with all haste to Toulon, there to organize several companies which were to arrive there to serve on the ships of war. Because I understood that the haste in this order had been overstated, I wrote to my wife that, if she was so inclined, I would like her and our daughter Françoise to accompany me on this trip. Fourteen days later they arrived with my son Pieter in Paris. A short while later we left for Toulon, leaving our son Charles and our daughter at school in Versailles.

Having arrived in Toulon, I inspected the different companies that had arrived and three or four weeks later my commission was at an end. I requested the Minister for War for another posting, but got no answer. I did receive permission to travel to Avignon, which was in the same Military Division, where I met with Prefet Hultman, with whom we had already had contact when we had traveled south. In December we arrived there.

1812.

In March I was appointed a member of the Conscription Committee in the Department of Les Basses Alpes - the Prefet of which was Mr. Duval - in absence of  the General commanding the troops in the Department. I traveled there accordingly, and left my wife and son in Avignon. I traveled around the department on horseback or mule - as no carriages were to be had except for the Diligence from Gap to Digne – for three weeks.

The surroundings and the climate had a terrible effect on our health: sometimes one would, within the space of half an hour, find two feet of snow on the mountain one was traversing, and yet have the dust rise in clouds when one rode quickly across the path leading down to the next valley. These circumstances greatly affected my fellow member of the Committee, a Major of the 4eme Regiment de Ligne, to such an extent that on the last day of our tour he started to suffer from a severe colic, and succumbed to it within 24 hours.

As my son was garrisoned in Briançon, Deprtement des Hautes-Alpes, I notified him that I would remain in Digne until a certain day, and that both my wife, his brother and myself would be happy to see him if he could obtain leave to do so.

In the mean time I received my appointment as Commanding Officer of the 2eme Régiment Étrangers, which was stationed in Naples and the surrounding area. Two days before my departure my son arrived and together we traveled from Vaucluse to Avignon on horseback, and deliberated on what to do with my wife and children.

After my son had returned to his garrison, I decided to travel to Paris and Versailles, as I had left my two other children there, and much of my property, my carriage and my horses – the last two for which I had left orders to sell -, and to ask the Minister for War to change my destination, and if such were not possible, to have my wife and three children return to Holland.

April 1st we arrived in Versailles. The next day I went to Paris and got admitted to the Minister, but my pleas fell on deaf ears, and my destination was unchanged. Whilst there I received my appointment as Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Réunion, as the Order of the Union (The knighthood bestowed on officers of the Kingdom of Holland by King Louis Napoleon, ed.) was revoked.

After long deliberations my wife decided to undertake the journey with the children, while I requested the Minister to transfer my son from the 60th Regiment to my own, which request was immediately granted. At that time he was detached to Briançon, 5 or 6 hours from Sienne near the Mont Cenis, which we would have to pass on our route. I sent him a copy of his transfer and let him know on which day we would be leaving Paris, traded my Post-chaise against a light Calèche, in which we would have to cram five persons. 

April 21st we left Paris, and arrived at the Mont Cenis on May 1st, which we found covered in eight feet of snow, and from which I sent my son an express, who arrived the next afternoon, after which we immediately continued our journey to Turin.

Having my wife and four children with me, my anxieties about their safety and circumstances, which would have been considerable had we been far apart, were now completely relieved. The journey was very agreeable, and we often remembered it with great fondness for many a year.

May 12th we arrived at the Mola di Gaeta in the Kingdom of Naples, where the Staff of the Regiment was quartered, after having spent a day in Florence and a day in Rome. On the borders of French territory, at Terra Sina, I found the 4th Battalion of my Regiment, commanded by the Lieutenant-Colonel Dubouset.

May 15th I took over command of the 2eme Regiment Etrangers of the senior Lieutenant-Colonel, Duvet. The Regiment formed part of a Brigade commanded by General Senegal together with the 14th Light Infantry Regiment, quartered at Gaeta under the overall orders of Lieutenant General Grenier, who commanded all the French troops in the Kingdom of Naples.

When this had been done, the Staff of the Brigade and of the Regiment marched for Saint Marie Capoue, where all, after the departure of the King of Naples Murat, who left for Russia with a large part of his army, and through the good-heartedness of the Queen, who was left as Regent, received full campaign rations, even though the troops did little else than maintaining law and order and a lot of drill.

In the month of July I received orders from the Minister for War to raise without delay, in accordance with a Decree by the Emperor, a compagnie d’artillerie regimentaire (company of regimental artillery, ed.). The necessary materiel, both in horses and harness, was to be acquired within three weeks, and two six-pounder pieces of cannon were to be collected from Rome. These requirements were met in time, a number of men were drilled daily in the handling and serving of the guns, and the 1st Lieutenant Town, a very able and brave officer, was to command it.

On the King’s birthday all Generals and Colonels were invited to dine at the Royal Court together with all the foreign Ambassadors. The Queen was so kind as to talk to me, and asked me in which country I was born. I replied that I was a Dutchman, and had had the Honour to serve under the Queen’s Brother, King Louis Napoleon. The Queen was a very beautiful woman, both charming and amiable.

That night a most beautiful Illumination was displayed, all the Palaces that were located on the high grounds overlooking the Bay lighting up simultaneously, giving one a most magnificent view. After dinner the Queen with the Princesses and Princes took a hidden passage to the Saint Charles Theatre, where the rest of us gathered as well. The hall had been restored to its former glory only six months before, and was now open for the first time. All the boxes at the Theatre were lit with wax candles, and the Royal Family was received enthusiastically. I seated myself with some Generals in one of the Court boxes. This Theatre is one of the most beautiful Comedy Halls in Europe. It had burnt to the ground a few years before, but had been completely restored to its former glory.

The location of the City of Naples is generally quite beautiful, like the rest of the Kingdom, but I didn’t like the Nation as a whole, finding it lazy and evil, where it required no great expense to have someone removed to the next world, and where evildoers, especially murderers, were not very actively pursued, although this pattern was broken during King Murat’s reign, but was resumed after his reign ended.

A few days later I returned to my cantonments at Saint Maria Capoue. At the end of August I took my wife and daughter on a tour of the City of Naples and its environment. We stayed at the Logement London opposite the Saint Charles Theatre, visited the Museum and other sights, then continued to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum. The first day there we spent in reading up on all the antiquities that we would find there, so that we would be able to recognize all the sights we would see at these two places. We spent two marvellous days whilst there.

When taking our leave of Naples, Mrs Dervieux gave us two antique lamps of enamelled brown stone as a parting gift. The lamps had been found at Pompeii, but to our grief they were smashed to pieces on our return trip to Holland.

Whilst stationed at Rome I was placed under the orders of General de Brigade La Salcette, who commanded the Department, and under overall command of General de Division Comte Miolis, Lieutenant of the Emperor, and named by him as Governor of the Roman States, a very brave man who was very good to those who served under him, and with whom I struck up a particular friendship, as well as with the other officers of the Corps. Circumstances for myself and my Regiment were very good at Rome. One of my battalions was stationed in the Department, the rest was distributed along the Mediterranean coast.

Editor's Note: Meijer remained a Major in the 3rd Regiment and then in the 124eme Regiment Infanterie de Ligne. He was promoted to Colonel en Seconde, and in 1812 Meijer went on to command the 2eme Regiment Etrangers, the former Isembourg Regiment, which was stationed in Italy and the Papal States. With this Regiment, he took part in the 1813 campaign in northern Italy, and was besieged in the Fortress Angelo in Rome in 1813-1814 by Murat’s Neapolitans. Back in Holland in 1814, he was retained as Colonel on the Staff of General Tindal, and in the beginning of 1815 was promoted Major-General. During the Waterloo campaign he served as military governor of Breda. He continued to serve in active capacity, and took part in the 1830 and 1831 campaigns against Belgium. In 1838 Meijer was retired. He died in 1845 as Lieutenant-General.

Placed on the Napoleon Series: December 2009; updated December 2010 and January 2011

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