Eylau: Precis Des Travaux de la Grande Armée
Order of the Day: December 2, 1806
Of our imperial camp at Posen,
December 2, 1806.
NAPOLÉON, EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH AND KING Of ITALY, issued the issue that follows:
ART. Ist. There will be established on a site at Madelaine in our good town of Paris, with the expenses of the treasury of our crown, a monument dedicated to the Grand Army, bearing on the frontispiece: THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON WITH THE SOLDIERS OF THE GRAND ARMY.
II. In the interior of the monument will be registered, on marble tablets, the names of all the men, by army corps and regiment, which attended the battles of Ulm, Austerlitz and Jena; and on tablets of solid gold, names of all those who died on the battle fields. On silver tablets the recapitulation will be engraved, by department, of the soldiers that each department provided to the Grand Army.
III. Around the room will be carved, in bas-reliefs is where the colonels of each regiment of the Grand Army will be represented with their names; these bas-reliefs will be made so that the colonels are grouped around their brigade and major generals by corps and army. Marble statues of the marshals who commanded corps or who belonged to the Grand Army, will be placed in the interior of the room.
IV. The armor, statues, monuments of all species, removed by the Grand Army in these two campaigns; the flags, standards and timbales captured by the Large-Army, with the names of the enemy regiments to which they belonged, will be deposited in the interior of the monument.
V. Every year, on the anniversaries of the battles of Austerlitz and Jena, the monument will be illuminated, and a concert will be given, preceded by a speech on the virtues necessary for the soldier, and by a praise of those which perished on the battle field in these memorable days. One month before, a contest will be open to receive the best pieces of music appropriate to the occasion. A gold medal of 150 double Napoléons, will be given to the authors of each one of these pieces that will won the prize. In the Speeches and Odes, it is expressly prohibited to make any mention of the Emperor.
VI. Our Minister of the Interior Department will open without delay a contest of architecture to choose the best project for the execution of this monument. One of the conditions of the Prospectus will be to preserve that part of the building of Madelaine which exists today, and that the expenditure does not exceed three million. A commission of the class of the fine arts of our Institute will be charged to submit a report with our Minister of the Interior Department, before March 1807, on the projects subjected to the contest. Work will begin on May Ist, and will have to be completed before the year 1809. Our Minister of the Interior Department will be charged with all the details relating to construction of the monument, and the director-General of our Museums, all the details of bas-reliefs, statues and tables.
VII. There will be bought a hundred and thousand francs of revenue in inscriptions on a ledger, to be used for the equipment of the monument and his annual maintenance.
VIII. Once the built monument, the grand-council of the Legion of honor will be especially in charge of its guard, its conservation and all that relates to the annual contest.
IX. Our Minister of the Interior Department and steward of the goods of our crown, are in charge of the execution of this decree.
Signed, NAPOLÉON.
For the Emperor,
The minister secretary-of state, Signed, H. B. MARET.
Prince de Neufchâtel, Minister of War, Major-General,
Signed, Marshal ALEX. BERTHIER.
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