Dear Colleagues and friends,
Does anyone know of any cases of French missions to the enemy during the Napoleonic Wars – that is, of a French commander or his Chief of Staff using a parlementaire to contact and maintain an official correspondence with the enemy commander of chief of staff. General Paul Thiebault, wrote about this in his Manuel Générale, under the title “Missions à l’ennemi.” These parlementaires were sent to the enemy HQ to treat with that commander for a temporary truce or cease-fire to negotiate a fortress capitulation, (such as between Marshal Augereau and General Alverez for the Spanish capitulation of Gerona, 1809) or for a humanitarian task such as the burial of the dead (the Russian and Austrian cease-fire after the Carpathian battles of 1916) or for the exchange of POWs or to form a convention for the disposition of hospitals and their personnel and patients in the to and fro of operations. I do not count the informal soldiers’ truces as say, between British and French troops in Spain. If anyone can recall any such cases, could you post a reply to this query with a bibliographic citation of the source, I'd much appreciate it.
Many thanx!
John