Talk:Siege of Cuddalore

Story of Jean Bernadotte
According to the accounts in sources used in main article Jean Baptiste-Bernadotte was captured in the failed French assault on 25th June 1783 and was looked after by the Hanoverian Colonel Waggenheim whom he would later meet him again in an interesting reunion when France annxeed Hanover in 1804. Here is an exmple 'Napoleon and His Marshals - Vol. II Chapter XX'  MARSHAL BERNADOTTE and I quote: Serving here two years he was sent to the East Indies, where, in a sortie, at Cuddalore, he was wounded and taken prisoner. Some have questioned this as a fable as it shows in this Napoleonic website [http://www.napoleon-series.org/cgi-bin/forum/archive2010_config.pl?md=read;id=115599 Bernadotte-sahoib? ] Wondering if anyone could shed any more light on the matter. Bruich (Bruich) 19:57, 18 August 2010 (GMT)


 * The German source linked here has a specific mention of an encounter between Obristlieutenant (Lt-Col) Wangenheim (not Waggenheim) and Bernadotte on this page. Bernadotte is recorded as sailing to India with Suffren in a regiment of royal marines.  Suffren sailed from France in March 1781; the claim of Bernadotte's presence conflicts with the uncited statements in the WP article on him that he was first stationed in Corsica, and further imply that he remained in Europe.  Wilks (published 1817; a major early history of 18th-century Mysore and southern India in the time of Hyder and Tipu) has the alleged story of their later meeting.  (This jibes with the forum discussion you link.)  Wilks may very well have had the story from a witness who was younger in 1783; I don't know how long he worked on his history, but he must have talked to witnesses to things he wrote about in this timeframe.  The confirmation of Bernadotte's movements would probably be a sufficiently detailed movement history of his regiment; you'd think evidence of the later meeting and its consequences shouldn't be too hard to pin down.   Magic ♪piano 19:58, 18 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks very much. I will edit this into the main section of Bernadotte's early life and thus link the siege of Cuddalore into it, at least I have sources that are citable for this. None of the sentences on on his early life seems to be citated so may be an interesting challenge. I will only do this once I have got more documents with regards to the matter. Certainly interesting stuff. Bruich (Bruich) 21:28, 18 August 2010 (GMT)


 * , as it happens I created an article on Christoph August von Wangenheim yesterday (4 years after the above posting) using Wilks as a source for this encounter, and completely unaware of the above exchange. Unfortunately I could not find any mention of it in the Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte article. -- PBS (talk) 13:18, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Image
Interesting picture there buddy where did you get it from? Bruich 18:14, 19 August 2010 (GMT)
 * The link is on the image page. Anne SK Brown Collection at Brown University.  Magic ♪piano 17:22, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Royal and Company forces
To explain why "hired" is an inappropriate term for the Hanoverian troops in India please read the following pages: -- PBS (talk) 13:03, 18 August 2014 (UTC)