On October 7 1812, General Jean Rapp, of the Grande Armée, has recovered sufficiently from his wounds sustained at Borodino to write to Baron Deportes:
Moscow, October 7, 1812.
It is a month to-day since the Emperor won the finest and most terrible battle ever fought since the Revolution. General Compans having been wounded, his Majesty had given me the command of that fine Division; but in my turn I was hit four times in an hour and a half; first, in the arm by a spent pistol-ball; secondly, by a pistol-shot in the thigh ; thirdly, by a cannon-ball in the left arm, and fourthly by grape-shot in my left hip. That knocked me off my horse, and obliged me to give up the game. Luckily no bones were broken and I am almost well again. Every one declares I am not to be killed in war.
True to his word, Rapp did not die in war but in Rheinweiler, Baden on November 8, 1821.
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