This collection is made up of 13 letters that René-Charles-Élisabeth, comte de Ligniville, a French Army officer, wrote in the 1790s. Twelve items are manuscript letters that Ligniville wrote to other officers and military officials, primarily General Paul Greneir, during the French Revolution, and one is a published "Exposé."
The earliest item is a printed letter, titled Exposé de la Conduite du Citoyen Ligniville..., that Ligniville wrote about his 1793 arrest and subsequent imprisonment in the prison de l'Abbaye. Ligniville sent 12 letters to General Paul Grenier, General Jean Baptiste Kléber, and another French military official between 1796 and 1797. In them, he reported on military movements, military developments, and General Kléber's directives. In one of his letters to Kléber, Ligniville requested a leave to visit his sick aunt. He wrote all 12 letters on stationery with printed letterheads bearing the motto of the French Republic, as well as his name.
René-Charles-Élisabeth, comte de Ligniville, was born in 1757. In 1776, he became captain of a regiment of dragoons in the French Army, and he later served as aide-de-camp to Jean Baptiste Charles Henri Hector, comte d'Estaing. Ligniville married Marie Camille-Victoire de Cassagne Beaufort de Miramon in 1787. He joined Lafayette's army at Montmédy in 1791, and was arrested in 1793 after Charles François Dumouriez's defection. He was released shortly thereafter, and lived in Germany until 1800, when he became prefect of Haute-Marne. René-Charles-Élisabeth, comte de Ligniville, died on September 15, 1813.
